Happy Friday! Thank you for your reviews, they keep me going! I loved all the commentary on the last chapter, keep it coming.
Tris looks around nervously at the house where the party was being hosted. It had been three days since the game in Miami. She didn't like that she and Tobias were so off sync. He had barely responded to any of her messages, he hadn't come by her room. She would have rathered them go away somewhere quiet and talk but when Uriah said he was coming to the party she figured she would see him here. All the athletes were going to celebrate the Men's NCAA Basketball championship. Lynn, Christina, and Marlene were already there. Tris had insisted that she needed to stop by to see Tobias and might not even make the party depending on if he wanted to talk.
She smiles when she sees him standing at the back of the room leaning against the wall and taking a swig of a beer. There was a girl a little shorter than her pulling away from him and smiling as she looked him up and down as she walked away.
Tris feels her smile quickly fade when she watches the girl walk away. She knew the groupies were ruthless, this wasn't the first time this had happened. She figured with all the media coverage from the championship she would have to get tougher skin about the girls throwing herself at her boyfriend so she brushed it off.
"Hey, I missed you," She says sweetly as she goes to put her arms around his neck.
"Yeah" he grunts as he takes another swig of the beer in his hand.
"I texted you but you didn't respond, I went by your room but Uriah said you would be here"
Tobias looks away, he was still hurt. Tris was supposed to be the one who was there for him. All the hours he spent practicing with her, getting up early and she couldn't be there for him when he needed her. All the late-night things they had whispered to each other, all the promises to always be there for one another felt like lies now. Everything was lies, from Tris and his father, all they cared about was him playing basketball and nothing else.
"Do you want to go talk?" she asks in a low voice.
"Not really" Tobias grabs her by the waist and starts to kiss her. He couldn't take the pity looks people gave him when someone mentions his father. He just wanted to forget everything like he used to do in high school when he was stressed out. Sex was always how he could do that.
He's had so much to drink his kiss is sloppy and aggressive, his hands go down to Tris's ass, and grabs it. Tris is caught off guard, all she can taste is beer on his breath. She starts to panic knowing that they are in a crowd of people.
"Tobias stop it," Tris says, pushing Tobias off her. "You're drunk"
Tobias tries not to roll his eyes but she was right. All he wanted to do was forget about all the shit happening with his father and Tris and lose himself in something.
"I'm gonna go crash," he says with a sigh as he wipes his hand across his face.
"Okay, maybe I'll stop by later" Tris tries to keep the annoyance out of her voice. He had never been like this with her.
"Nah I got curfew," Tobis says sarcastically with an eye roll this time as he heads towards the door.
She stands there for a minute still in disbelief of what just happened.
He's drunk, he just needs to sleep it off. That's what she keeps telling herself. Things would get better.
When Tobias gets back to his room his head is starting to spin from the alcohol. He just wanted to crash and block out everything was feeling. He felt alone. The one person who he thought he could trust, the one person who he needed let him down. He was done with this, with Dauntless with everything. Will and Uriah were still at the party so at least he could be at peace. What he doesn't expect is when he walks through the door his father is sitting in the living room. They always left the front door open, Tris, Christina, Marlene, and Lynn, and the other guys on the team coming in when they wanted.
"What are you doing here?" Tobias practically snarls at his father. He stumbled a bit, the beers he had earlier still on him.
"Your door was open so I left myself in '' Marcus says quietly.
Tobias hadn't returned any of his phone calls in weeks, not even after the championship. Marcus knew the paternity scandal over the internet would be the nail in the coffin of his marriage. He and Evelyn had been at odds for years. He'd made some poor choices, but he had just needed an escape from all the pressures and expectations she had. Tobias was his light and joy, he'd never thought his son would completely turn his back on him.
"And you can let yourself out" Tobias spits out, he had no desire to be in the same room as his father ever again. He wanted nothing to do with him.
"Look Son, I know this doesn't look great, and your mother loves to play the victim but she has her secrets too. She knew what she wanted when we met and she made sure she was going to be the perfect NBA wife"
"Are you saying my mother trapped you?" Tobias was enraged now. His parents were young when they got married but he wasn't going to stand for his father to disrespect her anymore.
"She knew I wasn't ready for marriage but I took care of my responsibilities like a man"
"Like a man? you ain't shit" Tobias sneers looking at the man who before a week ago he wanted nothing more than to be like, who he aspired to be, and now looking at him made his stomach turn.
Marcus stood up, he was taller than Tobias and he looked down on his son. Normally Tobias would cower back, feeling intimidated by his father but not today. Tobias glowered at his father. It was never about Tobias feeling intimidated by Marcus but he respected him enough to not challenge him. Those days were gone and they were never coming back. Tobias wasn't going to back down.
"You think you know so much that you can look down on me, you think that you can handle everything coming at you"
"Look I'm entering the draft, so you don't gotta keep up this whole father thing"
Marcus hangs his head in defeat. Never would he have imagined that Tobias would jeopardize everything because of his decision, because of his mistakes.
"Tobias please don't do this, I know you're mad at me but don't throw away your future" Marcus pleads.
"It's not your concern anymore," Tobias says coldly. He walks past his father, unlocks his bedroom door, and slams it shut.
After about 10 minutes Tobias hears the front door close and he lets a tear fall as he rolls over into his pillow. The empty feeling in his chest growing wider like a chasm. He never wanted to put his faith in anyone ever again, he never wanted to feel like this ever again.
Tris throws down her highlighter. She had been locked in her room for two days trying to catch up on all the work she missed from the tournament and start studying for finals. It was a lot to catch up on but the reason for her worry had been Tobias. He had still been distant and withdrawn ever since the party. They hadn't spent the night with each other since before the tournament started when she chose not to go to Charlotte with him. They had texted, he kept saying he was busy. When he missed the Athletic Department Sports Award banquet the night before Tris knew something was really wrong. Tris had collected his Athlete of the Year award for him along with her Freshman of the Year award. She was trying to give him space but she couldn't sit back anymore. She throws on one of his shirts that was lying around her room that she had taken with her to sleep in on road trips and a pair of jean shorts and a pair of slides, grabs his plaque from the night before, and heads down to his room. When she gets to the door she finds Will and Uriah playing Madden.
"Hey, where's your boy?" Tris asks.
"In his room brooding, I think" Uriah responds. He was concerned, but Tobias had shut everyone out when they had gotten home from the tournament. Winning a championship their freshman year was what they had all worked so hard for. He even shut out Tris. He knew the news of his father cheating on his mother was hitting him hard but they all had no idea how to pull him out of his funk.
Tris wipes her hands on her shorts before knocking on the door, a little nervous about what kind of mood Tobias might be in.
"Hey," She says quietly as she walks in. He was ironing a shirt but he seemed pleasant.
"We missed you last night, I brought this for you, You won Athlete of the Year" She decides to lean in and give him a kiss when finishes ironing his shirt. He returns it, it's a quick peck but Tris felt herself relax hoping that the tension between the two of them was finally disappearing. She sets the plaque on his desk.
"Thanks, I had this meeting with this guy that was important" He replies nonchalantly and he puts his freshly ironed shirt on.
Tris bites her lip, what could be more important? She was nervous again.
"Yo T. Somebody here to see you" Will yells from the living room.
"You win anything?"
"Yeah, Freshman of the Year"
"Still the man," he says playfully before grabbing his phone, keys, and his wallet off the dresser.
"No, the woman" She corrects as he follows him into the living room.
She furrowed her eyebrows as Uriah looked at her nervously. Tris darts her eyes back to Tobias who is hugging a petite girl with long braids and tawny colored skin wearing a skirt and tight tank top.
"What's going on T.," Tris says quietly as she felt like her blood run cold not believing what she was seeing in front of her.
"Tris, this is Keri, Keri this is Tris. We about to go get something to eat, you wanna come"
Tris realizes that this is the same girl from the party and she goes from being stunned to furious.
"Did you just ask me if I want to fucking come with you?" Tris raises her voice an octave.
Keri can read the tension in the room but she smirks at Tris as she eyes her up and down. She knew who she was, there was no way she was doing her job at keeping him happy if he accepted her advances. She wasn't going to miss this shot to land an up-and-coming NBA player. "Maybe I should come back later"
"Later….Are you fucking serious!" Tris raises her voice. She didn't miss the way Keri just sized her up. Tris had worked so hard over the past year on controlling her emotions but right now she saw red and she was about to rip every braid out of this bitch's head.
Uriah sees that Tris is about to go straight for Keri as her fists ball up. He quickly gets up to grab Tris by her waist after she takes two steps.
"T. I don't know what you got going on but ..." Uriah yells and grunts as Tris struggles against him.
"Let me go, Uri, I swear..." Tris yells now as she tried to break Uriah's hold on her.
Tris looked at Tobias, his eyes were cold, with no emotion but he still had that slight look of arrogance on his face. This wasn't Tobias, this was T Money.
"We'll catch ya'll later" Tobias throws over his shoulder as he guides Keri out the door.
Uriah can feel Tris shaking as she stopped struggling and he pulls her into a hug trying to calm her down. She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. All the faith she had put into Tobias, all the trust that he had changed, that he wanted only her was gone.
"I gotta get out of here" Tris whispers as she pulls out Uriah's embrace.
"Tris, wait" Uriah pleads.
Tris doesn't turn back around, she heads up to her room, grabs her car keys and purse. She dials quickly on the phone as she walks out the door.
"Hey, are you busy, I need to talk"
"Tris, I'm so sorry, I never thought in a million years he would do this to you," Susan says as she and Tris sit on her bed.
Tris was so thankful that Susan had answered her phone when she called after leaving her dorm room. Her emotions were all over the place and she just needed to get away from campus and Tobias before she did something stupid.
It had been a long year. Susan and Tris had been so busy they hadn't spent much time together over their freshman year but when she heard the anxiety in Tris's voice when she answered her phone, Susan knew something was wrong.
"This is all my fault" Tris sobs out as she puts her head in her hands and lets the tears flow freely.
"Tris, how is this your fault?"
"He needed me and I pushed him away. I just thought we could get back on track when the season was over and we could spend all summer together"
"I think he's just acting out, I don't think he would actually cheat on you" Susan offered to try to be encouraging but not sure if she was helping.
"The crazy thing is that if I hadn't gone down to his room, I would have never known! But now I'm thinking, has he been lying the entire time? Did I just happen to catch him? Would Uriah have told me if I wasn't there? "
Tris sighs and leans over on the bed, her head was spinning trying to make sense of all this. Susan's phone pings and she looks at it.
"Do you want me to tell Caleb where you are? I guess Uriah told him you were upset and he's worried"
Tris groaned and looked at her phone. She had texts and missed calls from Christina, Uriah, Zeke, Marlene...everyone but Tobias.
"No, I'll call him. I should go, I literally took over your entire afternoon"
"Come on Tris, I'll always make time for you, even when things are different" Susan says sincerely. Tris sits up and gives her a long hug.
Tris furrows her eyebrows and looks at Susan. She had been so wrapped up in the drama with her and Tobias and basketball she hadn't let Susan get a word in or even asked her how she was doing.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I guess Caleb hasn't told you...We decided to see other people about a month ago" Susan explains.
"What? Why?" Tris asks taken aback.
"Umm, I think I just wanted to really experience college, not put all the pressure on us to make things work. I know we are in the same city but it's different than being in high school. We'll be fine" Susan says trying to convenience herself and Tris not to worry about her and Caleb.
Tris nods. Could she and Tobias handle seeing other people? Did they need that to take the pressure off during the season? Is that what he wanted? She didn't want anyone but him. Maybe he just needed more time to cool off.
Tris walks slowly from the parking lot toward the dorm. She was exhausted from the emotional day. She stops and rolls her eyes when she sees Tobias sitting on the bench across from the entrance to the dorm. She wasn't sure if she was ready to talk to him. She and Tobias could go from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye and the way she was feeling right now, there was no way she could talk calmly.
"Tris, can we talk?" Tobias asks standing up as she walks to the juncture in front of the bench.
"Talk, you want to talk? Go talk to that bitch you were with earlier" Tris spits out. She knows that probably wasn't the best response but she was hot all over again and feeling hurt.
"I took the hoe to Chick Fila" Tobias defends. It was a weak excuse, he knew it.
"Cheap ass date" Tris furrows her eyes at him. If he really thought that was going to make anything better.
"At least she had time for me, not just when it was convenient"
"Convenient? Really Tobias I made time for you, I fucking took a red-eye to Miami and spent half my savings to support you! You act like that doesn't count for shit"
"You can show up for me about fucking ball but nothing else!" Tobias now yells back now letting all his emotion out.
"So you messed around to prove a fucking point Tobias" Tris still couldn't believe that Tobias really justified what he did like this. "What T Money did I forget to kiss your ass like everyone else?"
"No, you forgot to fucking be there!" Tobias cokes out as he yells at her finally letting his vulnerability show for just a second as he fights back tears.
"That night you wanted to go see your Mom, you knew we couldn't get back until the next day and I had curfew, what was I supposed to do?" Tris yells back, confused as to how he could put her in this position. How did he expect her to give up everything? Was he really that selfish?
"You were supposed to go with me, Tris, You were supposed to be there for me!"
"If I stayed, I would have been kicked off the team, you know that! I'm a ball player if anyone knows that it's you"
"If all you care about is basketball, why are you fucking me? Why aren't you fucking Stephen A. Smith or some other commentator off ESPN".
It was a low blow and he knew it but this was just like when they were kids. Tris would push him to a place that he would sit back later and scold himself when he went for the jugular.
Rage fills Tris and she doesn't think she had ever been as angry and hurt by him as she was at that very moment. She pushes him square in the chest so hard he stumbles back, with tears in her eyes she turns and goes to walk into the dorm. She was done with this conversation. She couldn't even look at him anymore and she needed to calm down or this was going to worse. In all the years they had known each other and fussed and argued, he'd never made her feel like this.
"Hey, wait, I'm sorry," Tobias says quietly, grabbing her by the elbow. He didn't want to argue with her, that wasn't his intent when saw her walking from the parking lot.
"No you're not," Tris said, trying to fight back tears. She knew him well enough to know that he meant what he said. "How do I know that you just aren't going to fuck around every time you start to feel neglected. We both have to trust each other for us to be together"
"I'm not asking for us to be together," Tobias says flat and almost robotic pulling back his emotions. He couldn't do this if he let himself think about how he felt about Tris.
"What?" Tris knew he was upset, and she was thrown by he was acting out but he was just going to end it. Like this?
"I got a lot going on, and it's obviously too much for what you have time for" Tobias shifts on his feet, not wanting to see the tears forming in her eyes.
"How are you going to tell me what I have time for?"
Tris feels like the wind had been knocked out of her. Yeah, things had been crazy that month but she really thought they could fix things over the summer without all the pressure of school and basketball.
"Look I'm dropping out of school and entering the draft,"
"When did you decide all this?" Tris asks, taken aback. She knew he had been distant but she hadn't expected any of this. Dropping out of school, she felt like she was looking at a different person than who was supposed to be her boyfriend.
"A few days ago"
"Look whatever I did, we can fix this" She replies, feeling her eyes start to burn as the tears threaten to betray all the emotions she was feeling. The brief glimpse she had gotten of Tobias was gone. His face was stoic and emotionless again. Any trace of tears he had was gone now too.
"Who knows where I might end up, I don't need to be tied down," Tobias says finally getting it out.
"So that's it, just forget about me and you?" Tris feels her voice crack, finally unable to stop the tears.
"I'd still like us to be friends" Tobias shrugged. Yeah, that's what people said when they broke up, Tris had been there for him through things no one else knew about.
"Friends" Tris feels as if she is going to choke on the word as she repeats it as more tears fall from her eyes. She didn't want to give Tobias the satisfaction of seeing her cry but she couldn't hold back anymore.
"Look I gotta go," Tobias says with ice in his voice. He turns and heads back into the building to his dorm room and Tris stands there watching him walk away feeling completely numb.
Tobias heads to his room and starts packing his stuff. He tossed and turned all night barely getting any sleep. When he wakes the next morning, he was numb, he felt like he was suffocating. He grabs his suitcases and duffle bags and fills them with clothes. Going through his stuff makes a pile of Tris's things that were in his room. Mostly discarded clothes from her spending the night, a pair of her slides, her blanket that she liked to snuggle in when it was cold. His heart felt like it was breaking. He knew he went too far but he couldn't be with her anymore.
He left his school books on the desk, he didn't care about them there was no need to take them with him. His heart constricts when looks at the framed picture of him and Tris on the desk. It had been taken during media day. The Men's and Women's teams had been in their home uniforms. Tobias had taken a quiet moment to put his finger under her chin to lift her face to his. She was looking at him like he was the only person in the world. He had kissed her but the photographer caught the moment just before and given them copies. Tris had a copy framed on her desk as well. Someone posted the picture on social media and it had gone viral. It was in the clip that ESPN had done about them after the Peach Belt Conference Tournament.
Tobias feels like his heart is breaking again as he looks at the picture. He felt completely alone. He looks at the picture and tosses it in the last box he was packing. He picks up his journal that held all the things his father taught him that he wanted to remember and throws it into the trashcan next to his desk.
He takes the first load of his stuff to his car, he hoped he could be home in Charlotte by the afternoon. When he comes back for the last load, Zeke, Caleb, and Uriah come into the living room.
"What are you doing T.?" Uriah asks.
Christina had called him saying something was wrong with Tris. He knew things had been tense between the two of them the past few weeks but he figured they would work it out as they always did. Tris had left after the scene with Tobias and the random girl. Susan had called Caleb when Tris left Spellman to come back to Dauntless. Now she wouldn't come out of her room. Uriah was planning on calling Tobias out about the drama the day before. Tris wasn't answering her phone but they could hear her crying through the door.
"I'm out, I'm going in the draft it's no need for me to stay here anymore"
"So you were just going to cheat on Tris and say the hell with everyone" Caleb edges.
Tobias scoffs. "I'm so sick of everyone defending her!"
"You fucking ran around on her why wouldn't we defend her?" Zeke points out.
"So nobody cares about how I feel. No one thought to be there for me! None of you have a say in my relationship with Tris. You don't get to decide what I do"
"That's weak as fuck and you know it" Zeke speaks out.
"Why because you think Tris is a fucking angel and can do no wrong?" Tobias glares at Zeke.
Zeke gets in Tobias's face, he and Tobias had drifted apart some the past year but he wasn't going to let him act like this.
"Watch it"
"Hey calm down you two" Uriah instructs as Will comes out of his room with all loud voices.
"This isn't about me, it's about the fact that you're fucking jealous about me being able to fuck Tris and you never could. Well you can fucking have her"
Zeke can't take it anymore and he pulls back throwing a punch straight to Tobias's face. Tobias stumbles back but quickly comes back to tackle Zeke. They fall into the coffee table which breaks under the pressure shattering across the floor.
"Come on, stop it," Uriah yells as he, Caleb, and Will try to break apart Tobias and Zeke.
Uriah has a solid hold on Zeke and Will has Tobias.
"No let him go, he wants to come at me" Zeke yells out.
"You're fucking dead to me" Tobias shoots back at Zeke. It was all about Tris. No one gave a damn about being there for him. He couldn't deal with it anymore.
"Go, You're always fucking thinking about yourself, selfish ass T Money." Zeke sneers.
"I don't need any of you" Tobias rages "Let me go"
"It's cool let him go," Zeke says adjusting his clothes.
Tobias grabs the rest of his bags and throws his room key on the couch not looking at any of his friends as he leaves.