(Tris)
"I got a dog!" Tobias exclaims when I walk into the living room on the morning of my seventeenth birthday.
"A dog?" I ask for confirmation, even as a small canine yips and runs to my feet. I crouch and stroke its head. It enthusiastically licks me a few times before charging over to Tobias and hopping onto the couch.
"A golden retriever puppy," Tobias smiles as he walks toward me. The memory of a conversation surfaces, sandy beach and salty waves, mentioning that I wanted a golden retriever. "Happy birthday," he engulfs me in a bear hug.
"Thank you," I say and accept his kiss.
I approach the puppy, who's snuffling at a cushion, and sit next to it. It clambers into my lap.
"It's a girl. She's three months old," Tobias informs me.
I run my fingers over her downy head. "What's her name?"
"Your choice," he reaches over to pet her.
"Annie," I say immediately.
He looks at me. "That was fast."
"I've had this figured out since I was twelve," I laugh.
He chuckles. "Well, now you're seventeen. And breakfast awaits."
...
"Oh, dear God and baby Jesus in the manger, my eyes!" a man shrieks in a little girl voice. "My eyes!"
I jump out of my skin and accidentally hit Tobias's forehead with my own, hard.
"Damn it!" I exclaim, my hand flying to my forehead and my body violently careening to lay eyes on the intruder. In the process, I nearly knock myself out of Tobias's lap, and he has to grip me tightly to prevent this from being my last birthday ever.
I can't say I'm surprised to find Uriah in our doorway, laughing hysterically.
"I've never seen two people so utterly involved in making out with each other. You guys were like, moaning! You didn't even hear me come in! I could have been a murderer. I could have robbed everything in this place and you wouldn't have noticed," he sputters, trying to catch his breath but failing and bursting into another fit of laughter.
"Asshole," I mutter, turning back to Tobias, who adds, "What a shame they released you from the hospital early."
I lean my forehead to his and drape my arms over his shoulders, laughing softly.
He moves into my neck, his favorite place to kiss me, I've figured out, and presses his lips to the hollow of my throat.
"Okay, okay!" Uriah guffaws. "What if I had been your manager or Evelyn? Or Caleb!"
"Caleb probably would have had an aneurysm," Tobias replies.
Uriah moves toward our kitchen, still laughing. "Anyways, do you guys have any OJ?"
"OJ's in the fridge," I call back and rest my cheek against Tobias's shoulder. He keeps his lips against the birds that flock on my collarbone.
"We have a party to get ready for," he reminds me, rubbing my back.
I tighten my grip around his shoulders, sink more deeply into him. "I don't want a party," I complain. "I want to stay here with you and Annie."
"Annie and I would love that, but Christina would kill us both if we skip the party she's been planning for weeks," Tobias frowns. "Let's just show up and mingle, and then we can slip out."
"Okay," I sigh. He kisses my cheek and I climb out of his lap and stretch my limbs.
"Ahhh! There's pulp in this orange juice!" Uriah hollers.
"That's what you get for breaking in and ravaging our refrigerator," I tell him rightfully.
He pouts and drinks the orange juice anyway.
...
"Happy birthday, Tris!" Christina squeals.
"Thank you," I smile as she wraps her skinny arms around me and twirls with me.
"Okay," she steps back, still holding my shoulders. "Let's get down to business."
'Getting down to business' includes formal evening wear, high heels, minimal makeup, and silver jewelry; all of which follows in the next hour.
"Alright, you probably won't know anyone at this party. But everyone knows you two," Christina later tells Tobias and me.
"How?" I ask, confused.
"Everyone knows the people who saved the city from having their memories wiped," she shrugs.
I don't know why I've never thought about it - of course everyone knows what we did. The idea makes my stomach clench.
"Christina, how many people did you invite?" Tobias voices my thoughts.
"I didn't. It's an open invite."
I choke on my own air. "So anyone can come?!"
"Relax, Tris. Just enjoy it," Christina says, as if it's that easy.
...
Half of Dauntless. No, maybe more - that's what I see when we get out of the car. Crowds and flocks of people in Millennium park, dressed to the nines and tremulously waving very breakable looking wine glasses when they see us.
"Christina," I hiss, but she has cleverly disappeared into the throngs of people and I have to smile at the shouts of 'happy birthday, Tris.'
"What do you want to do?" Tobias asks with a hand on my lower back. He smiles and raises the other when someone shouts his name.
"Leave?" I suggest.
He nods and guides me forward.
We are intercepted more than once with questions regarding the Bureau of Genetic Welfare and how we so bravely conquered the evil outside the fence. It makes my stomach churn.
They see my actions as something to be thought highly of, worthy of gifts and cake and fancy wine glasses and elated 'happy birthday's.
They don't know how many lives were lost, how many memories erased, how much pain was inevitably inflicted upon the families of the staff at the Bureau, as a result of my actions. They don't know that I made no attempt to convince or negotiate with anyone. I took the easy way out, the coward's way. It wasn't brave at all.
"Tobias, is it true that you want to bring the factions back? Why would you do that?" A woman asks.
"It'll be a lot different from-" Tobias begins for what feels like the hundredth time.
"Tobias!" Suddenly Ethan is there, flinging himself into his brother's arms.
Tobias lifts him up. "Hey! Are you having fun?"
"Yes. Happy birthday, Trissy," Ethan grins.
Usually I would recoil at such a nickname, but it's sweet coming from Ethan, and I ruffle his hair with a "thank you."
"Where's mom?" Tobias scans the crowd.
"She's talking to Tori. I think-"
"Ethan?!" Evelyn's voice calls frantically from behind us. "Ethan?!" My eyes find her, pushing through the crowd and searching wildly.
"Evelyn!" I shout, and she locks eyes with me. I see the relief wash over her when she realizes Ethan is safe.
"Ethan! You can't go running off like that," Evelyn scoops her son into her arms, checking him over for any harm.
"I'm sorry. I wanted to say hi to Tobias," he mumbles.
"Well that's fine, sweetie, but you have to tell me. I didn't know where you were," regaining her composure, she sets Ethan down, holding tightly to his hand, and turns to me. "Happy birthday, Tris," she says coolly.
"Thank you," I reply, just as formally. "Have you already spoken to Amar?"
"I have. We'll be moving into your building in a few days," she says hopefully.
"That's great... we were just going to get something to drink," Tobias states, taking my hand. "Bye, Ethan," he smiles.
Ethan waves.
"Try the Dauntless cake," I say over my shoulder as we walk away.
The refreshment table boasts a wide assortment of drinks, in colors ranging from pale green to bright pink. I opt for the humble water bottle, and then Tobias and I sneak around the crowd and run towards the structure where we had our "first date".
Immediately, naturally, I grab hold of the rails and Tobias sets a steady hand on my waist as I climb up. He follows close behind and we settle into the space where we lay about this time six months ago.
I close my eyes and let out a breath of relief.
"I can't believe all of those people came," Tobias says.
"They probably just wanted a party," I dismiss, running my fingers along the cool metal.
"No, Tris. They're here for you. Did you see how excited they were when you showed up?"
"They have no reason to be," I sit up straight. "They have no reason to see me in a positive light. What I did wasn't brave, it was careless and cowardly," I say bitterly.
Tobias sits next to me. "What you did saved every person out there. If you hadn't done what you did, they'd all be empty shells with no memories of who they are," he reminds me.
"There are still so many people from the Bureau who are just that, because I didn't try to negotiate with them or warn them or anything. Erasing their memories? I stole their lives, and I think that's even worse than killing them. I did what they planned on doing, and that makes me just as bad as them."
"You know there was no negotiating with them. If you had even suggested a deal, they would have jailed you or killed you for threatening their power. We erased their memories, but they were memories of a corrupt system that used people as scientific experiments, readily willing to throw away thousands of lives. At the very least, you've given them an opportunity to become better people than they were before."
While this doesn't change my view on the situation, I nod and take a sip of water.
"How long do you think we have before Christina calls?" I ask, mostly to change the subject, but it's no use, because then my phone is ringing insistently.
Tobias laughs as I hit "ignore". We lie back and he pulls me close, just as he did the last time we were here.
"Caleb and Cara found out their baby's gender," I smile.
"Oh yeah? Are we expecting a niece or a nephew?" he smiles back.
"Niece," my smile spreads.
"When will she be here?"
"Six more months."
"Our first kid will be a girl," he grins impishly.
"Oh, no. Definitely a boy. I'm 100% sure," I argue.
"There's no other way here, Tris. She's going to be a girl."
"He's going to be a boy," I laugh.
"Let's bet on it," he suggests, and I shake his hand.
My phone rings again, and I reluctantly answer it.
"Tris! Where are you?" Christina asks.
"Um..."
"Get to the front of the park, now."
"Okay," I sigh. "Five minutes." I hang up.
"We're being summoned," I inform Tobias.
We climb down and make our way back to the party.
When the guests catch sight of us, they pounce almost instantly, cheers and shouts.
"Tris! Speech!" They exclaim. "Speech!"
My stomach tightens and I step back, gripping Tobias's hand with all of my strength.
"Speech!"
"No, I don't think that's-" Tobias begins.
"Speech, Tris!"
Under the stress of the shouts, and the crowd pressing in, my instincts suddenly come into play. I release my death grip on my lover and promptly take quick steps backwards, kicking off my heels before I pivot and run.
Everyone is still shouting my name, encouraging me to come back and, "no, it's okay, you don't have to if you don't want to."
I don't stop running until I crash into Uriah, who's approaching my party.
"Whoa, slow down, birthday girl!" He exclaims, catching me before I have the chance to fall and scrape my knee. I breathe heavily as he guides me to a bench.
"What happened? Where are your shoes?" He asks, concerned.
"I kicked them off and ran away when four-hundred people demanded I give a speech," I heave. "I think I hit a man in the leg."
"Wow. You certainly don't like attention. Why did Christina throw you a party like this?" Uriah says in a tone that implies Christina is the stupidest person on the planet.
"It was actually really nice of her," I reply, suddenly feeling the need to defend my friend. "I just hate getting up in front of people."
"Relax. You know I love Christina and all her thoughtful and creative ways of doing exactly the opposite of what you want her to do."
I laugh, but sense some underlying story behind his words. "Has she done that to you recently?"
His eyes light with surprise. "What? No... I mean..." He tries to find an escape slide, and I give him an odd look.
"I just... really... I..." Uriah looks painfully upset.
"Uriah," I say. "It's okay. You can tell me whenever you're ready, which obviously isn't right now."
He breathes in relief and smiles at me.
"Tris!" Tobias runs toward us, slowing as he gets closer. Immediately, I stand and wrap my arms around him tightly.
"I'm sorry," I say.
"No. It's okay. You have nothing to be sorry for," he assures me.
"Can we go home?"
"Of course... Uriah, are you going back to the party?"
With my face against Tobias's chest, I can't see Uri, but I can certainly hear his defeated tone. What was he going to say about Christina?
"I'll just head back with you guys. I'm really tired."
"Okay," Tobias says unsurely. "Let's go."
We wait for the train and jump on easily, our bodies knowing exactly what to do, despite the fact that it's been nearly two months since we partook in this activity.
We invite Uriah over, but he insists that he needs to clean up his new apartment and promises to stop by later.
In truth, our place needs cleaning up too, but we're definitely not in the mood for that right now.
"Did Uriah seem off to you?" Tobias asks, pulling off his suit jacket. I watch the muscles in his arms and back as he lifts his shirt over his head in one swift movement.
I lay on the bed and cross my ankles, my arms beneath my head. "Yeah... weird." I reply, not wanting to mention his allusion toward Christina just yet. "Maybe he's sick."
"Maybe," Tobias shrugs. "Anyways, I have a present for you," the impish gleam reappears in his eyes.
"Oh no."
"Oh yes," he disappears into the closet and emerges with a slip of paper and something clenched in his fist.
"You already bought me a dog," I remind him, pointing at the sleeping bundle of fluff at the end of the bed.
"This is part two," he shrugs. "Here," he smiles, sitting next to me and handing me the paper.
I cross my dusty feet beneath me and read.
I don't completely understand what I'm looking at until I see the words, "Niagara Falls, New York," "cottage," and "lake." And then, just as I begin to understand, Tobias is dangling a key in front of me and I gasp.
"You bought the cottage?!" I exclaim.
"And John is giving us the boat, too. Happy birthday," he beams and I launch myself into his arms, thanking him repeatedly.
...
"Ah, coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall conclude the day," Christina stretches as we walk into the café in our building.
Caleb, Cara, Zeke, Shauna, Uriah, and Tobias are with us too, and we find a table, though we have to pull chairs from the surrounding area when we come up short.
"What would you like, Miss Seventeen-Year-Old?" Tobias asks me.
"Espresso. Black," I reply.
"Get me an iced mocha," Christina replies, and Cara and the boys head to the counter.
"So where's Matthew?" I ask absently, pulling off my coat.
Christina's face falls for just one moment; and then: "I don't know," she says, both too brightly and too falsely. "Maybe upstairs."
I raise an eyebrow. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. How was your birthday?" she very obviously changes the subject.
"It was great," I half lie. "That party was amazing. Thank you so much for putting it together."
She brushes off my compliment but grins.
"Espresso black and iced mocha," Tobias slides our drinks in front of us and takes the seat next to mine. Caleb sits on my other side.
"How are you feeling, Cara?" I smile at her and she rests her hand on the slight bump between her hips.
"Exhausted, most of the time. But the doctor says that's normal for the first trimester. Fluctuating hormones or something. Should be better in a few weeks," she replies.
"Thought of any names?" Tobias sips his coffee.
"No first names yet," Caleb answers. "We might give her a name starting with a C, since both of our names start with C's. But her middle name is Natalie," he smiles.
"Oh, Caleb," I hug him, enjoying the familiarity of his warm embrace. "That's so great."
I pull back and when I look across the table, I notice Uriah giving constant, fleeting glances toward Christina, before his eyes plunge into his drink. Christina is the heart and soul, as always, laughing brightly and joking. I guess whatever I sensed in her earlier is gone.
After a lot of consideration and observing the people at this table, the people I care most about, I decide that my seventeenth birthday was wonderful. And I'm happy that I'm here to see it.