When we finally get to Hana's house, we are out of breath, and our cheeks are all rosy. I catch my breath before walking in behind Four slowly, hoping that the others don't notice how we are late by 15 minutes and assume something. But when Hana sees us, I see that not one of them is in the living room. I can't help the sudden laugh that erupts from me when I think of how worried we were they would assume something. Not that there is anything going on anyways.
Hana comes out of the kitchen a minute later, carrying 2 hot mugs of hot chocolate. She hands one to Four and one to me, before sitting herself on the comfy looking armchair across the room from the couch we are sharing. I take a moment to look around at the house properly. It has the feel of a mother who grew up Dauntless and her Dauntless sons, but it is much more homey. There are pictures everywhere of Hana and her husband, as well as baby pictures of Zeke and Uriah I chuckle at. It saddens me for a moment that there are no pictures of Four in the room as a young child. But I have no right to pry into his past, or how he came to live with Hana, so I focus more on drinking my hot chocolate, and admiring the lovely colors in the home.
"I love your costume Tris! I'm sure you're glad you had those extra layers out there, it's freezing. Did your mom help you pick it out?" she says eagerly, almost immediately after she sits down.
"Thank you, and no, actually, Four helped me choose it." I add with a slight chuckle and a light blush. The hot chocolate is delicious, and warms me from the inside, but it isn't like my mom's. She adds a little cinnamon, just as I like. Caleb and my father find that gross, and aren't really ones for warm drinks, but my mother and I love to put cinnamon in hot chocolate. Some of my best memories are of me drinking the beverage, while snuggled up in blankets on Christmas Eve, watching a festive movie. Whenever I smell or taste cinnamon, I'm always reminded of Christmas, and my Mom. I loved her before, but now she's more open with me. A cross between the Abnegation mom she was, and the more Dauntless mom she is now.
Hana smiles at me, and takes away my empty mug when I'm finished. When she sits back down, the door bursts open nosily. In stumble the others, who are killing themselves laughing. All except Uriah and Marlene, who look so embarrassed Marlene's face is beet red and Uriah is covering his face partially with his hands. They see us sitting there and laugh even harder. Hana stands up, when Christina and Will sit on my left, and Shauna on the other couch across the room. She looks angry, but I can tell she isn't.
She puts her hands on her hips and says quite loudly, "Where were you Ezekiel? Four said you were due home at half past, and it is almost 8!" she hollers. Zeke wheezes in laughter. He finally gets his composure back, but I don't think he is done laughing yet.
"We-hahahaha! Uriah was being all nervous around Marlene, so I told him to just kiss her and stop being a Pansycake, and-hahaha, he did! You should've seen their faces!" he laughs, before stumbling over to us and landing next to Shauna, putting an arm around her. I can't help snickering at the use of the word "Ezekiel". I make a mental note of it for a comeback.
We sit and laugh for half an hour, Hana ringing my mom to tell her we're all warm and safe at her house, and she can come and pick me up whenever she likes. Hana goes into another room, but we don't stop talking.
"I'm so glad school is over in 2 days. I can barely even wake up in the morning." Christina whines, and I can't help but agree with her. None of my family drink coffee, and I hate the drink anyways, so the early mornings are taking a toll on me. I almost found myself falling asleep in Math last week!
"Same. Do me a favor, don't even think about ringing me earlier than 9AM now. I won't be awake." I deadpan, and everybody laughs, even Four, who doesn't laugh as much as we do.
We keep chatting until 9, when there is a quiet knocking on the door. That must be my parents, everyone else's would knock loudly. I stand up and bid goodbye to everyone, but when I stand up, I am hit by an awful pain in my stomach. It isn't my monthly stomach cramps and pains, this hurts much more than that and is far more sharp. I freeze for a moment, but then the pain fades to a dull ache, so I keep walking towards the door. My mother stands there, our car behind her with my father in the front seat.
His eyes are scanning the neighborhood, as if marking the selfishness of it all. I say goodbye to everybody, and thank you to Hana for the hot chocolate. I step out onto the gravel path next to my mother, as Hana says sweetly,
"You're welcome here anytime, sweetie. She's an absolute godsend with Four's grades Natalie, I swear." she says, before my mother and I turn away and she closes the door. Caleb is in the back of the car too, and he and my father turn so me, as if to ask how the night went.
"That was so much fun. I'm totally going again next year." I say enthusiastically, before they turn away and we drive off.
When I sit on the bus the next morning, I am exhausted. I didn't sleep a wink last night, I couldn't. The awful pain in my stomach was excruciating, and rather than wake up the entire house, I put it down to hunger or something like that and ignored it. I tossed and turned constantly, and when my alarm went off, I realized how little sleep I had gotten. I had huge dark circles under my eyes, and I was pale. I think my mother noticed, but she didn't say anything, she just offered me a paracetamol.
I groaned in pain on the bus, but nobody said anything, because I bit my tongue to keep it in. I have never regretted anything more than I regret passing this pain off as hunger or maybe even my monthly cramps come early. But it definitely isn't, because I can't help the groan of pain that escapes me this time. I slap my hand over my mouth, praying and praying for the pain to go away. Thankfully, nobody really notices, but of course, the ever observant Four did.
He is surprisingly on the bus today, but that might be because of the torrential rain that is pounding the windows of the bus. He is sitting right behind me, and moves to sit next to me as soon as he notices that groan of pain came from me. There was a spare seat next to me, so he doesn't have to ask somebody to move. Another stab of pain hits me, and I suddenly regret wearing such skinny jeans today.
I don't look at him, I just glare down at my phone. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see his eyebrows are raised in surprise. He suddenly speaks up, but he must sense I do not want to draw attention to myself, because he speaks in a low whisper.
"Tris, I know pain when I see it. Are you okay?" he asks, and I finally turn up and look into his dark blue eyes. They are filled with something I saw last night, when somebody grabbed my arm in the alleyway - concern. It melts my heart to see it, it's too cute - What the hell Tris? Where did THAT come from?!
"My stomach hurts, so bad. I can barely even move!" I whisper, but it comes out more like a cry for help. The concern in his eyes increases tenfold, as we pull up at school. I really do struggle to get out my seat, the pain and tightness in my stomach hurting horrendously. He walks in front of me as I struggle my way down the ailse, and eventually step onto the pavement. I walk right behind Four the entire way in, and tears start spilling out of my eyes.
"Tris, is it that bad?" he asks, but he doesn't say it in an irritated way. I nod and cry, and keep walking beside him. I try to tell him that I'll be fine, that I can just wait until lunch and then go home, or to the doctor's, but he has a very firm hand on my elbow, and he is tugging me carefully to the office. I stop pleading with him, because his face is set and I don't think there is any changing his mind now. I double over in pain halfway down the corridor that leads to the oofice, now sobbing from the pressure and pain in my stomach.
He pauses with me, and helps me to keep moving. I murmur thank you under my breath, but I don't think he can hear me. Thankfully, we were a bit early to school, so we avoided the crowds. Nobody has seen how dreadful I look, and how stupid I was to ignore my pain. When we finally get to the office/first aid room, I'm clinging to Four's arm to keep myself from doing something stupid, like falling on the floor or screaming. The office lady isn't there when we arrive, so Four actually yells for somebody to help me.
I look up at him, hoping my face shows as much of my gratitude as it can. When the woman gets to the desk, she gaps at the sight of me. I can't hear anything after that, because my vision goes blurry on the edges and all I can hear is ringing. I literally fall to the floor. I somehow manage to not hit the floor, being held up by Four's grasp, but his blue eyes are the last thing I see before everything goes dark.