That boy - Peter, was it? - had done something to Tris. His younger sister wouldn't hurt someone unprovoked, would she?

Yet he still liked Peter. The short conversation they had was fun, and it was good to have a friend who wasn't from Erudite. He loved his new faction, but people only generally talked to eachother to exchange information.

He's not your friend. You've only spoken to him once.

So why did he feel like they'd known eachother for so long?

He tried to kill your sister.

Would his sister really lie about this? He found it strange how he thought his own sister might be lying about something as drastic as this. It wasn't as if Peter had denied it, though. And anyway, it was almost a week ago. Why did he remember?

Caleb tried to get the thoughts out of his head, investing himself in the work in front of him. He was tired, yes, but he still couldn't sleep when he had so much research to do.

"Caleb?" said a voice from behind him. He stopped what he was doing, swiftly pausing the video he was watching, about some sort of serum. Simulation serum.

"Yes?" Caleb replied, swivelling his chair to face the source of the voice. A young ginger-haired woman was facing him, holding a clipboard.

"What did your parents do to you? They beat you, didn't the-"

Caleb interrupted her with a cough, sending a glare in her direction.

"Emma, could you please stop asking me this? They did nothing to Tris and I."

"Why did you both leave then? Did Marcus do anything to you? You know, he beat his son."

"Shut up!" Caleb almost yelled, standing up. He stormed off amgrily, which was extremely unlike him. He didn't usually get annoyed at people - it was seen as slightly selfish in Abnegation - but if anyone mentioned his parents, he got very annoyed. And people had asked him about his parents many times since his transfer to Erudite. He didn't regret leaving Abnegation, but sometimes he missed the simple life with his family. He missed being with Tris, before she became so strong and angry at things.

He didn't really pay attention to where he was going as he left the compound. The silence of the Erudite gardens outside the offices quickly faded away into noise. Children who were just coming home from school ran around, making Caleb trip over multiple times, although his Abnegation nature stopped him from yelling at them, instead apologising himself.

He hadn't decided where he was going. A train went past, but it didn't stop for him and he really didn't understand how the Dauntless could jump on and off of a moving train. His sister had done it. That guy - the leader perhaps - Max, or something. Most of the young children jumped from the train to get to school in the morning.

Caleb remembered how mesmerised he was by the children. He would sit on the wall outside the school with Tris watching as the group, many of them younger than him, rolled across the grass after their departure from the train.

He remembered always being ready to jump up, if any of the Dauntless got hurt. He'd never really realised that even if they were hurt, they wouldn't want his help.

Caleb, who had quickly become lost in memories, snapped out of his trance and realised where he was. He was surrounded by many people, like he had been earlier, but the people surrounding him were predominantly Dauntless. It wasn't as if he had walked into their Headquarters or whatever they called it - he didn't even know where it was - but he was definitely in the Dauntless area of the city. Many of the buildings were abandoned, with vines intricately wrapped around the broken walls. Caleb understood why the Dauntless would like this area, because it seemed fun. But for him, the fear of falling from a building; of tripping over the vines weaving around; of standing on sharp stones overpowered the sense of fun.

People didn't really push past him - instead moving away. They thought he was weak because he wasn't in Dauntless - and no matter how much it annoyed him, they were right.

To be honest, he felt extremely boring in the sea of people. A girl with bright pink hair. A boy with hair shaped into spikes. A girl with a shaved head. A boy with hair a similar colour to the blazer many people in Erudite wore. A girl with a tattoo on her neck. A boy with piercings all over his face.

Of course, not everyone had dyed their hair, or got a tattoo, or got piercings. But he felt left out. Erudite wouldn't let him do anything like this - it was considered impractical. He understood that - why would dyeing your hair be useful in your life?

A black-haired girl with a large tattoo going down her neck stared at him. She eyed him up and down. It didn't seem like she was glaring - she seemed more confused than anything.

"Why are you here?" she asked, pushing her fringe back so she could see him clearly.

"I - I don't know. I just went for a walk and-" he stuttered, slightly scared of the girl.

"You're Erudite, though. That's, like, the other side of the city, right?" Caleb let out a sigh as he realised the girl definitely was not annoyed with him.

"Actually, it's not too far away. Closer to here than Amity, I think."

"You know I don't really care, right?"

He blushed slightly as he realised how stupid he had been.

"And you call yourself an Erudite? Whatever," she smiled slightly, "you should probably head back, anyway. I don't think Eric would be okay with a random Erudite initiate in the Dauntless area."

"Eric?" Caleb asked, his Erudite hunger for knowledge overpowering his instincts to leave.

"Yeah, Eric. One of the Dauntless leaders. He's younger than me, actually."

"Okay?" Caleb turned to walk away from her, waving quickly as he left.

He didn't start walking back to Erudite, though. He was still slightly annoyed by their need for information no matter the consequences (like hurting Caleb's feelings). Of course, he didn't want to stay in this place full of people climbing, pushing and shouting.

He started to walk away when he saw a familiar person sat on a bench - Peter. Caleb wasn't too sure how he'd noticed the boy, as his simple black Dauntless clothing was similar to his hair. Peter seemed confused as he read a book, an obvious crease in his forehead as he scanned the pages.

It's probably something about fighting.

Caleb knew that only the Erudite read books for fun - people had made fun of him when they found him reading in school when he was in Abnegation. So Peter's book must have been something useful - but what?

After staring for a good few minutes, Caleb realised that it really didn't matter what one person - who he had only spoken to once - was reading. So instead of analysing him to try and figure out what he was reading (which was most likely impossible), he simply watched.

Peter never noticed him staring. He wasn't sure how long he had been there for, although it can't have been that long, because the sun had hardly moved. Caleb looked back to Peter after looking at the sky to check the time. Peter had closed his book, throwing it into the bin as he walked back to wherever he came from.

Of course, Caleb was slightly annoyed. Why would someone throw away a perfectly good book? Well, it seemed fine. Peter had been reading it without any trouble, and it did seem quite clean.

Caleb slowly started walking back to Erudite, hoping that his boss (well, more of a person-who-was-helping-him-with-initiation) would be fine with him leaving. They usually were fine with it - there was a transfer from Dauntless who would get mad at his work and leave for a while without anyone caring.

Caleb's thoughts always trailed off extremely quickly, but every thought since he stood up had quickly gotten back to the subject of Peter.

And his Erudite hunger for knowledge drove him to find out,

Why am I so obsessed with this one person?

-
I know this is really bad, and I'm sorry. It's also really late...

I decided that finishing this at 3am would be more important than sleeping, so I'm sorry if the ending is really rambly (is that even a word?). Actually, most of it is probably a complete mess.

I would say I hope you liked it, but then my hopes would be up too high.

By the way, follow me on Tumblr! I don't post anything to do with the story - but I reblog pictures of Brendon Urie, so that makes it 400% better. It's phantastic-albons.

Byee!

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