Tris left to go to her regular table with Christina, Will and Uriah. The dining hall was already full with screaming dauntless because the walk took much longer than expected. Eric walked up onto the stage to set up the microphone. No one even noticed him until the microphone squealed and all of dauntless collectively grimaced and shouted at him. It might have been scary for someone else, but Eric wasn't here to make friends.

He does the congratulations-for-getting-here speech, and they show the rankings of the initiates.

In first place… is Tris?

Eric thought that it couldn't be right. Yeah; she ranked the highest in the simulations by far, but was that enough to compensate for her fighting rank? He looked down into the crowd from his place on the stage, and saw Tris getting bombarded with hugs, and suddenly, Eric sees Four approaching her. Concern and protectiveness flashes in Eric's eyes - It's not that he cares for her; he's just concerned about what might happen between them if Four does something to anger Tris. No one wants a scene, especially one that Eric might have to explain to Jeannine, who is watching everything. Then she would suspect that there are dating, which they weren't anymore, but Jeannine always makes every conversation about Divergent's. And Jeannine would surely suspect that Tris was divergent if she looked into her, even Eric was suspecting it. Tris and Christina both crossed their arms and Tris makes a face and says something before he walks away frowning.

…

Tris notices Eric watching her after Four leaves. She holds his gaze - not because she likes him or thinks he is being friendly - but because she is curious. Curious about why he's watching her, about why he was being so different to her today and curious about what is going to happen. Is everything going to go back to normal? Are they going to pretend that she didn't tell him about her love life and cried? That is what he said he wanted, after all.

"What was that all about? I thought you and Four were friends…" Christina asks, and then looking at Tris's line of sight, Christina sees her and Eric staring at each other, "and what the hell is that about?"

"Um…" After Tris tells Christina about the whole truth about Four, and she stops threatening him, Chris brings her attention to Eric again.

"Listen, Tris." She places her hands on her shoulders, looking down at her. "He is a sadistic psychopath. You cannot be friends or anything else with him, ok? He hung me over the chasm, Tris."

"Christina, nothing is going on. He is a leader and a psychopath. He talked to me when I was having a bit of a breakdown and it kind of nice—"

"He actually talked to you civilly? Wow, okay, maybe he isn't a total jackass, but he is still a jackass." She loops her arm through Tris's, walking towards their busy table.

"But a complete psychopath, right?" Tris asks Christina.

"Right." The two girls both laugh.

After eating the banquet and celebrating how they all are staying in Dauntless and not factionless, Tris walks through the busy dining hall, bumping into at least 10 drunken dauntless members, trying to get to the leaders table. She is trying to get there as quickly as she can, as to not lose her nerve. Sitting at the leaders table is Max, Four, Eric and more dauntless leaders that Tris doesn't recognize. They are all in an animated conversation, equipped with laughing and yelling. Well, all except Eric.

"Um, excuse me?" She says in a small, barely audible voice.

The conversation stops. Max looks over at her with a bored expression; Eric looks bored as well, trying to hide his curiosity and Four looks expectantly at Tris, getting ready to stand.

"Yes?" Max's deep voice rumbles.

"I was just wondering if I could talk to you, uh… Eric?" Everyone is looking at her now, no one trying to hide their surprise, not even Eric. Four's mouth hangs open in shock.

"Umm, yes, sure. Uh…." He stands up and leaves his tray on the table. She had never seen him so caught off guard.

Tris leads him to one of the hallways off the dining room, one of the quieter halls. He stands still and looks at her, feet apart and crossed arms.

"Well," she starts, "this may be kind of silly, especially because you told me not to talk to you, but I want to thank you. For sitting with me, I'm not sure what I would have done without your, uh, pep talk, and it was appreciated. Thank you."

He shuffles around awkwardly, Eric doesn't know how to respond, he told her not to act like friends and here she was thanking him. Then again, when was the last time someone had said thank you other than Jeannine? Everyone didn't even try to hide their hate of him. "Your welcome."

"I'm sorry for betraying your rules too." She laughs and looks down at her hands. Tris regretted asking Eric to talk, what was she supposed to say now? In her opinion, this conversation couldn't get any more awkward or worse.

Tris was wrong, because just as she thought that, Four came into the hall and stood before them. It was now a triangle of three very confused and angry people.

"What is going on here, huh? Eric, what are you doing?" He sized Eric up, his blue eyes narrowing with suspicion and hatred.

"It's nothing Four. We were just talking. I told you to never talk to me again, I thought you understood that?" Tris straightened her back and stood up to her full height, which wasn't impressive against the two tall men standing beside her.

"No, Tris, because you are just trying to make me jealous by talking with Eric, huh? Or were you cheating on me with Eric?! And I know that's not right unless Eric did something to you, so what did you do, Eric?" Four turned to Eric, pointing his finger at him and yelling. Four had lost all common sense, not even thinking about how he cheated on Tris first, or thinking about what he was even saying. Rage covered all senses, he just thought about Tris and Eric together and how mad it made him.

Eric started with an equal glare of hatred, "you know what, Four? We did cheat on you and I made her completely forget about you. In fact, she never loved you and realized that you were holding her back. The whole time you were dating her we were—"

"No!" Tris screamed. "I never cheated on you Four, and I would like you to just leave. And Eric, what the hell?"

"You expect me to believe you?" Four yelled.

"May I remind you, Four, that you cheated on me with Shauna and what made you suddenly believe Eric over me?"

"Well—"He started.

"No. Leave right now." Tris held up her hands. "You don't believe me? Fine. Leave right now or I will get my new boyfriend Eric to kick your ass."

Four stalked away, brooding, into the dining hall, giving Eric one last glare.

"Tris, I'm sor—"

"You don't get to talk to me either. What the hell were you thinking? Me and you?" she laughed bitterly. "Why did you tell Four that? You were making it worse! I shouldn't have talked to you in the first place…" Tris walked away and groaned in frustration. Only then did she realize two things, one: Eric just apologized, which is unheard of, and two: she could get kicked out of Dauntless for talking that way to a leader. Now she definitely regretted that this conversation ever happened.

Eric walked after her, she turned around to him and he said, "It just came out, I am sor… I am sorry. I had no place to interfere, and you could have faced him alone. And yes, I did make the situation worse. It's Four and it's me, I mean, what do you expect? We aren't exactly friends, Tris." His face turned sour again.

"Yeah, but I thought we were actually getting somewhere! And even after 10 minutes of talking to you, I guess the Abnegation in me came out and I wanted to be your friend!" She shouted, turning back to glare at him.

"We are not friends and will never be. "

She turned and walked away to meet her friends in the dining hall and left him standing there, unsure about what to do or think after all the emotions he usually supressed, came tumbling out.