Skylar's POV

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Skylar had spent the better part of Sunday night being lectured by Lucas and Perseus about drinking the night before training again. Neither of them had bothered to lecture Eric for giving it to her though, and she knew for a fact neither of them believed her when she'd told them she'd been sneaking sips from the bottle.

And Jami? He'd sent her funny looks throughout the evening as if he knew.

But he didn't. And Skylar had only gotten out of that one by telling him that she had almost gone back to Ward the night before and felt guilty.

He'd believed her and had given her a red card lecture.

Skylar was getting pretty sick of fucking lectures.

Thankfully, Lucas had told her he had meetings all week and wouldn't be seeing her. Perseus was out working, and Jami had promised he'd see her for breakfast and that was it.

It was Wednesday, and he'd had yet to keep that promise.

Skylar hadn't seen Eric either. Though, that was probably a good thing, because she had thought about how good his lips had been against her far too many times.

She'd even had a dream about him on Monday night. A very, very, bad dream, in the middle of the dorms. A wet dream. The dorms that she shared with a bunch of other people.

Alec had been the only one who'd woken up, thankfully. But he also hadn't looked at her the same way since. She wasn't stupid; she knew he was interested in knowing what that dream was about. But she wasn't interested in telling him.

Maybe she should be though because she knew better than anyone that Eric was out of the picture. That absolutely could NOT happen. He was her leader and Lucas's best friend. That couldn't happen. It just couldn't.

"Where's your head at?" Meck nudged her as she stretched. "I figured you of all people would be excited for this, considering Monday morning you were ranting about how sick you were if being stuck inside."

"I never say that," Skylar turned her head toward him.

"No, what you actually said was something along the lines of 'fuck this Dauntless compound and its dark ass underground lack-of-sun bullshit," Meck grinned.

"You did say something like that," Conrad agreed. "Though I'm pretty sure there were a lot more 'fucks."

Alec and Meck both laughed, earning glares from the other initiates, particularly Parker. Conrad rolled over on the mat just in time for Meck to speak again.

"Yeah but there is always a lot more fucks when Skylar is involved," Meck said.

She pushed him hard enough that he fell on his side, nearly on top of Conrad who shoved him off, and told him to shove it.

To be honest, she was excited about their run. Supposedly the entire group of initiates was going to run to the gates near the Amity sector. She knew that getting some sun would be nice, and to go running in a setting that wasn't a circle like they did in the training rooms. Or suicides. Or on a treadmill.

When the trainers called for them to follow, they huddled up and made their way through the hallways and up a set of stairs, then outside. Once they were outside her and Meck steered away from the group a bit as Four, and the other trainers spoke before they started their run.

"Are you alright?" Meck asked her. "You've been acting weird since your family dinner. Are you guys doing it again on Sunday? I know it was important to you."

Skylar blocked the sun with her hand, looking at him through scrunched eyes. Thankfully they were going to be running away from the sun, and hopefully, by the time they ran back, it would be behind them again.

"I'm fine," she told him and shrugged. "And I don't know, maybe? Depends on if any of them want to I guess. They were reluctant last time."

"Well, you did say they were really busy, right?" he asked as they walked forward and began to jog. "I'm sure it's just scheduling issues." He assured her.

Skylar didn't understand why he bothered lying, or why she bothered lying to him. They both grew up in Candor together. He must have read her expression because he chuckled to himself.

"Alright, maybe they're just assholes," he grinned.

"Definitely. You know I haven't even met Lucas's girlfriend? And they live together!" she spoke as they jogged, wondering if they were going to pick up the pace soon so they could stop talking. "Or Jami's roommates."

"Well, I'm sure you will soon. We've only been here for a week and a half." Meck explained.

Skylar nodded and picked up the pace with the group, grateful that he wouldn't expect her to answer.

"Sky?" He said once more after they'd been running for a few minutes silently. She glanced at him and nodded as they ran. She noticed that their friends were running near the trainers at the front.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "For helping me. You're pretty great."

Skylar grinned, knowing that he was in need of far more help than she'd given him so far.

"You're going to regret saying that when I make you keep up with me at the front of the line for this entire run." She ran ahead and turned, motioning for him to follow and clapping. "C'mon slowpoke, let's go!"

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