I wake up in Eric's arms in the morning and temporarily forget all the turmoil going on around us. We are all that exists to me right now. I listen to his heart and convince myself I can hear it say my name with each beat. We're completely in sync at this moment, our breaths and the pounding of our hearts matching perfectly. We are one right now and I wish this moment could last forever. But I'm finally noticing that I haven't eaten in at least 24 hours. I try to ignore it, but my stomach betrays me.
"Who ruins the moment?" Things really are back to normal. But there's a possible end in sight. I can't think of that, though. I won't let what I can't currently change affect me right now.
"We're one for one right now," I say with a smile.
"Let's get you some breakfast." We get up and I grab some of my clothes from the drawer, glad that I started keeping some at his place when I started staying over for the simulations.
At the Dining Hall, we grab our food, but this time we head over to my table.
"We're sitting there today?" He never wants to sit there; in fact, he never wants to sit in the Dining Hall.
"There's always time for firsts. And I figure there are more than a few helpful people there." I guess he came to the same conclusion that I did about Four and Six. I wish it was something other than that; that maybe he'd warmed up to my friends, but I guess some things are too much to hope for. We sit, much to the surprise of everyone there. Alex and Coraline no longer look like zombies; the end of the fear simulations seems to have revived them. The first thing Coraline does is turn to me and mouth "You're glowing!" Nothing slips by her.
"Audrey, see the board yet?" I'm surprised Alex is the first one to talk to me. I was expecting Coraline to shout something like, "You're a woman now!"
"No, why?" No one's cut after Stage 2, so I didn't think they'd post anything. In fact, I'd mostly forgotten that training was happening. But even with all that's going on, I have to continue. I have to keep going on like everything is normal.
"Rankings are up. You got first," Alex smiles. I'm not really that surprised; I did have to lay down for quite a while just to give myself a more reasonable lead.
"Cool. Who's second?" I'd always wondered who I had to wait for.
"Me," Coraline says with a smirk, "And is there anything you want to tell me about later?" And there it is. It's actually kind of nice to act like everything is normal.
"No, not really," I say with a smile. She just pouts. During this whole exchange, most of the others have been staring at Eric's presence like I came in with some rare, exotic beast.
"This is awkward," Uriah says, "Eric, why are you eating here today?"
"Because I want to," Eric says, "And because I need to talk with Four and Six." They give each other a look and nod their assent.
The table thaws a bit and everyone starts to talk and joke around like we used to. I really missed this during the serums. Suddenly, Coraline says something and Uriah aims a handful of cake in her direction. She ducks, I dodge, and it hits Eric right on the cheek. He glares at Uriah and Uriah looks completely terrified. Eric picks up a muffin and hurls it at Uriah who moves out of the way and it hits Zeke. Eric laughs and I hear someone yell "Food fight!" It really has been too long since we did this. And I'm overjoyed that Eric seemed to fit right in. By the time we're done, there's a solid layer of food on everyone. I wonder if it's too much to hope for that we can do this again for a long time.
"I'll meet you two over at my apartment," Eric says and he takes my hand as we leave the hall.
"I'm going to head to the dorms and get cleaned up," I say. I really don't feel like having eggs in my hair all day.
"Or we can get cleaned up together," Eric says with a smirk. That does sound like a good plan.
"Alright, let me just grab more clothes," I say and we head over to the dorms first.
Inside, I grab a tank top and another pair of jeans. I also take a moment to look at the board.
1. Audrey 7:36
2. Coraline 8:00
3. Jeremy 8:17
4. Ashley 8:42
5. Alex 8:51
6. Elizabeth 9:03
7. Sam 9:28
8. Kayla 9:39
Kayla isn't doing very well this round. She seems to have become withdrawn. I haven't seen her spending much time with Ashley or Jeremy anymore. I guess it must hurt that they're doing so well and she's still so low.
Eric and I head over to his apartment and into the shower; it really was a good idea. You'd never expect a place for you to get clean could be used in such a dirty fashion. Once we're out, we get dressed and wait on the couch for Four and Six. Eventually, they knock and I answer the door. They don't seem surprised at all by my presence; they may have even guessed why we're here. Four leans against the wall while Six decides to sit on the table.
"You two already know about Audrey." Eric says it as a fact. They both nod; there's no use denying it. They were the only ones who could have looped the footage.
"How much do you two know about Dauntless and Erudite?" Six looks over at Four and he answers for them.
"That we've been very friendly with Erudite lately. The Erudite have also been researching all through the night; what it is, I don't know. They're also stirring dissent against Abnegation and insisting upon a change of command. They would only need us if they needed some type of enforcement. So, they probably plan on a change of leadership through violence." I knew these two were smart; they got just about all of it. Though now that I look back on it, I'm surprised I didn't piece it together, too, earlier. I guess affection for my old faction blinded me.
"If you all know that much, this'll be fast," I say, "Long story short, we're going to try to stop a war, but that's rather difficult with two people."
"I'll help," Six says, "I can't just leave my family to die."
"I will, too," says Four. Exactly the responses I expected.
"Glad to have you on board," I say, "We can't do anything until Eric finds out what they're doing. Except maybe warn Abnegation of what's coming."
"But none of us have the ability to go to Abnegation," Eric says, "Any of us go, we'll draw too much attention."
"But what if we get someone who does have that ability," Six says, "Will is an ambassador. It's his job to visit other factions."
"Can he be trusted?" Eric looks directly into Six's eyes.
"More than you," Four says. Do these two really have to do this now?
"What the hell do you mean?" Eric gets up and starts a stare down with Four and they're both swaggering over to each other. I just sigh and Six puts her face in her hand.
"What I mean is that—"
"Would you two just stop?" Thank you, Six. Four and Eric look at each other one more time before going back to their respective locations.
"Well, now that you two are done being children, we're in agreement that we'll try to have Will warn Abnegation," I say, "Beyond that, we have to find other people we can trust to help us."
"Just about everyone at our table would help," Four says.
"We'll approach them one by one. Here, though. Anywhere else isn't safe; the whole compound is constantly monitored. Other than that, we can't do much else."
"Alright." Four and Six get up and head out the door. As they leave, I just lean into Eric and sigh. The day isn't even half over and I've gone from complete ecstasy to absolute stress. Eric just turns on the TV and we let the drone of it distract us. After a while, I hear a knock at the door.
"I'm here to kidnap you," Coraline says with a grin.
"Eric, I'm being kidnapped," I call into the living room.
"You'll be fine!" I guess he understands that I need time with friends.
"Then I'll see you later. Love you." And Coraline and I are headed out the door.
"Where are we going?" I really want to know what we'll be doing.
"We're going to grab some lunch somewhere fun and then we're going to talk." She leads me over to a pizza place and, once we're seated, leans in.
"So, tell me all about your morning glow."
"This is embarrassing…"
"So you guys did do it!" I don't think she's going to stop laughing anytime soon.
"Yeah, we did." Do I always have to turn red?
"Finally! So, tell me what it was like to finally leave virgin territory." Her smile indicates that she expects something really dirty.
"It was…great. Really great. I've never felt more…complete…than I did at that moment." I can't look at her while saying this. She's squealing.
"So cute! How many times?" I'll never survive this conversation.
"Twice…"
"That's less than I was expecting. I thought you guys would go at it like rabbits once you started." She's not secretly a dirty old man. She truly is just a dirty old man.
"Sorry my sex life is so disappointing! What about you and Alex? How far have you two gone?" I haven't been monitoring their progress as much as before. Fear serum doesn't exactly make for the most romantic atmosphere.
"He doesn't want to yet. Amity was all free-love, so I don't see why we should have any reservations. But he thinks it's better to wait. Plus, it's hard to find enough privacy when you share a room with six other people."
"Don't you mean seven?"
"Well, you don't sleep there anymore, so six." She has her grin back.
"Alright, our sex lives aside, is there anything else going on?"
"Oh, let me tell you all about the latest Tranfer gossip…" And we're laughing away and eating pizza. I've really missed our friendship. It was smothered by fear serum before, but now everything is fine again. But I won't be able to let her in on everything that's happening. I can't do that to her and Alex; we're all so inexperienced, we won't do much good, anyway. I almost question how much I can help, beyond planning. But I won't have Eric go anywhere without me. I try to pull my mind back to what we're talking about. I can't do any more right now, so I shouldn't worry.
"Pizza's finished. Want to walk around?"
"Sure." We head out and start to walk around the Pit. As we do, we come across the chasm where Kayla is climbing onto the railing. Shit, Kayla is climbing onto the railing!
"Coraline, get help," I say and Coraline runs off down the way we came. I slowly approach Kayla.
"Kayla! Kayla, what're you doing?" She looks over at me in surprise.
"I don't belong here…" She looks like she's been crying and her face is contorted with pain. Based on the way she's been talking, she may have been drinking, too.
"Yes you do!" I call out to her. "You belong in Dauntless."
"No, I don't! I've been at the bottom since I started! You don't understand…" She's looking at the water below. This can't be happening.
"That can change! Training isn't over yet; there's still one more stage." I'm almost close enough to get her…
"Tell Jeremy I'm sorry." She spreads her arms out and falls backward, just like I did on the day of the Choosing Ceremony. But this time, there's no net to catch her. I rush forward, but I miss her. I watch as she's swallowed up by the river. I don't know if I'm silent or screaming. Whichever it is, it doesn't matter; this is the second time I couldn't save someone.
A/N: Things are finally picking up now. Anyway, if this fanfic does well, I may do a follow-up sequel ^_^ No guarantees that everyone who's in here right now will still be alive by the end :p So, if anyone dies, no one can say "But you said they'd all live!" I am a George R.R. Martin fan, after all ;)