Chapter Twenty-Six

Tobias POV

*5 months later*

"It's been more a little more than five months since the terrible car accident that killed mayor candidate, Andrew Prior, and his wife. Some want to believe that the car accident was a freak accident while others want to believe it was someone who didn't approve of Prior's pulling ahead in the race. However, foul play has been ruled out as the driver was found to be under the influence. But today councilmember Edgar steps forward to take role of acting Mayor. He was Prior's opponent and had made a public statement after the car accident, talking about how terrible he felt about his passing and how he empathized with his children…"

I slammed my finger down on the power button on the remote. I didn't need to hear the anchorwoman saying anything and I didn't need to hear the new mayor saying how much he regrets losing such a wonderful human being.

I didn't need to be reminded of what I left Tris to deal with.

She called me multiple times that night and I let her calls go to voicemail, thinking that she had just decided to ditch me.

And then I listened to her voicemail, her voice cracking like she was about to cry as she explained what happened to her parents and to Caleb. The last voicemail was a few hours old and it was close to midnight, but I didn't even think twice before I was heading to the parking garage and heading to the hospital.

When I got there, Christina was asleep in the waiting room and I talked to a nurse to figure out where the Priors were. The nurse told me Caleb Prior was in the ICU and gave me the room number. At the room, Tris was sitting next to Caleb's bed, holding his hand, her head resting on the small space next to his leg. She was asleep.

Something in my head was telling me to wake her up and let her know that I was there for her. Let her cry, if she needed to. But another voice, this one ten times louder, was telling me to get out of there. To let her grieve in peace. I knew how her parents felt about me and I didn't need her to worry about their reactions while worrying about their wellbeing – it wasn't fair to her.

But that doesn't excuse my absence the last few months. Don't get me wrong – I've tried to reach out to her, but she doesn't want to see or hear from me.

I had spent a majority of the summer pent up in my apartment, drinking and ignoring Zeke's phone calls and anyone else who tried to call me, really.

Eventually Zeke got pissed off and came over, storming into my apartment. "Tobias, what the hell?" He was angry, but then he must have seen how I looked. "Jesus, dude. What the hell happened?" I told him everything about what happened with Tris's family and how I just left the hospital without talking to her. "Don't keep calling her, Tobias! Of course she isn't going to pick up! Man up and go to her!" He still looks angry at me, but not as angry as he did earlier. "But please, shower and shave first."

Okay, so I didn't go and talk to her after that, but I did clean myself up.

School started again in early September and I managed to pull myself together to be presentable during the school day. During the day my mind was focused on school work, but once I got home all the guilt building up throughout the day overflowed and it took a good amount of strength not to fall into the same black hole I did over the summer.

The newswoman disappeared off screen and it changed to a young, African American male talking about the upcoming weather for the Thanksgiving weekend.

I shut the TV off and stared at my phone. I could easily call Zeke and get him to have Uriah give up where Tris is staying. I needed to talk to her and I knew that she would never pick up her phone if she saw my name or number.

Grabbing my phone, I dial Zeke's number. "Hey, I need a favor…"

"What kind of favor?" He asks and then I tell him.

Twenty minutes later, I'm standing in front of 15C feeling like a nervous teenage boy. This is stupid. Why am I so nervous?

Maybe she'll throw a book at you or yell at you. Or maybe she'll punch you in the face. She messed Peter's nose up pretty good.

I couldn't help but smile to myself as I recalled her graduation day, when she punched Peter Hayes straight in the face, breaking his nose. It was impressive.

Taking a deep breath, I knock three times on the door and it opens, revealing Christina. She looks surprised for a split second and then her surprise turns to annoyance. "What do you want?"

"Is Tris home?" I ask.

She shakes her head, leaning against the door. "No, she's still in class. But I'll tell her you stopped by." She goes to shut the door but I quickly place my foot in the small space, stopping the door from shutting.

"Look, Christina, I know Tris is angry with me and I get why you're angry with me. But please, just let me explain." I beg.

Christina narrows her eyes and keeps her hand on the doorknob. "Why should I let you explain now? You've had months to apologize and confront her, but you choose now?"

"Christina…" I plead. I don't know what makes her change her mind, but she's letting me into the apartment and shutting the door behind us.

"Tris is going to kill me for letting you in here. How did you even find out where we lived?" She pads over to the living room, sitting down on the couch and crossing her legs underneath her.

"Uriah." I admit and she rolls her eyes, mumbling about ways to maim him and get away with it.

After a few moments of thinking about maiming techniques, Christina looks up at me. "Seriously, Eaton, why are you just showing up? Why now?"

I shrug, taking a seat on a foot rest, leaning forward on my elbows. "I don't know. To tell you the truth, I don't even know what I'm going to say to Tris when I see her. Just…I've been a mess since the day her parents went to the hospital and she called me."

"Why are you a wreck? You didn't even show up to the hospital!" She accuses, looking irritated.

"I did show up. You were asleep in the waiting room and Tris was with Caleb, asleep. I left shortly after arriving, but I still showed up. I just…I've felt terrible about leaving and leaving her to deal with everything on her own…"

She interrupts me. "She wasn't alone – she's had me."

That was true and I knew Christina was the one person Tris trusted with anything and everything. "I just…I need to know how she's doing."

Christina looks distant for a few seconds and then shakes her head. "I don't know, truthfully. I mean, the day her parents died, she was an absolute wreck. She was crying the entire time – I had never seen her cry so much. But then after we left the hospital and she went back home, she just became…emotionless. I don't know. She was distant. She didn't react to anything mentioned by her parents and even at the funeral she didn't cry. I've been waiting for her to break but she hasn't. She gets up in the morning, goes to class, comes home and does her work. I mean, on the weekends she goes out and parties, but she's a freshman in college – who doesn't do that? But her behavior at the parties is just…it's destructive. She gets extremely drunk and I have to drag her home." Christina sighs. "I'm scared for her. I've tried to talk her into going to see a therapist, but she won't hear it. I know it isn't healthy for her to be bottling all her feelings about her parents up and then you leaving was kind of a dick move." I drop my head in shame, the guilt ripping into me again. "You left at such a terrible time."

"If I knew how bad she was, I would have come sooner, I swear it. I just thought it would be better for her to mourn without me. I would just be a reminder of her parents' hate. She didn't need that."

Christina nods, running her fingers through her hair. "I guess I can kind of see your point. But look, she isn't going to be very happy to find you here. She might even get pissed at me for talking to you. But you really do need to tell her that you were at the hospital that night – she's hell-bent on believing that you weren't."

I nod.

"I didn't know you two were a thing for long, a few weeks before graduation, but I knew that she was happier than she's ever been before. I saw something change in her around the time you two started dating. She was happier and she was just…herself a lot more. She became so much more confident and sure of herself. You're good for her, Eaton. And I don't know how she's affected you, but I do know that she's a really good person and any guy who dates her is extremely lucky."

"Yeah, I know and I kind of screwed that up." She nodded her head in agreement and I sighed. "And will you please stop calling me Eaton? I'm not your teacher anymore, you can call me Tobias."

She smiles at that. "Yeah, well, you're going to have to suck it up."

It's quiet for a little bit, neither of us knowing what to say next. I was out of reasons to explain my disappearance these last few months and I doubt Christina wanted to ask me about anything that went on.

Finally, I decide to ask her something that's been bothering me since I first arrived. "Do you think…do you think she'll forgive me?"

Christina sighed, shrugging. "I don't know. A few months ago I would have said definitely but now, she's just…different. So, I can't really say. I'm sorry."

Just then the front door opens and Tris's voice floats from the entryway into the living room. "Chris, I'm back. And I went grocery shopping so you're going next time and I also picked up some of those mint cookies you like…"

She appears in the living room and looks up, her face going slack. I shoot up from the footrest, holding my hands out in a defensive manner. "What are you doing here?" She asks, anger in her voice.

"Tris…" I begin. "I can explain."

I know that this was a short chapter, but I had never really planned for it to be too long of a chapter - just enough to cover why Tobias wasn't in the last few chapters.

Also, I'm not planning on making this story too much longer, maybe up to 35 chapters. Maybe. I don't want to drag it out too long but I don't want to make it too short to leave questions unanswered or anything.