Hey chocolates, how is everyone? I'm good, thanks for asking. I'm not quite sure about this chapter. I haven't planned it or anything. If it gets a little crazy or boring, I'm sorry, but I'm writing this from my head. Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get to it. I also apologize for missing the update date a week ago, but the chapter wasn't satisfying.

Searching for You – Chapter 13

I woke up the next day, still on the couch, and I remembered the previous night. I suppose Tobias and I had talked on and on for hours. I had tried to explain to him what had happened to the best of my knowledge, but I could tell a few things were still missing. So far, thankfully, he hadn't shown any plan to go and smash Peter's face in, but I was sure he'd do it eventually. I dreaded when they would eventually meet again, but at the same time, I knew it would give me at least some sense of closure, especially if I could assist in the face-smashing.

But back to the present, I woke up in the morning around seven and remembered it was the twenty-sixth. And I had work. Honestly, it was the last thing I wanted to do, especially after the weekend I had. With the entire, and literal, finding of my past life and myself again, I knew it would be difficult to go back to my second one. If I had to choose one, though, I would have to also tie up the loose ends on the other.

So I got up from Tobias' arms reluctantly and decided to let him sleep a little longer. I straightened my clothes. They were still clean and everything, but I hadn't showered yesterday and I couldn't go another day without one. So I made my way to the bathroom connected to the bedroom. I turned on the scalding hot water and let it run for a few minutes. I stripped myself of the sweater and jeans I had worn the day before and stood in the mirror as the water ran. I thought back to my memories, or lack thereof. There wasn't anything I wanted more than to rid myself of them, but at the same time, I needed to hang on to the memories. It scared me how strongly I felt this way, like my life depended on me having them, but it scared me just as much, if not more, to know that that piece, those months of my life would be gone. They would vanish completely if I didn't do anything about it. If I let them go without resisting, I knew I'd regret it.

So I decided then that I had to do something about it. I showered quickly, eager to leave the apartment. And, I didn't want to admit it, but I would be relieved to be alone, too. Tobias knew something was up the minute I was in the bedroom again.

"Where are you going?" he asked me, unnervingly suspicious. Like he knew I was up to no good, which he had no reason to assume. Albeit, he was right. Sometimes I hated that about him.

"Work," I stated simply. No reason to over inform him. That's all he needs to know, I thought. I immediately felt bad for being like this. I realized that I'd been acting like this towards him ever since I had found him again. I sighed before speaking again. "At the café on the docks. I work there. With Rose, Christina's sister. But I don't know if she's working today." I entered the closet and picked out what I was going to wear for the day. I chose a simple white turtleneck from the shelves and flowy black pants from a hangar. I put gold dangling earrings in and a matching gold belt around my waist. I spritzed on some perfume. Tobias waited patiently outside the entire time. Quiet.

"I can drive you," he offered, not completely phased by my blatant disinterest. He was trying to keep us alive. Our relationship. He refused to let this minor setback destroy what we had prior to this all. I admired and adored him for that. I even considered doing the same, but I couldn't. Or maybe I wouldn't. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I didn't.

I decline his offer and he seems exasperated at this. And believe me, he has every right to be this way. I'm being kind of a bitch right now. Okay, I'm being a total bitch right now. He knows I'm being unnecessarily stubborn, but that's just me.

"Tris, can we talk about this?" he asks and tries to get me to look at him. It's hard, but I resist. I'm at the front door, now and I'm holding my wallet and keys to my Porsche. He grabs my arm and spins me around to face him. He's gentle, but commanding. He still thinks I'm fragile, but knows I can handle it.

"Tris, look at me." I do. "If this is about Lauren or-"

I cut him off quickly. The last thing I want him thinking is that my attitude is because of Lauren. We had been friends once upon a time, quite close for a year or two, which hurt when I found out she was the girl he had a fling with after Tobias' and my fight. But their relationship was that like I had with Peter. Tobias regretted it all, even though nothing really happened between the two. Apparently, he tried to initiate sex or something, and Lauren, being the intelligent woman she is, sensed that he was trying to forget something. Me. She knew he was trying to use her, but she managed to convince him to stop before he did something he'd be sorry for. The difference between Lauren and Pater, though, was that Lauren wasn't a jealous, rage-driven psychopath that tried to kidnap Tobias to keep us apart. I respected that.

So I made it clear that my reluctance to open up to Tobias was definitely not because of Lauren. "This isn't about Lauren," I said. Truth. "Or Peter." Lie. This was all about Peter. This entire mess was his fault. "This is about me. And no, I'm not being fucking selfish. It's the truth. This is about me and my damn memories. I need to tie up some loose ends in this second life of mine and finish what I started months ago when I woke up in Arizona. I'm sorry. I promise I'll be finished soon and I'll do everything in my power to help things get back to normal," I finish lamely. I realize this so I give him a quick kiss on the cheek. I leave as quickly as I can, leaving him staring blankly after me.

When I shut the apartment door behind me, I rush down to the elevator and press the Lobby button. On my way down, I check the time on my phone. It's almost eight o'clock. I know I'm gonna be late, but it doesn't really matter that much. I'm done with that job.

I get to the café a little after my shift starts and am spared the lecture from Tori by handing her my apron and my resignation form. I had filled it out on the drive here. Tori stares at me blankly, like Tobias had.

"What's this?" she asks me, her eyes scanning the paper in one hand, while her other held my apron limply. I had torn my name patch off only a few minutes ago.

"You know what it is, Tori," I say monotonously. She doesn't seem very fazed by my quitting, but I still feel I owe her an explanation due to my short notice. "I'm sorry, but this job just isn't for me. You can send my last paycheck to this address." I rip off a note sheet from the ordering pad and write down the address of Tobias' and my apartment in the middle of the city. No doubt she'll know where that is, but I'm hoping she won't ask questions of how quickly I climbed the ladder from the lowest class to the most affluent, upper class. Instead, she nods and slips the note into her apron pocket. I thank her once more and leave the café. I'm sure I'll return on my own. For the coffee, of course, not because I had grown attached to the shop. Because I hadn't.

When I start the engine of the Porsche, I let it idle for a moment. Then I decide where I should go. It'll only take a few minutes, but I make the call anyway. I'm even a little surprised I remember his number since we only had the one class together. I grow impatient as the phone dials. Just when I'm about to hang up, he picks up.

"Hello?" I hear his voice on the other side of the phone. He sounds tired, sleepy. It's understandable. It was the day after Christmas and he probably wasn't even in the city. Chances are he probably went home for the holidays. In fact, I think I knew exactly where he was.

"Edward?" I ask. I don't give him a second to respond. "It's Tris. Remember me?" I stop at a red light.

When he speaks again, he stutters. And he doesn't sound tired anymore. He sounds wide awake, actually. "T-T-Tris?" He pauses from the shock. Probably of hearing my voice again. "I thought you were… They found you?"

I sigh audibly to show he was wasting my time. "Edward, look," I say. "You remember that night about a year ago?"

"Hmm, there were a lot of nights about a year ago," he says. He had always been this way. Sassy. He almost matched mine, but not quite. He apologizes quickly, seeming to realize I'm not in the joking mood when I don't laugh.

"Your party at your house north of the city. You had a party that I came to. I can't remember if Chris came or not, but I was there and so was Peter. You remember Peter?" I ask unsurely. I can't remember if they were close or even friends at all. But Edward assures me he was a friend of Peter's.

"Okay, great," I say. "Did anyone ever tell you what happened at the party between the two of us?"

"Honey," he says, and I sense a slight condescending tone in his voice. "No one needed to tell me. I was there. I saw the whole thing go down. You totally shut him down, right? I remember you guys being a thing, but not the falling out between you two." He continues to talk, but I feel the self-loathing feeling in my gut, and it consumes my thoughts. It always came up when I thought of my mistake with Peter. "Right, right," I say, interrupting him. "But after I left, do you remember what Peter did? Did he leave after me or did he stay for a while?"

Edward pauses to think about it. "Uh, I think he left soon after you did. He said he had things to do. He said he had things to change. I thought he meant his clothes, y'know. They were soaked. With beer. The beer you soaked him with." Neither of us speaks for a few seconds. I stop the car on the street. I put it in park and sit with the engine off. I look over through the passenger side window at the deli in the building to my right. It was where I found Peter the first time. Where he didn't even recognize me. I stare at the building for a few seconds in silence and think. The girl who worked here before – I had forgotten her name – she said Peter came here every day, or at least nearly. I hoped he was here today. Unless he had found another girl to kidnap. But of course, I was one-of-a-kind. The only bitch capable of the skill and balls to do something that would cause that. I'm sure I held a special place in his heart because of it.

"Tris?" Edward says, hesitantly, as if asking if I'm still here.

I ignore that. "So did you ever keep in contact with him at all?" I ask. "Over the summer this year. You guys still friends?"

"Well, kind of," Edwards tells me over the phone. "We haven't graduated like you have, and you know we're off from school. I'm not gonna keep in contact with him. You understand, right?"

I did. I did understand. But it was pissing me off that Edward couldn't help. I needed more information from him, about Peter. I had nothing to go on, except my memory of his attack, which really wasn't even convincing myself. I push on. "But did you keep in contact with him over the summer months this year at all? You call him? Did he call you? Did he do anything unusual that may have caught your attention?" Peter was cunning, and it wouldn't surprise me if he had gotten the help of a friend, without them even knowing they were helping him in a crime.

"I mean, he called me a few times," Edward says slowly, as if he had forgotten about their conversations. "Or maybe I called him. I don't know. Around maybe June or July. It might have been May, but I remember him complaining about it being hotter than hell, so it was probably summer, right?" I don't answer. Or the middle of the desert.

"Right," I reassure him. But I know he's wrong. "Right. Do you know, perhaps, where Peter is now? Like right now? Did he leave for vacation or something? Is he still in the city?"

Edward's voice wavers, as if he's unsure of how to respond. "Tris, don't yell or get mad at me, okay? But you're sounding kind of like a crazy ex who's stalking the guy who dumped her. Don't yell."

"Believe me, Eddie," I say, getting ready to hand up. This conversation has gone on long enough and I have all the information I need. "I'm not the crazy one." I end the call and throw the phone into the passenger seat. I step out of the car and slam the door behind me. I hoping to whatever God that's out there that this goes well. I hope He's on my side, too.

I open the door to the Deli and spot the girl working here again. I walk to her and her face seems to brighten as she remembers me. I'm glad, but I'm also focused. I hold up a hand as she opens her mouth to speak. "Where's Peter?" I ask straight forward. Her eyebrows crease, but she points to the same corner he was in the last time.

"Look, if you're looking to get with him, I strongly urge you against that. He probably has diseases…" I walk away, not paying any attention to what she was saying.

I spot him in the dark corner, where they have failed with proper lighting. It makes the scene ever more movie-like. It is far from it. He wears a baseball cap and he's reading a book, but doesn't even look up when I pull out the chair across the table. I sit down. Nothing.

"Peter," I state simply. Not a single glance my way. I kick his leg under the table. He jumps and his book knocks over his tea. It spills onto the table and he pulls a pair of earbuds out of his ears. I hadn't seen them before. Peter glares at me with a death stare. He grabs a few napkins and begins to mop up the mess. He does this for a few seconds before slowing his actions. He completely stops as it dawns on him, as my face registers in his mind. As he recognizes me.

He takes his hand away from the table and brings both of them up to his glasses. He blinks as he takes them off. He wipes them on his shirt and rubs his eyes. Hard. He places his glasses gingerly back onto his face and pushes them up the bridge of his nose.

"Surprise, bitch," I say.

….

Zeke POV

I got the call only twelve minutes ago. From Chris. Tris was missing. Yet again. Though, this time, she seems to have left on her own accord.

According to Christina, Rose had shown up to work a while ago and saw that Tris wasn't there for her shift. She had asked Tori, who claimed Tris had quit that morning around eight. It was now a quarter to nine and she hadn't told anyone where she was. No one had told Four, yet. Personally, I hoped we wouldn't have to. I hoped she'd show up before then. I wasn't afraid to admit she was a real bitch to put him – put all of us – through this for a second time. I was planning on telling her this when we found her.

A few of us, well, most of us, were out in the city looking for her. Will had taken the area where the two of them had lived previously, hoping she might have gone back to the apartment. Uriah and Marlene both went down to the docks and boats, thinking she was reliving a memory from the ocean. Chris had smartly thought of the university. If she had wanted to relive almost all of her happiest memories of her time in Chicago, that was the place where she would be most satisfied.

I was patrolling the streets for her car, since she must have driven to the café, but her car wasn't there. I had been out here for almost half an hour, and I was more pissed than worried, but that scale was quickly tipping the other direction. I parked my car along one of the streets to think it over. I called her cell. Unsurprisingly, it went to voicemail. I swore out loudly, which attracted some attention from the passersby on the streets. I got weird looks.

"What?" I said. "I'm having a bad day." They looked on, like anyone else in this damn city would. They would turn their heads and pretend nothing ever happened. It was a lie. They were all liars. I knew it was a bitter thought that probably wouldn't have entered my mind under any other circumstances, but this was beyond a shitty day.

I started walking the streets to cool off. I couldn't be like this. It wouldn't help to find Tris. My mind is distracted as I watch two police cars speed down the streets, sirens blaring. They came to a stop up ahead at a small building. I think it was a deli of sorts. One of my classmates had brought me there once. I remembered it well. The people there never started trouble and I hoped nothing was burning down. I had grown fond of that place. But there were no fire trucks.

I walked quicker.

In no time at all, I was standing at the front door of the place, looking in the windows. I noticed two police officers holding someone back from someone else. The one being held back had blonde hair. I turned to the street. Sure enough, there was the shiny black Porsche parked right in front, with Florida license plates on the front and back.

"Dammit, Tris," I whispered under my breath.

I entered the deli, where two girls, probably the employees, were standing behind the counter. One looked bored, while the other was telling the officers to back off, nothing was happening."There's no need to arrest her," she said. "Honestly, she didn't do anything. He dropped a cup. It shattered. That's all. Sam was wrong. They didn't lay a hand on each other."

"Ma'am, we got a call about destruction of property," said one of the cops. Her bun was tight and I had the rude thought it was negatively influencing her thinking. "The girl who called said the perpetrator stood and was saying threats to the victim."

"Well, Sam was wrong," the first girl continues to argue with the cop. She laughed a humorless laugh. She was defending Tris, for some reason. "She can't have known what Tris said to Peter. She was too far away. We both were. You can't arrest someone for their tone of voice."

"Tris," I said. I had finally spoken up, after trying to put together what had happened. From what they were saying, I gathered that Tris and come to confront Peter, a stupid move, really. They started saying things and maybe yelled. They gave the second employee a reason to call the cops, other than the smashing of the cup.

"Tris," I say again, since no one seemed to have heard me the first time. I move forward as both Tris and her arresting cop turn to me. I hold out my arms to them. "Officer," I say, speaking slowly. I never had the best relationship with the city's police. Almost every one of them knew my face. From noise complaints and minor arrests from years at the university. This one, however, didn't seem to recognize me. "That girl that you're holding. That girl right there is my cousin. Whatever she supposedly did… well," I pause and laugh to rid the situation of some of the tension. "Well, she can't be held responsible for whatever it was. See, she had a brain injury a few months ago and she hasn't been right in the head ever since." Tris tries to protest, to defend her dignity, but I bark her name and continue when she's silent. "She's healing but suffers from bouts of memory loss. Truth is, she might not even remember what she did, and that's not gonna hold up in court on assault charges, is it?" I'm bullshitting this so much, but I'm hoping she's new or maybe just sympathetic to Tris. She can't get arrested; she'll never get to press charges against Peter on he kidnapping if she does.

"Anyway, he wouldn't press charges anyway, right, Peter?" I turn to him in the corner. I'm hoping he remembers me. If he does, he'll remember my disapproval and threats to him if he ever hurt Tris. He always shook them off, probably thought he could take me. He always had that kind of superior aura. But now, he just looks scared. And I almost pity him for it until I remember what he did to Tris. He looks like a coward. Nothing like he did last year when he and Tris were an item. Something happened that changed him. Something in those few months. But I stare at him now. I glare daggers at him and threaten him with my eyes.

He shakes his head quickly and stutters out a no.

I nod to the officer. "See, it's nothing, just a minor disturbance. Here, I'll even pay for the cup. See?" I pull out my wallet and hand the first employee a twenty. I make a mental note to get Tris pay me back later. God knows she has enough money to pay it a thousand times over.

"Come on, Tris," I say and put my arms back out to her. "Let's go home." The officer hesitantly hands her over to me. Once I have her, I take her forearms in an iron grip. No way in hell am I letting her go again. We're going straight to her apartment. We're going straight to Four.

God, I thought they had fixed everything. I thought everything was back to normal. I thought it was all resolved. What even happened? But I suppose a part of me, the part that I wanted to shut up, but would never stop talking, knew that it would never truly be resolved until Peter was gone. And that – that was just too much for Tris to do.

On her own.

Dudes. Chills. Legit chills on my arms. Sorry if the chapter's shit. And late. But I'm tired and tomorrow is school. I still hope you like it.

Regarding my Zombie AU, I still need feedback. I have still continued it in my head and will probably be writing it down soon. But I probably won't post it until August or September this year. Don't be disappointed, but I need to be sure I can finish the story before I start it. I made that mistake four times before this story. And look how those turned out.

Anyway, Read and Review, my chocolates! Luv ya!

- Viv