A/N Thanks for all the reviews!
I slip into my new black dress and look in the mirror behind the bathroom door.
The girl in the mirror is not me. The girl in the mirror could not have ever been in Abnegation. She wears a knee length black dress that highlights her body in all the right places. He eyes, that may usually be plain, are highlighted with eyeliner and mascara, making them look large and stunning. Her lips are flaming red, which matches her red-hot heels. Her blonde hair is parted down the side and frames her face. Just above the neckline of her shirt you can see three ravens tracing her collarbone and flying to her heart. The girl in the mirror is not beautiful. But she is noticeable, and I'm just as happy with that.
I step out of bathroom and into the apartment where Tobias is waiting. The party isn't going to be in our apartment, because as Zeke put it, "If you two throw a party, it will go downhill faster than Jenn when she's drunk." So, Zeke is throwing the party, and since his apartment is relatively small, he's throwing it on the roof of the zip line building.
"You look…..amazing," Tobias breathes when he sees me. I blush and pull at the hem of my skirt. I'm not used to wearing such revealing clothes.
"Thanks." I smile and look at the ground. I don't want any attention for my clothes.
"I don't think I've ever seen something so beautiful in a long time," Tobias says, putting his arm around my waist and pulling me to him. I can feel my cheeks getting redder as Tobias begins to kiss me. He hugs my body to him, and I know that he wants to really kiss, and I push him away.
He opens his mouth to protest, and I put my finger to his lips. "Ah, ah, ah. We're going to be late to our own party."
Tobias sighs, but he knows I'm right, and keeps his arm around my waist as we walk towards the door.
When I step out onto the roof my breath is taken away by the way Zeke has transformed the space. You can see the whole city in laid out in the distance, and even though all the lights will go out at midnight, it is gorgeous. Zeke has wrapped little twinkling lights around the entire edge of the roof, and they give the area a comfortable glow. There are outdoor couches spread all around the area, giving it a laid back feel, and tall round tables dot across the center of the roof. I notice tin buckets full of ice and beer placed sporadically around the area and a table full of food in the center of the roof.
"This is amazing," I gasp, noticing Zeke standing in one of the corners.
He shrugs and says, "It looks pretty chill now, but this isn't an Erudite party. This is going to get pretty Dauntless, pretty quickly."
"Oh, I know that," I say, wanting to make it clear that I'm not a child, and I know what a Dauntless party is going to be like. "Where did you get all this?" I ask, motioning around the roof.
"We have parties up here all the time. Uriah and I just had to get the couches and stuff from downstairs. It only took a couple of minutes." Zeke shrugs again.
"Oh. Thank you," I say. I know that Zeke makes it out to be nothing, but it was really nice of him to do all of this.
"Yeah, thanks. This is really cool," Tobias agrees. His hand is still comfortably draped across my waist.
"Hey. I put some sodas in the coolers, just for you, Tris." I turn my head to see Uriah coming up the steps and pushing his way out of the tiny concrete room at the top of the steps. I try not to notice his double take when he sees me. Once again, I pull at the hem of my skirt and wonder if I will be doing this all night. Uriah darts his eyes away, and I hope Tobias didn't notice the way he looked at me.
"What makes you think that I don't want a beer?" I furrow my eyebrows and frown at Uriah.
"Umm…" Uriah looks back and forth between Tobias and Zeke, looking for a male to help him out. His cheeks are still red.
"Well, are you going to have a beer?" Zeke asks, cocking his head to the side.
"Yeah, actually. I am." I smirk as I grab a beer from a bucket to my left. I actually wasn't planning on having one, the smell is enough to make me not want to drink, let alone seeing drunk girls acting stupid, but I'm not going to give Uriah the satisfaction of knowing that.
I twist the cap off as I fall into a cushioned couch. Zeke and Uriah watch me closely to see if I am going to follow through.
I've never had beer.
I bring it up closer to my face, and my nose turns up at the putrid smell.
Losing yourself at the bottom of a bottle is selfish in Abnegation.
I can feel the cold lip of the bottle against my skin.
I've seen drunken Dauntless women staggering through the Pit, and it isn't pretty. I don't ever want to be like that.
My hand grips the perspiring bottle, and I can feel the liquid on my lip.
I wonder what it will taste like.
I take a gulp, and it burns as it slides down my throat. It doesn't burn in the good way, like when Tobias touches me, but in a bad way. The aftertaste it leaves in my mouth is unpleasant, almost as bad as the drink itself.
I smile, even though it tastes like death, and take another gulp. I smirk at Uriah and Zeke, and Tobias starts laughing. He grabs himself a beer as he slides into the spot next to me, kissing my cheek. "This is why I love you," he whispers into my ear. His breath tickles my skin in the best kind of way. I quickly forget the rancid taste in my mouth as my cheeks grow red for the umpteenth time today.
Uriah and Zeke sit in the couch across from us and each open up a beer. I notice Uriah averting his eyes from me, and wonder how long his embarrassment is going to last.
"So, who's coming tonight?" Tobias asks, before taking a gulp of his drink. He puts his hand on my thigh, and I put mine on top of his larger one. He gently massages my thigh with his thumb, rubbing it in slow circles across my skin.
"Most everyone. All the people from each of your years, and a couple of other people. Word travels quick among the fearless." Uriah shrugs. I wonder if that is a trademark of his family. Shrugging.
"When?" I ask, hoping my nervousness doesn't show in my voice.
"Any minute now. We'll hear them coming," Zeke says as he tosses a potato chip from the table in front of us into his mouth. I want to ask him what he means when he says that we'll hear them coming, but don't ask. I don't want to sound stupid.
Instead, I stand up and casually place my beer onto a table as I walk (Or maybe hobble. Heals are a hard thing to maneuver) over to the railing of the building and stare across the skyline.
"I saw that!" Zeke shouts, talking about me 'casually' getting rid of my beer.
"Don't know what you're talking about!" I holler back without turning my head.
As I stare across the skyline, I think about my family. I think about Caleb, somewhere in the Erudite compound. I can imagine him sitting at a desk reading a book, or eating in the cafeteria with his Erudite friends, talking about irrigation systems, or some other thing the Erudite talk about.
I think about my calm, beautiful mother and my father. It isn't late yet, but I know that they're already in bed. I would be too, if I were still in Abnegation. I think about Caleb and my empty rooms, a constant reminder of their children that left. I wonder if they've gone into them at all since we left. I wonder if the pain is too much. I think my mother would go in, but not my father. I wonder what my parents would say if they could see me in these clothes.
I hear Tobias's deep laugh rumbling from his chest. I hear him say something, but I don't know what, before Zeke lets out a holler-laugh. Just hearing them so happy makes me smile.
My hands grip the cool metal railing, and I gaze up at the full moon above me. How beautiful. The Moon came out, just to celebrate Tobias and Tris.
Tobias.
Tris.
Tobias and Tris.
Tobias and Tris forever.
I smile. Then, I hear the rumbles.
I know that in the book, the roof has a big hole in it and everything, but I sort of tweaked that a bit, because I thought it would be cool to have a rooftop party. Review!
Disclaimer- You know the drill….