I don't own anything!

Chapter 25

Tris

We go down the hall to find Uriah when we hear singing coming out of his room.

"What is that?" I ask.

"Sounds like a dying cat," Zeke says confused.

We push open the door and see Uriah there. He comes toward me and brings me into a bear hug. Tobias clears his throat behind me, but I can't get out of Uriah's grip.

"Hey girl! How ya doin?" Uriah yells in my ear. He releases me and I fall back into Tobias. He stares daggers at Uriah and has a fierce scowl on his face. I've never seen him look this scary before. He could be terrifying to someone that doesn't know him.

Zeke looks at his brother, "What is wrong with you? What did they do to you?"

"I donno," Uriah say bobbing his head back and forth. "They took me into this room and stuck me in the neck with something they called peace serum. It's all good!"

He lunges at me again to hug me, "I want to hug the pretty girl." He looks at Zeke, "Do you think her big scary boyfriend will mind?" Then he looks up and sees Tobias glaring at him, "Oh, there you are big scary boyfriend, can I hug your girlfriend?" Tobias scowls at him. "I guess that means you don't want me to hug her? But she's so pretty and huggable." He releases me and he looks out the door, Felicia is standing there talking to an Amity girl. "Hey look, pretty girl!" Uriah yells and runs out of the room and pulls Felicia into his arms. "Hello there pretty girl, can I hug you?" The three of us file out of the room and toward Uriah and Felicia. He has her in a death grip in the middle of the hallway.

Felicia looks at me, "Did he get peace serum?"

I nod, "It would appear that way."

She laughs, "You just have to go with it. He will be back to normal soon."

"What should we do? We can't just let him go around hugging every girl in Amity," Zeke says.

"I don't want to hug any more girls, just this one," he smiles and winks at Felicia. "Pretty girl, do you have a boyfriend?"

Felicia looks down sadly, "No."

"I'm sorry pretty girl," Uriah says too happy. "Do you want a hug? Oh, wait. I'm already hugging you. Do you want a tighter hug?"

Felicia giggles a little, "No this hug is just fine."

"Okay," Uriah says and continues to hug Felicia.

Zeke seems to have had enough, "Okay Uri, time to let the pretty girl go."

Uriah releases his grip on Felicia, "Bye pretty girl… Oh look, pretty girl!" He comes at me again and just before he can wrap me in another bear hug, Tobias steps in the way. Uriah wraps his arms around Tobias' waist and looks at him. "Hey wait a minute, you're not a pretty girl. I want to hug the pretty girl."

"No more hugs for you," Zeke says pealing his brother from Tobias and dragging him back to his room.

Felicia and I start laughing hysterically. Tobias just looks at us like we are crazy. "That didn't bother you two?" he asks.

"What girl wouldn't want to be called a 'pretty girl' and have a hot boy hug her," Felicia says.

"Oh really? Is that so Beatrice?" Tobias says with a smirk. He pulls me into his arms, "Come-on 'pretty girl' let's go get something to eat," he places a kiss on my cheek. "Come-on, you too 'pretty girl'," he says gesturing to Felicia. "Time for lunch." We walk down the hall, both of us girls in Tobias' arms. I should be jealous, but I'm not. Felicia doesn't worry me anymore.

We get to the cafeteria and he releases Felicia as we enter the room. Him being silly for a moment in a secluded hall is one thing, but he would never behave that way in public. The three of us find our seats at the table and Tobias offers to go and get our lunch for us. So Felicia and I sit together and wait.

"You know Tris, you are pretty lucky. Tobias is a great guy."

"Thanks," I say.

"I must admit, I had my eye on him during initiation. It's hard not to notice him. But it didn't take much to see that he only ever had eyes for you. From the first day of initiation you could see it."

"Really? I didn't."

"That is because you weren't paying attention. You were being a proper Abnegation girl. But he had eyes only for you from the beginning. I tried to get him to notice me once or twice, but then I noticed that he always seemed to pair the two of you up. He never even gave me a second glance."

I don't know what to say. She was being so sweet. "How are you doing, being back here and with everything else?"

"I was happy to see my family and I'm really sad that Andrew is gone. We will never be able to see if there was anything more than friendship there. He was a really nice guy."

"What about Michael?" I ask.

"He is great. And I could really like him. I just can't tell if he feels the same way or not. It is so hard to tell with Abnegation guys. Tobias is an open book when it comes to you. He can't seem to hide his feelings for you no matter how hard he tries. Even during initiation, I could tell he was trying to hide it. But I knew. Michael isn't as open."

"Maybe he is trying to keep a respectful distance because of Andrew," I say.

"I don't know, maybe. What about the huggie guy, Uriah? What's up with him? He is pretty cute too."

"He's Dauntless, I don't know about girlfriends or anything like that."

"He's flirty, I'd bet there is a girl somewhere waiting for him. He's too cute for there not to be."

Tobias returns with our food and Michael is in tow. They sit down, Tobias next to me and Michael next to Felicia. He hands her a tray of food, a drink, and napkin. When he hands her the napkin, their hands graze one another and he blushes slightly. I smile because what was so noticeable about Tobias to Felicia, I can see in the way Michael interacts with her. He definitely likes her, but his Abnegation tells him that he needs to keep a respectable distance because she is grieving.

"Hey Felicia, could you help me with something?" I ask.

"Sure Tris, what's up?"

"Come with me for a minute."

We exit the cafeteria and I lead her to the ladies room. "He likes you. He is trying to keep a safe distance out of respect."

"Really? How do you know?"

"I guess the same way as you knew about Tobias."

"Okay, then I should let him know somehow that it is okay."

I turn to walk out. Felicia grabs my arm, "Wait, you said you needed help with something, they are going to question."

"Well, what should we do?" I ask.

"I have an idea, do you trust me?"

"Sure…" I say hesitantly. "What do you have in mind?"

"I just want to take your hair down and let it hang. I've seen the way Tobias looks at you when your hair is down before bed. He likes it that way."

She takes my hair out of the complicated bun that I have it in. She runs her fingers through it, releasing any knots. The waves encircle my shoulders and run down my back.

"Okay, let's go back," she says.

We get back to the table and I can't help but notice how big Tobias' eyes get when he sees me. I've never thought I was very pretty, but he makes me feel pretty. Especially when I am the only girl he notices. Felicia sits back down next to Michael, a little closer than she did before. They talk and graze hands a couple times throughout lunch. He looks at her longingly as they talk. Eventually, she gets bold and takes his hand in hers and laces her fingers with his. He looks shocked but pleased.

We finish lunch and say goodbye to Michael and Felicia. We decide to go to see how Uriah is doing. We knock on the door and Zeke answers.

"Is he back to normal?" Tobias asks.

"Yeah, come in," Zeke says.

"Tris, Tobias, I am so sorry for hugging her like that. I didn't know what I was doing."

"Its fine man," Tobias says smiling. "Just don't get any bright ideas."

"No, no ideas! I have a girlfriend," Uriah says.

We all smile. "How ridiculous was I?" Uriah asks.

"You kept calling me and Felicia 'pretty girl' and wouldn't stop hugging us. It wasn't anything more than hugs, purely innocent and actually kind of sweet. But you hug too hard and you almost crushed me," I say the last part firmly with a giggle.

He smiles sarcastically, "So Tobias, was the hug as good for you as it was for me?"

Tobias snickers, "Oh yeah, I loved those big meaty claws groping my back!"

Zeke laughs, "I don't know Tris you might have some competition."

"Oh, I doubt it. I bet my hugs are better than Uriah's!"

"I don't know Tris, is arms were pretty firm," Tobias says with a snicker.

I shake my head. There is no way I am going to win with three boys in the room. All three of them start laughing hysterically to the point that they can't breathe. I laugh at them because they are all being ridiculously silly. I decide to try to get things back on track.

"So," I say loudly over the laughter trying obviously to change the subject and bring them back to reality. "What now?"

They start to calm down a little. At this point I don't even think that they know what they are laughing about. "Did you guys eat the bread or something?" I ask.

They laugh ever more while shaking their heads. I glare at all of them but I can't hold a straight face with them being so silly.

They calm down enough to talk.

"We need to talk to all of the Abnegation tonight and let them know that we are leaving tomorrow." Tobias says through his gasping for breath and trying to calm down.

"I think it would be best to head to Candor. It is my understanding that most of the loyal Dauntless are being housed at Candor for now," Zeke adds still snickering.

"Yes, it would be best to be where the weapons and where the best fighters and marksmen are right now." Uriah finishes with a giggle.

"Yeah, because your Dauntless friends wouldn't be completely freaked out by how goofy you two are being right now," I say through a giggle.

"No, they wouldn't be freaked out, they would just hit us until we stop," Zeke says.

"Had lots of experience with that?" I ask.

"Yes we have," Uriah exclaims.