A.N. This chapter is brought to you so quickly by a string of horror movies, a terrible night of sleep, and reviews that made me feel like the next bestselling author3
"You know, I can walk you up to your door if you want." Al suggests softly. If I had been remotely interested in his proposal, I might have missed the man on the ground opening his good eye. There is something about him that sends alarms off in my head. We get even closer before I figure out what is so unsettling about the man at my door. I'm shouting and running to him before I'm really even sure what's going on.
"Holy shit, Four. Are you okay?"
"Wait a minute, you know this guy?" Al asks me after running to catch up. I can hear the disapproval in his voice.
"Asshole…." Four mumbles. If we weren't in the situation we currently are, I might have laughed. Unfortunately, I need to get Four out of the street. The swelling around his eye is getting worse by the minute and I don't even know if that's his only injury.
"Al, I need you to help me get him up to my apartment." I tell him.
"Tris, that is definitely not a good idea. He clearly got in some kind of fight and he's trashed. You shouldn't be alone with him in your apartment." It's apparent that he's not going to budge on the topic.
"Four, come on. Time to get up." I tell him. I wrap one of his arms around my shoulders to use my weight to lift him. Thankfully, whatever conscious part of him is left hears me and he produces some force in his legs to help himself up. He's not very stable, and we almost fall into the front stairs. I catch myself on the railing and try and steady him a bit more. He slowly tries to lower himself back down.
"No no no. Come on, Four. You've got to help me out here." It then occurs to me that he wasn't trying to sit back down, but grab his half empty bottle of liquor. The priorities of the drunk never cease to amaze me. I turn back to Al one more time.
"So is that a no on the help?" I ask one more time.
"I'm sorry, Tris. Besides, it looks like you've got it all under control. I'll see you soon?" He asks, and I can hear the hope ringing in his tone.
I try to smile at him. "Yeah, of course. Thank you again and I'm so sorry about this. Have a nice night." He smiles back at me and begins to walk away.
"Who does he think he is…" Four mumbles again, and this time, I don't think he's talking about Al. I don't know what happened to him, but he's clearly upset about something. I ignore him for the time being and I'm sure he doesn't even notice. I need to get him up and entire flight of stairs and it's not going to be pretty. I look up to the window of my apartment and see that all the lights are off. If Christina was home or awake, she would be standing in the window watching for Al and I to come back. Al may not be her first choice for me, but she still can't resist knowing what's going on.
I assume she is staying with Will tonight, so I can't call her for help. I'm not sure if this makes me happy or not. It definitely saves me from having to answer way too many questions.
"Alright. Ready to go?" I ask Four. I turn my head to look at him and I can tell he's only somewhat aware of what's going on.
Overall, it takes about fifteen minutes to get him up the stairs and he did his best to run into every railing and wall on the way. He probably will have more bruises from simply walking up the stairs than he will from whatever he got himself into tonight. I fumble with my keys before finally unlocking the door. In one last burst of effort, I walk him into my apartment before pushing him down on the couch in the living room. If only Christina were here to see this. I chuckle to myself.
I roll him over on his side. I'm not sure sleeping on his back is a good idea. He lifts his bottle of liquor with more energy than he did the entire time I was trying to drag him up to the apartment. He seriously wants to drink even more than he already has? I take the bottle out of his hand before he gets the chance.
"HEY!" He yells. But when he sees that I have the bottle, his face calms a little bit.
"I have something better, I promise." I tell him. He thinks about it for a moment before letting his head fall back on the couch.
"Perfect…" He trails off. I could tell him that he's the Prince of Egypt and he'd probably believe me right now.
"I'll be right back." I tell him. I walk into the kitchen. If I give him a glass of water, he'd probably dump it all over the living room floor and I don't think he could work a travel coffee mug. I look at the bottle in my hand and decide it will half to do. I start to dump the contents into the sink. Whatever he was drinking, it was definitely strong. It burns my nose as it gushes down the drain.
I'm sure this will go over well tomorrow morning.
I wash the bottle out a few times before refilling it with water. I start to walk back to him, but am reminded of his eye. I need to clean it off and get some ice on it before it can get any worse. We have a small first aid kit, but I don't think it will help me right now. A damp kitchen towel and a package of frozen vegetables will have to do.
Two thuds from the living room bring my attention back to the drunk man on my couch.
"You okay in there?" I yell. The only response I get is a grumble. At least he's still alive. The source of the thuds is revealed when I walk back into the living room. He had kicked his shoes off so hard, they hit the wall across the room.
"Where was all this energy when I was trying to get you up the damn stairs?" I half yell, half laugh at him. "Here, your 'something better' has arrived." I hand the bottle to him and he takes it just as quickly as I expected and takes a giant swig of water. Judging by his expression, he has no idea what is in the bottle.
I sit on the ground next to the couch and put the frozen vegetable on his eye. He flinches slightly when the cold touches, but eventually relaxes. I'm sure it feels good against his hot skin. He starts to doze off again and I realize the only way to keep the package on his eye is if I hold it there. It's not so bad, considering it should only be there for about twenty minutes.
It's so strange to see Four like this. He's always in control, even during the situation with Peter at the bar, which would be enough to set anyone off the edge. But looking at him laying here now, with so much of his mind out of his control, it's almost heartbreaking. At least he looks calm while he sleeps, not worrying about who or whatever put him in this state. I'm so lost in thought, that I almost don't notice that Four is looking right at me.
"Tris…". He says quietly. It sounds like he has regained a small amount of conscious thought.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" It seems like a ridiculous question. I've definitely been where he is before, without the black eye of course. He simply responds with a low groan, closing his eyes. I imagine the whole world feels like it's spinning to him. I'm not sure he'll want to tell me in the morning, so I figure the only way to find out what happened to him is to use his inebriated state against him.
"Four, what happened to you? Who did this?" I ask. He thinks about answering for a long time and I start to wonder if maybe he had fallen asleep again. I'm about to give up on it when he responds.
"Good old dad…." Is all he says. What the…He had just told me the other day that he didn't have any family and if he did, why did his only contact with them end like this? I wonder if Marcus knows about this. Marcus…
"Four, is your father..?" My words trail off. I just can't seem to find the right way to phrase my question.
"Marucs..asshole." He says two words and my mind is reeling. So Marcus isn't just a family friend, he is family. If Marcus is his father, then that means I don't have a drunk bartender on my couch, I have a drunk billionaire's son. What the hell is he doing working at Dauntless if his father has enough money to buy the moon? My mind is filling with question after question, but I know that Four is too far gone to answer any of them. Will he want to talk about it in the morning? I shift the vegetable pack to take a look at his eye. The swelling seems to have gone down a little bit, but he is definitely going to have a nasty headache in the morning. I wonder if I can get him to take something for it.
"Four, why did you come here?" I ask him. It hadn't really bothered me until now. If Marcus is his father, surely he had a place or five he could have gone. What made him decide to come here?
"No one else cared." It's hard not to notice my heart practically skip a beat when he says this. Of course I care, but I didn't think he knew. I can't help but smile at the thought. He must be happy too, because a smile comes across his face as well. He reaches his hand up to cover mine. It's not in a usual graceful Four manner and for a second, I'm worried he'll just hit himself in the face, but he manages to reach his goal. I start to feel warmth come across my body. This is different from the first time he touched my hand. He tried to hide the fact that it meant something last time, but this Four couldn't hide anything if he wanted to. His emotions are all out in the open now.
A new thought crosses my mind and I can't help but laugh to myself.
"Four Eaton, huh?" I say, although I instantly regret it when I see his expression change. Apparently, he's conscious enough to process this.
"No." He says, very sternly, before closing his eyes again. He needs to sleep. I take the ice pack off his eye and pull a blanket off of the end of the couch. After the stairwell fiasco, I don't even want to try to get him into a bed. Besides, the thought of him sleeping in my room makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I like him, but it seems a little much. The couch will have to do for now. I get up to put the vegetables back in the freezer and to get myself a glass of water before I go to bed.
"Tris?" I hear from the living room. Apparently, I can't even leave him alone for a few moments. I reach up into one of the cabinets and pull down a bottle of medicine. Even if I can't get him to take it now, I'm sure he'll need it in the morning.
"It's time for you to go to bed now. I need sleep too." I tell him, hoping the powers of drunk persuasion still work.
"Stay here?" He asks.
"There's no room for me and I don't really want to sleep on the floor." I tell him. I wait a few moments for him to say something else, but it doesn't seem like I'm going to get a response. Maybe he finally fell back asleep. The thought vanishes when I hear a very loud thud come from the living room. It surprises me so much, that I run in to check on him, but when I get there, the couch is empty. I walk around to the other side to see Four laying on the floor next to the couch.
"There you go…" he says. It takes me a moment to figure out what happened.
"Did you just roll yourself off the couch to give me a place to sleep?" I ask, slightly amused. His only response is a half-hearted thumbs up. I kneel down next to him to drop off his aspirin and adjust the pillow that is only half under his head.
"I'll be right back, I need to go change." I tell him. He doesn't respond, so I get up and go back to my room. I start to peel off my clothes and debate taking a shower, but exhaustion has hit me once again and I don't know if I trust Four to be alone for that long. I pick the first t-shirt and pair of shorts I can find and wipe the make- up off of my face. It feels like my dinner with Al was weeks ago when in reality, it's been only a few short hours. My body aches from trying to get Four up the stairs and I know sleeping on the couch isn't going to help that. However, he seemed pretty insistent on me not leaving him alone.
I grab a blanket and pillow from off of my bed to take with me. As I'm leaving my room, I notice that the picture of Mom and Dad is still face down where I slammed it before I left earlier that night. I don't know that they would be proud of the decisions my friend had made, but they would tell me I'm doing the right thing making sure that he is okay for tonight. Before I leave, I set it back upright and can't help but return the smile they are showing in the picture.
"I love you." I say quietly. When I walk back into the living room, I can hear Four's long even breathing. He has definitely fallen back asleep now. I walk lightly, hoping not to wake him. I don't know if I could deal with him anymore. Sleep is sounding so much better the more I think about it, even on the living room couch. I gently step over him before collapsing on my bed for the night. I look down at him once more, just to make sure he is actually asleep. It's pretty evident that he is by the gentle rise and fall of his chest. This makes me relax just a little bit more and before I know it, I'm drifting off to sleep myself.
"Goodnight, Tris" is the last thing I hear before slipping into darkness.
A.N. Well, I hope everyone enjoyed getting this chapter so early! I'll try to have the next chapter up before the week starts. As always, leave your comments and reviews, because they seriously make my day! -daunlessbybirth