CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
FOUR'S POV
"Keep reading," I whisper.
"Four?" Zeke asks.
"Keep reading," I say a little louder.
"Aren't we going to have dinner?" Max says.
"Keep reading," I say in a commanding voice.
"But …" someone says.
"Read the next fucking chapter," I snap.
"Max read the chapter," Eric tells Max calmly.
The room is still silent other than me making demands. It is like we are all in shock. Tris has buried her face into my chest. Marlene is openly crying and Uriah is trying to console her but you can see the tears in his eyes.
Zeke and Shauna are just holding each other. Both are trying not to cry. Christina is crying and Will has tears falling down his cheeks. Tori is just shaking her head as her tears quickly fall from her eyes.
Lynn jumps up from her seat and comes over and wraps her arms around Tris and unfortunately I am included. When Marlene sees Lynn sit with us she jumps up and runs over and joins our joint hug.
"Oh shit!" Max exclaims.
We all look at Max and he has opened the book back up.
"What?" I ask
Eric is trying to look over Max's shoulder. Eric starts shaking his head and says, "You have to be kidding me."
"WHAT? WHAT DOES IT SAY?" I shout.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
But I'm still breathing.
I let out a huge sigh as Marlene and Lynn let go and we all look at Max.
"I told you," Uriah shouts. "Jeanine is not going to win against Tris."
"Read," I say and then Zeke and Uriah start chanting, "Read, read, read."
"Okay, okay. Calm down so I can read," Max commands.
But I'm still breathing. Not deeply; not enough to satisfy, but breathing. Peter pushes my eyelids over my eyes. Does he know I'm not dead? Does Jeanine? Can she see me breathing?
"What the hell is happening?" Christina squeals.
"Take the body to the lab," Jeanine says. "The autopsy is scheduled for this afternoon."
"All right," Peter replies.
Peter pushes the table forward. I hear mutters all around me as we pass the group of Erudite bystanders. My hand falls off the edge of the table as we turn a corner, and smacks into the wall. I feel a prickle of pain in my fingertips, but I can't move my hand, as hard as I try.
"How can she still be alive? Does Peter know what's going on?" Lynn asks.
"Let Max keep reading," I say. I want to know what's happening. I don't understand any of this.
This time, when we go down the hallway of Dauntless traitors, it is silent. Peter walks slowly at first, then turns another corner and picks up the pace. He almost sprints down the next corridor, and stops abruptly. Where am I? I can't be in the lab already. Why did he stop?
Peter's arms slide under my knees and shoulders, and he lifts me. My head falls against his shoulder.
"For someone so small, you're heavy, Stiff," he mutters.
"What has Peter done to her? He hates Tris. You would think he would want her dead," Will comments.
He knows I'm awake. He knows.
I hear a series of beeps, and a slide—a locked door, opening.
"What do—" Tobias's voice. Tobias! "Oh my God. Oh—"
"Spare me your blubbering, okay?" Peter says. "She's not dead; she's just paralyzed. It'll only last for about a minute. Now get ready to run."
"You're alive," Lynn shouts and hugs Tris and I even tighter. "This is crazy."
Marlene and Lynn let us go and move back to their own seats, thank goodness. There is too much hugging when they are around. I don't like all the touching.
"Ha! I told you!" Uriah starts to gloat at Eric.
"Don't get to excited they aren't out of danger yet," Eric responds.
I don't understand.
"Neither do we?" I say.
How does Peter know?
"Let me carry her," Tobias says.
"No. You're a better shot than I am. Take my gun. I'll carry her."
"I never thought I'd hear Peter admit that," Eric comments.
I hear the gun slide out of its holster. Tobias brushes a hand over my forehead. They both start running.
At first all I hear is the pounding of their feet, and my head snaps back painfully. I feel tingling in my hands and feet. Peter shouts, "Left!" at Tobias.
Then a shout from down the hallway. "Hey, what—!"
A bang. And nothing.
More running. Peter shouts, "Right!" I hear another bang, and another. "Whoa," he mumbles. "Wait, stop here!"
Tingling down my spine. I open my eyes as Peter opens another door. He charges through it, and just before I smack my head against the door frame, I stick my arm out and stop us.
"Careful!" I say, my voice strained. My throat still feels as tight as it did when he first injected me and I found it difficult to breathe. Peter turns sideways to bring me through the door, then nudges it shut with his heel and drops me on the floor.
"He stops her from dying and then tries to kill her by giving her a head injury. Peter is very perplexing," Tori says.
The room is almost empty, except for a row of empty trash cans along one wall and a square metal door large enough for one of the cans to fit through it along the other wall.
"Tris," Tobias says, crouching next to me. His face is pale, almost yellow.
There is too much I want to say. The first thing that comes out is, "Beatrice."
He laughs weakly.
"Beatrice," he amends, and touches his lips to mine. I curl my fingers into his shirt.
"Ugh, really Tris?" Lynn asks. "How did your parents pick that for your name?"
"Unless you want me to throw up all over you guys, you might want to save it for later."
"There's the Peter we know," Tris says with a laugh. It's the first thing she has said since we thought she was dead.
"Are you okay?" I ask her.
"Yeah," Tris says sounding breathless. I don't think she has breathed much in the last few minutes.
"Where are we?" I ask.
"This is the trash incinerator," says Peter, slapping the square door. "I turned it off. It'll take us to the alley. And then your aim had better be perfect, Four, if you want to get out of the Erudite sector alive."
"Why would Peter do this?" Marlene asks. "I don't understand."
"I don't think any of us understand it," Tori replies. "But who cares, Tris is still alive and about to escape Erudite."
"Don't concern yourself with my aim," Tobias retorts. He, like me, is barefoot.
Peter opens the door to the incinerator. "Tris, you first."
The trash chute is about three feet wide and four feet high. I slide one leg down the chute and, with Tobias's help, swing the other leg in. My stomach drops as I slide down a short metal tube. Then a series of rollers pound against my back as I slip over them.
I smell fire and ash, but I am not burned. Then I drop, and my arm smacks into a metal wall, making me groan. I land on a cement floor, hard, and pain from the impact prickles up my shins.
"Ow." I limp away from the opening and shout, "Go ahead!"
My legs have recovered by the time Peter lands, on his side instead of his feet. He groans, and drags himself away from the opening to recover.
I look around. We are inside the incinerator, which would be completely dark if not for the lines of light glowing in the shape of a small door on the other side. The floor is solid metal in some places and metal grating in others. Everything smells like rotting garbage and fire.
"Don't say I never took you anywhere nice," Peter says.
"Only Peter would think that," Christina says.
"I think he is being sarcastic," Will tells her.
"I know that Will," Christina snaps at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it," I say.
Tobias drops to the floor, landing first on his feet and then tilting forward to his knees, wincing. I pull him to his feet and then draw close to his side. All the smells and sights and feelings of the world feel magnified. I was almost dead, but instead I am alive. Because of Peter.
Of all people.
"That's an understatement," Eric says. "I can't believe he helped you. What is his motivation for it?"
"If we stop talking Max will probably be able to tell us."
Peter walks across the grate and opens the small door. Light streams into the incinerator. Tobias walks with me away from the fire smell, away from the metal furnace, into the cement-walled room that contains it.
"Got that gun?" Peter says to Tobias.
"No," says Tobias, "I figured I would shoot the bullets out of my nostrils, so I left it upstairs."
"You're an idiot," Zeke laughs at me. I just shrug.
"Oh, shut up."
Peter holds another gun in front of him and leaves the incinerator room. A dank hallway with exposed pipes in the ceiling greets us, but it's only ten feet long. The sign next to the door at the end says EXIT. I am alive, and I am leaving.
"YEAH!" Zeke and Uriah both shout out at the same time.
"That's a page break."
"I need a minute," I say as I get up. I walk into the kitchen and grab a glass to get a drink of water.
"Are you okay?" Zeke asks.
I stay standing with my back to Zeke. I can't look at him, I can't. I am only just holding on. The whole situation has just hit me and I double over trying to breath. Zeke comes over and gives me a pat on my back, which completely cracks me. I can't hold it in any longer and I slump to the floor and start sobbing.
"Shit" Zeke exclaims as he sits down next to me. "Dude, she's alive. I thought you would be celebrating. What's going on?"
I just shake my head, I don't want to talk about this. I don't like sharing how I feel.
"Do you want me to get Tris?" Zeke asks as he goes to get up.
I put my hand on his shoulder and say, "no. I don't want to worry her."
We sit here for a few minutes, silent.
"This whole thing is just overwhelming. I keep trying to stay strong. But listening to what is happening is just starting to grate on my nerves. It's worse than watching initiate fear sims all day."
"I can't even imagine us doing half the shit they are telling us we did in the book," Zeke admits. "And we still have another book to read."
"We have to find a way to stop this from happening. Jeanine needs to be stopped. The woman is fucking insane," I say.
"You're not wrong. Are you better?"
"Yeah, thanks," I mumble. Embarrassed that he has seen me like this.
"We better get back in there," Zeke says as he raises from the floor, he stands and puts a hand out for me, I reach out and he pulls me up. I wipe the remaining tears off my face and then walk to the sink and splash my face with water.
Zeke hands me a towel. "Thanks," I say.
"Anytime."
We walk back into the room and for the first time today there is laughter in the room. Uriah is telling Tris a story. Probably one of the many pranks that he and Zeke got up to when they were younger. It has the room laughing. I wish we could hear more of everyone laughing, but it's not really the time.
The stretch of land between Dauntless headquarters and Erudite headquarters does not look the same in reverse. I suppose everything is bound to look different when you aren't on your way to die.
When we reach the end of the alley, Tobias presses his shoulder to one wall and leans forward just enough to see around the corner. His face blank, he puts one arm around the corner, steadying it with the building wall, and fires twice. I shove my fingers in my ears and try not to pay attention to the gunshots and what they make me remember.
"Hurry," Tobias says.
We sprint, Peter first, me second, and Tobias last, down Wabash Avenue. I look over my shoulder to see what Tobias shot at, and see two men on the ground behind Erudite headquarters. One isn't moving, and the other is clutching his arm and running toward the door. They will send others after us.
"You only shot him in the arm," Eric raises and eyebrow at me.
"Can't be perfect all the time," I shrug.
My head feels muddled, probably from exhaustion, but the adrenaline keeps me running.
"Take the least logical route!" shouts Tobias.
"What?" Peter says.
"The least logical route," Tobias says. "So they won't find us!"
Peter swerves to the left, down another alley, this one full of cardboard boxes that contain frayed blankets and stained pillows—old factionless dwellings, I assume. He jumps over a box that I go crashing through, kicking it behind me.
At the end of the alley he turns left, toward the marsh. We are back on Michigan Avenue. In plain sight of Erudite headquarters, if anyone cares to glance down the street.
"Does Peter understand the word logical? Because walking in plain sight of Erudite would have to be the most stupid thing," Tori exclaims.
"Well he isn't the smartest person I know," Will says. "Probably why he left Candor."
"Bad idea!" I shout.
Peter takes the next right. At least all the streets here are clear—no fallen street signs to dodge or holes to jump over. My lungs burn like I inhaled poison. My legs, which ached at first, are now numb, which is better. Somewhere far away, I hear shouts.
Then it occurs to me: The least logical thing to do is stop running.
"Bet your glad you have an aptitude for Erudite right about now?" Lynn says.
"Yeah, it's coming in handy," Tris says with a smile.
I grab Peter's sleeve and drag him toward the nearest building. It is six stories high, with wide windows arranged into a grid, divided by pillars of brick. The first door I try is locked, but Tobias fires at the window next to it until it breaks, and unlocks the door from the inside.
"That won't draw anyone's attention," Eric says with sarcasm dripping from his lips.
The building is completely empty. Not a single chair or table. And there are too many windows. We walk toward the emergency stairwell, and I crawl beneath the first flight so that we are hidden by the staircase. Tobias sits next to me, and Peter across from us both, his knees drawn to his chest.
I try to catch my breath and calm myself down, but it isn't easy. I was dead. I was dead, and then I wasn't, and why? Because of Peter? Peter?
"I still can't believe that he helped you to escape," Marlene says. "And not only that, he fooled Jeanine. Not many people have ever done that. Imagine how angry she would be right about now. I would hate to be anywhere near her."
"It's about time someone stood up to her. She thinks the can rule over all the factions, when she couldn't even kill Tris," Eric says.
"So, does that mean you finally concede?" Uriah raises an eyebrow at Eric.
"Fine, you were right," Eric mumbles.
Uriah jumps off his seat and starts dancing around the room.
"Sit down, you clown," Eric calls out.
"I have to savour this moment Eric," Uriah says with a big smile. "It's not like you are going to let it happen again."
"Damn right I'm not," Eric commands.
I stare at him. He still looks so innocent, despite all that he has done to prove that he is not. His hair lies smooth against his head, shiny and dark, like we didn't just run for a mile at full speed. His round eyes scan the stairwell and then rest on my face.
"What?" he says. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"How did you do it?" I say.
"Finally," Lynn sighs. "I thought we were never going to find out why."
"It wasn't that hard," he says. "I dyed a paralytic serum purple and switched it out with the death serum. Replaced the wire that was supposed to read your heartbeat with a dead one. The bit with the heart monitor was harder; I had to get some Erudite help with a remote and stuff—you wouldn't understand it if I explained it to you."
"Sounds more like he doesn't understand it," Tori says. "But we can't complain, Tris is still alive."
"Could you imagine how hard it would have been for him to ask for help?" Lynn pipes up.
"That was probably the hardest part for him," I say.
"Why did you do it?" I say. "You want me dead. You were willing to do it yourself! What changed?"
He presses his lips together and doesn't look away, not for a long time. Then he opens his mouth, hesitates, and finally says, "I can't be in anyone's debt. Okay? The idea that I owed you something made me sick. I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to vomit. Indebted to a Stiff? It's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. And I couldn't have it."
"What are you talking about? You owed me something?"
He rolls his eyes. "The Amity compound. Someone shot me—the bullet was at head level; it would have hit me right between the eyes. And you shoved me out of the way. We were even before that—I almost killed you during initiation, you almost killed me during the attack simulation; we're square, right? But after that ..."
"He has to be insane," Eric mumbles. "How can he live like that?"
"What's his parents like?" Tori asks. "The ideas and thoughts that he has, they're not normal."
"You're insane," says Tobias. "That's not the way the world works ... with everyone keeping score."
Lynn, Zeke, Uriah and Tori all start laughing.
"What's so funny," I ask.
"You and Eric said almost the exactly same thing," Uriah answers. "I never thought I'd get to see you two like this." Eric and I are both shaking our heads. Just shut up Uri, I am thinking to myself.
"It's not?" Peter raises his eyebrows. "I don't know what world you live in, but in mine, people only do things for you for one of two reasons. The first is if they want something in return. And the second is if they feel like they owe you something."
"Those aren't the only reasons people do things for you," I say. "Sometimes they do them because they love you. Well, maybe not you, but ..."
Peter snorts. "That's exactly the kind of garbage I expect a delusional Stiff to say."
"I guess we just have to make sure you owe us," says Tobias. "Or you'll go running to whoever offers you the best deal."
"Yeah," Peter says. "That's pretty much how it is."
"At least he is honest about it," Christina remarks. Trust the Candor transfer to pick up on that first.
I shake my head. I can't imagine living the way he does—always keeping track of who gave me what and what I should give them in return, incapable of love or loyalty or forgiveness, a one-eyed man with a knife in hand, looking for someone else's eye to poke out. That isn't life. It's some paler version of life. I wonder where he learned it from.
"So when can we get out of here, you think?" Peter says.
"Couple hours," says Tobias. "We should go to the Abnegation sector. That's where the factionless and the Dauntless who aren't wired for simulations will be by now."
"Fantastic," says Peter.
Tobias puts his arm around me. I press my cheek into his shoulder, and close my eyes so I don't have to look at Peter. I know there is a lot to say, though I'm not sure exactly what it is, but we can't say it here, or now.
"I'm surprised your claustrophobia hasn't kicked in," Tris tells me. "We are in a small space, Peter of all people is with us."
"Maybe because it was a stairwell, I could see a way out," I suggest. With all that we had been through, who knows what was running through my mind.
"That's a page break," Max says.
As we walk the streets I once called home, conversations sputter and die, and eyes cling to my face and body. As far as they knew— and I'm sure they knew, because Jeanine knows how to spread news—I died less than six hours ago. I notice that some of the factionless I pass are marked with patches of blue dye. They are simulation-ready.
"Jeanine must have got to them before they they left the safe houses. I bet mummies going to be pissed at you about that little slip of the tongue," Eric says with a smirk.
I don't want to respond. I don't care what Evelyn thinks of me or what I did. If it meant saving Tris, I would do it again and again.
Now that we're here, and safe, I realize that there are cuts all over the bottoms of my feet from running over rough pavement and bits of glass from broken windows. Every step stings. I focus on that instead of all the stares.
"Tris?" someone calls out ahead of us. I lift my head, and see Uriah and Christina on the sidewalk, comparing revolvers. Uriah drops his gun in the grass and sprints toward me. Christina follows him, but at a slower pace.
"You just dropped you gun onto the grass?" Eric asks, shaking his head, clearly frustrated. "I would've thought you would know better than that Uriah. And around the factionless no less. It will be a miracle if it is still there when you go back for it."
Uriah reaches for me, but Tobias sets a hand on his shoulder to stop him. I feel a surge of gratitude. I don't think I can handle Uriah's embrace, or his questions, or his surprise, right now.
"Tris!" Uriah exclaims. "I can't believe you don't want one of my hugs." Uriah has a huge grin on his face, so we know he is just messing with Tris.
"She's been through a lot," Tobias says. "She just needs to sleep. She'll be down the street—number thirty-seven. Come visit tomorrow."
Uriah frowns at me. The Dauntless don't usually understand restraint, and Uriah has only ever known the Dauntless. But he must respect Tobias's assessment of me, because he nods and says, "Okay. Tomorrow."
"Damn right I do," Uriah says.
Christina reaches out as I pass her and squeezes my shoulder lightly. I try to stand up straighter, but my muscles feel like a cage, holding my shoulders hunched. The eyes follow me down the street, pinching the back of my neck. I am relieved when Tobias leads us up the front walk of the gray house that belonged to Marcus Eaton.
"You are going to Marcus' house?" Zeke almost shouts. "I can't imagine that being a good experience. I wonder if Marcus is there?"
"I doubt it," I say. "With all the factionless staying in Abnegation, I can't imagine that he would want too. Especially if Evelyn is there."
I don't know by what strength Tobias marches through the doorway. For him this house must contain echoes of screaming parents and belt snaps and hours spent in small, dark closets, yet he doesn't look troubled as he leads Peter and me into the kitchen. If anything he stands taller. But maybe that is Tobias—when he's supposed to be weak, he's strong.
"That's both of you," Lynn says. "You are both really brave."
"Thanks Lynn," Tris says with a big smile and I can see Lynn starting to blush. I always find it amusing when Lynn blushes.
Tori, Harrison, and Evelyn stand in the kitchen. The sight overwhelms me. I lean my shoulder into the wall and squeeze my eyes shut. The outline of the execution table is printed on my eyelids. I open my eyes. I try to breathe. They are talking but I can't hear what they're saying. Why is Evelyn here, in Marcus's house? Where is Marcus?
Evelyn puts one arm around Tobias and touches his face with the other, pressing her cheek to his. She says something to him. He smiles at her when he pulls away. Mother and son, reconciled. I am not sure it's wise.
"Your mother creeps me out," Uriah announces quite abruptly.
I understand why he said it and why he thinks it. I just wish it wasn't true. I wish I could have had at least one parent who I could be proud to call my parent. But no, Evelyn is turning out to be just as bad, if not worse than Marcus. Marcus believed he was doing the right thing, he thought it would make me a better person. I don't agree with his methods and I never will. It is debatable if I will ever really recover from what he did to me. Having Tris in my life is helping, giving me hope. Evelyn on the other hand completely abandoned me, only made contact when she thought she could benefit from the man I had become. I just nod my head to Uriah. What could I say? He is probably right.
Tobias turns me around and, keeping one hand on my arm and one on my waist, to avoid my shoulder wound, presses me toward the staircase. We climb the steps together.
Upstairs are his parents' old bedroom and his old bedroom, with a bathroom between them, and that's it. He takes me into his bedroom, and I stand for a moment, looking around at the room where he spent most of his life.
"If all Abnegation houses are the same size. Does that mean that the Eaton bedrooms would be larger than the Prior bedrooms because there were only two bedrooms in the Eaton house?" Will asks.
"Why would you think of that?" Christina asks Will looking completely baffled by his question.
"I don't know," Will says. "I'm just curious."
"Erudite," Christina teases with a small elbow to his side.
"STOP!, STOP IT!" Christina shouts as she starts to laugh. Will is tickling her.
The mood in the room has definitely become lighter since Tris was rescued.
He keeps his hand on my arm. He has been touching me in some way since we left the stairwell of that building, like he thinks I might break apart if he doesn't hold me together.
"Probably frightened you will try and walk back into Erudite and murder Jeanine," Eric remarks.
"Marcus didn't go into this room after I left, I'm pretty sure," says Tobias. "Because nothing was moved when I came back here."
"Isn't that really selfish?" Lynn asks. "Aren't they supposed to donate your clothes and stuff after you leave?"
"Yeah they are, but we are talking about Marcus," I answer.
Members of Abnegation don't own many decorations, since they are viewed as self-indulgent, but what few things we were allowed, he has. A stack of school papers. A small bookshelf. And, strangely, a sculpture made of blue glass on his dresser.
Everyone turns their heads to face me?
"What?" I ask.
"Pretty self-indulgent there Four," Zeke chuckles.
I just shrug. I'm sure I am about to explain it in the book.
"My mother smuggled that to me when I was young. Told me to hide it," he says. "The day of the ceremony, I put it on my dresser before I left. So he would see it. A small act of defiance."
"Damn," Lynn says. "And the bastard didn't even see it. How frustrating."
I nod. It is strange to be in a place that carries one single memory so completely. This room is sixteen-year-old Tobias, about to choose Dauntless to escape his father.
"Let's take care of your feet," he says. But he doesn't move, just shifts his fingers to the inside of my elbow.
"Okay," I say.
We walk into the adjoined bathroom, and I sit on the edge of the tub. He sits next to me, a hand on my knee as he turns on the faucet and plugs the drain. Water spills into the tub, covering my toenails. My blood turns the water pink.
"I would never have imagined Abnegation homes having a bath tub," Christina comments. "Did they let you take baths? Obviously they didn't let you use bubble bath."
"Only when you are younger. Once they think you are old enough then you can only have showers," Tris tells the room.
"What a waste of a good bath tub," Marlene says.
He crouches in the tub and puts my foot in his lap, dabbing at the deeper cuts with a washcloth. I don't feel it. Even when he smears soap lather over them, I don't feel anything. The bathwater turns gray.
"This is strange. It is like the end of Abnegation initiation when they have some old person clean your feet," Lynn says.
"How do you know all this?" Zeke asks. He looks confused.
"Faction history class," Lynn replies. "Did you learn anything at school?"
Zeke doesn't reply.
I pick up the bar of soap and turn it in my hands until my skin is coated with white lather. I reach for him and run my fingers over his hands, careful to get the lines in his palms and the spaces between his fingers. It feels good to do something, to clean something, and to have my hands on him again.
"Any excuse to touch him," Marlene giggles.
We get water all over the bathroom floor as we both splash it on ourselves to get the soap off. The water makes me cold, but I shiver and I don't care. He gets a towel and starts to dry my hands.
"I don't ..." I sound like I am being strangled. "My family is all dead, or traitors; how can I ..."
I am not making any sense. The sobs take over my body, my mind, everything. He gathers me to him, and bathwater soaks my legs. His hold is tight. I listen to his heartbeat and, after a while, find a way to let the rhythm calm me.
"You're an orphan now Tris," Tori remarks.
"Only in the book, Tori. Hopefully it won't happen."
"I'll be your family now," he says.
"Who knew Four could be so sweet," Marlene coos. "Ohhh."
"I love you," I say.
"Finally," Marlene throws her hands in the air. "I really thought you were never going to get the chance to tell him."
I said that once, before I went to Erudite headquarters, but he was asleep then. I don't know why I didn't say it when he could hear it. Maybe I was afraid to trust him with something so personal as my devotion. Or afraid that I did not know what it was to love someone. But now I think the scary thing was not saying it before it was almost too late. Not saying it before it was almost too late for me.
"I love you," Tris whispers into my ear. I turn and whisper the same words back. We are holding tight to one another, we have ever since Lynn and Marlene went back to their seats.
I am his, and he is mine, and it has been that way all along.
"All this romantic crap is going to make me sick," grumbles Zeke.
"Maybe you could learn a few things from Four," Shauna says with a small laugh. I bet she wishes Zeke could be more romantic but it's not really his style. He seems to show it in other ways.
He stares at me. I wait with my hands clutching his arms for stability as he considers his response.
He frowns at me. "Say it again."
"Tobias," I say, "I love you."
His skin is slippery with water and he smells like sweat and my shirt sticks to his arms when he slides them around me. He presses his face to my neck and kisses me right above the collarbone, kisses my cheek, kisses my lips.
"I love you, too," he says.
"End of chapter," Max says, shutting the book.
"Thank goodness," Zeke sighs. "I hope this doesn't mean we are going to have to deal with sex scenes between them."
"What is your problem with it?" Shauna asks. "You should be happy your friend found someone to love."
"I am happy, I just don't like hearing about it when I haven't got a drink in my hand," Zeke says.
"Can we have dinner now?" Uriah whines.