Author's Note - I do not claim the story or characters from the movie and book mentioned in this chapter. They are real and two of my personal favorites.

I'd also like to take a moment and say thank you for the views and comments, I am excited and humbled by the response this story has generated. Thank you all.

CHAPTER 20

Saturday Night - Part 2

TRIS POV -

Once I am inside the house, I turn and wave out the window so Four can get home before he misses his curfew. I know he won't leave until he knows I am inside. It's sweet really. I turn from the door, the smile still on my face to see Caleb standing in the hallway holding a bowl of popcorn. He is staring at me, rolls his eyes and walks to the sofa in the living room.

"What was that look for?" I ask him as I move toward the stairwell. Tobias is going to call me soon and I want to make sure I am alone in my room when he does.

"Nothing, I'm just surprised you're home so early. Evening didn't go so well?" He smirks around a mouthful of popcorn,

"No, we had a good time. You should have come with us. Four just dropped me off because he has to be home by 10:30."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why 10:30?"

"He has a curfew."

"That is pretty lame don't you think?"

"Says the teenager who opted to stay home on a Saturday night to watch shows about Pirates! No actually, I don't think it is lame. His dad wants him home by a certain time and he respects that. What is lame about that?"

"Nothing, I'm sure it just put a damper on your evening, that's all."

"Caleb, I don't know what you have against him, but he is really a great guy. You should be happy for me."

"Happy for you? Beatrice, he is going to ruin you. You just can't see it for the stars in your eyes, but forgive me if I don't want to sit here and watch you isolate yourself from everyone else who cares about you."

"Why would you say that?"

"He only wants one thing from you."

"That isn't true, and it's none of your business. I have had a long day, and I don't want to fight with you about my boyfriend, Caleb. Goodnight."

I stomp up the stairs and resist slamming my door, but just barely. I change into an oversize tee shirt and look at my scraped leg before deciding to sleep in some yoga pants, just in case. I don't want to bleed on my sheets.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm in my pajamas, face washed, and cozy under my comforter propped up on all my pillows, just staring at the phone in my hand. The silent phone, with no waiting messages. I figured he'd have called by now.

I get up to turn off the light, leaving only my desk lamp on and lay down to look at the ceiling. My mind starts to wander and I think back over the last few weeks since school started. So much has happened. So many new people in my life. Is Caleb right? Have I gotten too focused on Tobias and ignored everyone else?

No. I haven't.

I still have dinner with dad every night. I still talk to mom a few times a week. I have two classes and about 45 minutes alone with Tobias daily. The rest of my days are full of other people, classmates and teammates, who all enrich my life. I should probably make more of an effort to develop those other friendships. Maybe there is something to what Caleb said about that…. but I know that Tobias is a part of my life here too, and I want him in it.

My eyes drift closed and just before I fall asleep.

Bzzzzzzzzzz….bzzzzzzzzzz my phone vibrates and lights up in my hand with a text message. I crack open one eye to read it.

F - Are you still awake?

F - I'm sorry it took me so long, I had to talk to my dad a while.

F - Hello?

F - I guess I missed you. Sweet dreams Tris.

T - I'm awake. Barely.

F - Hi. I'm really sorry it took me so long.

T - It's okay. I thought you were going to call me though.

F - I was, and still will. I just didn't want to wake you up if you were already asleep.

A few seconds later my phone rings.

"Hi" he says in a deep and rumbly voice.

"Hi" I reply, but even I can tell I sound sleepy so I sit up in bed a little more to try and wake back up.

"My dad talked to me forever, I'm sorry it took so long. He asked me 800 questions about the day with your dad and…"

"Shhhhh." I interrupt him gently before he can get on a roll, "It's okay. I did almost fall asleep though."

"Yeah, you sound sleepy. Why don't you turn off your light and I'll turn off mine. We can talk each other to sleep."

I look over at my little green desk lamp, "What makes you think my light is still on?"

"Just a guess. Am I right?"

"You are partly right. I have a little antique green and brass library lamp that I use as a desk lamp. That is still on."

"Yep, I know just the style you're talking about. Go turn it off and get back in bed. That way if you doze off you'll be comfortable."

"OK, hang on a second." I get out of bed and pad over to my desk to pull the little ball chain, then take a minute to get the pillows right before picking up the phone again, "Hello? Tobias?"

"I'm here, Tris."

"I'm back. Do you want to talk about where we left off conversation in the car tonight?"

"Not really, no. It was a weird vibe and I don't know why. I'd rather not go back to it if we don't have to. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure. We will just chalk it up to a weird moment. What should we talk about then?"

"Hmmm, I don't know. I didn't really have a plan, I just wanted to keep talking to you."

"Same here. What would we talk about if we were still together?

"If I hadn't had to drop you off and come home, if we'd still been at the bowling alley...if I still had you sitting on my lap and could recreate that little isolated bubble we had for a few minutes, I'd ask you where you learned to bowl like that?! Or maybe what shampoo do you use, because I like the way it smells. Or I'd ask you how your leg is feeling now?"

"Ha, I told you all, we have a bowling alley in Colfax and I spent a lot of time there because Susan worked there in the summer. The shampoo is something with almond oil I think, and yeah the leg hurts, but I will survive it I think."

I hear rustling on the other end of the phone, like he is changing his position on the bed. "Your turn, Tris."

"My turn? To ask a question?"

"Yeah, why not. Lets play 20 questions. Lets see what we can learn about each other."

"Ok Tobias, I like this idea. Um, what is your favorite book and why?"

"The Giver. We read it in middle school and it was the first school book that I enjoyed and really wanted to read."

"I don't think I have read that one, what is it about?"

"It's about a society that had some massive tragedy, a war or a plague or a disaster, and in the aftermath they decide to forget everything they knew before and start from scratch without people knowing the truth of their history and what life in the outside world is like. The people don't even know there is an outside world. They set up their new society with ruthless organization, strict rules of conduct, everyone wears the same clothes, lives in identical houses, eats identical food, they are all the same.

Then when the kids graduate, they go through this ceremony that tells them what they're supposed to do with their life. No one questions it, except for this one boy. Everything is in black and white and shades of grey, but sometimes he gets glimpses of color. They skip over him at the ceremony where they all get jobs because he is different. He is selected as the receiver of memory. Suddenly the rules don't apply to him anymore and he alone will learn the truth of what the world was like before, but he can't tell anyone what he knows. The more he learns, the more he questions the way things are, and eventually he becomes a threat. He wants everyone else to know what he knows, to be able to feel what he feels and…he goes a little crazy and takes a baby and escapes. Then…"

"Wait, he steals a baby?" I can't help but interrupt to find out more.

"Yes. The baby is not growing as fast as the other babies and his dad was trying to help it with extra nurturing. The baby is in danger of being 'released to elsewhere', so he takes him and runs.

The head Elder does everything in her power to catch him, to erase him, to restore order. They make his friend go search for him in a drone, while his other friend, who works in the nursery, is in jail and on special drugs to make her forget again because she helped him escape with the baby. His friend piloting the drone finds him but lets him go. So the main character treks across deserts and mountains all the way to the edge of their known world.

The elders try to do the ceremony where they 'release' the guys friend who worked at the nursery, it's just a fancy way of saying the are going to euthanize her, but the Elder and the Giver are talking about Love, and how humans could choose correctly if given the chance, but the Elder argues that it is human nature to choose wrong. The main character doesn't give up though, he makes it across the barrier of memory and it gives everyone back their memories, he saves his friend, the whole society goes back to normal and... I am sure you were looking for a much shorter synopsis than that. I am sorry, I ran away with myself."

"No, Tobias, don't apologize!" I rush to reassure him, "I love listening to you talk about something that means so much to you."

"They made a movie of the book not too long ago. We could watch it sometime if you want to."

"I would like that. I guess it's your turn to ask me a question now."

"Ok Tris, you asked me a good warm-up question, I'll give you one too. What is your favorite movie?"

"That is actually a hard question to answer, because I have a lot of favorite movies. For me, it depends on my mood, and the genre, but I suppose my favorite, one I will watch any time I come across it, is The Lake House. It's a movie, set here in Chicago, about a man and woman, Alex and Kate, who live in a lake house, two years apart from each other but there is a twist. The woman moves out and leaves a letter in the mailbox asking the new tenant to forward her mail. Alex moves in and they write letters back and forth, but it is complicated by the fact that she lives two years behind him in time. She moved out, and he is the next tenant but really he is there two years ahead of her."

"Hang on, that doesn't make any sense. She moves out, but he actually lives there before her, but it hasn't happened yet, and they write letters? That is insane."

"Yes, you got it. I know it doesn't make sense."

"How do they find out they're two years apart?"

"They date their letters, and she tells him about a snow storm that was in the late spring. When it happens, he believes her. In her first letter she apologizes about pawprints on the front walk, but he goes to look and there aren't any paw prints. Then weeks or months later he is painting the railing and a dog walks through the paint tray and tracks paw prints up the walk."

"Do they ever meet, or just write letters forever?"

"They make plans to meet, but he doesn't show and then she wants to stop writing; she is falling for him and doesn't want to be let down again. He stops writing to her, but doesn't forget her. He leaves the lake house to her boyfriend because he knows she will love it. By this time he has the advantage of knowing who she is because she asked him to pick up a book she forgot at the train station once and he saw her when he went to get the book. Then again later when he got invited to her birthday party."

"What happens next?"

"Life goes on for both of them, Kate ends up back with her ex and they go to an architect to get help redesigning a new house. It turns out this architect is Alex's brother who tells her that Alex died two years ago in a freak accident, hit by a bus in the City on Valentine's Day. This explains why he didn't show up at their date. Kate is a doctor and she was having lunch with her mom on Valentine's Day two years ago when a man was hit by a bus and died. She realizes that man was Alex, the man she used to write to, and she runs back to the lake house and writes a letter begging him to wait for her, to not try to find her on Valentine's Day, but to come to the lakehouse, that she is there waiting for him. He does show up and it's just the best love story ending. I know, it's the most ridiculous silly chick flick but I love it."

"No, it sounds like a sweet movie. I don't think it is silly or ridiculous, it's just a love story with a crazy time loop before the happy ending. Everyone likes those."

"Everyone likes time loop stories?"

"No, silly, everyone likes a happy ending. Even in the blow up action adventure movies the guy usually gets the girl in the end, right? Your turn to ask me something."

"Hmm, I don't have a good one ready. I don't know, um, what is your favorite day of the week?

"Monday."

"Monday?! No one likes Mondays, Tobias. Why on earth is that your favorite day?"

"It's true, Monday is my favorite day of the week. You have to realize Tris, it's just me and Marcus here in the house. I don't have siblings, there is no one else to talk to and my dad is not like your dad. Weekends can be pretty tedious."

"Tobias, I am so sorry. I admit, I haven't spent much time thinking about what your home life is like. I should have been more considerate."

"No, it's alright. I don't expect you to understand, and I don't really talk about it, with anyone really. Zeke and Uriah know, I think, but not because I ever said anything out loud about it."

"Then why did you tell me?"

"It isn't a secret exactly. Just something I don't like to dwell on when I don't have to."

"You must miss your mother very much."

"Less than I used to when I was younger. Now I can go days without thinking about her, sometimes weeks. But then something will happen, someone will say something, or I will pass someone on the street who looks a little like I think she did, and all my childhood memories rush back to the forefront of my mind. It can be overwhelming."

"Is that what happened on the first day of school, at the Art Store? You said she used to work there."

"Yes. That is exactly what happened that day. I thought I could handle it, then I didn't want to seem weird in front of you. I thought I had it under control, but you saw right through me and knew something was wrong."

"You were almost shaking, you were trying so hard to have no outward reaction to whatever was going on inside. I didn't know you well enough to ask what was going on, but I wanted to help you so badly."

"You did help me, Tris. You helped me by not pressing me for answers, by being kind and understanding to me. It is so much easier now to explain what happened back then. I didn't know you either, and I wouldn't have told you what was really going on."

"I'm so happy you can be honest with me now. It's your turn to ask a question, I think."

"Ok, when you were little, what did you think you'd be when you grew up?"

"I always wanted to be a nurse like my mom."

"I can see you as a nurse maybe. You're patient and empathetic, but I think maybe you'd have to be one of those 'tough love' nurses, who pushes someone for their own good."

"Really, you think so? That makes me sound a little like a bully."

"I don't mean it like that, more like encouragement and support, but that was then. What do you want to be now? Has it changed?"

"I honestly don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I thought by now I would have some clear idea which path to take, but I am unsure."

"Tris, you're 15 years old. You don't have to have it all figured out right now. You have plenty of time, and then, if you still don't know, you can just go to a Liberal Arts college and take two more years to decide before majoring in something vague like communications or art history."

"Ha ha, very funny. What about you? What do you want to do when you get out of school?"

"I wondered if I would be a good journalist. That is why I joined the paper, but I don't have the passion and drive for it that I really would need to be a professional. I have thought about law school though, or criminal justice."

"I could see you doing either. Good thing you have a few years to decide."

"Yes, good thing."

"Do you know what college you want to go to?"

"No, not yet. It doesn't matter to me, I'll go anywhere with a decent program and a scholarship. Marcus won't object if it meets those two criteria. My turn now?"

"Yes, I think so."

"What is your favorite color, Tris?"

"Blue, a stormy grey blue. How about you?"

"Dark purple, like an eggplant. Tris, there is something I really want to know."

"Ok Tobias, what would you really like to know?

"How did you forgive Christina for the things she said to you?"

"Oh, that changes the tone a little. I just, well, she told me some things about her home life and I realized that she was just lashing out. It wasn't really about me at all. You can't say anything about it, ok? She made me promise, but her dad has been having an affair and her parents are getting divorced. His new girlfriend is pregnant and they want the house because it is in a good school zone. Her whole world is upside down right now."

"Hmmm. You couldn't tell any of that from the way she was trying to swallow Will's tongue at the Alley tonight. How does she have the nerve to call you a slut and then act like that in public?"

"Tobias, you know appearances can be deceiving. She is probably trying to distract herself, and I am sure Will is a very good distraction. Did their PDA make you uncomfortable? We've held hands and kissed a few times out where others can see us. Do you not want to anymore?"

"No, I'm not uncomfortable being affectionate with you in public, Tris. I think we both are likely to remain in control and aware of our surroundings. You aren't embarrassed by it are you?"

"I'm not embarrassed, but Caleb has made a few comments to me about how we behave in public, and it got me thinking."

"Ah yes. He said a few things to me about it too this morning on our way to get supplies."

"What did he say to you?"

Tobias sighs before answering, then he hesitantly says, "He..he seems to think that...that I am only after you for one reason. Tris, I promise that is not true at all. I really like you and want to spend time together because of that. I won't pressure or rush you to do anything, I swear."

"I know that Tobias. You aren't like that, which is what I told Caleb after the soccer game last week and again tonight when I got home from our date. Ugh, my stupid brother. Why is he meddling in this? Nevermind, I don't want to think anymore about Caleb. Whose turn is it?"

"I lost track. Why don't you go again."

"Why do you like me Tobias?"

He chuckles softly and takes a deep breath before answering, "I like the way I feel when I am with you. You make me feel like anything is possible, your eyes make me forget what time it is, and wish that we lived farther away from school. What do you like about me?"

"You're tall."

"What?! Tall? That's it?"

I can't help but laugh."No of course not! I'm teasing. I like you because you make me feel special, safe and cared for without babying me, and I like that you were honest with me when you didn't have to be. You told me the truth about our dad's conspiring to match-make us and you could have just let it happen to your advantage."

"I think it worked out to my advantage anyway, Tris. My turn now, right?"

"Yes."

"Will you go to the Homecoming Dance with me, Tris?"

"Yes, but you didn't have to waste a question on that. I'd love to go to the dance with you, Tobias."

"It wasn't a wasted question."

"Maybe we will get a song."

"A song?"

"Yes, you know, couples have songs that remind them of each other."

"Oh, right. I never thought much about it. Never had any reason to think about it. What kind of song do you think you'd like?"

"I think we will both just know it when we hear it. I don't think it's the sort of thing you pick ahead of time like a prom or a wedding song."

"I see, well keep me posted if you hear anything you like, okay?"

"Sure. Whose turn is it now? Yours?"

"I'll go. Which room is yours upstairs? Which window?"

"Are you planning to climb up the trellis one night and sneak in?"

"What?! No, of course not! Well, okay maybe now that the idea is in my head, but I wouldn't have done it before!"

"Relax, Tobias, I am teasing you again. Mine is the upper left, the windows over the yard and the driveway. My room and Caleb's are connected by the bathroom. I am also sorry to tell you that we don't have a trellis."

"I guess I will just have to come up with another plan then. It sounds like your floor plan is different than ours for the upstairs level. We have a hall bathroom and two separated rooms."

"Tobias, how long have Zeke and Shauna been crazy for each other?"

"Hahahaha, you are an observant one arent you? It has been about two years, maybe two and a half. They've yet to make a move in either direction. They just posture and circle around each other grumbling to me whenever the other one gets any outside interest. What do you miss most about Colfax?"

"I miss the sky at night. You could actually see the stars there. If you sat out in one of the fields long enough, and let your eyes adjust, you could see the milky way. I miss that a lot and am really looking forward to you seeing it. Gram and Pop are looking forward to meeting everyone." I can barely stifle the yawn and 'everyone' came out sounding ridiculous.

"I can't wait to see it all, and to meet them. I should let you get to sleep, I know you're tired."

"Tobias? Can we do this again?"

"This, the questions? Sure."

"No, I mean the talking before we go to sleep."

"Yes, Tris. We can do that too."

"I'd like that."

"Good. Me too. I should let you get some sleep though, sweet dreams Tris."

"Sweet dreams Tobias. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Good night."