Tobias POV.
I get back to my apartment, to see Zeke sitting in the hallway, his arms draped over his knees.
When he sees me, he stands up abruptly.
"What the hell, man?" he says. "I even told you yesterday that I would be showing up, but you decided to run off to your fear landscape again?"
I remember that I am supposed to be acting down, like I always acted when I thought that Tris was dead.
I let myself slouch, make it look like I am unprepared for anything. I unlock the door to my apartment and let Zeke go in first.
I glance out to window to Tris's apartment, and she is there, watching. She nods a little, saying to keep the act up.
Zeke plops himself down on the couch and pats the spot next to him, telling me to sit. The stern look he gives me says that I will sit down and be comforted whether I want to or not.
I really don't want to. But that would classify me as acting different than usual if I where to refuse. Normally, I would sit down without hesitation, listen to his pep-talk while also not listening, then he would leave without another problem.
That's not the case here. Most of the time the reason he gives me a pep-talk is to tell me that I need to move on from Tris, how I have to move on from Tris if I am ever going to do anything productive with my life. Since Tris is alive, there is no reason for me to be feeling down, and I don't thing I can act like it either, especially with Tris watching from her apartment.
I sit down next to Zeke, and I see Tris walk away from the window out of the corner of my eye, as if reading my mind. Now that she is gone, and out of sight, it seems easier to relax, and act like I acted when she was gone.
"Dude, I know that it's hard, but Tris is gone," Zeke says. Just him saying that one thing makes me want to punch him. "I know that you loved her, and that she made a big impact on your life, but she would want you to move on."
It is difficult, but I imagine what it felt like at the time to see her "body," to scatter her ashes. Tears jump into my eyes as I remember clutching her cold, dead hand.
Zeke notices that I am about to cry and pulls me into an embrace.
It is uncomfortable, physical contact is not something that happens often with me, but I let myself relax into his arms, let him think that he is comforting me.
When he leaves, it is a relief. But that relief doesn't last long when I hear him come back, franticly knocking on the door.
"Four!" he says.
I go open the door. "Zeke, what the—" he interrupts me by grabbing my arm and pulling me out of my apartment, without my shoes on.
"What are you doing?" I say.
"Tris is alive."
A shiver goes down my spine. "Zeke, how do you know that?"
He takes me to his car and pulls a tablet out of the backseat. He turns it on, taps on a few things, and hands the tablet to me.
It shows footage of outside my apartment building. I don't recall security cameras being installed. When did that happen?
A small object moves at the edge of the screen. "There! Did you see her?" He rewinds it back and pauses just when it is in sight.
The "object" is Tris.
I look up at her window and see her standing there. For a second, we hold eye contact, she nods a little, to indicate that she is coming down, then she disappears behind the glass.
Tris POV.
"Alone again," I say to myself when Tobias leaves. Guess it's back to watching him having inaudible conversation with Zeke.
I stand away from the window, so that he doesn't see me, but I see him, and watch. I see Zeke say something, and Tobias start to cry.
I look away. I can't stand watching Tobias cry. Especially if the topic is me. The next time I look out the window, they are gone. I go closer, to check if they are anywhere that I can see them.
They are in the parking lot, at Zeke's car. Zeke pulls a tablet out of the backseat of the car and shows Tobias something.
Tobias watches it, then he looks up at me, making direct eye-contact, and I know that something's wrong.
Zeke knows, doesn't he? I silently ask Tobias.
His expression is the only thing I need to know that it is a yes.
I nod, telling him that I am coming down and to keep him there while I do, then I go out the door.
I run down the stairs, not getting breathless at the physical activity. I got used to running a long time ago. And not for good reason.
When I make it to the bottom of the building, I go out the doors and into the parking lot. Zeke is there, talking excitedly to Tobias. I can't hear what he is saying from here, but the reason that I am here is to tell him to shut up about it, to not tell anyone else.
While also showing him that he is right.
I finally make it to them and stand silently behind Zeke. Tobias sees me, and he grabs Zeke's shoulders, says, "Are you sure?" Zeke nods, and Tobias wheels him around so that he can see me.
"What the—" His eyes widen. "Tris! What—?"
"Shut up," I cut him off. I gesture for Tobias to bring him along.
Tobias keeps his hand clamped around Zeke's arm, but Zeke is to shocked to resist. The whole way up to my apartment he has the same surprised look on his face.
I close the door behind us.
"Tobias, can I have sometime alone with Zeke?"
"Um…" he hesitates, looking between us both for a second, but leaves anyway.
"Zeke, you can't tell anyone about this, you understand?" I say.
"No, I don't!" he exclaims. "You are alive? How?"
"You're the person that just showed Tobias proof that I was!" I say. "You're lucky that he already knew, because that would have ruined him!"
I turn away from him. I am getting too angry at him, too fast. I need to calm down. But I can't. After all this time of watching my friends live on without me, of course I knew that he was suspicious of me being alive, but I didn't think that it would be to the point of installing security cameras outside of Tobias's apartment.
"Tris, I have been looking for a sign that you were alive for so long," Zeke says.
"Yeah, I noticed. But you didn't have to show Tobias the proof you got right after you got it. You are extremely lucky that he learned about it the day before you showed it to him. It would have ruined him If he had learnt about it from anyone else but me."
He shakes his head in disbelief. "It wouldn't have ruined him, it would have giving him hope that you were alive. And maybe it would have also motivated you to tell you friends that you didn't, oh, I don't know, die?"
I resist the extremely persuasive urge to punch him in the face.
I take a deep breath. "Okay, sorry. I'll explain everything."