Chapter Four

Tobias


"Beat ya!" Tris exclaims as we round the corner near Millennium Park. She stops running, waiting for me to catch up to her and I just glare at her, bending over, and putting my hands on my knees to catch my breath. She's standing with her hands on her hips and a bright, shit-eating grin plastered on her face.

For the past few weeks, Tris and I have gone running twice a week in the morning. Apparently, we're both very competitive and it is helpful when it comes to improving our times.

Tris has been able to beat me every time so far, but I blame the fact that she's much smaller and not as muscular as I am.

"Don't get used to it." I say, standing upright. "You're not going to win all the time."

She shrugs as she turns and heads towards a street cart. I follow her and we grab waters. We take a cool-down lap around the park. It's a decently cool day, nice for late September, and people were taking advantage of the last of the cool weather – kids were running around the grass and playing tag, people were out walking their dogs, jogging and biking.

Halfway through the cool-down, Tris's phone goes off and we come to a stop. "Prior."

I cross my arms over my chest, looking around us, focusing on nobody. And then Tris's body posture changes and her hand goes to her forehead, looking annoyed. "Okay. No, I totally understand. It's fine, I'll be there. I promise." And then she hangs up.

"Who was that?" I ask as we turn to continue our walk.

"Do you remember that girl, Olivia, who was raped by the two frat guys?" She continues when I nod. "She's completely set on testifying in court but her parents didn't want her to. They don't think it'll help and that it'll only make her look even worse. Anyways, she wants me to be there for when she testifies." I glance at her, giving her a confused look. "I helped her out a lot after everything happened. She called me whenever she needed to talk, we met up a few times for coffee to talk about different things."

"She considers you to be a friend." She nods, but there's something else. "And she wants you to possibly testify."

Tris shakes her head. "No, her lawyer does. He said that if he doesn't think the jury will find the guys guilty, he wants to call me up to the stands."

I want to smile at her – for doing so much more than is needed, for having victims feel safe with her, for letting them know that she's always there for them – but this isn't something to smile at, at least not right now.

"Do you want me to go?" I ask, taking her by surprise. "For moral support." I quickly add.

She grins, her shoulders sagging as some of the tension leaves her body. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

Apparently Olivia had called Tris late, because she was testifying the next day in court. I met up with Tris outside of the court house. She gave me a stiff smile when she saw me and then we headed in. "You look good in a suit…" She comments as we take a seat on the bench in the courtroom.

I grin and wink at her. "I clean up pretty well. You don't look so bad yourself, Prior." This time, her smile is genuine.

But then she stiffens again as soon as the lawyers walk in, along with the two guys and Olivia. She doesn't relax, even after we're seated after the judge enters. I place my hand on her knee, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

Both attorneys give their opening statements, and I get the urge to punch the guys' attorney in the face.

That anger only intensifies when both guys take the stand to recount what happened that night. They both give some made up story about how she had flirted with both of them, offered to let them both sleep with her and that she had been asking for it.

At least I could control my anger, Tris wasn't as good as me. She was clenching her jaw and her entire body looked like she was about to jump across the bar and strangle both guys.

I grabbed her hand, squeezed it tightly and just shook my head while looking straight ahead.

After both boys give their testimonies, Olivia takes the stand. As she's standing up, she shoots a panicked glance at Tris who just gives her an encouraging nod. She makes her way up to the stand, takes the oath and then sits down. Her attorney asks her to give her recount of what happened the night of the party and she does, her shoulders back and her voice never wavering. Confident.

Glancing at the jury, I can see that most of them believe her and trust her, nodding as she talks and some of them even shoot disgusted glances at the boys. This is good. That's a good sign.

Then the other attorney stands up and makes his way over to stand in front of Olivia. He has a relaxed posture, his hands in his pockets. "So, Olivia…" He begins. "Your story is very convincing. And it appears that you have a lot of confidence in it because you've barely shown any emotions." Tris makes a disgusted noise and I squeeze her hand again. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Olivia looks over at her lawyer, confused, and he just nods at her, telling her to answer the question. "No."

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

"No." She repeats, her voice softer this time.

The lawyer nods, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the jury. "So, you're a 21-year-old college student who has never had a boyfriend, when suddenly…two not so bad looking guys are interested in hooking up with you."

"Objection." Her lawyer stands up and the judge looks irritated.

"Sustained. What is the relevance of this line of questioning?" The judge asks.

The lawyer turns from the jury to look at Olivia again. "I don't know, this whole situation just seems…odd. She flirted with them and apparently liked the attention they gave her."

"I flirted with them, so what? I thought that they were cute and that I might get to go out with one of them!" Olivia bursts out, taking everybody by surprise. "Every college student does the same thing! I wasn't drinking, I wasn't wearing any skimpy outfit! You want to victim blame me? Go ahead and try, but I did nothing wrong! I wasn't the one who attacked somebody smaller than me! They both raped me and had to have two football players yank them off me! My lack of past relationships does not mean that I was willing to let them have sex with me! My dating history is not important! I am an honors student who is making my way through college on scholarships, I never cared about relationships until this year. So how about instead of focusing on my nonexistent dating history and what I was doing before they raped me, you focus on them and question them as to why they felt the need to rape me!"

Her face is red when she finishes, collapsing back against the seat. Tris is squeezing my hand tightly, but when I turn to look at her, I see pride on her face.

Both guys slink down in their seats, not looking so smug anymore, and the jury looks surprised by her outburst, but I can't tell what they're thinking.

The lawyer says he has no more questions and then sits down, looking slightly on edge. The judge dismisses the jury to make their decision and then everyone else is dismissed until the decision is ready.

Olivia hurries out of the courtroom and Tris follows her, while I trail behind. "…I didn't mean to freak out like that." Olivia's voice shakes and Tris rubs her arm reassuringly. "I just…I couldn't take his questions and both of those assholes looking at me, smirking at me."

"You did amazing, Olivia." I say, halting next to Tris. "Really, you did. The jury knows that and the judge knows that. If you were going off track, the judge would've stopped you or told you to be quiet, but he didn't. He's seen way too many of these cases get thrown out because of nobody speaking out like you did."

She looks up at me. "Really?"

Both Tris and I nod together. "Yes, Olivia, you did." Tris says, smiling at her. "And I couldn't be more proud of you and the way that you stood up to him. You're a badass."

"Jury's back." Somebody announces and then we're heading back into the courtroom. As we sit down, Tris takes my hand and then forces a grin.

One of the jury members stands and she unfolds the paper in her hands. "We the jury find the defendants…guilty on all counts of sexual assault."

There are a few gasps of surprise, but other than that…there's cheering. Tris throws her arms around me and then stands up, leaning over the bar and hugging Olivia tightly. Both the guys are shell-shocked, their faces pale white and looking like they're on the verge of crying. I can't help but smirk at them as they're lead off in handcuffs.

The judge dismisses everyone and I walk behind Olivia and Tris, out of the courtroom. They're walking side by side, talking, and when we're on the steps outside, Olivia turns and gives Tris another hug and I can see tears in both of their eyes.

"Thank you, Tris, for everything." I hear Olivia say as I approach them.

Tris gives her one more hug and then Olivia heads down the steps to meet with her parents, who both embrace her tightly.

We watch them head towards a waiting cab, and then Tris turns to face me. "Thank you, Tobias, for coming with me."

I shrug, smirking at her. "Somebody had to hold you back from killing those kids."

She rolls her eyes. "I had it under control."

"Yeah, no, I don't think you did. You should really work on that, though." She laughs and shoves my shoulder. "You want to go grab dinner?"

She nods. "Yeah, I'm starving."

We head down the street to a popular pizza joint and grab a seat at the counter. We both order personal pizzas and beer. "So…" I start when our food arrives. "Have any more disastrous dates lately?"

Tris groans, dropping her slice of pizza onto the plate. "One. The guy just didn't want to talk at all. He said, maybe, ten words the entire date." I laugh and she just shakes her head, looking down at her pizza. "It's not funny. I'm so tired of being let down by dates. I just want one date to go well. Just one."

"Sounds like you haven't met me yet." I stiffen as a guy appears on the opposite side of Tris, an arrogant smirk on his face. "I'm Chris." He winks at Tris.

She forces a smile and tries to turn back to face me, but he grips her arm. "You look familiar, have I seen you around before?" He asks.

"Doubtful." Is all she says and then shoots me a look, a cry for help.

I stand up and move so that I'm standing in between Tris and Chris, who gives me a nasty look. "Back off."

Chris stands up and sets his shoulders back, trying to make himself look bigger than he really is – which is comical, because I have a good thirty pounds on him. "She can speak for herself. Who are you? Her boyfriend?"

"That doesn't matter, but if you don't walk away you're going to be missing a few teeth." I growl, and Tris grabs my bicep.

"Tobias…" She warns, trying to pull me back. "It's fine. Come on, let's go." She tugs on my arm and, after throwing another glare at Chris, I reluctantly let her pull me away.

We're standing out front of the restaurant, and I take a deep breath, trying to steady my shaking hands. I ball them into fists. I want to go back in there and punch him in the face and I get a fierce pleasure thinking about how his nose would crack against my knuckles.

And then I feel a hand on my arm, startling me and breaking me out of my little dream. "Tobias, what was that?"

Shrugging, I unclench my fists and look at her and suddenly feel like something is tugging at my chest, urging me forward. "I just…I don't know. Something came over me." The tugging sensation is still there – the same sensation I've had before around her that I've been able to ignore. Until now.

She brushes her hair behind her ear and looks at me, her eyes searching my face for, what? I don't know.

But then I'm stepping towards her, closing the small distance between us, letting the sensation take over and I'm cupping her face before crushing my lips to hers. She's taken by surprise and her hands are on my forearms, when I pull back. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…" But she silences me by pulling me back to her, finding my lips again, as my hand winds through her hair.

"Tris…" I breathe against her lips, pressing my forehead to hers. She just shakes her head, her eyes closed. "Don't." Is all she says as she pulls me towards a cab.


I really hate myself for how long it took to get this up, and I am so sorry! I have been busy and just...in a terrible mood and its affected my motivation to do any kind of writing. But I finished this chapter and I hope to have the next one up soon.