Chapter 11
The days passed by quickly and Tris was happy. She had amazing friends who she was getting closer to every day, and they were treating her as if they all knew each other for years. She and Christina had gotten extremely close, and Tris was proud to call her her best friend. Shauna and Marlene were still great friends of Tris, but something just clicked with Christina that made their friendship different.
It had been a month a half since Tris arrived in Sacramento, and she and Uriah were still together. It was great at the start, but over time Uriah became distant. Tris didn't see him as often, and when they did get together, it was weird and awkward. She didn't know what had changed, whether it was her or him, or maybe both. She just wanted to go back to how they were when they first started dating.
She had to let go of Four in order for her and Uriah to be together, and right now she was wondering if that was really the right decision. Her feelings for him hadn't changed, and with her relationship going downhill, she didn't want to keep ignoring them. She knew that she had to talk to Uriah, to figure out once and for all if their relationship was worth fighting for.
She headed to his dorm to see if he was there. She approached his door and didn't bother knocking, knowing that the guys hated getting up to answer the door. There was no one sitting on the couch and there wasn't any noise coming from the rooms, so she wasn't sure if anyone was there, but she decided to check Uriah's room anyway, just in case.
"Hey Uriah are you-oh my god!"
Marlene quickly pulled away from Uriah and grabbed her shirt, holding it up in front of her.
"Oh my god Tris!" She said, standing up.
Tears spilled from Tris' eyes as she stared at the sight in front of her. She couldn't say anything as they both tried to deny it and say that it wasn't what it looked like. She simply ran out of the room.
Once she was in the hallway, she broke down. Memories of Al and Lauren seeped into her head and she found herself going back to her old self, the self she was before she came to California. The night that started it all flashed through her mind like a movie she couldn't turn off. She felt like she was back in Al's bedroom, hearing that he had been sleeping with her best friend.
She couldn't stop the thoughts from entering her mind and she couldn't control the tears running down her face. She heard Uriah yell her name as she walked down the hall, so she started running. She didn't know where she was going, all she knew was that she didn't want to face him right now. She eventually found herself at the football field. Through her blurred vision, she could make out someone running laps around the field, but she couldn't see who. She sat down at the very top and let it all out. She could feel all the positive changes she had made to herself leave her body, and she felt like Beatrice again.
"Hey are you okay?" She heard a voice ask her. She looked up through her tears and saw someone standing there.
"Peter?" She asked. She wiped her eyes, not wanting to appear weak in front of him.
"Yeah it's me, is something wrong?" he asked again.
"Not to be rude but I don't really want to talk to you." Tris started to stand up but he placed an arm in front of her, stopping her from leaving.
"Look I know we got off on the wrong foot, and I'm sorry, but you look like you need somebody to talk to and I'm actually a pretty good listener. You don't need to take me up on my offer, but it might be a good idea."
Tris didn't know if she should talk to him, considering their first encounter, but right now, with him standing in front of her, he seemed genuine with his offer. She slowly sat back down, and he sat next to her, leaving about a foot of space between them.
"So why are you crying? What got you so upset?" He started. Tris took a deep breath in.
"Uriah cheated on me."
"What? He did? Who was it with? How do you know?" Peter asked.
"I went by his dorm to talk to him. Our relationship had been going downhill so I wanted to know if it was even worth fighting for. When I went in his room, I saw him with Marlene."
Peter was quiet for a moment, letting the information sink in before he said anything.
"Wow. I can't believe he would do that. I can't believe Marlene would do that."
Tris nodded her head, agreeing with him.
"I knew that she still had some type of feelings for him when we first started dating, but I thought she moved on. Why wouldn't she tell me if she had a problem with our relationship? I just don't understand, I wish I could understand."
"You're probably not going to like this, but maybe in order to understand you have to talk to them about it. I know you probably don't want to see either of them, but it might help you move on."
As much as Tris didn't want to, she knew what Peter was saying was true. She would have to see both of them constantly and it would be better to know why they did what they did. Tris stood up quickly.
"Thank you Peter, but I need to go. I need to talk to them."
"Give me your phone." He said. Tris gave him a confused look, but handed it to him anyway. He started typing and handed it back to her.
"I put my number in your contacts, after you talk to them, if you need to talk to somebody, give me a call."
Tris nodded and gave him a small smile before walking away. She tried to collect her thoughts as she neared closer to Uriah's dorm room, but her mind was racing. She didn't know what to say to him, or if she could even talk to him without crying. However, as she entered the building, her sadness started to turn to anger. Her pent-up anger towards Al started to come out as anger towards Uriah and she was having trouble controlling it.
She was also angry at herself that she had let this happen again. What was so wrong with her that every guy she'd been with had cheated on her? Was she really that awful to be in a relationship with?
She kept telling herself everything that was wrong with her that would cause someone to want to cheat so by the time she arrived at the dorm room, she was fuming. She knocked hard on the door, too lazy to open it herself, and barged inside once somebody opened it.
"Where is he?" She said angrily towards whoever opened the door. "Where is Uriah?"
"He's in his room." Four answered. Tris started to walk but Four held her back. "Tris, I think it'd be a good idea for you to calm down before you go in there. You don't want to say something you'll regret later." Tris laughed at this.
"You know what Four, I don't really care what I say right now. There are a million awful things going through my head right now that I want to say to him and Marlene, and they deserve every single word." Four seemed a bit frightened by the girl in front of him, never having seen this side of her before. "Do you know what they did? Huh? Did you know that they've been getting it on?"
He paused for a moment. "Yes."
Tris was taken aback by this. "I'm sorry, you knew? And you didn't think to tell me? Are you fucking serious Four? How long, how long has it been going on?" Four didn't answer at first, which made Tris assume the worst. "Oh my god I'm going to kill Uriah, and then I'm going to kill you!"
"Tris please, calm down. I only found out three days ago, I swear. I wanted to tell you, I really did, but Uriah made me promise not to. He said that you two just weren't working anymore and that he was going to break up with you soon."
As Tris took in the words she was hearing, she didn't know what to feel. Obviously she knew that a break up was coming, she just wanted it to be clean, not like the mess that was going on now.
"Does anyone else know?"
Four shook his head. "Not that I know of, anyway."
"Is this why you've been avoiding me?"
"I couldn't take seeing you when I knew that I was keeping something from you, especially something like this."
"God Four, you know what I went through last year, everyone knows, I just thought of all people you would be the one to understand just how much something like this would affect me."
With that, Tris left Four and made her way to Uriah's room. He was sitting on his bed with his earphones in and he looked like he had been crying. When he saw Tris, he quickly sat up straight and took his earphones out.
"Tris, I am so sorry," were the first words out of his mouth. Tris held up her hand, not wanting to hear the apologies.
"I know. I know that you wish I never saw that, but I also know that you don't regret what you did."
"How do you know that?" Uriah asked her.
"Four told me that he found you guys three days ago and that you told him you were going to break up with me soon. Now to me, that means that it was going on for some time and you wanted to break up with me for her." Uriah was quiet as Tris spoke her mind.
"Just tell me one thing: how long?" Uriah looked down, avoiding her eyes. "How long Uriah?"
"Three weeks."
Tris couldn't believe her ears. Three weeks ago was when the problems started showing up in their relationship.
"Why? Why wasn't I good enough for you?" A single tear ran down her face and she quickly wiped it away.
"No Tris, god no, you were never not good enough for me. But I think we both know that we just weren't right for each other. I know that you still have feelings for Four, don't try to deny it, but I don't care. I don't make you happy. We don't make each other happy."
Uriah played the whole thing off so coolly that it almost made Tris mad. However, there was truth to his words. They didn't make each other happy anymore.
"You're right, I know you're right, but it still hurts. You mean a lot to me, and even if we aren't together, I don't want to lose you. I just think our feelings for each other have changed, and if Marlene is the person that makes you happy then I want you to be happy."
Tris had calmed down a lot since she first entered the room. As they had been talking, she realized that she wasn't mad at him. She no longer felt the way that she did at the beginning of the year, and she could tell it was the same for him.
"Wait, are you serious?" He asked.
"Yes I'm serious. We don't see each other romantically anymore, it happens, but I don't want to stop you from being with somebody."
Uriah gave her a hug. "Tris you're the best, I love you." Tris laughed.
"Honestly Uriah, I love you like a brother."
"And I love you like a sister."
Tris was glad that things went the way they did. Getting cheated on is hard, but for her, the hardest part was losing the person that had been such a big part of her life. At least she and Uriah could remain friends.
She bid him goodbye and exited his room. Four was still out there, sitting on the couch, and Tris told him that everything was good before leaving to go find Marlene. He smiled when he heard that, and it gave Tris a warm feeling inside.
She decided to check her room first, figuring it would likely be the place Marlene would be. She got there and opened the door to find Shauna and Christina comforting a crying Marlene on the couch. They all looked up as they heard the door open, and Marlene started crying harder when she saw Tris.
"Do you know what's wrong with her? She won't tell us and she's been crying for an hour."
"Yea, I do. I can tell you, but first I want to talk to Marlene, alone." When Tris said this, Shauna and Christina both stood up and went into Christina's room, leaving Marlene and Tris alone. Tris sat down on the couch beside Marlene and put her arm around the crying girl.
"Marlene, before you say anything, I just want you to know that I already talked to Uriah and I told him that if you made him happy, then he should go for it." Marlene snapped her head towards Tris as she heard this.
"What? Why would you say that, you should hate us, I hate us."
"I don't hate you. Things changed between me and Uriah, we don't feel that way anymore. I want him to be happy, and I want you to be happy. Can you just tell me how it started?"
"We have almost every class together, so we just started getting closer, and you know that we dated last year, and I guess the feelings just sort of came back, and it just sort of happened. We both knew it was wrong but it's hard to deny your body something its wanted for a long time."
Tris nodded her head at what Marlene said, and despite everything she told the two of them, she found herself getting upset. Instead of taking it out on Marlene, she simply excused herself and left the room. She didn't bother telling Shauna or Christina why Marlene was upset, she left that up to Christina. Instead, she pulled out her phone and dialled.
"Hey Peter, it's Tris. Can we get together?"