Chapter 21:
*Monday, November 16th- Friday, November 20th*
TRIS POV:
When I wake up the next morning, I'm instantly aware of the other warm body pressed to the back of mine. His right arm is resting under my neck while his left is tightly holding me against him. His face is almost pressed against my neck, so close I can feel his deep breaths blow across my shoulder blade. I carefully reach out to grab my phone, stopping the timer I set to go off, and lying my head back down on his arm.
Ever so slightly, I turn my head towards Tobias's face, taking in the way he looks asleep like that, lips parted slightly while his eyes are gently closed. I begin to turn my body towards him when one of his gently closed eyes pop open, meeting mine.
"What are you looking at?" He jokes, closing his eye once again, a hint of a smirk playing at his lips.
"How handsome you look sleeping…" Then I realize something, "you weren't even sleeping were you?"
"Maybe not, but only because you're alarm clock had to go off so early this morning." He mutters, trying to bury his face deep into my neck as if the sound scared him.
"Well we do need to get ready for school." I remind him, totally turning over so that I face him while lying in the bed.
Tobias groans lifting his head up a little, opening his eyes again, "Fine, but only because I've already missed way too much school." Then in a flash he's on top of me, pretending to roll over me to get off the bed, though he goes to slow for it to be normal. I laugh a little, basically pushing him off the tiny mattress, though he lands perfectly on his feet.
It takes us a good thirty to forty minutes to get ready for the day, well I took a good thirty to forty minutes. Tobias sat on my bed watching me closely as I got ready, and soon it became weird so I told him to go downstairs where my mother was most likely waiting with breakfast. I soon joined him, walking into the kitchen to smell freshly baked muffins.
"Good morning honey." My mother announces my arrival, causing Tobias to look up from engaging in his own chocolate chip muffin.
"Morning, I expect Dad is already gone to work?" I ask, walking to the tin and picking out a blueberry muffin.
"Actually no, he's still resting, he's pretty worn out from yesterday." She says, taking her own seat. I know what she's talking about, she's talking about how much stress I put them under from running away for hours. I'm aware that my mothers put it past her by the way she smiles at me, but there's no denying to guilt I feel rippling through my body.
I offer a sad smile as I sit down in the hard wooden chair next to Tobias, who silently watches me while finishing off what's left of his breakfast dessert. His eyes try to read mine, but before I let him see the guilt, probably hidden in the bright blue depths of my iris's, I turn my head, paying close attention to the muffin in my own hand. I take faster bites knowing Tobias is already done, ready to leave to start the school day.
Once I finish, making sure to clean off the crumbs spilled on the table, Tobias and I stand up, bidding goodbye to my mother and heading out the door. We both go to his car, stopping while I pull out the keys from my bag that I put them in early this morning so that it would force me to drive.
"Tris, why can't I drive my own car?" Tobias asks, fully aware of my determination to get into the driver seat before he can.
"Because, a, I have the key, and b, your back is all screwed up." I tell him, rushing over to claim the handle of the drivers side door. I watch him roll his eyes at me as he makes his way over to the passenger side in obvious irritation.
Once inside the vehicle, I don't waste time starting it and quickly driving towards our school, well aware of the eyes boring into the side of my head. Finally after a quiet, but not uncomfortable ride, I pull into his parking space, glancing at Tobias as he makes no attempt to look away from me, acting like I didn't catch him staring.
I raise both my eyebrows, staring suggestively at him, asking him to answer my unspoken question. Instead of speaking, he leans over and grabs my right hand in his left, squeezing it tight while gazing into my eyes, his deep blue ones holding sympathy. Tobias only takes that moment to tilt his head ever so slightly to the right, closing the small space between us to seal our lips together.
I can feel the intensity and affection in this kiss, his soft plump lips smashed against mine, but in no rush to deepen the intimacy. We don't part until I hear a loud knock on the glass window on my side of the car, causing me to jump forward, Tobias and mines faces colliding with a thump. I reach for my forehead and nose, rubbing them as I look toward the window to see Zeke and Uriah's stupid faces, grinning widely at us.
"Why don't you guys stop having car sex and join the group over there." Announces Zeke, though his voice is hard to hear and muffled through the thick glass. I faintly see him pointing somewhere closer to the schools entrance, where I turn my head to look out the passenger side window to see Christina, Will, Marlene, and Shauna standing.
As I look at Tobias I notice his attention is towards Uriah and Zeke, both the brothers smirks turning into looks of fear as my boyfriend glares harshly. Gently, I place my hand on his bicep, his muscles easy to feel through his loose black long sleeve t-shirt.
"I got this." I whisper turning around quickly and shoving open my car door, the handle on the outside hitting Uriah straight in the balls, and the force knocking Zeke over to where he stumbles into the car next to him. Tobias and I chuckle as we hear Uriah squeak at the 'unbearable pain'...or at least thats the words he screams as he rolls around on the ground holding his special area. "Sorry didn't see you there."
I slide out of the car, bending down to help Uriah up, but instead he grabs my arm and says, "You will pay for-" then he interrupts himself with another high pitched squeal, then continues, "-what you have done, Prior."
I laugh, finding it oddly easy to giggle at Uriah and Zeke, though I haven't felt this...happy in a while, but as Tobias approaches the side of the car I'm on and wraps an arm around me, I instantly know it's because of him. We begin walking towards Will and the girls, Zeke carrying a limping Uriah to a concerned Marlene.
She jumps into Zeke's position, helping him instead, "What on earth happened to you, Uri?"
"Tris happened." Uriah moans while Marlene babies him.
Shauna joins in on the conversation, Zeke's arm now wrapped around her tightly, just like Tobias', "What could Tris possibly do to hurt you that bad?"
I'm about to explain when Zeke hops in, explaining to her how they found Tobias and I 'making out' in his car, then I so rudely opened the car door on them, the handle hitting Uriah where the sun doesn't shine. Marlene stops helping Uriah, too busy laughing her ass off along with the others, Uriah crying out that it's not fair for me to just do that.
After about a good two minutes of hysterically laughing, Uriah finally stands up from his kneeling position, announcing in a loud voice, "Truth or dare party at Zeke and I's place on Friday. Afterwards an awesome party." Making it obvious that he is trying to get the attention off him and his hurting special place.
"Okay, fine Uriah, we will all stop laughing at you, but just so you're all clear, Tris and I were not 'making out'. It was just a simple kiss." Tobias says from beside me, his soft chuckles quickly dying down.
"When did you two get back together?" Wonders Christina, staring directly at me as if I failed her.
"Um, last night actually." I answer, hesitantly looking up at Tobias. He's already staring at me and as soon as we make eye contact, everyone around us goes into an awkward silence. I look away from his handsome face and back at the others, the sexual tension between Tobias and I seeming to silence everyone.
As if someone is watching from above, the bell rings, cutting off the awkward feelings, everyone bidding their goodbyes before Tobias and I head to first hour. I almost forgot about the past few months until I see a few eyes still stuck to me, my once happy demeanor now diminished into the shy girl. When we arrive in the classroom, people watch as Tobias and I sit in the back corner, making small talk until the teacher enters.
The rest of class, or the rest of the school day, go about the same, teachers talking about the subject they teach, never calling on me, as they know well that I have almost no clue what they are talking about. In fact, the whole week if uneventful, a consistent schedule of me getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, Tobias picking me up, a boring school day, go to my house with Tobias- so that he can tutor me in all I've missed-, then Tobias usually stays for dinner, and finally I go to bed, only to wake the next morning to start it again.
Tobias is well aware that I'm back to being shy, unexcited and mopey Tris, and has tried to talk to me about it but I refuse. He attempted to talk to me about Monday morning and how bubbly and friendly I was, when all the sudden, as soon as that bell rung, I was done being open. Honestly, I feel like I have a switch inside of me, little things like the looks I received in the hallway and in class set me onto the unhappy path.
As Friday rolls around, the snow now covers the ground and Tobias has finally pushed me into saying I will go to the dumb party Zeke and Uriah are hosting. They have told us to be there at five thirty barring food so that we can play the game of truth and dare before the actual party starts at nine. The brothers offered to buy pizza if I supply a variety of chips, Tobias supplies a variety of dips, Marlene supplies the sodas and waters, Shauna supplies the cake, and Christina and Will both putting money together to buy the alcohol.
"Oh my gosh, if I agree to go, will you stop bothering me with it?" I ask Tobias, looking him as he pulls his car into my driveway after school on friday.
He puts the car in park, turning it off soon after then turning his body towards me, taking my face into one of his hands, "Yes, I will officially stop bugging you...as long as I get to go shopping with you for the chips, 'cause I still need to get the dip."
"Fine," I huff, beginning to open my car door, "let me run inside real quick to get money, then we can go straight to Albertsons."
I go fast, rushing to my room and to my jewelry box, opening the small compartment behind the mirror and taking out my stash of cash, getting forty dollars just incase I decide I want to buy more than just chips. As I rush back down the stairs, successfully tripping on the last one, I face plant into the floor, my elbow sliding against the hardwood flooring. I check it, seeing a good amount of skin peeling off and a few small specks of blood. I just rub the blood away, going out the front door, remembering to lock it behind me before going back into Tobias's car's passenger seat.
He gives me one look before starting the car again and heading off to the Albertson's store just about ten miles away from my house. I bring my, now, bruised and scraped elbow, to my face, seeing the damage done, and eventually I can't stand the sight of the skin peeling off so I begin to scratch it off myself. I don't notice Tobias has glanced at me until he speaks, his voice low and concerned, "What are you doing?"
"I scraped my elbow and the skin is peeling off." I answer, not looking up from my elbow.
"Um, are you sure you should be picking at it?" Tobias asks, and in the corner of my eye, I see him glance at me again, then turn his attention back at the road. "How did you manage to get that for the few minutes you were in your house?"
"I tripped while running down the stairs and fell on the floor scraping my elbow, and I don't know or care, it's bothering me." I tell him, pulling at a piece of skin that I apparently was bleeding under, because as soon as it's off, my elbow is almost dripping blood. "Shit."
"That's why I asked." He mutters, beginning to pull over on the side of the road, several cars passing us. Once finally stopped he reaches down and grabs a tissue from the box, folds it into a square, then hands it to me. "Put this on it and then we can buy bandaids at the store."
Tobias then puts his blinker light on and slides back onto the road again, looking over at me once or twice to make sure I stopped picking at it and help the tissue firmly in place. Finally after fifteen minutes, making it seem like we hit every possible light, just as it turned red, we arrive at Albertsons.
It's pretty empty for a Friday afternoon, helping us easily find a parking space close to the store. I hop out of his car, crossing the road and going straight to the trash can to throw the bloody tissue away. The blood that has now dried up reminds me of the cuts on my arm, exposed because of the way I rolled up my long sleeved sweater.
Today I wore a white loose tank top with a white unbuttoned sweater on top. Then I have my fluffy brown jacket on over that, though that has not long sleeved on my arms so the white sweater is pulled through the holes. Finally I wear a necklace that hangs to about my bellybutton with feathers on the end, my tight black skinny jeans and black combat boots keeping me warm. My hair is put into a messy bun, and the only reason I agreed to wearing all this is because Christina raided my closet on Wednesday, taking some of my old clothes and cutting and sewing them into new fashions.
I didn't mind that much but only because since it was winter clothing it wasn't to revealing. Though I didn't appreciate all the shouts of approval I got from our 'friends', but Tobias seemed to enjoy the new look, claiming it suited my body.
When Tobias and I walk in, I immediately go over to the chips and dip aisle, leading Tobias there as well. We stay for quite some time, me eventually getting Doritos, tortilla chips, lime tortilla chips- though I hate them with a passion, Tobias says Uriah loves them-, salt and vinegar, regular potato, and sour cream and onion. I help Tobias buy to good dips, making sure he had guacamole, as well as salsa, and queso. He got quite a few others, brands I've never heard of, though I haven't eaten chips in years for obvious reasons, so I only know the kind that my mom used to buy when I was little.
Before we check out, Tobias goes to grab a pack of bandaids for me, smiling sweetly as he sets them on the conveyor belt behind my chips and with his dip.
"I can buy them as I am the one who hurt my elbow." I offer, but he shakes his head just as the lady begins to ring my stuff up.
"I will let you use some, but I'm going to keep the rest so I might as well buy them." Tobias tells me, reaching over and grabbing a thing of tic tacs as well.
I've finished paying, which my total cost was eleven dollars and forty seven cents, and shortly after Tobias pays his total equalling just above what I payed by six dollars. I laugh lightly as he scowls while we exit the store, making our way to his car. He helps me patch up my arm then lightly kisses it, getting in the car shortly after.
We drive back to my house just to put the extra money away and leaving my mom and dad a note saying I will be out for the night, and with that we head to the party.
So I know this chapter isn't all that great and surprising, but that's because the next chapter is going to be full of drama and will end in a huge cliffhanger. Have fun looking forward to that.
I have an announcement! I got a tumblr just for this account and mostly this story. Go and check it out, the name is divergent24-7 . On that account I will be posting collages of pictures that inspired me for each chapter, or certain things in each chapter. I will have chapter one collage up tonight and work on the rest up to this chapters collage tomorrow! Please go check it out!
Please review to have me update faster, you guys inspire me!
~divergent24-7