Chap. 11
Tris POV
The wind whips my hair all around my face, but I don't mind. How could I mind, when I am where I am? I couldn't. I know I can trust Four, and I hope he saw that. I do wonder, though, what he is so anxious to show me. Or say to me. Or possibly both. I guess I'll find out soon. A tremor ran through me, as I recalled my last 'boyfriend'. I couldn't afford to think like, so I shook the thoughts away. I was not going to do this to myself. So I hold on to my sanity until I see that we've come to a halt. I undo my grasp from Four and step off his ultimate thrill machine (motorcycle). He looks over his shoulder and motions for me to follow. I gladly oblige. The walking is done in silence, but it's comfortable. At least, for me it is. I get lost in thoughts, anything to distract me from my past life. Then Four's toned arm swings out in front of me, snapping me to my senses. Once I really open my eyes, I see that I just narrowly avoided falling off of a very high cliff into a pool of water. But instead of feeling scared, I stare into the body of water and am instantly mesmerized. I take in the whole scene. A waterfall is coming out of two boulders and free falling into a foamy mess, slowly dissipating into a smooth surface of crystal clear water, littered with lily pads and the occasional ripple from a fish daring to disrupt the perfect serenity. Four tugged on my elbow, and began to walk down a path that seemed to lead to a dead end. As we got closer, however, I saw a slit in between the two boulders. Four, with a tentative half-smile, slips into the darkness. I follow, only to be yet again amazed. Sunlight streamed in through the waterfall, creating an intricate pattern that danced along the back wall of rock. A desk and two chairs sat in the small yet cozy space, along with a lantern. Four plopped down in a beanbag chair, smoothing out his expression.
"So, what do you think?" He said, with an anxious glance my way. I was too stunned to speak for a moment, but quickly recovered my wits.
"It's... Wow. So amazing. I love it. But why did you decide to share it with me? I know if I found a place like this... Well, the other person would have to be pretty special." He smiled my favorite crooked smile.
"That's the thing... You are pretty special, Tris. You are very special to me. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I like you, a lot. And I was wondering, do you want to be my girlfriend?" His smile vanished and was replaced with a very serious mask. I said the most ridiculous thing possible.
"Well, duh. Of course." A warm and genuine smile stretched across his face, and I reciprocated it. After a minute of fuzzy silence, a lightbulb illuminates my mind.
"Let's go swimming!" Four tilts his head to the side in questioning. "There's still plenty of hours of daylight, a nice pool down there, and who cares about wet clothes! Come on, you can't take me down here and not go swimming." He mulls over my idea, chewing on it slowly. After he looks at my eager face, he knows that he can't say no.
"Okay, let's do it." I smile so big that it hurts my cheeks. I take my jacket off and my flannel shirt, leaving me in a tank top and jean shorts. Four pulls his shirt over his head, revealing a very toned chest. Good thing I've been exposed to that before, otherwise I probably couldn't help myself from drooling. I slide out of the slit in the rock and inspect the terrain above the waterfall. I see a couple of footholds, and decide to go for it. I grab hold of a tree branch and hoist my slender body up onto a thin ledge, then grab hold of a stable looking root. I swing my leg up on a rock and push myself to the top. I stand, triumphant, beaming down at Four.
"Hurry up slowpoke!" I yell down at him. He looks up at me, bewildered.
"What in the world are you doing?" He says with an edge to his voice. It registered as fear, but I quickly wipe that away. Four couldn't be scared.
"We're gonna jump off the top of the waterfall! Or I'm going to, anyways." That last part made his face twist. Then he starts to climb. He takes the same path, but probably looks a lot more natural doing it than I did. Once he reaches me, I can tell that his breaths are becoming more shallow. I lace my fingers in his and look into his eyes.
"Are you afraid of heights?" He turns his head away, ashamed. "Four, it's no big deal. We don't have to jump off the top." That's when he looks at me very sternly.
"That's where you're wrong. We're jumping, and you're gonna like it." He smiles his crooked smile that never fails to take my breath away. I scoot to the edge of the cliff, and lean over to see just how high it is. It looks about 50 feet tall. And I love it. It's so exhilarating, being so high that I can see the tops of the mountains in the distance.
"On three, okay?" Says Four. I nod. With our hands intertwined, he counts down. "Three, two-" But his voice is cut off by the wind howling in our ears as we sail down beside the waterfall. I feel time slow down as I get the funny feeling in my stomach that I love. I absorb the fact that I am holding Four's hand, and he is holding back. I realize that I am now in a relationship with the guy of my dreams. I also realize that I barely know anything about him.
And he barely knows anything about me.
Then time regains it's normal pace and we plunge into the cool water. It wraps around me, kind of like a really cold hug. I open my eyes to see Four staring at me. It's the kind of stare you usually get from a parent after you've just won your first spelling bee, or you just finished your first performance of a play. His deep blue eyes were just as I remembered. Deep, dark, and definitely hiding something. But this time, they are warmer. Not the cold, deep blue sapphire I saw on that first day of school. It was as if they melted into a wonderful ocean, filled with life. I detangle my fingers from his as I swim to the surface. My head bobs up after his, which is no surprise. He gives me a mock angry face with an over exaggerated tone of accusation.
"You pushed me off the edge of a cliff! I could have died because of you! How do you feel about yourself? How will you be able to live with yourself now that you know that I almost died because of you?" I just laugh at his attempt to be funny, which I guess in a way makes him funny.
"It's more fun when it's unexpected." My face forms a sly grin, and he chuckles.
"Very funny Tris."
"I know, I try. Wait, scratch that. I don't have to try, it comes naturally." I follow my sentence with a splash to his face. "Oops." I say, laughing uncontrollably at his face that contorted into a deep scowl. We spend the next couple of hours getting into an epic splash fight and chasing each other around the perfect pond. When I see the sun beginning to set, I mentally slap myself.
"Four, look how late it is! Caleb is going to murder me!" I scurry out of the pool and climb as fast as humanly possible to get the the room behind the waterfall. I decide to just carry my clothes, since I don't want to get them wet. When I turn around, I bump into something hard. I look up to see that it's Four.
"Sorry I have to leave so abruptly, but I really don't want Caleb any madder than he'll already be."
"It's all good. There will be other dates." He winks at me, and I feel a twisting of my stomach. The good kind of twisting, the butterfly kind.
"There certainly will be. Thanks for showing me this place, Four. It's beautiful. But I'll be sure to keep it our place." He smiles brightly at that. We walk the winding path back to his motorcycle, and I make sure to make a mental note of the directions he's taking. By the time we make it back to the edge of the woods, the sun isn't visible anymore, just a faint glow in the distance. I realize that he has no idea where I live.
"Four, can you drop me off at my house? I live on 5635 Ramsgrath Road." He nods and skillfully slides into place on his motorcycle. I less skillfully slide in behind him. He revs the engine a couple of times before he turns a circle, then speeds away, back onto the road. I clutch my hands around him, pressing my face into his back. I stay this way until he skids to a stop in front of my house. I hop of his motorcycle and bid him farewell.
"I'll see you tomorrow at school, Four." He smiles my favorite crooked smile.
"Can't wait." I stand on my tiptoes and peck his cheek. I turn and begin to walk to my house. I look back to an empty driveway, Four long gone and out of sight. Before I can even reach the door, though, it is flung open violently by Caleb, who is practically steaming.
"Beatrice Prior, where in the world have you been? It's is 10 o'clock. I had no idea where you were! Did youever stop to wonder about that? You weren't even wearing a helmet! How could you do something like that to me? Especially after what happened with mom and da-" I cut him off by shoving past him. I want to get in a comfy chair before I collapse. I can't believe that he pulled out the parents card. He knows what it does to me, what it does to both of us. My eyes start to burn as I fling my face into the couch cushions, longing for a normal, happy life. I wish that I could go through the bland motions of regular life. Go to school, think your parents are mean and controlling, graduate, work, start a family, have your kids think you're mean, get old, die. The normal, bland motions would be an oh so much better alternative to this. Caleb turns me over to look at my face. I notice that he's crying too.
"I'm sorry Bea. That was cruel. It hurts us both, I know. But we've only got each other now. If something happened to you... I couldn't live with myself. And what happened with Pe-" He abruptly stops his sentence, almost forgetting what happens when I hear his name. Thankfully I am too broken too notice his slip up. So we just sit on the couch, holding each other, and waiting for a restless sleep to come.
