Holy shit. I updated. Now, I've decided that I will update Tuesday every 2 weeks or so. This chapter is kinda filler but then again kind of not. I had fun writing it and I hope you have fun reading it. See you in 2 weeks. Maybe less. Who knows. Maybe I'm feeling generous.
Also, I've realized that the time frame is a little different in regard to when Visiting Day and Stage 2 happen and sometimes one is before the other and blah. Well, this is 16 years after Tris is an initiate. They decided to shake it up a bit. Deal w/ it.
Also, this chapter isn't edited, so it might be crappy.
Some ideas are mine. Everything else belongs to Veronica Roth.
By The Throat, CHVRCHES
Visiting Day.
Not relevant to me, but it's still an excuse to get away from the simulations for a fraction of the day.
Nothing's been different in regard to my Stage 2 antics. Nash has entered random fears that other people experience and I would take the injection for a time frame and the walk out shaking. I know my time is ridiculously better than all the other initiates, yet it's not something I'm proud of.
Just one slip up by either me or Nash could kill me. So far, we've been fine. No Erudite have paid Dauntless a good old visit in the time we've been training
Lily shook me awake this morning, practically pushing me out of my bed.
"Get up!" She shouted. I groaned back and rolled over in my bed. My head was pounding from the light that blinded me through my eyelids. All of the sudden, she started throwing things on top of me.
"You bitch," I muttered to myself. My boots, a black tank top, and black jeans were strewn across my bed. I looked at Lily and her face was in a wide grin.
"C'mon sweetie," She said shaking her hair out and pulling it over her shoulder. In the moment, she reminded me of a panther with the black hair and dark eyes. Feisty.
I groaned and rolled off my bed. My body still ached from paintball 4 days ago. It didn't help that I slept for a plentiful 2 hours either.
Grabbing my clothes, I changed and threw my hair into a ponytail.
"You could have killed me with those boots," I said to Lil as she coated her lashes in mascara. Not that she needed it. "A blade could have popped out and-" I balled my hand into a fist and threw it against my chest, gagging. "dead in seconds,"
"That would have added some excitement to my life, wouldn't it?" She murmured back.
You have no idea.
Just as we were about to leave following the other initiates into the Pit, Lily looked me up and down and rolled her eyes.
"I swear, you woke up 2 minutes ago and you still look hot," I shoved her a bit and she pushed me back. Except me being the clutz that I am, I stumbled completely and fell into someone's arms.
Ky's.
He looked down at me in shock, first that I fell and then that he was holding me in his arms. His face flushed to a light red, but I saw something on his face before he released me.
Not only was there the nice bruise I left him at paintball, there were numerous discolorations across his face. An average one near his temple that was turning to a dark blue and a huge one growing along his jaw. I also noted his split lip.
"You good?," He muttered, putting me back on my feet.
"Who did that to you?" Was all I said, raising my hand up and brushing my fingertips along his bruises. "And I don't mean the one I gave you,"
At first, he let my hand stay. But then, he quickly brought his face away and scratched the back of his neck. The group started to move and he swiftly ignored me and began walking with the rest of the initiates.
Lily was too busy talking with Jasmine to help me in this situation.
"Ky," I said hoping to get him to turn around. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
I thought he would just ignore me, and I was surprised when he spun around and glared at me. His eyes were dark, almost black.
"Since when do you care about anything I do?" He sneered, letting everyone brush past him.
Oh, so this what this is about.
"What the hell are you talking about, Ky?" I ran my nails along the inside of my wrists.
He's probably just pissed that I don't feel the same way about him. Or that I embarrass him accidentally almost every time we're in public together.
"I just don't get it," He breathed. He shook his head and laughed fakely. We were now the only two in the dimly lit hallway. I heard the conversations of people meeting up with the children just a few halls down.
"Theo, every single boy in this damn compound wants to get in your pants and you're worried about me?" He turned serious and brought his eyebrows together. "Why?"
I exhaled for him. I know what he wanted to hear. He wanted to say that I had a thing for him and then I would start kissing him savagely because we both felt the same way about each other.
But he knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Ky, I-your-it's," I tried to say it, but the words wouldn't come together.
He didn't take that any better.
His lips pressed into a hard line and he looked around. His hair was shorter now, and no locks had any chance of falling into his eyes.
"I'm your friend. I get it," He finally looked back into my eyes. "But I like you. Too much for my own good and I know you don't feel the same way. But the more you touch my face and smile at me, the harder it's been getting to watch him look at you the way he does,"
The snarl in the way he said the pronouns gave me a pretty clear idea of who he was talking about.
This whole thing is just so god damn frustrating. A part of me wants to bash his head in and scream, "I don't like you, dumbass!". But then again, I'm actually a kind person beneath the sass and sex appeal. I don't want to rip him apart to get the point across.
"I'm sorry," I replied, crossing my arms. "You're going to have to deal with my caresses and grins because you are my friend, Ky,"
The corner of my mouth tugged up. Maybe it wasn't appropriate to smile while I crushed the romantic ambitions and friend zoned Ky, but I couldn't decide what other expression to put on.
"And as your friend, I care about you," His eyes brightened up at my last words. Oh, great.
He placed a hand I've his heart and gasped.
"You're telling me that Theodora Eaton, the girl who pulled a knife out of her shoe the first time I saw her, cares about me?" He placed his hands on his slim hips and smiled.
Thank god for his humor.
I punched him lightly in the shoulder and his face immediately went from comical to painful in a matter of milliseconds.
"Back to the initial question," I said, grabbing his arm and dragging him into a spare hallway.
"You know, when you see a guy cringe in pain after punching him in the shoulder, you probably shouldn't take him by the arm and roughly drag him into a hallway," Ky breathed as he rubbed his arm.
I rolled my eyes and then narrowed them.
"What?" I asked.
"Fight,"
"When?"
He exhaled and poked his tongue in the side of his cheek.
"Yesterday,"
"Who?"
Please don't say Nash. Please don't say Nash.
"Trevor,"
My sigh of relief was interrupted by the realization that Trevor and Ky, the two people I swore were best friends, fought. And judging by Ky's face, it wasn't a pretty one.
"Why?"
Ky shook his head and gestured to the floor.
"Have a seat. You're going to want to be here for a while,"
That's never a good sign.
I lowered myself to the ground and pressed my back against the wall. I pulled one knee to my chest and looked up at Ky while he began his story.
"Haley quit,"
My mind whirled into a giant tornado of emotions. No wonder he told me to sit down. I felt confusion, anger, disbelief. Anything that you could possibly feel I felt in a matter of a few seconds.
"Remember paintball? Fuck it, of course you remember paintball," He ran his hands through his hair. "Well that group you sent to get the flag contained the lovely Paige. And the group guarding our flag contained the wonderful Haley. Apparently when Paige saw Haley, she went bat-shit crazy. She shot her like 12 times and then wailed on her. Punched and kicked and scratched and pulled. Basically did everything that was ever illegalized in street fighting,"
"Why didn't anyone do anything?" I yelled, furious. They basically watched a girl get beaten to a pulp and didn't do shit? I guess Becca and Mason were getting off on it and everyone else was too shocked to do anything.
"Jasmine split up with Paige and Wes was the other person guarding the flag. He said that if he laid a hand on Paige at the time she would bite it off,"
"That's bullshit," I muttered.
"You're telling me. Anyway, Paige said that if Wes told anyone anything, she would kill him. She told everyone that Haley fell down the fire escape and Paige, being the angel she is, brought her up to Wes. And she added that we shouldn't tell anyone besides the doctors because that's what Paige told Haley before she blacked out. And of course everyone fucking believed her,"
"For the time being. Yesterday, Haley woke up from her blackout, which was way too long for falling down a fire escape, and said that she's quitting because Paige is a psycho bitch and she doesn't care about Matthew anymore,"
"Who's Matthew?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around the entire situation. My fingers were pressed into a fist so hard, my knuckles turned white. But, I only felt one thing now.
The desperate need to kill Paige.
"I have no idea. No one asked because she left right after that,"
"Ok," I breathed, running my hands down the sides of my face. "Now explain why you look like shit,"
I saw the faintest of a smile on Ky's face. "I'm getting there,"
"So after Haley left, everyone knew that Paige beat her to a pulp. And by the chasm, I was walking with Connor, who talks a lot about you too, by the way,"
"Go on," I demanded, rolling my eyes.
"And all of the sudden, Trevor walks by, sees Paige with Becca, and goes berserk. He tackled her and slammed her head in the ground. He calls her a lying bitch and tells her she's going to rot in hell for what she did. I went over and dragged him off of her, but he started on me. Punching and thrashing. Connor held him back before he could completely annihilate me. And that's why I look like complete shit,"
For the first time in my life, I was speechless.
My mouth couldn't form anything besides a plentiful amount of ridiculous faces.
"Where's Paige now?" I somehow made out.
"No idea, but we should probably get to the Pit. They're probably looking for us. And assuming,"
Third time in 10 minutes I've rolled my eyes. I think.
"Does anyone besides the initiates know about it?"
"No, besides the meds, I don't think so," He offered me his hand which I gladly accepted, considering my legs felt like they were flaming up and collapsing at the same time.
"We need to tell Nash," I said, walking towards the main hallway we came out from.
I heard Ky snort behind me and mutter, "Of course we do,"
"Hey," I warned him. "Enough with your sass. There are bigger problems on our hands,"
Such as finding out who the fuck Matthew is.
We made it to the Pit in record time. But, my hopes deflated when I saw that there was no way we were going to find Nash in the amount of people hugging and greeting.
"This is just great," I murmured to myself, slumping my shoulders. I felt Ky's hand grab my waist as if trying to stay with me. I would have shoved any other guy away. Well, except maybe-
No.
But, I knew he meant no harm. Well, I hope he didn't.
"Kyle!"
We both turned our attention to the right, where a blonde woman and her brown-haired husband stood together with a surprisingly pretty strawberry blonde girl. She certainly wasn't really young, maybe 14 or 15. Beck's age.
"Fuck me," Ky breathed behind me.
"What?" I sneered at him. "Kyle was too complex?"
His hands came off my hips like they were a hot stove when his family got a good look at the both of us.
"Says the girl whose mother changed her name from Beatrice to Tris,"
My elbow flung back into his ribs. He hunched a bit, consuming the blow, but kept a smile on his face and he forced me over to his parents. They must have gotten either a good look at Ky's new appearance or me because their jaws dropped.
"Hi," Ky said, moving from behind me and giving them both awkward hugs and exchanging small words that I didn't bother listening to.
"And who is this?" His mother said loud enough for me to hear. Ky came back towards me and bit his lower lip.
"This is Theo Eaton," His said gesturing to me.
I then realized I had on no makeup, dressed in a tank top, and forced my bed head out of its ponytail and over my shoulders while I tugged on my hairline during our little conversation.
And yet, they still looked at me like I was a goddess.
Lucky gene combination if you ask me.
"Nice to meet you," I said as I shook his parents hands.
I knew the question would come quicker than I could dodge it.
"Is this your girlfriend?"
Ky's face flushed to a red color as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Are you kidding me?" His sister snorted, picking at her cuticles. "Look at her. She's out of his league,"
"Genevieve!" Her mother scolded before looking up at me and apologizing.
Ky looked miserable. And I felt generous. And creative.
"Actually I am," I said, looking over at Ky. His expression was priceless, but it wasn't helping with concealing the lie.
He finally got the hint and wrapped his arm around my waist. His dad looked at him like he just won the lottery and his mom was smiling and Genny, well she was catching flies.
"We've been together for almost a month now," Ky said, interrupting the awkward silence that followed. His hand found the strip of bare skin beneath my tank top and I might have stepped on his foot in response.
And then my eyes found Nash when they wandered to the left. He was talking with Jem, a Dauntless who was known for his numerous bedmates, on the other end of the Pit. I looked up at Ky and raised my eyebrows, hoping he knew what I was talking about.
"It was very nice meeting you, but I have to go see my friend Natasha. She's having trouble finding her parents,"
I stepped up on my toes and gave Ky a peck on the cheek, pleased to see he understood my message.
"See you later, babe," I said, leaving his side.
Babe? He mouthed back, holding back a smile.
I shook him off and went in the direction of my goal.
I felt like a was pressed into a sardine can with all the people surrounding me. I just needed to get to Nash and tell him.
Before I broke Paige's neck on my own.
But, it was m y job to keep them away from each other.
My job to make sure they didn't kill each other.
My job.
My fault.
It's my fault Haley quit.
"Excuse me," Someone said behind me. I turned around and came face to face with an Amity couple who looked younger than someone with a kid should be.
But who am I kidding? My parents were 16.
"We're looking for our daughter, Dove," The mother said, smiling.
"She transferred this year and we just can't seem to find her anywhere," The father tipped in, with his black hair flopping onto his forehead.
Oh, no.
The Amity girl on the train.
Haley's friend.
Oh, god. I knew I shouldn't tell two people that their daughter is dead, but did I have another choice? Lie? Yes, that seemed like a real appropriate thing to do at a time like this. Their daughter is dead. They deserve to know it. No matter how terrible timing it is.
"I'm sorry," I tried to say as easy as I could. "But, I'm afraid your daughter passed away on the first day on the train. Did someone inform you?"
The mother's blue eyes turned glassy before the tears rolled out. Her arms collapsed as she fell into her husband's arms. Her tears turned the red of her shirt a maroon as she wailed and cried.
"No one informed us of this," The father said sternly, holding his wife.
He looked so familiar. Almost like I've seen him before. Just a bit older. The resemblance was striking beyond belief.
Logan.
The fuck?
"Oh my god!" The wife cried as she looked up and saw someone. "Dove!" She crawled out of her husband's arm and wiped her tears away on her already soaked sleeve. "They said you were dead!"
I knew when I followed her gaze I'd be hit with the most confusing piece of information I've ever been given. And when I say I was confused, my whole brain turned liquid when I saw who Dove was.
Paige.