Chapter 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, or any of its characters.
TRIS POV
"Well well, what do we have here?"
My heart was in my chest and my mouth was sore from being open for a while. Zeke stood before us, arms crossed over his chest and a smirk firmly planted on his lips. Neither Tobias nor I said anything, and Zeke took it upon himself to push us both out-of-the-way and walk into the house. I looked back at Tobias, who stood there with a hard look on his face. A breeze flowed through the open door, and I silently closed it while Tobias followed in Zeke's footsteps.
When I rounded the corner, I came face to face with Zeke sitting on the couch, beer in hand, feet on the coffee table watching football on the TV. Tobias was standing to the side observing Zeke, arms still crossed, so I went and stood beside him, hands firmly planted on my hips.
After a clearing of Tobias' throat didn't get Zeke's attention, he walked over to the TV, turning it off at the wall.
"Hey, I was watching that!" Zeke protested.
"What are you doing here?" Tobias questioned.
Zeke looked at Tobias incredulously before replying. "Did you really think I would be stupid enough to believe your weak story? I'm pretty sure that a 5-year-old could have come up with a better excuse than you two did this morning."
Zeke took another sip of his beer, pointedly looking between Tobias and I, almost challenging us to come up with another story.
"I'm just visiting.." I started before Tobias looked over at me with an unreadable expression.
"Don't worry Tris," Tobias told me, "we can't get out of this one."
I sighed heavily before walking into the kitchen to get myself a glass of water.
"That's right." Zeke said smugly. "You can't hide anything from me."
After gulping down a whole glass of water, and refilling my cup again, I went back to the living room where Tobias had decided to sit down next to Zeke.
"Hey Tris, before you sit down, would you be able to get me a beer?" Tobias asked from the couch.
I looked back at him with raised eyebrows, which was an answer within itself. He must have gotten my message, because he put his hands up in mock surrender and laughed lightly.
"It was worth a shot." He muttered to Zeke before standing up.
I slapped him lightly on his shoulder as he walked past and he feigned a major injury, dramatically falling to the ground whilst clutching his upper arm.
"How could you?!" he gasped at me from the ground.
I just laughed at him and nudged him with my foot before falling down into the armchair.
I took another sip of water as Tobias opened the fridge door, rummaging around for the beer. I looked up at Zeke from the brim of my cup. His eyebrows were almost as high as his hairline and his mouth was slightly parted.
Slowly, I brought my cup down to my lap and looked at Zeke with confusion.
"What?" I asked him.
Zeke just looked at me with a blank face. That's weird, I thought to myself.
"What?" I asked him again.
He shook his head at me before taking another sip of his beer. I dismissed his odd behaviour when Tobias plopped down next to Zeke again, screwing the lid off his beer and taking a long gulp.
"Careful," I chastised him; "if you drink it too fast you'll get sick."
"Sorry." He sheepishly apologised.
"You should be." I told him.
He stuck his tongue at me and made a funny face. I just laughed at his childishness before bringing my cup back to my lips.
"So," Zeke started as I sipped my water, "How long have you two been sleeping together?"
I choked on my water and dropped my cup in my lap, coughing and spluttering, gasping for air. Tobias jumped up from the couch, forcefully patting my back and holding my hand whilst crouching next to my chair.
When I finally got my breath back, Tobias took the hand that was on my back and caressed my cheek, silently asking me if I was alright. I nodded back at him, and looked down at my now wet lap. Tobias followed my gaze and saw the empty cup. He picked it up, placing it back on the coffee table and turned back to me.
He put both hands on mine, pulling me up from the chair.
"Go get cleaned up, I'll be out here." He told me, leading me towards my room.
I smiled up at him, thanking him with my eyes. As I walked into my room and gently closed my door, I heard voices from the living room. Guiltily pressing my ear against the door, I tried listening in on their conversation.
"What was that Zeke?" I heard Tobias Zeke.
"Hey, it was an innocent question!" came Zeke's muffled response.
"We have not slept together, for your information." Tobias told him.
It was then that I decided that I'd heard enough and turned around in search of the wardrobe. I chose some comfortable sweats and a long-sleeved shirt to get changed into, deciding on the spot that I was too lazy to have a shower now and I'd have one in the morning.
I walked back over to the door, leaning my ear up against it again, making sure that they weren't talking about anything disturbing. After a few moments of barely audible voices, I opened the door.
And what I saw shocked me right to the core.
Tobias had Zeke in a chokehold and was muttering things into his ear. I dropped my clothes on the ground and ran over to the pair.
"Tobias!" I yelled. "What are you doing?"
He looked up at me, eyes blazing. Seeing my horrified expression must have changed something in him because the next thing I know he let Zeke go and he crumpled to the floor. I knelt next to him, placing my fingers lightly on his neck to check for serious injuries.
After I reassured Zeke, but more so myself, that he was fine, I looked back over at Tobias. He sat against the far wall with his head in his hands.
"What happened?" I asked the pair.
After a few moments of silence, I asked them again.
"I'm not going to let this go, what happened?"
Zeke looked over at Tobias and smiled.
"Nothing bad Tris, Four over there was just showing me some wrestling moves, because I'm thinking of starting a wrestling team at school." He explained humourlessly.
I looked between the two of them; Tobias with his head still in his hands, and Zeke, with his hands rubbing at the back of his neck.
I sighed heavily, sitting back on my legs.
"You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?" I asked Zeke.
"A five-year old could have come up with a better excuse than that." I echoed his words from earlier.
Tobias took that moment to look up from his hands, looking straight at me, pleading with his eyes to let it go.
"I'm not going to stop asking you two until I hear the truth." I told him.
He looked away from my gaze, shaking his head lightly.
"It doesn't matter Tris."
I scoffed lightly. "Yes, it does matter. You could have killed Zeke."
He laughed humourlessly. "If I wanted to kill him, I would have."
I sat there, shocked at his words.
"Well, if you don't mind me, I'm just gonna let myself out." Zeke interjected.
I looked over at Zeke as he slowly got up off the ground. I followed in his actions, walking him towards the door.
As I pulled open the front door, I stopped Zeke with a hand on his chest.
"Can you please tell me what all that was about?" I asked him with sincerity.
He shook his head no, turning away from me. Just as he was about to walk down the few steps, he turned his head back to me.
He looked at me with soft eyes and a smile. "He cares about you, a lot more than you think he does."
"We're just friends." I told him.
"Yeah, sure you are. For how long?" he asked me with a laugh.
A/N: It's almost like people can sense when I'm about to update because I'm always bombarded with emails ahahah. Once again, thank you all so much for reading this so far. Your awesomeness is outstanding. Keep it up! (if you want, it's up to you) :)
