"Is her eye already black?" I ask. I feel bad for asking, but I couldn't help it.
Tris was still unconscious when we arrived at the infirmary about five minutes ago. The nurse said she should be waking up soon, so Christina and I sat down on the left side of Tris' bed and Will and Al sat on the right. Christina shrugs at my question and holds a fresh ice pack to her jaw.
As if she heard my question, Tris opens her left eye - the other one is swollen shut and blackish-colored. I look down, feeling my cheeks warm up.
"What happened to your face?" Tris asks, her voice a little slurred from the pain medicine.
Christina laughs. "Look who's talking. Should we get you an eye patch?"
"Well, I already know what happened to my face," Tris says. "I was there. Sort of."
Will grins. "Did you just make a joke, Tris?" He asks teasingly. "We should get you on painkillers more often if you're going to start cracking jokes. Oh, and to answer your question - I beat her up."
"I wish I'd made it back in time to see that," I say with a quiet laugh.
"I can't believe that you couldn't beat Will," Al says, shaking his head.
"What? He's good." Christina shrugs. "Plus, I think I've finally learned how to stop losing. I just need to stop people from punching me in the jaw."
I snort.
Will winks at her. "You know, you'd think you would have figured out already. Now I know why you aren't Erudite. Not too bright, are you?"
Christina reaches one long leg out and kicks Will in the shin. While he winces and rubs his leg, Al asks, "You feeling okay, Tris?"
"Yeah," She replies. "Just wish I could stay here forever so I never have to see Peter again." At soon as she say again, her good eye shifts and she looks around the room curiously.
"Don't worry about Peter," says Will reassuringly. "He'll at least get beat up by Edward, who has been studying hand-to-hand combat since we were ten-years-old. For fun."
"Good," Christina says, then checks her watch. "I think we're missing dinner. Do you want us to stay here, Tris?"
"I'm fine," Tris says, shaking her head.
Christina, Will, and I all get up, but Al waves us ahead. As we walk away, I hear Al tell Tris, "I just wanted to tell you that you missed Eric's announcement. We're going on a field trip tomorrow, to the fence, to learn about Dauntless jobs. We have to be at the tracks by eight fifteen."
"Good," I hear Tris say before I walk out of earshot. "Thanks."
"What's that on your shirt?" Will asks me as when we're out of the infirmary.
I look down and see a large wet spot on the left side of my tank top where Drew kicked me. I swear and say, "I fell a couple days ago and scabbed up my side. I think the scabs might have fallen off when Drew kicked me." We walk by the hall that leads to the initiate dormitory and I stop. "I'm going to change my shirt real quick. I'll meet you guys at the dining hall."
"I'll come with," Christina says. Before I can open my mouth to protest, she turns to Will and says, "We'll meet you at the dining hall."
When Will nods and walks away, I look at her and say, "I think can handle a few scabs and a bloody tank top by myself." I don't want her to see the scars on my sides or my back, because then she'll know that I didn't fall and ask questions about what happened to me that I can't answer.
But all she does is grab my hand and - literally - drag me towards to dormitory, with a stop to girls' bathroom to get a couple pieces of toilet paper.
The dormitory is unsurprisingly empty when we walk in. I groan when I see my bed and remember what Al told me on the way to training this morning: "Peter spray-painted "Stiff" on your mattress." Al definitely wasn't lying. The word "Stiff" is spray-painted in big red letters on my sheets and pillow case. I strip off the sheets and throw them in the trash, then put new sheets on my bed.
When I open one of the drawers under my bed, Christina says, "Can I see that?"
My eyes follow her gaze to my drawing pad on top of a stack of black clothing. I pick up the drawing pad and hand it to her, saying, "There's only one picture in there."
She opens it to the first page - which is a picture of a train. and her eyes widen. "Wow, did you draw this?"
"Yes," I say, going through my drawer.
"It's beautiful."
"Thanks." I pick up a simple black dress with gold beading along the square neckline. I watch Christina as she studies the drawing, to make sure that she's not paying attention to me before I pull the tank top off. I was right about my left side - the scabs had fallen off and the scars were bleeding. I clean up my side with the toilet paper the best I can, then I grab a bandage from my drawer and stick it on there to keep from bleeding through my clothes again. I slide my dress over my head just as Christina looks up at me. "Ready to go?" I ask, not bothering to take off my leggings.
"Can I bring this with?" She asks, gesturing to the drawing pad.
"Sure," I say with a shrug. I grab my box of colored pencils, then pick up the tank top and the toilet paper, and toss them in the trash on our way out.
The dining hall is loud and bustling as it usually is at dinner time. Me and Christina make our way to the table where Will and Al are sitting.
"Hey, are you alright?" Will asks as Christina and I sit.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I tell him reassuringly. "All bandaged up." I set my box of colored pencils on the table.
"You've got to see this picture," Christina says. She places my drawing pad between her and Will. It's open to the picture of the train. "Red drew it."
I absentmindedly take a hamburger from the plate in the middle of the table as I watch Will and Al's reactions closely. Their eyes widen. "You drew this?" Al asks, trying and failing to hide the surprise in his voice.
"Yes," I say, suddenly feeling nervous. What was I thinking when I agreed to let Christina bring my drawing pad to the dining hall? It's too late to do anything about it, of course, but that doesn't stop me from internally yelling at myself.
Thankfully, neither Will nor Al seem to remember that I am originally from Abnegation and that I shouldn't be able to draw like this. Or if they do remember, they don't mention it. "This is really good," Will comments.
"Thanks." I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding in. "It's not finished, though." I had only started the drawing last night and I barely got to work on it this morning after my shower.
"Can we see it when it's done?" Will asks.
I shrug. "Sure."
Christina changes the subject and asks Al how he couldn't beat Myra, which I was curious about as well. Myra, who wasn't that hard to fight to me, should have been easy for Al to take down. But Al doesn't say anything; he just shrugs in reply. I take my drawing pad back and work on the picture as I eat.
For some reason, my mind keeps wandering back to Tris. It may be the Abnegation in me, but I feel sorry for her. I think back to when I was walking back to the training room and I ran into my brother. Tobias showed a genuine concern for Tris after I'd told him that I had taken her to the infirmary, a concern he's never had for anyone but me. "He likes her," I think. "He really likes her." I had teased Tobias about him liking Tris in the hallway, but it was true, even if he didn't yet realize it.
Hmm, maybe I should do something for Tris... and not just because of my brother's interest in her - though that might be a part of it. I actually like Tris and a part of me keeps saying that I shouldn't be sitting here with Al, Will, and Christina while she is by herself in the infirmary. So when I finish eating, I gather my drawing pad and colored pencils and tell the others that I'm going to the dorm. Almost as an afterthought, I grab a plate with a piece of chocolate cake and a fork.
The silence in the infirmary is almost deafening compared to the loudness in the Pit and the dining hall. Having spent most of my sixteen years in silence, I can't decide if I like it or not.
Tris is awake and staring at the blanket covering her legs. "Hey," I say and my voice sounds like a cannon is the silence. I look around the room for a brief second to make sure I didn't accidentally wake anyone else up even though I didn't speak that loudly.
Though she doesn't jump, there is some surprise in her expression when she looks up at me. "What are you doing here?"
I offer her a smile and sit on the bed beside her. "I just thought you might like some company," I say, unable to come up with anything else. It's not like Tris and I have been best friends, but we never had anything against each other.
She watches me and returns my smile with less effort. I can tell she's in pain. "Oh, well thanks. How did your fight go?"
It's obvious that she is trying to take the focus off of her, but I go along with it, not wanting to make her anymore uncomfortable than she already is. "Uh, it was good," I offer.
Tris nods. "Who did you fight?"
"Drew."
"Oh, that must have been something," She smirks. "Would have liked to see that."
I can't help but smile. "Yeah, well... it wasn't really that good."
Tris snorts and rolls her eyes. "Doubt it."
"I'm not sure if running around the arena to get away from your opponent actually counts as fighting," I say with a laugh that sounds like a cough. I look down at my lap and realize that I am still holding the cake. "Oh," I say, looking back at Tris. "I forgot... I brought this for you." I hold out the plate to her.
Her cheeks turn a faint pink as she takes the plate from me. "You didn't have to do that."
"Eh, I wanted to." My eyes widen as soon as the words leave my mouth. Did I just say that? That was the most Abnegation thing I could have said. I get up, my cheeks feeling warm, and brush non-existent dust off of my lap. "I should go and let you rest," I say and then walk away quickly.
I barely get a few steps away from the bed when Tris says, "Red?"
"Yeah?" I stop and look over at her.
"Um, thanks for the cake," She says.
I smile a little. "Thanks." As I walk away, I feel proud, like I accomplished something I've never been able to before. I hope this means that Tris and I are friends.
A/N: I'd like to thank HeartofGold7 who has been super supportive of this story and used her awesome writing skills to help me write the last scene in this chapter.
