CHAPTER 25
FOUR POV
I am in the dining hall for lunch sitting with Zeke and Shauna we are discussing me kicking Zeke's butt in capture the flag last night. We didn't have training this morning. I decided we would just have knife throwing this afternoon and fights tomorrow. We are broken from our conversation with Amar and Uriah coming over.
"Hey bro, you in for the annual Dauntless-born initiation dare game tonight?" Uriah asks Zeke.
"Wouldn't miss it, Shauna, Four are you in?" asks Amar.
I could use a night to let off steam. The transfers won't be there so I can just relax. "Yeah," I say.
"I will be there," says Shauna.
"Awesome," says Uriah. Amar sits at our table and Uriah starts to walk off. "I've invited a couple of the transfers to come along too," says Uriah.
"What!" Zeke and I say at the same time. Uriah stops and walks back over to us.
"I thought the name of the game was Dauntless-born initiates dare?" I ask.
"I'm changing it up this year," Uriah says with a shrug and runs off before we can stop him.
"What's the problem Four? Who cares if they are there?" asks Shauna.
"I think Uriah has a crush on Tris, they were pretty chummy when we went zip lining the other day," says Zeke.
"Yeah but she seemed more interested in someone else," says Shauna.
This has totally peeked my attention. Tris can't be with Uriah, there is no way I'm going to let that happen. But how am I supposed to stop it. Wait did Shauna just say Tris has a crush on someone?
"How do you two know all this?" I ask.
"Well if you'd come zip lining you would have seen it," says Shauna. "Why all the interest?"
I put my head down and try not to show just how interested that I am. But as usual Amar who knows me so well is quick to pick up on my discomfort at the question. "Oh, I think someone here has his own little crush going on," says Amar.
"I knew it," Zeke says. Amar and Shauna are both looking at me. "Dude it's about time you worked it out."
I just shake my head and get up from the table. I can feel my cheeks are flushed and I don't want to further embarrass myself so I start to walk off. I get to the door of the dining hall when Shauna grabs my arm. "She's interested in you too Four," Shauna says.
"How do you know?" I say. My voice is barely a whisper and could crack at any second.
"She talked about you plus I can tell," she says. She gives my arm a rub and says, "It will be okay, just make sure that you give Marlene this dare at the game tonight." She whispers the dare into my ear and I nod and walk out. I have a lot to think about.
We decided to have the game of dare in the training room. With such a large number it will make it easier to move around the compound. Our games of dare usually have us tracking all over the city. We are gathered in a really large circle. There is Zeke, Shauna, Amar, Lauren, Uriah, Lynn, Marlene, Tris, Christina, Will, Al, Peter and three other Dauntless-born initiates here. How the hell did Peter get an invite to this? None of the transfers here like him and I haven't seen him around any Dauntless-borns.
"Uriah you get to start," says Amar.
"Okay Amar I dare you to," Uriah says. But before he can finish Lauren is whispering something in his ear and Uriah now has a big grin on his face.
"Amar I dare you to go to the Erudite library and scream something obscene," Uriah says.
"Seriously Lauren? You get someone to give me this dare every year," Amar says. "Well come on let's go."
We all get up and make our way to the train.
We are all on the train talking in our little groups when Amar comes over to Zeke and me. "What's that Peter kid like at fighting?" Amar asks.
"Why?" I ask.
"I saw him have a run in with Lynn the other day and I want her to have the chance to beat the shit out of him," Amar says.
We sit down and I tell him all of Peter's flaws when he fights and how dirty he can be. I don't have a problem with Lynn fighting him. She is one of the toughest fighters in Dauntless and I'm sure even without my help could bring him down.
When we get off the train Amar walks straight into the Erudite building. The Erudite at the front desk just start shaking their heads as Amar yells something I can't quiet hear out and pulls down his pants and moons the Erudite. He runs out the building and when he gets to the door he shouts at them, "see you again next year." And runs back laughing to us. I can see now why the Erudite were just shaking their heads. They remember him from last year and the year before that. He has been doing the same dare since his initiation five years ago.
We catch the next train back to Dauntless and I can see that Lynn and Amar are in a discussion. Looks like Peter is going to get a beat down. Can't say I'm unhappy about this.
We are back sitting in our circle. "Lynn I dare you to fight Peter," Amar says. Lynn nods and I look at Peter and he has a smirk on his face. He thinks he is going to win, arrogant little prick.
Lynn and Peter get into the ring and the fighting begins. Lynn is quick to attack Peter. A quick punch to the throat that shocks him, it also gives Lynn a chance to punch Peter in the nose. His nose has started to bleed. When he sees the blood this enrages him and he kicks her in the side. A less experienced fighter would have been knocked off balance but not Lynn. She grabs his foot and pushes him to the ground. He quickly gets up. They are now just dancing around each other; we could be here all night. Lynn has finally spotted a weakness and goes in for quick jabs to his stomach and then an elbow to his chin. Peter grabs Lynn in a headlock and throws her to the ground. Just as she is about to get back up he kicks her in the head and she is now on the mat.
The fight has been pretty even, I would even say other than the fact that Lynn is now on the mat she has had the upper hand. "Okay that's enough," I say. I can see Peter is about to object so I put a hand up and say, "Enough! You both have fights in training tomorrow. Plus we want to finish this game sometime tonight."
We get back into our circle and Lynn says, "Shauna, I dare you to run around the pit naked." I can hear whispering around the circle and Zeke says, "That's harsh Lynn."
"So was Shauna making me shave my head two years ago, I've been waiting for some payback," Lynn says. This is the first time Uriah, Lynn and Marlene have been allowed to play dare since the fireworks in the dining hall incident.
"Why did it take two years to get her back? Don't you guys play this all the time?" asks Christina.
"We had a little incident a few years ago and Uriah, Lynn and Marlene haven't been allowed to play dare until now," Zeke says. He is grinning as I am remembering back to that little incident.
"What was so bad that you couldn't play?" Christina asks. Bloody Candor always with the questions.
This is when Uriah decides to say, "Well I dared Zeke and Four to let fireworks off in the dining hall and they did."
Amar looks at me, "That was you?"
I just nod my head and start laughing at the memory. Everyone who is Dauntless-born are laughing and Uriah is explaining to everyone how it went down. Everyone is laughing and talking so much that we didn't notice that Shauna had left the room.
Next thing she is back in the room and she has a sheet around her and dad is standing next to her. "No more naked dares or I will ban every single one of you from dare," dad says. We all just start laughing again, at least Shauna got the dare over with without her friends seeing her naked.
Once the laughter dies down Shauna looks at me. "Four, I dare you to kiss Tris," she says. Everyone has turned and are now staring at me. It's not that I see them it's that I feel them. My eyes are solely on Tris. I raise my eyebrow to her and she gives what I think is a little nod.
I stand and walk over to where Tris is sitting. I stand in front of her and hold out my hands to lift her to her feet. We are standing only inches from each other but I can feel the heat that is radiating from our bodies. I think I could go up in flames right about now. I bend down wrapping my arms around her waist and I whisper in her ear, "I wish we were alone for this." I feel the shiver that has gone through her body as I whispered in her ear
I do wish we were alone for this. All the times I have wanted to kiss her and now it is here. It isn't how I pictured it happening. I have my back to the circle trying to shield us from the stares of the group of people around us. My plan is to just brush my lips to hers. Nothing more, I want privacy for anything deeper. I don't even know if she wants me, I don't think she will want me when she finally knows the truth of who I really am. But even the simplest of plans don't always work out the way you want them too. Especially when a kiss is involved.
I lean down and I brush my lips against hers. I fully intended to stop at just this but having her this close to me sends my brain into overload and I can't think straight. So instead of pulling away I press my lips to hers. At first I feel her hesitate and I wonder if I am doing this wrong but then I feel her hands slowly move around my neck and she pulls me closer to her. Her lips feel so soft on mine, like they are always supposed to be here. I don't want this moment to end.
I feel a tap on my shoulder and I have to break away from our kiss. I look up and Zeke is standing next to me. "Excuse me, we have a game to play here," he says. I look at him like I look at the initiates, with a look that says run fast because I will kill you if I catch you. I look at Tris who has turned a bright shade of red, I pull her to me for a hug and then I have to let her go.
I walk over to my place in the circle and sit back down. "Damn girl, that was some first kiss," Christina says. I know that I have now gone the same shade of red that Tris was only seconds ago.
"That was your first kiss?" Uriah asks.
"Sort of," says Tris.
"How can it be sort of?" Marlene asks.
Now Tris has gone from a bright red to a much deeper red. "Well does getting kissed by the boy you loved at six count?" she asks. She is talking about me; I was the boy who gave her that kiss. And she did love me.
"Well that depends, did you kiss him back?" Christina asks.
"I bet you slapped his face and ran away," I say. Because that is exactly what she did.
She looks at me, it's not just any look it's a glare. Her glare tells me that she wants to know how the hell I know what happened. "I don't want to talk about this anymore," she says, blushing.
Before it can get any more uncomfortable I say, "It's my turn." Hoping this will take the focus of Tris.
"Marlene, I dare you to tell us who your crush is?" I ask. I look over to Shauna who nods and gives me a wink.
"Uriah," Marlene whispers but it is loud enough for all to hear. Uriah gets up from where he is sitting and he goes and sits next to Marlene and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Thank you Shauna I am thinking to myself, I really owe her two as she was the one who dared me to kiss Tris. I look back over to Shauna with a grin on my face. She just shakes her head at me.
"My turn," says Marlene. "Peter." We all look at Peter and he is looking uncomfortable. Everyone knows that Lynn is Marlene's best friend. If I didn't know that Marlene is one of the nicest people you will ever meet then I would say that Peter would be in for a world of hurt. But what she asks is good enough. "Peter I dare you to kiss the first person you see in the pit."
Not too bad, it could have been a lot worse. Until we all get up and make our way into the pit and the first person we see is Eric. It looks like he has just stumbled out of Dauntless Nights and he seems really drunk. I see Peter gulp as he starts to move towards Eric. This should be hilarious; the transfers don't know what a psychotic bastard Eric is. Maybe we will get to see Peter get another beat down tonight. Overall I think the night is going really well.
Peter walks up to Eric and says, "Really sorry about this but I am playing a game of dare." He then gives Eric a kiss on the lips and as he is moving away Eric grabs him by his shirt and punches him in the face. Just as Eric is about to throw another punch I grab his arm and say, "let it go Eric, it is just a bit of fun."
He lets go of Peter who quickly moves back into the protection of our group. "Fuck you Four," Eric says and he tries to take a swing at me. I duck and sweep his legs out from under him. "As I said Eric let it go. You should know better than to try and hit me."
"I hate you Four," Eric yells. But I just wave to him and walk off. I don't need any more drama from Eric. He has never forgiven me for beating him in initiation and he blames me for having to work at the fence. Every chance he gets he tries to have a go at me. I'm not going to let tonight be ruined by his childish vendettas.
Peter is looking around the room when his eyes stop on Tris. I can see the evil glint in his eye. Oh God, what is he going to make her do? "Tris," he says. "I dare you to let Four throw four knives at you after drinking four shots."
That is a good dare. I can do this, no problem. I look at Tris and she nods and says, "Okay."
We get up and walk over to the targets and I get knives out of the cupboard. Zeke comes up to me and says, "you need to knick her."
"What? Are you out of your mind?" I say. Has Zeke gone completely crazy? I hope so. Why else would he suggest something like this?
"Listen to me. They can't know. You can't let them know you like her and after that kiss; it is obvious to everyone how you feel. You have to do this. You have to be smart. Peter can't be trusted; he has done this for a reason. Dude you need to be smart here," Zeke says. Zeke may be looked at as a goofball but he can be really perceptive sometimes.
I know he is right, but I don't think I can do this. Just the thought makes me sick. Zeke pours out four shots of alcohol and hands them to me, "drink up, it will make it easier."
"I don't think I can do it Zeke," I whisper.
"You have too. Just get it over with quickly. She will understand," he says.
I stand here with the knives in my hands and I feel sick. And it's not from the alcohol I wish it was. How do I do this? I know Zeke is right. But it doesn't feel right. I am about to go against everything I believe. I know it is for the right reason and it is killing me that I have to do this, I would rather cut off my own arm.