Thank you so much to Bamberlee for editing!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Have a lovely weekend!
We don't move.
At least not toward everyone on the shore.
Everly's fingers slide up my neck, digging into my hair. She holds on tightly, her body pressed against mine, and my arms tighten around her.
"Shit."
The moment is unfairly broken by them waving at us, and even from afar, it's hard to miss the jealousy on Rylan's face. Even Frank looks reasonably envious, and my assumption is he'll never touch a girl in his life. The three of them stand there yelling my name, and Everly sighs.
Her fingers slip possessively, dipping and dragging across my skin, and I find myself in no hurry to go over to them.
"What do they want?" Everly mumbles, busying herself with wrapping her legs tighter. This becomes an issue when my body reacts before I can point out we should go at least tell them hello. The rush of blood leaves my head, the high of kissing her, and heads south. My erection is instant, painful, and unnoticed by her.
If anything, she wiggles closer, forcing a low groan from my throat.
"How did they even get here? Can they leave Dauntless?"
"I guess," I mutter distractedly, and I turn my face toward her. It's hard to form a coherent thought with her wrapped around me, and my brain chooses to memorize her features instead. Her eyes are dark, a different green, and they lock on mine. "I have no idea how they got here. I doubt they walked."
My words make her laugh. She shakes her head slightly, and her disappointment is alluring. "Okay, well, how about this? We go say hi, then we send them to Forrest and we can come back here?" She smiles triumphantly, and around us, the waves of the lake coax us away from them.
I stare at Everly, wet hair, slick skin, and slender fingers moving down my neck, and we both know Rylan won't be good with a short greeting.
With my luck, he'll stay all night.
"Sadly, I don't think that'll work. We have to go see what they want. Maybe we can come back tomorrow," I cock an eyebrow at her, amusing myself at my own suggestion, and she gives in immediately. Her nod is quick, and her head bows to mine.
"Do you promise? You won't change your mind or decide you want to hang out with Judd?"
"I promise."
My answer loses out to her lips pressing against mine, quickly, and she loosens her grip with feigned reluctance. She unwraps her legs and takes off swimming, and I follow after her when I know she's alright.
For once, my head is not full of a million thoughts.
Sure, Jason and Rylan and Frank are here. And yeah, Rylan looks visible concerned and Jason –whom I've never even met, looks thrilled. Frank looks like he's regretting coming here, but he can't change his mind now.
I should be worried about why they're here, or what they want, or worse, realized Jeanine has officially gotten to Rylan and he's here for me.
But I don't.
I think of nothing but the feeling of Everly against me, and the warm, heavy goodness kissing her brought.
"What in the actual fuck are you doing?"
Rylan stands on the shore with his hands on his hips. His hair is undone out of the bun it's normally in, and despite the black shirt and black pants, he blends in easily. So does Jason. He's taller than I expected, thinner than Rylan, though not by much, and just as easy going. He takes in everything with wild abandon; his gaze sweeps over Everly –now wrapped in an oversized towel and staring at them like they're her long lost friends –and me.
The only one who doesn't quite fit is Frank.
He stands to the side, awkward as ever, and he looks away as I reach for my towel. I find some small satisfaction in how uncomfortable he is at the sight of my bare chest. Rylan had shown a pretty bleak view of Dauntless, and it seemed to lack even the idea of privacy. There wasn't anywhere to change that wasn't in the open, or with everyone else around. I didn't see a single private shower, or even a hint of an alcove to hide in.
For a second, I feel a rush of gratitude, strange and fleeting, at living here. I have privacy. I have a sort of temporary life carved away here, with a bedroom to just Everly and me, and not a single soul in Amity caring if I didn't put my shirt back on. Amity offered plenty of places to hide; you could fall into the fold without much trouble, or you could be as well-known as you want.
Rylan must have figured this out immediately upon arrival.
"Are you swimming? Or making out? Is this a public lake?"
"Our private lake is closed for the day," I snicker, and his head whips from me to Everly.
"You have a private lake here? Where? Show me." He demands, stepping toward her, and his head tilts as he stares her down. I notice the same injuries as before: a fading black eye, scratches, some red marks, and plenty of deep purple bruises. "You are much shorter than I thought. Jason and I had a long discussion about this and how it would line up. We were way off."
"Rylan…" I shake my head, and he can't hide his grin.
"You had a discussion about how tall I am? Why? I'm tall enough." Everly isn't at all mad, and I can see her trying to figure out if he's serious.
He is.
My guess would be Jason was the recipient of Rylan talking about Everly for hours, at least until Jason could switch places with Frank.
Or Four.
Who is still standing there, looking like he'd like to bolt.
"I'm Eric. Welcome to Amity."
"I'm…Four."
There is a slight hesitation to his voice, and it only comes from not knowing which name I associate him with. He knows Rylan introduced him as Frank, but they clarified both his real name –Tobias, and the numerical one he was assigned.
"How did you get here?" Everly pulls her towel tighter, and when she bends down to pick up the blanket, both Jason and Rylan spring into action. One grabs the basket, the other grabs the blanket.
"Did you drive?"
"Sort of," Jason grins. "We took the train. We got directions, left at a shift change, and decided to come here and say hello."
"Well…that and Amar is dead. But also because I wanted to see if Everly is as short in real life as she appeared on the video." Rylan throws out casually, and he winks at me. "Where's your house? We want to see it."
"Wait…" I pause, and so does Everly. We look at each other, then back at Rylan. "Your instructor is dead? And you came here? What about your initiation?"
"We don't know if he's dead for sure," Frank or Four interjects. He has the faintest hint of stress to him, and it increases the longer he stands there. "He went missing two days ago. Right after we talked to you."
His stare stays on me, burning with annoyance.
"Oh, and you think I have something to do with it?" I stare back, and I don't look away as Everly hands me my shirt. "You think he's hiding out here?"
His pause is telling.
"Well…no…"
"Yes, yes he does. He's all butt hurt because he was Amar's favorite and now we have Harrison and he hates us all equally." Rylan moves closer to Everly, and he ducks his head down by hers. "Are there wild animals here? Like…wild, wild animals? Not pets. I've seen pets before."
"Tons. My brother likes to trap squirrels and train them." Everly informs him, and his eyes light up. "A lot of people have livestock for pets. Um, after initiation, everyone gets a cow, a dozen chickens, and a couple of pigs. To get you started."
"Hold up," Jason elbows Four, and Four is the only one not looking impressed. "Four, he's not here. We'll ask around, but they said –"
"So, you're telling me you get a cow, chickens, pigs, private lodging, a lake you can swim in, a private lake, and a small wife. You know what we got? Some black underwear. Oh, and I got some fractured ribs. Jason got a hairline fracture to his elbow. Four showed up with a million fractures. He's past saving at this point."
"Really?" Everly stares at all of them, and her worry is instantaneous. "You're all injured? All of you? Still?"
"Yeah, sucks. It really hurts. They barely gave me anything for it." Jason grins, and he points in the distance. "You want to see if they have a band aid here? There's a store we walked past."
"What do you need a band aid for? Are you bleeding?" Everly steps closer to me, and the two of us face all of them. The height difference is even more noticeable as she stands beside me, and Rylan pretends to measure her with his fingers. "We have an infirmary here."
"You do?" Four looks at me, and I nod.
I would smirk, but there's something off about him.
And not just the way his stare returns to me, hot with jealousy and anger. I know right then and there he ran away from someone, too.
"Yeah, we do. You'll love it." I smile widely, not at all meaning it, and I gesture for them to follow me. "This way. We'll have someone come look at all your…injuries."
"Sounds good to me," Jason agrees quickly, and I decide I like him.
He talks as Four and Rylan step aside. We listen as Rylan asks if he's alright, and when Four nods, Rylan insists Amar is fine. Despite his inability not to include Four in his jokes, Rylan looks concerned. He sticks close to Four's side, and when I glance back, he looks at me and shakes his head.
Our walk is loud. At the halfway mark, Everly points out something for Rylan to look at, and the world of Amity becomes very real as he takes it all in.
A goat. A donkey. A donkey wearing a festive party hat. A chicken, wearing a pair of tiny sandals. A woman announcing they are having a birthday party for her horse, and a yelled out invitation to stop by for cake. Next to her is May, with a tiny duck in the pocket of her sweater, and a beer in her hand.
"You should come have some cake," May calls out, and her eyes narrow at me. "Especially you, Eric. Swimming burns a lot of calories. So do other…water related activities."
I wave, and my smile is condescending at best. Before I can tell her to quit spying on me, Everly declines for all of us.
She waves them off, cheerfully explaining we're heading home, but to please save us some cake.
Rylan turns around in pure delight when he realizes the woman absolutely will.
"She's hot. I like her hair. It's very…long and dark. Sort of like…a genie."
I glare at Rylan from the kitchen table. He's in the kitchen, rummaging through the pantry, while we all sit beside Eden and Four. She's methodically putting all sorts of stuff on him, things that smell strong and faintly medicinal, and she murmurs her discontent with each passing second.
At first, I thought he wanted something to stop the bleeding from their training. Jason –far calmer once Rylan went over to see what we had to eat –explained their initiation took a brutal turn with the disappearance of their trainer. They were put under Harrison's command, but when something took him out of Dauntless, Gabe took over. All Jason really said was Gabe was obnoxious, a single year older than them, and had a bullring through his nose. He made them fight until they couldn't fight anymore, got involved with a few to show them how to really fight, and he only stopped when Arlene stormed down and nearly took him out herself.
Gabe had more than a lust for blood.
After dozens of broken bones, a few broken noses, one girl shrieking how Gabe was killing them, and one boy who threw up all over the training room, Arlene had had enough. Rylan told me through a haze of blood and sweat, he saw her march right over to Gabe, and kick him behind the knee. He went down gracelessly, and once she had the upper hand, she yanked the ring right out of his nose.
According to Jason, the scream was epic.
I smiled in appreciation for her. I know Arlene, and there was no doubt she didn't like her infirmary being overrun. All in all, it was the distraction everyone needed. With no one really looking out for the class, Jason, Rylan, and Four dipped out. They ate an early dinner and left with a bunch of others looking to escape for a few hours. They could have gone through the city. The initiates were given three days off to recover from Gabe's rampage, and rather than exploring with friends or going to beg Arlene for some pain relievers, they chose to come find me.
They did.
Now, I am realizing the bruises on Four aren't all brand new. Some look older, like they'd been permanently branded into his skin, but others, like the cut Eden is busy examining, appear to be very fresh.
"She's always had long hair. I tried to cut it once but she got really upset. That's alright. She's happy. And she is very pretty," Eden agrees, and when she looks over at me, I flash her one tight smile.
Everly is very pretty.
Half an hour ago, I was kissing her in the lake.
Now, I'm sitting here while Four gets enough oil slathered on him to drug a grown man and Everly is nowhere to be found.
"Where did she go?" Eden waits for my answer, like I have some sort of Everly tracker, and I glance around. "Eric, did you see her?"
"Wait, is all this food provided? Even the spices?" Rylan pops his head out, and he holds up a jar. "Do you even like oregano? You don't. Can I have this?"
"What are you gonna do with a jar of oregano?" I stare back darkly, and Everly appears from the entry way. I hadn't heard anyone knock, so she must have gone somewhere. She heads right over to us, looking oddly pleased. "Where did you come from?"
"Hi!" She greets everyone like she hadn't just vanished off the face of the Earth for ten minutes. "I went to see if Forrest was home. He wasn't…so then I went to find Tris."
"Who is Tris? Can I have this jelly?"
"Rylan, get out of the kitchen!" I roar, and my head hurts at the thought of all of them here. "Why did you go find Tris? Was she missing?"
"Hi."
She's not missing.
She's right there, and my secluded, out of the way, average, Amity house with the most privacy one could have is suddenly crammed with people. Tris walks over to us slowly, pausing to smile at Everly, and I stare at her in pure horror. Her smile falters when she sees me, and her eyes become suspicious. Then she stands up straighter, like she's noticed everyone is looking at her, and she introduces herself.
"I'm Tris. Everly said you had friends over. It's okay if you're busy. I can go home. I just…wanted to get out for a while. It's really crowded where I'm staying."
I turn my head to Everly, who is busy trying not to look too excited. We lock eyes, and for a second, I can almost hear a telepathic I told you so.
Everly was right. Tris reminds me exactly of Four, and I have no doubt they'll hit it off.
"I found out Forrest is working, and I thought after you finished…doing whatever it is you're doing over there, we could all go have a drink." Everly announces. "You guys will love him."
Her intentions are incredibly kind and spoken oh so brightly. Not only does she remember Jason and Rylan's jealousy over us having a bar here, she's inviting Four to his first ever social outing, and she's even found him a partner willing to overlook everything about him.
"You want to go to the bar? Really? Because last time we went, you lasted one drink." I blink at her, slowly, and she throws me a not that dirty look.
"Wait, the bar you guys were at?" Jason turns, looking endlessly excited. "I'm in."
"Same," Rylan yells, still busy foraging through the cabinets. "Is this honey organic or did you buy it at a store? Do you have bee farms here?"
"We do!" Eden answers, and I have to say, she looks just as delighted at his enthusiasm as he is. "Though technically, it's a bee colony."
"I'd like to go there, immediately." Rylan counters. He waits until I look at him, and I know he's never leaving. "Also, is there anything in the lake? Fish? Sharks? A monster that's lurked for a hundred years only to never really be spotted?"
"I know Eric would love to show you around, so maybe you guys can stay the night? We can go to Harry's for dinner and drinks. My brother owns it and it's…um…. well, it's a really fun bar." Everly continues, as though Amity has dozens of bars, and she's a frequent member at all of them. "I think you'll like it. We can get free drinks."
"Forrest would love to meet you. You all seem very nice and he'll take good care of you," Eden comments, but her frown is dark when she pulls Four's sleeve down. "I'm going to give you something to take back home. It'll help. If you run out or it doesn't help, just call Eric. Everly doesn't have a phone. At least not that I know of."
I ignore her knowing I have a phone.
At this rate, I'm sure she knows I've kissed her daughter, and I'm sure the wedding planning is imminent.
"You should all go say hi to Forrest. He's started serving food there now and he'd love for you to try it out." Eden is overjoyed by this plan, and unfortunately for me, so is everyone else.
Rylan meets my stare, and his wide eyes and charming grin are enough to tell me I'll be spending the evening at Harry's, watching Four and Tris blink at each other.
"We accept! Dinner, drinks, then whatever lurks beneath the water of the lake and the bee factory!"
He declares his plans for the evening loudly, and I'm the only one who isn't entirely as enthused. Jason nods in agreement, and even Four manages a brave smile at the thought of spending an entire night out with them.
I groan inwardly, realizing my quiet evening with Everly is toast.
This time, her fingers graze mine on purpose.
Everly walks beside me, and we lag a few steps behind everyone else. We'd all left after Eden finished whatever she was doing to Four, and she whispered something to him when she stood up. He looked relieved; his shoulders relaxed by a few feet, and he managed a terse smile as Tris introduced herself again, to only him.
She and Everly shared the same lack of fear when it came to wandering right up to whoever. She stood by Four, told him she knew who he was, and their connection was instant. Anyone could see it; they did know each other and had both come from Abnegation. They quickly and quietly began discussing something, and the look of awareness on Tris' face was enough to solidify that they'd walk together.
Unlike Everly, Tris kept a careful distance.
Her attention stayed on Four, but she stayed a few steps away with her arms crossed.
"You know this is a terrible idea, don't you?" I glance down at Everly, her hair still damp from the quick showers we'd both taken, and her sundress a bit too sunny for the darkening sky. The air is by no means cool, but it hints that fall isn't far off. A few homes have fires burning. The scent of smoke and burnt wood brushes against us as we walk, and it only adds to the ambiance of living in the middle of nowhere.
Rylan and Jason both look around as they walk, pointing out whatever catches their eye. It's comical to watch their heads go from side to side as they try to take in all the sights. Wildlife appearing out of nowhere, frogs chirping, the lazy fireflies rising up then dropping right back down, and people sitting on porches. The sense of community is strong here; almost everyone waves or calls out hello. May sits with Jerry, watching us leave with the barest hint of a smile. Her eyes fly to Jason and Rylan, and when our stares cross, she smirks.
"Which part? Introducing Tris and Four or going to the bar?" Everly glances up at me, and her lips turn up. "I thought you'd want to show your friends a good time. The least we can do is show them around. Especially the beehives."
Her voice is sweet, floating up with the wind and probably a few bats, and I find myself staring at her until she frowns at me.
"What? Do you really not like fun?"
"Oh, this will be fun, alright. You've never witnessed Rylan drunk. And I don't even know Jason. Or…Four." I slow down considerably, and Everly does, too. "He and Tris know each other?"
"They're both from Abnegation. I told her you had a friend from Abnegation and he was here and maybe she could come along with us. I wanted to invite her over and you seemed…hesitant at best." Everly stops, and I do, too.
In horror, of her thinking Four is my friend.
"Hesitant? She threw a chicken in my face." I stare down at her, and she stares up at me. "What are you? The matchmaker of Amity?"
"No," she answers quickly, and her response makes me blink. "I'm not…trying to marry her off. He doesn't even live here. But she hasn't made a lot of friends. Just Al and Al is doing terrible but I guess he's nice enough. He did get offered a job with one of the farmers. So, she could marry him."
"How come Forrest isn't married? Everyone here seems to be either dating or engaged or married by the time they're eighteen. How old is Forrest?" I raise an eyebrow at her because this thought just hit me. "Shouldn't he be married?"
She presses her lips together.
There's a beat of silence, and her answer isn't really what I'm expecting.
"He's getting married in a few months. My mom will invite you to the wedding. You don't have to worry about that." Everly does her best not to grin while she says this, and she knows damn well that's not why I'm asking. "Okay, look, he dated a girl named Kelsey for a while. It ended horribly. He's only a few years older than me, and they dated for like, four years. She dumped him for Judd and that didn't go well, either. When she tried to get back together with him, he'd already met Willow. So yeah, he's a few years behind but it's not his fault."
I choose to ignore her saying he's behind because at the old age of twenty, he doesn't have a dozen children.
"How many kids will they have?" I eye Everly warily, but I take in her small stature, the slight curves highlighted by her dress, and the way I have her complete attention. "Ten?"
"Probably a couple. Not everyone has to have a million children." Everly's bravery dims, and she crosses her arms. Her defensiveness comes out of nowhere, considering she told me she wanted to leave Amity. I can't tell if it's the questioning about her brother, or me bringing up the expectations of repopulating Amity. "You don't have to have any kids, you know. You could just…have a cow. I don't care."
It's a surreal moment for me, and it's made more surreal when she glares at me. There's some odd tension here, a frustration I don't understand. My mind races to try and figure out why she looks upset, but I have little to go off. I've said something she doesn't like, but I have no clue how to fix this.
"A cow?"
This time, she scowls. "I don't make the rules here. It's not even a rule. May doesn't have any kids. Jerry only has Landon and no one else–"
"Are you mad?" I interrupt her, which is a bad choice because her eyes flash, but her face falls in defeat. "I didn't…I didn't say anything about me having children." I stop my own self from talking, and I close the distance between us. "Look, I like your brother. Forrest is a really kind guy. He's been nothing but welcoming. I'll go to his wedding if that's what you want. It's just weird to me that everyone's highest goal is to get married and have children. Or that you invited Tris knowing Numero Quatro has to leave at some point."
"You'll go to his wedding? Really?" Everly tilts her head up higher, and I woozily realize I'm in way over my head as she ignores everything but that.
Forget trying to blend into Amity and avoid my aunt showing up. Forget passing initiation or being given a cow to take care of. Forget figuring out a way of not attending an Amity wedding, even one for Everly's brother.
I have to figure out Everly, and this might be harder than anything.
"You'll go to Forrest's wedding? Because you'll be done with initiation by then. We'll be…." She trails off, trying to figure out the future. "I don't know. Actually. But you'll be a member of Amity and you'll be invited since you know me."
Our time in the lake waffles away, and I loathe the feeling. I don't want this. I want her to be happy. The thought hits me in the face, just like the chicken, and I understand how I'm about to snap under the weight of it. Despite not knowing her for very long or understanding how she could have decided she and I were meant to experience Amity together, I don't want her to be mad at me.
She is the sole person in Amity I have, other than the friends and family associated with her. We both know if she went to them upset, they'd side with her.
Undoubtedly.
But it's more than that.
She's showing me I could be happy here, and I could be happy with her. If I let myself.
Unfortunately for me, I have no clue how to fix this. Any time Daniel and Blythe argued, it was quiet and dark, full of razor-sharp insults and accusations. One of them usually left, and it was almost always Daniel.
I don't think that'll work here.
"Yeah, okay, so we'll go to Forrest's wedding and then we can go to Four and Tris' wedding because we've lost them and he probably ran off since she's the first girl he's ever talked to." I very reasonably deflect all these feelings and Everly narrows her eyes. Her lips turn up slightly, and she shakes her head, seeing through the bullshit.
"We did lose them. But Harry's isn't that far. I'm sure they found it by now." She inches closer, so close my chest is nearly touching her arm. "How do you know she's the first girl he's ever talked to?"
"How do you not?" I hold back the bark of laughter that threatens, and in the distance, an owl hoots. "Actually, wait, he did talk to your mom."
"Funny," Everly answers dryly, and I have all the appreciation in the world for her sense of humor. She seems less upset now, and there's a smack of relief to her looking up at me. "Are you happy your friends are here? Maybe you could show them the greenhouses? You could show them all the plants you labeled. I bet they'd be impressed. Maybe more than the bees."
Her optimism makes my chest hurt. Her whole world hinges on others being happy. For half a second, I wonder if she'd fit in somewhere else. She seems to want to help everyone, sometimes without being asked, and she never thought twice about it. Combined with the flashes of bravery, the generally sweet disposition, the belief she could fight, and an interest in reading, Everly could have easily fit into any faction.
My stomach turns over.
It tenses sharply, making me want to step away from her.
Instead, I step closer.
"You know, I think Rylan would be impressed if I told him I could name all the plants here. He's allergic to bees anyway," I force a smile, one so tight and painful I'm sure she sees through it, but I can't think straight.
Everly belongs here. I couldn't see her in Dauntless, not unless one person took her under their wing and trained her. The bruises Jason and Four had were vibrant. Harsh. Telling. Even Rylan's mention of fractured ribs is enough to show me Everly wouldn't have lasted there. I can't picture her anywhere but here, or maybe, I just don't want to.
"Should we go meet them?" Everly asks, only because the air is now still.
The sounds of Amity fall away, and we are left with just us, in this weird moment. I have a second of clarity when she shrugs, waiting for me to answer, and I know she wants to be happy, too.
"Not yet." I shake my head at her, and my hands find her waist before I can stop myself. "I'm sure Forrest is a great host and an even better bartender."
I bend my head down, and she rises up on her toes. Not only is Everly smart, she's very willing to go after what she wants. Her fingers slide into my hair, and her mouth is on mine before either of us can say another word.
"He's a terrible bartender. You'll find that out, too." She mumbles when she pulls away from me, kissing my cheek before returning to my lips. Her actions aren't quite as practiced as Ashley's had been, but she's not entirely inexperienced. When she pulls me back to her, her nose brushing against mine and a soft, mewl of delight when I pull her closer, I know she's kissed someone else.
The spark of jealousy I feel is brand new.
"Oh, and he almost burned our house down. He decided to grill vegetables inside. So, don't let him fool you into thinking he's some sort of cooking wiz–"
I don't want to listen anymore.
I press my lips to hers, biting until they part, and the rush of satisfaction is less that she's giving in and more the thrill of how good this all feels. I kiss her harder, frantic as the sounds of Amity return, and my tongue touches hers just as someone yells my name. We both ignore it. My hands ruin her hair; they grasp and slide deep into the sides, curling near her scalp. I move one back to touch her cheek, her neck, then the bow tied on the strap of her dress. Her skin is warm as my fingers graze it, but it's ruined when they yell my name again –louder –and their footsteps are heavy. I pull back, turning to look in the direction of the noise.
"Are you serious right now?!" Everly blurts out with a look of extreme annoyance. "Again? Who is that?"
"It's Jason." I watch as she fixes her hair, smoothing it back down, then adjusts the straps on her dress. I like how disheveled she looks, and how pissed off she is that he interrupted us. "They probably got lost."
"Next time I'm giving them a map." Everly retorts, but her anger fades a second later.
It is Jason, and he is looking for us. His smile is sheepish, like he knows he interrupted something, and very patient. His words are not.
"Forrest sent me to find you. And uh, Rylan says he's never leaving. So…I thought maybe you should come talk to him because we do have to go back at some point. I don't even know if we'll get all three days off."
He's clearly the most logical out of all of them.
"Sure. We just stopped to talk about something. Actually, we were talking about…Forrest. He's getting married," I announce, and I'm sure I sound like an idiot. "Here, we'll just walk with you."
"Cool, and hey, thanks for being friends. I know this is weird. Rylan talks about you all the time." Jason falls in line with us, and this time, we walk faster. "Well, now he talks about Everly, too. But I'm sure you know what I mean."
"I do," I decide I really like him. He's normal, not looking like he wants to run away, and he's mastered the art of being Rylan's friend. "We're both glad you're here. I know Everly wanted to meet you after she saw you on the phone."
I look over at her, and her nod is instantaneous.
So is her hand touching mine.
I have no idea what she wants me to do, so I fumble with her fingers, until she slips them between mine. I'm awfully slow considering I'm from Erudite, and oddly enough, not all that brave.
She tightens her grip, making sure I'm not letting go, and my stomach turns over pleasantly, just like when I jumped off the cliff.
"What else do you have to do for your initiation? Do you have to dress like you live here?"
Rylan, three beers and one fancy cocktail later, spins around on the barstool. Jason laughs when he hits him, also three beers and one less fancy cocktail in, and he slows down by drinking some water. Four and Tris have drunk nothing; I hazily remember someone bringing them sodas, sort of flat and weird looking, and Everly and me something strong.
She didn't really drink hers.
She sipped at it, while eating the French fries Forrest dropped off.
He was, predictably, thrilled we were here. The fact that we had guests with us made it even better. He leapt across the bar, nearly knocking out Judd in the process, and greeted us like we were his long-lost friends. In this moment, he was the king of Amity. He swept his arms wide, dramatically announced any friend of mine and Everly's was a friend of his, and declared we could have whatever we wanted, on the house.
It was a terrible decree because I knew they'd never want to leave. After weeks of brutal, grueling fighting and mental torture, this had to feel like heaven. The bar is dimly lit, crowded, and smells like the strongest alcohol one could imagine. It has the feeling of familiarity to it, even if you've never been here, and not a single person is fighting. Everyone knows each other. A few tables away, some of the farmers are celebrating the birth of a dozen goats, and beside them, people are playing darts. The bar top is full, each seat taken by people nursing drinks and laughing, and the slow ease to it all is intoxicating.
So is my hand on Everly's leg.
I don't remember putting it there, but her skirt shifted higher, and her skin is warm beneath my fingers.
"Should I be wearing something else?" I laugh at Rylan, feeling oddly free and less inhibited than ever. There's a strange high to sitting here with him, and even with Jason, and it intensifies when Everly leans into me. Her arm is against mine, and she ducks her head when someone calls out that they've hit the bullseye.
"You know what I mean," Rylan's eyes hold a mischievous twinkle that should make me nervous. "I never thought the day would come when I'd see you wear pink."
"My shirt is red, dumbass." I throw a napkin at him, rolling my eyes when Jason snickers. "And I never thought I'd see the day when you voluntarily came to Amity."
"I could say the same for you," he points out, and his shrug tells me I've reminded him of something unpleasant. "I should have. Dauntless is brutal, man. We talked about it on the walk into Amity. They said it's all to make us fearless, but some of it seems like they're fucking with us. One girl had a total breakdown a few days ago. She left and didn't come back."
"Amar going missing hasn't helped. Dauntless is full of soldiers and cameras, and somehow, the guy is nowhere to be found. Now everyone is on edge and pissed off."
"Where do you think he went? Or did someone kill him?" I take a sip of my beer, and my leg touches Everly's. "Does someone want him dead?"
"Well, Jeanine wants everyone dead. So maybe her," Rylan rolls his eyes, and this time, he spins in reverse. "By the way, you didn't tell me how terrifying she really is. I thought I knew her, but turns out, she's a little more dangerous than one could have imagined."
"Really? You're shocked she's not kissing your ass?" I feel Everly's foot kick mine, and if I moved, she'd probably fall over.
"I mean, how can you not kiss my ass? She's so desperate for something but I don't know what. She just keeps waxing on about how you screwed her over and she needs someone on the inside of Dauntless as well as someone who can go to the other factions. I thought Max was helping her, because he's sort of…interesting, but maybe not. Every time she's shown up, she looks stressed." Rylan stops spinning, and he holds onto the table. "Whoa, now I'm dizzy. That's a rush."
"Don't throw up in here," Jason warns him. "I don't want to get kicked out. I like it here."
"It's not bad," Everly agrees quietly, and when I glance down, her smile is genuine. Happiness looks good on her, especially now that whatever minor disagreement we had is completely over. "You guys should have picked here. We could have all been friends."
"We are friends, Everly. Best friends. You can't take that back, ever. And I would have come here, had Eric told me he was coming here." The accusation behind his eyes is personal, and I nod in agreement. "You said you were picking Dauntless."
"Yeah, but…." I pause, thinking back to the choosing ceremony. "I changed my mind. I'd say it's working out pretty well."
"Oh, you think?" Rylan answers mockingly, but his laugh that follows is reassurance he's not really mad. "Well, if we get Gabe again, I'm out. I can't handle it. It hurts when I laugh and it hurts when I walk. I signed up for protecting the city, not Four punching me in the head."
"Hey, where did he go?" Jason asks, and I follow his gaze in the direction of where Four was sitting. "They're gone."
"Did they go outside?" Rylan sits up, and he waves Forrest over. "They should be careful. The woods are full of Chupacabras."
"No, they are not." I answer dryly, ignoring Everly's giggling and Jason's amused snort. "Rylan…"
"You should meet my dad. He loves that kind of stuff. He said he sees all kinds of stuff in the woods. Sometimes, he hunts for them." Everly lifts her head up and Rylan freezes. "What? What's wrong?"
"Oh, I met your dad. Harrison? I got read the riot act about what was Eric doing with his precious daughter. He wanted to know where I got the phone, how I knew you both, why I was calling. He's intense. I'm not sure how the whole…separate factions thing works out."
"It doesn't," Everly answers lowly. "He lives there. He comes to Amity every so often. What did he ask you about Eric?"
"Oh, you know…what are his intentions? What color suit should he wear to the wedding."
Everly cracks a smile, but the topic of her father is a sore one for her. She nods, then sinks back against me.
"He misses you. He told me that," Rylan insists, and he must have noticed her expression fall. "He said he's glad you look happy."
I look at Rylan, and he's got a hint of panic to him. He keeps talking, tripping over his words, until Everly smiles something more reassuring.
"It's okay. I know his work is important. I just wish I could see him more."
"Yeah, I'm sure he feels the same."
It's the last thing Rylan says before Tris and Four show back up. They both look happier than they did a while ago, and I'm sure they both had a lovely time staring at things like grass and trees.
"Hey, I think we're gonna finish these and go home. Are you guys going back to Dauntless?" I take another sip of the drink, cold and bitter, and Everly takes a sip of hers. We wait until Jason and Rylan both shake their heads, and I know what's coming next.
Fortunately, I have a plan.
"Well, I do owe you."
Hank's smile is genuine. He grins at Jason and Rylan, both eyeing his house like they've never seen such a fantastic place. I can see Rylan itching to run up the stairs to see what's on the second floor, and Jason is just as curious. He touches one of the plants on the entryway table, and his fingers toy with the large leaf.
"Just for tonight. We don't have anywhere for them to sleep." Everly explains, but her father isn't listening.
He doesn't even need a reason to let them stay.
He points up the stairs and tells them there are two empty bedrooms on the right. "You can each have one. One was Forrest's and one was Paisley's. Paisley decided she wanted to share a room with Holly, but really, she wants Everly's room. We told her to wait to see if you came back."
Beside me, Everly's stare drops. I imagine there's some lingering attachment to her old bedroom, but there's also some horror in the expectation of them wanting her to come back. She'd told me they needed help, and it was unlikely you'd get your own house unless you were married. I wonder if her sudden attachment is more that; perhaps I am an option because she doesn't want to live here.
I don't think it's that at all.
She leans in closer to me, until her arm touches mine.
"I was going to move my stuff out after initiation."
Hank doesn't seem surprised. He nods, then tells Jason to yell if they need blankets or anything else. "You two heading home? Wasn't there another one? A tall guy?"
"He went with Tris," Everly does her best to ignore my snicker and I hope Four enjoys sleeping amongst the pigeons. "Thanks Dad. We'll come get them in the morning."
"No rush. Your mother will keep them entertained. There's no class tomorrow, so you can sleep in."
"There isn't?" I stare at him in confusion, and his hesitation is quick, but he catches himself. "I thought we had –"
"Howard isn't feeling well. We'll resume in a few days. It happens." Hanks shrugs, then bids us goodnight. "You sure you don't want to take Zander with you? He's been talking about Eric since the other night. He said Eric was the best at hide and seek, ever. That's a high honor coming from him."
My eyes widen in horror, but Everly yanks on my arm and shakes her head furiously. "No. Goodnight, Dad. Tell Mom I'll see her later."
We leave before he can offer another sibling, and unwilling to jinx our good luck, we both stay quiet on our walk home, listening to the sounds of Amity take over.
"Move."
"No."
Everly takes a page out of my book, and deftly refuses to sleep on her own side of the bed by answering with a single word. It might have been the single drink she'd sipped, each taste graced by a scrunched up face and a steal of my water, or perhaps it's because she's cold.
I'd noticed the change tonight, too.
On our walk to her parents' house, the air felt crisper. It was like all the warm, golden tones had been sucked out of it, and the night was taking over. I wasn't cold, but Everly was.
"Okay, well I'm going to sleep on your side of the bed then." My exasperation is fleeting; she blinks up at me, and scoots over a fraction of an inch.
"You could go sleep with Four if you need more room," she snickers, and I push her on purpose. "Hey!"
"Who knew you had such a hysterical sense of humor?" I roll my eyes and pull the covers up higher. She's almost hard to see beneath them, and I sink back into the pillow, prepared for her nightly inquisition.
She loves to ask me all kinds of questions, and she especially loves to ask them when she thinks I'll answer.
Right before I fall asleep.
"Eric?"
"Yes?" I look at her out of the side of my eye, and she's doing her best not to laugh. I wonder if she expects me to kiss her goodnight, but the moment is gone when she glances at the door. There's a flash of horror, and it dawns on me she might have more surprises in store for me. "What? Did you invite someone else over? Is someone else dropping by? Maybe for dessert?"
"I don't know anyone else." She's not entirely being truthful; she knows all of Amity, but she means anyone else who could visit. "I just wanted to tell you goodnight. I hope you had fun."
I hold her stare for just a minute, until mine falls to her lips, and I realize kissing her goodnight will not be a smart plan.
Because if we start up again, neither of us will stop. With Rylan in Amity, there is a high potential for being interrupted, and I don't think I can handle that. Not after kissing her in the lake and on the walk to Harry's.
So my answer is short and clipped, meant to keep her on her own side of the bed.
"Tons."
"Good." She finally smiles, looking pretty pleased at both her matchmaking skills and how our evening turned out. She falls asleep in seconds, an ability I do not possess, and it doesn't take her long to kick me in her sleep.
To my surprise, I fall asleep not long after.
My eyes close at the sound of the wind picking up, the faint flashes of light cracking against the windows, and a soothing howl.
I open my eyes once the storm is in full force.
I blink at Everly shoving my shoulder, and her eyes are wide.
"Eric, wake up!"
I stare in confusion, not even close to being awake, and she looks panicked. Her eyes are glued to the window, and the sound of heavy rainfall is loud. It's jarring. In Erudite, our house was large and spacious, and I never once heard rain like this. Maybe my room was too far beneath the roof, or maybe Jeanine controlled the weather and didn't want a downpour in her precious faction, but it was nothing like this.
"It's just rain. Go back to sleep." I mutter, and the strange scenario of sleeping beside her only furthers itself. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be sharing a house, let alone a bed, with someone, and they'd have the audacity to wake me up to tell me it's raining.
"What if the roof collapses?" Everly inches closer, pressing herself against my side, and I can feel her intense fear that it might happen. It's strange and sudden. She moves even closer, her cold leg pressing against my side, and her fingers digging into my bicep. "Who knows who built it?"
Unwilling to debate Amity construction techniques, I exhale heavily. "It won't collapse. I'm assuming it's rained here before."
"Yeah, but not like this," she insists, and she's now so close there's no space between us. The sound of thunder explodes through the air, and when the wind picks up, both seem to bang against the house. There are a few more flashes of lightning, bright enough to illuminate the whole room, and they are timed close together. "I always had Zander with me when it stormed. Or my dad would stay up and we'd watch it together."
"I'm not getting up to watch water fall from the sky," I crankily inform her, and when she looks down at me, I can see she's dead serious. "Everly, just go to sleep. It's….it's two thirty in the morning."
"Did you know it was going to rain?"
Her fear of this storm is surprising, but it's also unrelenting. It's obvious she's freaked out by it, and I wouldn't imagine she would be. I hadn't grown up living in the woods, but she had. I feel like at some point, she'd have gotten used to how noisy it is here, and how the weather is violent out in the open.
"No, I must have missed the weather announcements when Johanna gave them." I close my eyes and will her back to sleep, and my lust for being unconscious is smashed when she pushes on my chest as the loudest, largest crack of thunder explodes in the air. I willingly admit it's strange sounding; it's amplified out here, and the windows rattle.
For a brief second, I ponder if the roof could collapse.
"Okay, but Eric…"
I know what she wants. I reach for her, pulling her against my chest, and she immediately takes refuge as though if the roof does collapse, it'll be less harmful this way. I give in to this a little bit more, shoving my leg through hers and pulling her up higher, and that's it.
Everly puts her head on my chest, her face pressed down, and her arm over me. It takes some maneuvering to get comfortable; sharing a bed is one thing, but letting her sleep like this –on me, is another. The weight of her is strange, but pleasant. I can feel her breathing, slow and uneven inhales and exhales, and her fingers tense against my t-shirt. Like the others, it's not mine. It's soft and worn, almost too small, but fine considering I was going to bed.
"Go back to sleep. It'll stop raining soon. The storms don't last forever." I close my eyes as my hands touch the back of her head and the size difference has never been more obvious. "Even if it does, maybe we'll get a few more days off."
"That doesn't sound so bad," she mumbles, but she relaxes. She sinks further against me, content now that she won't die from the storm, or even if she does, she gets to die while laying on top of me. "Goodnight, Eric."
"Goodnight."
I fall back asleep almost instantly, and I dream of her telling me she doesn't control the weather, but Rylan does.
I wake up burning hot.
The rain is less intense now, and the wind has died down to only howling every other minute. The house is cold, chilly thanks to the drop in temperature, and soothingly calm now that the storm has lessened. But I'm not focused on that.
I open my eyes to pure agony, and that agony is Everly almost entirely on top of me, clinging on like she's about to fall off. I never once spent the night with Ashley, so this is entirely brand new. Her legs are over mine, her arms are thrown over me, and the feeling of her is all too good.
"Fuck."
I hiss to no one, except my own response to her sleeping on top of me, and the inability to do a single thing about it.
"And then, she made us breakfast."
Rylan, smugger than ever, sits across from me, eating his lunch. Next to him is Jason, looking far better than he did yesterday, also eating his breakfast. Nowhere is Four.
"Did she now?" I take a bite of my own sandwich, and across from me, Everly's eyes widen. "What? Don't tell me, Carole poisoned the bread?"
"No, but most of the bread has peace serum in it. You just reminded me to make sure I get more of the kind without." Everly pulls her legs up beneath her, then reaches for her glass. "We aren't supposed to take it during initiation. They consider it cheating."
"Really? You know what Dauntless considers cheating? Asking for someone to stop trying to break your neck." He slams his sandwich down, and his good mood fizzles at the mention of the faction he's chosen. "Why didn't you tell me you were picking here? I would have come with you! Jason would have, too!"
"How would I have known? I didn't meet you until Dauntless." Jason furrows his brows together. "I mean, maybe we'd have met on a patrol or something. But I guess if I had known, I would have picked Amity."
"What's the limit on cows? How many can you have?" Rylan leans across the table, and he's dead serious. "What if I want nothing but cows?"
"Okay, calm down Ranger Rylan. I'm sure you can have all the cows you want but won't they notice when you don't return?" I eye him warily, and there's a split second where I see him defecting to come live here. I also see Jeanine, descending upon Amity when she realizes we're both here. "What about your plans to be a leader?"
"You don't want me to live here?"
The insult is all over him, and even Everly looks confused. She sticks up for me immediately, though she has no clue why pissing off Jeanine further isn't a good idea.
"I think Eric just means won't they come looking for you? If you all just disappear?" Her words are careful, spoken gently, and enough to stop his dreams of becoming the next dairy king. "If you needed to, you could always come live here. But not if you'd get in trouble."
"Do lots of people just show up here?" I turn to look at Everly, and my curiosity loops back around to Eden saying they just made it work here. They had a ton of members, true, but I couldn't quite believe they did all this and got through it with the help of a few factionless.
Everly's silence is telling. She toys with her drink, then her eyes meet mine. "Everyone is welcome in Amity. If you're asking me about the factionless…. then yes, sometimes they come here. Some of them help out enough they wind up becoming actual members. We don't really discriminate against someone's background."
"So I can stay here."
"No, you cannot just stay here. Not yet."
We all turn to see May standing in the kitchen, dripping wet from the rain, and her eyes are flashing with irritation. There's some worry mixed in, but it's hard to see through her thunderous stare. She zeroes in on Rylan, not eating his lunch and instead focusing on how he can move here.
"You are more than welcome to live here, provided you work and can follow all the rules, but you can't ditch out on your initiation. Not yet. You're going to finish it, fractured skull or not, and you'll take the job Jeanine wants you to have. Once we know where we stand, then we'll talk. And the maximum number of cows you can have is twenty-six. Any more than that and they start getting irritated at each other. You can start a separate farm if necessary."
For once, Rylan is speechless.
"Wait, you know about Dauntless? And what Rylan is supposed to do there?" Jason looks up at May, and his sandwich is frozen halfway to his mouth. "Oh hell no, are you related to Arlene? Please say you aren't."
"I'm not, but I know her. Look, you boys can visit anytime. You can leave Dauntless for a lot of reasons, but you need to make sure it doesn't look like your reasons are bringing you here. If they don't think you're loyal, they won't have any trouble executing you."
"Wouldn't they just make them factionless?" Everly pauses, too, and she and I share a quick look. I can see her mind whirling, and I try to guess what she's going to say. "If they're factionless, they can go wherever. Why would they execute them?"
I'm right; my thinking is if they really wanted to live here, they would defect from the faction and not go back. It was unlikely they'd come looking for rogue initiates, unless they had a reason to.
But Jeanine does.
"There is a huge difference between being made factionless and betraying a faction. She'll tell them you're divergent and have you taken care of before you make it to the boundary line. So for now, you'll all go back, including the other one you brought here, and we'll meet again in two weeks. I'll have Harrison make sure you can take a day off." May informs them, and it's clear this isn't a question. "Rylan, are you okay? You have a funny look on your face."
We all turn to look at him, and May is right; Rylan's face is scrunched up in disappointment. His brow furrows together, and he presses his lips tightly as his head tilts.
I wait for him to refuse. Rylan had a tendency to do the opposite of what he was asked, purely out of boredom. He thrived off attention, any attention, and he often got it by going with whatever outlandish plan he came up with.
Today is no exception.
"So you're saying twenty-six cows are fine, but twenty-seven cows is a cow too many? What about twenty-six and a half?"
"How do you plan on having half a cow, Rylan?" May throws him a dirty look, but it's not all that dirty. "I've got to check on a few things. Enjoy your lunch."
She leaves before Rylan can answer her, which is probably for the best. He returns to his lunch, grinning over at Everly, and I can see him plotting just exactly how he'll run his farm.
The goodbyes are painful.
Not because I'll never see him again, or because his desire to stay in Amity now overshadows his desire to stay alive.
But because he falls in love with Everly's friend Courtney the second he sees her.
Everly must have let her friends know my friends from Dauntless were here. They'd asked once if I had any, and my assumption is Everly mentioned them a few times. Courtney and Sophia showed up to say hello, and it was the worst possible thing that could have happened.
Rylan, leaning casually against a rickety fence with all the confidence in the world, froze the second he saw her. His eyes lit up when she walked right over to him and shook his hand, and he never stopped staring at her. I could see she met every criteria Rylan had for the wife he never knew he needed: she was alive, she was taller than Everly by a single inch at most, and her dress was just as fitted and brightly colored. Her hair wasn't as long, nor was it black. But it was blonde, as long as Rylan's, and I saw dozens of long haired, barefoot children in their future, wrangling cows.
They moved closer. She tilted her head at him, he tilted his head at her.
She was also very kind. She giggled when he said his name. She repeated it, making sure she included the L, and she swooned when he told her he was able to run a mile in under seven minutes. He appeared delighted that she knew that was impressive, and he was even more delighted when she sweetly informed him her father had a duck pond in his back yard, and yes, Rylan could hold one if he were careful.
Everly stood by me, and her fingers pressed on my elbow so I'd look at her.
"Are you jealous? We don't have a duck pond, but maybe my dad could build us one." When I glance down at her, certain she'd lost her mind, I realize she's teasing me. She grins and points past Rylan. "Jason doesn't look like he wants to leave, either."
"No, no he doesn't."
Sophia was barely taller than Courtney. I wasn't sure if it was a rule in Amity that all daughters must be under a certain height, or maybe it was a phenomenon that occurred if you lived here. Either way, Sophia stood by Jason, listening with rapt fascination while he explained just how much he wasn't looking forward to going back to Dauntless, even though he could run a mile in six minutes.
He smiled stupidly when she asked if he knew anything about how to fix a truck engine, and to my surprise, he told her yes.
They stepped together, one with red hair twisted up in a bun, and the other with blonde hair twisted up in a bun, and Jason asked if she liked calzones. Her shrieked Yes! was all he needed to fall head over heels, and I groaned inwardly when Sophia asked when he could come back.
"If you had picked Dauntless, you'd be leaving with them," Everly points out, then she pauses. "Actually, none of you would be here. I probably wouldn't have seen you again."
I glance back down at her, and my lips part before I can protest I'm sure I would have seen her. It might have been on one of their patrols or maybe if I were sent to work here, but it dawns on me I wouldn't know her. I wouldn't have spent weeks with her or kissed her in the dark waters of the lake or slept beside her. I wouldn't know the first thing about Everly, only that her last name was close to mine and she'd gotten lost trying to find her place in line.
"I don't…" I fumble over what to say, but I don't have a great answer. "No, I don't think I would have seen you. At least not…not for a while."
She nods, but she steps closer to me. Her fingers stay on my elbow, holding on while Jason explains he, too, has always believed there's life on other planets, and I thank God Everly has never once made me talk about aliens.
With the slow sensation of panic washing over me, mostly at not knowing her, I pull Everly against my side, crushing her into me. We stand there together, watching as our friends promise to come back as soon as they can before we go say goodbye.
Rylan refuses.
He hugs me tightly, strong enough to nearly knock me over, and he whispers he'll never say goodbye. It sounds threatening, but it makes me laugh because he really means it.
"I'll be back. Someday. Someday soon. Carole said she can teach me to dance because she's a dance expert."
He lets go with a grin, and one more final hug for Everly, then he heads back to meet Jason and Four. They wave their goodbyes as May instructs them to get in the truck, and I can't bring myself to really watch them leave. I throw out one final wave, along with the defeated stares of Sophia and Courtney, then Everly and I head back toward the main pathway, kicking rocks the entire walk home.
"You'll need to back up the tractor slowly. Ease it this way."
A week later, Daryl teaches me how to drive the farming equipment. There should be some honor in being the chosen one to learn how it all works, but there are a few others learning alongside me. Jake, sitting atop another tractor with total confidence, and Trent, looking less confident as he eyes one of the combines. Landon stands by Jake, and Howard stands by Trent. Everyone is fairly focused, and all around us, the fields are full of farmers picking whatever is ripe.
There's a slight tension in the air I can't explain. After weeks of living with Everly and immersing myself in this world, it's strange to feel this uneasiness. I can't pinpoint where it comes from, but I firmly blame Landon.
After Rylan, Jason, and Four went home, I found myself in a weird limbo. I watched them leave with a million feelings I didn't want to deal with, or even admit I was capable of having. I felt a wave of sadness, followed by a wave of disgust over being upset my friends would be going back to their chosen faction, and annoyance when May drove them back. She agreed to drop them off near the compound, and they'd walk around the rest of the way. I'd spent a good half hour saying goodbye, promising Rylan he could come back anytime, thanking Jason for not letting Rylan steal one of May's ducks, and even grudgingly making sure Four was alright.
He was just fine.
He looked happier than I'd ever seen him look, and disappointed that he was leaving.
The limbo started there and blossomed when I was once again alone with Everly. Landon had dropped by twice to see her; once to bring her flowers, which she promptly brought over and left on May's porch, and once to drop off some books he thought she'd want to read. I watched her accept them with annoyed disinterest, and her shoulders rose up. She likes to read, but what he gave her was nothing she wanted to read.
I smirked when she very gently gave them back and told him Carole might be more interested in them than her.
Still, the idea of him trying to get to her bugged me. He'd told me he had no interest in marrying her, but he was lying.
Over the past few weeks, Everly looked different. I couldn't figure out why, because physically she looked the same. But she was happier, lighter, and very much at peace with her decision to stay here. For her, life was falling into place. She had her friends, her family, enough cows and chickens to keep her entertained, and she got to sleep against me at night. It was hard to miss her flourishing here, in a faction she once wanted to leave.
My own initiation here was good. While the moments of oh shit I live in Amity popped up every so often, I didn't hate it. I had gotten lucky by meeting Everly, luckier by having her live with me, and supremely lucky to have kissed her, though it hadn't happened again.
Once Jason and Rylan left, I felt like she and I were starting over again. The house seemed quiet, she seemed worried –like maybe I'd push her away again or the storm would return, and I was left mulling over what she really wanted from me.
Being totally alone should have given me the chance to further explore this new relationship. Instead, I found myself summoned to help out a rotating list of members who needed assistance. By the time we had a day off, I was so tired I could barely see straight, and I slept for most of our weekend.
This morning, Everly had had enough.
She made me a lunch, placed it in my hands, then rose up on her toes. She fixed the collar of my shirt, nimble fingers adjusting the crease until it lay flat, and when I went to tell her goodbye, turning my head to thank her, she kissed me.
She is far braver than anyone I know.
There was zero hesitation, zero pressure, and an abundance of promise. I dropped the lunch, took her face in my hands, and kissed her until I was certain I'd be late to meet Daryl. I kissed her until she broke away gasping, pleased and pink cheeked, and she sweetly informed me she'd make me whatever I wanted for dinner.
I left in a daze, thinking my life could not be fucking real.
Years of studying in Erudite would have given me nothing. A wife who was just as uptight or determined to prove her intelligence, or a job in Dauntless where my own loyalty wouldn't even be honest. My allegiance would be to Jeanine and only Jeanine, and she most certainly wouldn't be nudging me in Everly's direction.
"This way. A little more. You're gonna take her around the turn here. That's it."
Daryl coaches me on, waving his hands so I'll drive in his direction. The tractor isn't hard to drive, and much like the truck, there's a learning curve to it. It's slow and cranky, groaning as it crushes everything in its path, and enormous. I back it up to where Daryl is pointing, and pleased with my progress, he instructs me to drive it around the field and over to the groves. He gives me an end point near the first row of apple trees and tells me he'll meet me there.
"No way! Not yet man!"
We both turn to look at Landon sprinting toward us, and the flicker of hate I feel for him is real.
"Hey, he shouldn't go that far. Maybe have him drive it and park it. Howard is still a little fuzzy on things and Trent and Jake aren't even going over there." Landon speaks quickly, with a minor authority I don't remember him having. "Just…hey, Eric hop down and I'll move it."
"I'm good. Daryl said over by the apple trees. That's not hard." I call back, unmoving.
Daryl grins, and he shakes his head at Landon. "Dude, this ain't your training. Go back to helping your initiate. I was assigned Eric. He's gotta learn to drive this beast and I want to do it now. My momma made cupcakes."
"You're rushing things, Daryl. There's no reason to hurry."
I glance down when I realize Landon is climbing up, and a second later, there he is. He balances on the edge of the step, and motions for me to climb out.
"It'll be easier if I do it."
I narrow my eyes at him, and I don't move my hands from the steering wheel. "I'm good. You can get down."
"Eric, you're not certified to drive it. You could kill someone. Go ahead and climb down." Landon isn't so much pleading as he is trying to order me off. The power struggle is evident when he doesn't move, and I realize I can't back down.
If I do, he'll know he can tell me to do whatever he wants.
"I said, I'm good." I shift gears like Daryl showed me, and the tractor lurches into park. "I was told to drive it over there. So I will."
"Dude, be cool. Daryl shouldn't have told you that." Landon insists, and this time, he reaches out to push me. Not so much to knock me over, just to nudge me to climb down. "Come on. It's not like you care about learning to drive this thing. Why can't you take orders?"
"Oh, I didn't know I was supposed to take orders from you." I raise my eyebrow at him, and my disdain is impossible to hide. "I'll wait for Daryl. Thanks."
I flash him a blinding grin, and with one heavily frustrated stare, he gives up. He presses his mouth into a fine line, nods, and jumps down. I hear him mutter a few things under his breath, all very un-Amity like, and I laugh to myself when Daryl waves him off with an annoyed request to leave the training to him.
The unease returns when I do drive across the field, just in time to watch a woman dressed in grey scurry across the forest with a man dressed in black.
I'm much too far away to hear what they're saying or talk to them, and there's no way for me to drive closer without them hearing me. They are in a hurry, darting through trees and glancing around to make sure no one sees them. The woman points south, and I realize they're about to go far deeper into the woods. I park the tractor, jumping down the same way Landon did, and I take a few steps closer.
There's the faintest hint of the fence in the distance. It's hard to make out from here, and it's like a ghost rising up. They head into the woods without any further hesitation, but I swear when the woman looks back, she looks right at me.
"What are you doing?"
I turn to see Landon standing a few feet away with his hands in his pockets.
"I'm trying to see where they're going." I point just in case, he's missed them, and I loathe the thought of him following me over here. "What do you want? Did you come all this way just to tell me not to drive the tractor?"
He doesn't answer right away.
He's not happy; his eyes narrow and his posture is furious, but he shrugs all that away. "I wanted to see what you were doing."
"Why?" I stare him down, wondering what his end game is here. "Maybe I should ask you what you're doing. I saw you go into the woods the other night. I saw the factionless camp."
Landon's stare grows dark. He walks right up to me and shoves me as hard as he can.
"You keep your mouth shut. I don't know who you think you are around here, but I'm not as stupid as everyone else. I can see through your stupid act. You never meant to pick here and you know it."
"No shit, I never meant to come here," I snarl, and I return his shove. There's a certain burn to this fight –personal and necessary –and it becomes a full blaze when he swings at me.
I duck. While I'd toyed with the idea of Dauntless on a surface level, it's easy to see I would have done well there. I know how to fight. I know how to punch, how to wait for your opponent to be caught off guard, and how to most accurately take a guess at their next move.
So does Landon.
There's a scrappiness to the way he fights, not at all as effortless or clean, but more out of survival. I try to ignore this when his fist connects to my jaw, and the burst of pain is enough for me to reel back. He uses this to his advantage, and he lunges for me. I'm forced back with everything he has, and gravity takes his side. He yells at me to leave Everly alone, and it's followed by a split second when Landon realizes what he's done.
His eyes widen in horror at his own actions, but also my head bashing right against the step of the tractor. The pain is immediate; I see a burst of stars and then nothing, as I crash into the ground.
"Fuck."
I keep my eyes closed, groaning at the wave of pain.
I hear Howard yelling my name, and I catch a quick glimpse of Daryl running for me. Landon panics when I don't move. He shouts my name, followed by lots of encouragement to get up, and I'm not sure if he really plans on helping.
I don't get to find out.
"What the fuck did you do?" I groan, and my hands fly to the back of my head. One touches something wet, and everything hurts.
"Eric!"
"Eric!"
What feels like hours later, I open my eyes and I recognize absolutely no one.
"Okay, look at me. I need you to focus on me and tell me if anything hurts."
Eden kneels down beside me, taking my face in her hands. My vision swims, and the motion makes me nauseous. I try not to look at her, but she guides my stare back to her, and her frown tells me something is wrong.
"How did this happen? How did he hit his head on the tractor?"
She prods gently, touching the raw skin where Landon punched me. She winces right along with me; the burning pain turning to a burning wave of nausea, and everything intensifies. I shove her away before I throw up on her, and I manage to make it to my feet and a few steps away before my breakfast comes right back up.
When I'm done, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and Eden returns. She helps wash my hands off, pouring some water on them and gently scrubbing them with whatever someone has brought, and she gives me the rest to rinse out my mouth.
"I'm fine," I promise, swaying slightly. The sun is too bright, the crops are too yellow, or maybe they're green, I can't tell, and Eden is too nice and absolutely nothing like Blythe. Their names come rushing back to me, but I feel like I'm underwater, and I can't quite see clearly. "I just need to go home. Is Everly there?"
"She is," Eden answers, and she takes me by the wrist. "Eric, are you still feeling sick?"
She circles my wrist with her hand. The gesture is funny. I feel like a small child being tricked, but all I can do is stare at her.
"I want to see Everly. She can fix this. None of you can help me."
Eden stares for a moment before she turns away with a panicked look. Her call to Howard is loud. He stops right by her, shoving his wire framed glasses up his face, and the two of them lowly inform me they're going to take me to Erudite.
"Fuck no."
I politely refuse, and I decide I'll walk myself home.
"How tall are you? Have you eaten anything today?"
I look away from the white walls to the nurse standing beside me. She's dressed in royal blue scrubs, and the sight of her is stark in the all-white room. She takes my temperature, a single zap on my forehead, and my heart rate. My pulse. My oxygen levels. Her question of are you having any pain made me snort, and the question of what what do you weigh was impossible to answer. I told her to leave me alone, and when I scowled, she slunk out of the room to find someone else.
I never did walk home.
I stood with Eden until Howard got me into one of the trucks. He told me to just sit there and rest, and I dimly realized he was going to drive me to Erudite. I couldn't figure out where we were going, or why, only that his driving was painfully slow and I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. I kept asking where Everly was, fully expecting her to be there, and to my disappointment, she wasn't anywhere to be found.
"Okay, we're giving you something for the pain and then I'm going to numb your head. Lucky for you, they said you just need a few stitches. I'll be helping you out with that, and then we'll do a quick CT scan to make sure we don't have any fractures. Sound okay, Eric..."
The man who comes through the door is a doctor, dressed in a white lab coat. I recognize him as one of Daniel's friends. He doesn't look up as he's talking, not until he gets to the last name.
"Eric?"
Greg's eyes are as large as the moon, and his look of horror is pretty amusing. I'm sitting here with a bloody head, a sore jaw, dressed like I've lived in Amity my whole life. He eyes me up and down, and he pauses when the nurse returns to stand right beside him.
"So sorry to interrupt, Sir. His wife is waiting for him. They're having her come back now. The others are…uh, well…they're here, too."
I don't know this nurse and there's a relief to her not knowing me. She looks like a clone of everyone else here: blue clothes, a white jacket, and glasses she doesn't need.
"His…his wife? He has a wife? Are you sure?" Greg's confusion is laughable. He looks at me out of the corner of his eye, then back at his nurse. "Jessica are you sure you have the right patient? Do you know who this is? He's Daniel's…"
"Eric, are you okay?!"
And just like that, my wife arrives.
I smile loopily when she trips through the door, and she's not alone. Her brother is with her, loudly announcing he's also related to me and for the nurse to leave him alone but also does she have any coffee. Eden is behind him, and Howard, too. Greg blinks when they fill the room, and Everly reaches me first.
"Landon said you hit your head on the tractor and split it open. Then I heard he pushed you," Everly takes hold of my arm, pulling me down to her height, and her eyes search for the wound. They widen when she sees the blood, and her grip tightens. "Eric, what happened?"
"He attacked me," I answer immediately, and she's shoved out of the way by Forrest. He gets up close to me, and he's unimpressed.
"You'll be fine. Just don't let these psychos do anything else to you. They're going to want to give you all kinds of shots. Tell them no. The only reason they wanted you to come here, was because Mom thinks you have a concussion."
"He threw up right after he hit his head and he was tired. Howard said he fell asleep in the truck," Eden offers. She glances at Greg, and her smile is distrustful. "You might want to write that down."
"Uh, sure…" Greg scrawls something on the chart, and his eyes take in everyone vying for my attention. "So, we have some nausea, vomiting, and you said he fell asleep?"
"He did. Three times. I had to wake him up," Howard exclaims, and he rocks back on his heels by Greg. "Hey, if you have a second, can I ask you a few questions? I've been feeling sort of woozy these days, and I think I might have vertigo."
"More like, your-wife-is-trying-to-poison-you-igo." Forrest mutters, and he picks up a pair of gloves. "Can I keep these?"
"Yes, yes you can…so long as all of you…" Greg pauses, "except for his wife, wait outside. We can only have immediate family in here."
"We are immediate family," Forrest insists, and there's a strange moment when I feel dizzy. I reach for Everly, and Greg uses this to prove his point.
"Look, I promise you, this won't take long. He's going to be fine. There's a cafeteria down the hallway. Wait there and we'll have someone come grab you. I need to treat him, and him alone. His wife can stay in here. I need her to sign his paperwork anyway."
None of them move.
Eden and Howard look at each other, and Forrest tilts his head, like he's not sure he believes him. "You'll come get us? And you won't try to do any of your experiments on him?"
Greg smiles patiently, but his eyebrows rise up. "He's here for a head injury. He'll get stitches, something for the pain, something for nausea, and then you can take him home. Does that sound good?"
"Fine," Eden agrees, but she looks back at me. "If they do anything weird, you let me know."
"Who are you?" Greg asks but no one answers him.
Eden, Howard, and Forrest leave. They do so grudgingly, as though they'd planned on staying the entire time, and only Everly stays. She's still holding on to me, and she lets go when another nurse appears with registration forms.
"You know what, have her fill those out. We'll be right back. Eric, can I get you anything?" Greg is distracted now, and he watches as Everly looks at the forms. She checks off a few things, and I vaguely wonder how much of my information she knows or what she's putting down. "Water?"
"Sure." I shrug.
His nod is quick, and the three of them head out of the exam room, quietly discussing something. One nurse glances back, and I hear her lowly ask if someone should call Daniel. Greg doesn't answer her, and we all know there's no point.
Not only do I have zero interest in seeing him, he wouldn't come down if someone paid him.
"They said you asked to go home," Everly looks up, then back down as she signs the bottom. I tilt my head to look at the paperwork, and I smirk when I realize she's put her last name as mine. "Don't laugh. I had to. They wouldn't let any of us back unless we were related to you. So I said I was your wife, my mom said she was your mother-in-law, and Forrest just asked if they had any chips. No one stopped him but we did learn there's a gift shop here."
"I didn't think you'd come to Erudite," I blurt out, and the wave of pain is back. It's dull; it throbs and stabs when I move my head and intensifies when the lights become too bright. "I thought you were at home."
"Landon came and got me. He's incredibly freaked out. He thinks he's going to get kicked out for what he did."
"Shouldn't he?" I stare at her face, pale and panic stricken, and her black hair pinned back on one side. "Isn't there a no violence rule?"
"There is," Everly signs a few more things, and she sets the clipboard on the counter. "Did they give you anything yet?"
"No," I shake my head, then wince.
Everly walks over to the exam bed I'm sitting on, and she steps between my legs. Her hands find mine, and she examines them without looking up. "Howard said you'll have to take a few days off. They're all really worried about you. I'm sure Landon is sorry, and you don't have to forgive him."
"For trying to kill me?" I retort, and she finally looks up. "He was mad I saw him go into the woods. There was some lady out there, and some guy, going toward the fence. He got upset when I said I saw him walking toward the factionless."
Everly nods. Her smile is slight, and uncomfortably worried.
"Yeah. He knows a lot of them. It's caused some issues before." She moves impossibly closer, and her fingers tighten on mine. "Let them treat you and we'll go home. My mom said she has something that'll help more than what they can do here. She told me I'll have to keep an eye on you. We can go back and May said she's going to make you dinner. And Jake and Ryan are setting up something as a surprise. I think Zander is drawing you a card."
"No one has to do anything," I blink, not wanting this outpouring of sympathy. "I don't need…"
I stop myself before I can tell her I don't need anyone. It's not a lie. I truly don't need May to make me dinner or the Amity version of Jason and Rylan to bring me a present, nor do I need Everly's little brother to draw me a picture.
I don't even need Everly here, holding on to my hands, promising to take care of me.
The feeling of all this, their worry over someone they barely know, is almost as painful as my head. My chest is so tight it's hard to breathe, and when I finally nod, it loosens.
"Okay. You promise just you and me? No…chickens in the sink or Landon painting a mural of him and me as an apology?"
"You don't have to forgive him," Everly smiles, and she rises up on her toes and lets go of my hands. She touches my face, her cold hands slipping over my cheeks, and when I bend my head down, she kisses my forehead. "I wouldn't."
I let out a huff of laughter, but it dies in my throat when the door opens.
I should have known better than to come here.
There, in the doorway, with Greg and Camille and a few other nurses, stands Daniel, with one horrified look on his face.