Tobias
"Ugh, yuck. I don't like that one," Tris says when I step out of the dressing room wearing the third suit.
I groan. I am so tired of trying these stupid things on. And I hate that dressing room. What the absolute fuck?
"What's wrong with this one?" I ask. It looks the exact same as the other two to me, but she seems to especially hate this one.
"The color is weird," she says. I frown; it just looks black to me. "It's kind of green."
"What?" I laugh. "This is black."
"It's like incredibly dark green," she says. I look at her, waiting for her to say that she is just kidding, but she doesn't. "Try on the next one," she says.
I groan, but I go back into the tiny little room and change. I can barely fit in here, so changing in here is extra fun.
"This is the fourth suit, babe," I yell out to her. I hear her groan at my stupid jokes and I laugh. "Maybe the fourth one will be the one."
I take off the 'green' suit and put on the fourth one she picked. They all look exactly the same, I don't really understand. Tris said the first one fit weird and then the second one make my butt look funny. I don't know what the hell she is talking about. She didn't like it when I told her my butt is sexy as fuck and she's just mad that she wouldn't be able to look at it.
I step out of the room and stand in front of her. She looks me up and down. Then she stands up and slowly circles around me. "Four's your lucky number," she says when she comes around to my front.
"Really?" I ask, excited that I might be done with this torture.
"Yeah. I like this one," she says.
"Can you see my butt okay?" I smirk. She rolls her eyes.
"Okay, go change and we can pay."
"Then we can leave?" I ask. I hate shopping. There stores are always too cramped and the prices are always too high.
"No. That button up your wearing was just for trying on the suits. You need a proper white one. And then we have to get you a tie. And shoes," she says. I groan again and she laughs. "The torture isn't finished yet."
I go back into the torture chamber and remove suit number four. Then I put my jeans and t-shirt back on. I come out holding the lucky suit as well as the shitty ones.
"What do I do with these?" I ask, holding up the other three suits.
"Put them on that rack over there," she says, pointing to a rack in the corner that has an assortment of random clothes flung on it. I hang the suits and we go to the register to pay.
"Did you find everything alright?" the cashier asks. She smiles at me and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Ever since Tris brought it up, I notice that girls smile and stare at me a lot, even when Tris is with me.
"Fine," I say. The cashier continues to smile as she takes my suit and scans it. She taps a few buttons the screen before bagging up the suit and saying, "Eighty dollars and seventy-six cents is your total."
I hand her eighty one dollars in cash and I don't miss the way her eyes bug out of her head. This time I do roll my eyes. I feel Tris' small hand wrap around my bigger one. "Keep the change," I say as I grab my bag and leave her standing there.
We leave the store and walk to the one next to it. It looks exactly like the one we were just in!
"Why couldn't we just get a white shirt at the one we were just at?" I whine.
"I didn't like their button ups. They all had weird collars."
She drags me to a section of button ups in many colors. There is an entire rack of white ones and she goes to it. "What size are you?"
"I don't know," I say. She grabs a medium, and a large and we go to the small rooms.
"Come out when you try them on."
I groan, "Yeah, I know."
I put on the medium and almost die. It's so tight. I try, but I can only button five of the buttons from the bottom. The ones over my chest won't close. I go out of the room and Tris starts laughing. "Can I take a picture?" she asks through her laughs.
"No!"
"Oh my God. Your muscles are too big," she keeps laughing and I roll my eyes.
"This shirt just can't handle all my sexy," I say. I go in back in the changing room and try on the large. I walk out and she is wiping tears from her eyes from laughing.
"That's much better," she says.
"I think so."
"Let's go pay, Mr. Muscle," she laughs. I wink at her and go back into the changing room. I put my t-shirt back on and grab the good shirt. I deposit the other one on the rack.
We pay for the shirt and then make our way to the exit.
"To the shoe store!" Tris says, punching the air with her free hand. I laugh at her antics and she turns and glares at me. "Are you laughing at me, Tobias Eaton?"
"What are you going to do about it?" I smirk.
"I'm going to make you try on twenty pairs of shoes," she says.
That sounds extremely daunting. "I would never, ever, ever laugh at you," I say seriously.
She smiles, "That's what I thought."
We walk hand in hand through the mall. I don't acknowledge any of the girls I see staring at me. The same way I don't acknowledge any of the guys that look at Tris. Okay, that's a lie; I glare at them. She doesn't notice me doing it though, so it's okay.
Finally, we arrive at a store with rows and rows of shoes. She leads me to the section with the sign that says Men's Dress Shoes and we begin.
"What size do you wear?" Tris asks.
"Usually around a ten and a half to eleven and a half. It depends."
She pulls out seven pairs of identical looking size ten and a half and analyzes them further, then she throws three of them out and I am left with four.
"Try these," she says.
"Four?"
"Oh my God."
"Sorry," I say with a laugh. "You set yourself up for these things. I think four is your favorite number."
"Well, Four is my favorite guy," she says. I lean down and press a kiss to her lips. She pulls away when I try to deepen the kiss. "Sit," she says and points to a little bench.
I groan but I sit down and try on the first pair. "Nope, I don't like these," I say and I immediately take them off.
"What's wrong with those?" she asks.
"They fit weird."
"Too small?"
"They just fit funny. I don't know." I take the next pair and try them on. "These are better but they still suck."
She sighs and hands me the next ones. "Nope, I don't like these either."
"Are you always this picky?"
"You were picky with the suits," I remind her.
"Touché," she shrugs. I try on the fourth pair and they are weird too.
"Can we go up a size?"
"Yeah." I help her put all the shoes back and we move up to eleven. She pulls out four that she likes and puts them down in front of me. Seriously, they all look the same.
I try on the first pair. They feel much better than the previous ones. "How are those?" she asks.
"Better," I say.
"Put the other one on and walk around," she says, holding the other one out to me. I do as she asks.
"Meh," I say. They feel funny when I walk in them. My toe hits the side of them in a weird way.
"Okay, try on these ones," she says. I take them from her hands and look at them.
"These are heels!"
"Oh it's just a little thing," she says. Sure, the hell of the shoe is only a few centimeters, but I don't like it. I put them back in the box and she sighs.
I take the next pair out and try them on; I walk around a little bit. "These are actually kind of comfortable," I tell her.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I could go for these," I shrug.
"Great! Let's buy them and then go look for ties."
We put away all of the other shoes and box up the pair I decide to get. Then we pay and leave.
"To the tie store!" I say, punching my fist in the air the way she did.
"There's no tie store here," she says. "There are just stores which happen to sell ties."
"Well, then; to the store which happens to sell ties!" I say enthusiastically, punching the air again. She laughs her beautiful laugh and I smile down at her. Sometimes I forget how short she is.
"Are you wearing heels to the dance?" I ask her.
"Yeah."
"That's going to be weird," I say.
"Why?" she looks kind of hurt.
"No, I just mean that it will be different having you higher up," I say.
"You don't like that?"
"No, I do. I can kiss you easier," I tell her. She cracks a smile and I wrap my free arm around her waist.
She leads me into a huge department store and then into the men's section. She goes to a back wall where there are rows of ties in every color imaginable.
"My God," I say. Tris goes to the blue ones and then takes out her phone. She brings up a picture of her dress and then holds it up against the ties. She goes down the row of blue; they get darker the further right she goes. She picks out one that matches her dress and hands it to me.
"This one," she says.
"Yes, ma'am."
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" I smile at her and then we go to pay.
"What is your plan for the rest of the day?" she asks while buckling her seatbelt.
"Nothing. I was just going to ask you the same thing."
"I was wondering if you'd want to go work out," she says.
I take note of what she is wearing: some leggings, tennis shoes, and a loose sweatshirt. "Yeah, sure."
"I'm excited," she says. She opens the center console compartment and reaches in there.
"What are you doing?" I ask her. Not that I mind if she looks in there, but there's nothing really in there. Just a pressure gage, some sunglasses, some random receipts from drive-throughs, and loose change. She ignores me and pulls out one of those rubber band things that girls put in their hair.
"What the?" I am positive I never put that in there.
"I put a couple of these in there the other day," she says.
"Where was I?"
"You were taking forever talking to Zeke," she says. "Figured I might want these sometime. I keep them in my car too," she says.
"Well, okay then."
"Are you mad?"
"No. Do whatever you want," I tell her. "I don't mind; you know that, babe." She smiles at me before pulling her hair up into a pony tail.
"To the gym we go!" she says. I laugh at her, and I start up my truck and pull out of the spot.
Fifteen minutes later, we are at my usual gym. We walk in and we are greeted by the gym's manager, Tori.
"Hey, Tori," I say. I hand her my membership card and she swipes it.
"Hey, Four. Who's this?" she asks, looking at Tris.
"Tris," Tris says, holding her hand out to Tori.
Tori shakes it and smiles. "It's nice to meet you." Tori looks at me then. "You guys going to work out?"
"Yeah," I say. Tris hands Tori some cash but Tori shakes her head.
"No, it's fine. Any friend of Four's is welcome here," she says.
"Are you sure?" Tris asks.
Tori nods, "Yeah. Don't worry about it."
"Thank you," Tris says sincerely.
"Have fun," Tori says. I thank her and we walk through the doors to the indoor track.
"We're going to do some running first," I tell Tris. She looks around at the room. The middle of the full-size track is netted off and there are volleyball and basketball courts inside. The black track itself is lined and marked just like any other outdoor track. Along the walls are basketballs and volleyballs, there are also some rackets and birdies.
"Okay," she says. We begin running and by the second lap, Tris is breathing heavier. She doesn't say anything, so we keep running. I run alongside her, even though this is a much slower pace than I am used to.
By the third lap, she is breathing heavier.
"We can take a break if you want," I tell her. She glares at me, so I take that as a no. We run two more laps before she finally stops.
"Is there water?" she asks while panting.
I feel kind of bad that I'm not even breathing heavy. "Come with me," I say. We go to the locker rooms and she stops at the door. "What?"
"I can't go in there," she says, pointing to the sign.
"Ah, ignore it. Women go in here all the time," I say. She looks skeptical but she follows me inside.
There are a couple a guys in here so I grab Tris hand and lead her through the locker room to the second to last row. I go to my personal locker and spin the dial on my combination lock. 28, 34, 11
It clicks in acceptance of my code and I open the locker.
"Hey, baby, you don't belong in here," a man's voice says. I turn my head and see Jack, looking Tris up and down.
I step in front of her and block her view. "Leave her alone, Jack."
Jack is one of those big, arrogant guys with more muscle than brain. I'm pretty sure he is just on a lot of steroids, but there's nothing to be done for his brain so we are left with a moronic asshole.
"Who'd you bring us, Four?" he asks.
"I didn't bring you anybody," I spit.
"Why are you always trying to start fights with me, kid?"
"Oh, I start the fights?"
"Yeah. You never know when to just mind your own business," he says.
"That's funny, since you're the one who is always coming up to me.
"Shut your mouth," he says angrily.
"Why don't you try that?" I ask him. I move Tris to my other side so I can block her.
"Hey, baby, you want to come have some fun with a real man?" he asks.
"Get the fuck away from her, and don't talk to her like that," I yell at him. I keep one arm behind me, holding Tris behind my back.
"You can't tell me what to do. Why would she want to mess around with you anyways?" he asks me. He peers around my shoulder and looks at Tris. "I can show you a real good time."
"Get away from us," she says, her voice shaking slightly. I doubt he can detect it, but I can.
"Oh, have I done something to upset you?"
"Yes. Go away," she says, angry now.
"Don't talk to me in that tone. You shouldn't disrespect people you don't even know."
"Isn't that exactly what you're doing?"
"Hey, shut the fuck up, bitch," Jack says. He starts getting closer to us. "I'll teach you how since your boyfriend won't."
He takes another step and I throw my fist up and it connects with his jaw. He stumbles back and reaches up to touch his cut lips. When he sees the blood on it, he glares at me.
"You son of a bitch," he snarls. He charges at me and I stand fully in front of Tris and then I knee him in his gut as he gets closer again, his fists out in front of him. While the pain in his gut distracts him for a moment, I punch him in the face again. He stumbles back but he doesn't fall.
"Go while you can, Jack," I warn.
"You think you get a few good hits you can beat me?"
I don't say anything and he charges at me again. He puts his fist out, but I can already tell it's not a coordinated attack. I easily block it and then kick his shin with my foot. He groans and then goes to throw another punch. I block it and then hit him again, this time in the nose. I don't think it's broken, but it's definitely bleeding.
He staggers back, clutching his nose. "Are you done yet?" I ask him.
He glares at me, but he nods. I eye him skeptically before turning around, grabbing my water bottle, and then locking my locker. I am met with Tris' wide and frightened eyes and I feel terrible that she just had to witness that.
I wrap my arm tightly around her shoulder and we quickly leave the locker room. Once we are out, I bring her down a smaller hallway off of the main one. I release my hold on her and then I step away from her. I am sure that I scared her to death. She won't want me anymore; I'm sure of it.
She leans up against the wall across from me, putting space between us. She looks down at the ground, not meeting my eyes.
I lean against the wall and slide down to the floor. I bury my head in my hands; I couldn't look at her right now even if she wanted me to. My hands muffle my quiet words, "I'm sorry."
Author's Note: Dun, dun, dun, dunnnnnnn….
-GerdyGertha