Hey! I apologize for the confusion on the last chapter. I've fixed it up by putting the dream in italics for you. So the thing with James and Eric in the training center actually happened. The thing with Tris and Tobias and Christina crossing the bridge was a dream. And by the way, for dream symbols, crossing a bridge means new beginnings, and crossing a bridge with water beneath means it will be an emotional change…
-Eve
CHAPTER EIGHT
TRIS
The news of James' indiscretion circulated the Dauntless sector like the grinding cogs of groups pushing past each other in the pit to form a giant crowd every morning – the news rubbed up against everyone. It depended on who you were to see if it rubbed against you the right or wrong way. It only happened yesterday, and already it was the top subject of gossip-discussion. I sat, alone in the dining hall quietly drinking coffee and waiting for Toby when James walked into the hall. He had a visible bruise on the back of his head, from the concrete, but otherwise he was completely fine. He was about to sit down with Simon and Kathryn, when a bunch of people screamed past patting him on the back and laughing and hugging him. They left as soon as they'd come, but had left a noticeable impression on James.
I could see from my table he was trying to suppress a smile. He knew that what he did was bad, and knew that he shouldn't be happy about it.
I smiled, thinking maybe he wasn't a psycho. Come to think of it anyone could have knocked Eric unconscious given the power of the element of surprise.
I surveyed the rest of the crowd, watching people talk about Eric and James (Eric remained in the hospital). A table over, I could hear some snooty people talking in hushed whispers about how ungrateful that boy was and how he should just leave, and become factionless, to stop wasting all of our times. I think about how James could possibly be wasting their time.
I almost spill the coffee I have paused between my mouth and the table when Uriah bounces down on the seat in front of me, holding Marlene's hand.
"Hey!" she breathes. They both settle down and catch their breaths.
"Hey, what were you two doing?" I ask, but I really don't care for an answer. I'm too hooked up on the idea of James and Eric, still.
"We were running through the crowd, trying to chase each other."
"How? It's impossible to find anyone."
"That's the point of the game." Jumps in Marlene, you have to find each other, and when you do…
They kiss, Uriah combs his fingers through her hair and she clutches onto the back of his.
They continue to do this.
"Okay." I whisper and tentatively take another sip of coffee. I place it back down carefully and sneak an eye at Uriah and Marlene, to see Christina standing over them.
I catch her eye and try to give a welcoming smile. A smile that could suggest – come down and sit, I can send Uriah and Marlene away and we can talk this through again, I'm ready, I've had my coffee and I'm ready to talk about this, so you can stop avoiding me and I can help you tell Will, and maybe I can even tell you something else about your baby's father that I've been hoarding for days and that's eating me alive, so come and sit with me – the smile fades by the time I quickly come to the realisation of how much we need to talk about.
And not in a cafeteria.
She doesn't return the smile. She quickly glances at Uriah, who has his hand up Marlene's skirt.
"Jesus guys! I'm eating." I say.
"So am I." Lynn sits down roughly next to me and all I can think is great, now Christina won't sit, and I bet Toby will come up with some excuse so as to avoid sitting with all these people.
"Yeah, I've got to go, but I'll see you later Tris." Says Christina. A ray of hope flashes through me as she says it. She turns and nearly bumps into Tobias who kisses me on the cheek and whispers into my ear "Sorry, I've got to go talk to Max".
There's the excuse.
He walks off too, and I'm left with a sassy Lynn and a horny Uriah and Marlene. Marlene flips her hair over her shoulder and gives both Lynn and I an apologetic look.
"Your hair's growing back well, Lynn." Silence follows Marlene's kind statement, and all I can hear is the chewing and processing of Lynn's cereal in her mouth.
"Thanks." She replies bitterly. Uriah looks down at his pants. All of a sudden I get a hot flush and my cheeks go red. Marlene stares off into the distance, Lynn looks plainly at her food, but Uriah and I both have our eyes on his crotch for a split second.
A long bulge running down the side of his inner thigh stares at me sneakily. I gasp and Uriah looks up at me.
He gets the same flush and quickly pulls his jacket over it.
Jesus he's hornier than I thought.
He doesn't dare look at me. I sit and try to switch the group's conversation up. I randomly choose a subject and bite onto it.
"So, a kid beat Eric to a pulp yesterday in training." Marlene's eyes pop and batter like a cartoon character. Lynn slowly pushes her cereal forward and laughs.
"Bull-shit."
"I heard about it." Uriah mutters, he still stares at the table. I think about how he must really want to get out of here but unfortunately can't without making the situation worse. All three of us girls try looking at him but he doesn't move his eyes.
"U-uh, well, yeah it did happen."
"You don't seem so sure." Teases Lynn.
"What happened?" asks Marlene, turning her gaze to me.
"So, this kid, who's not the best fighter, wants this girl Dakota to just get on with it and beat him up. He wasn't even putting up a fight. He wanted her to do it." I go over how pissed Dakota was, and then dive into the part where Eric gets rendered unconscious and how I stood there for five minutes, unsure of what to do. Marlene has a hand cupped to her mouth and Lynn looks slightly taken aback. Uriah keeps his head down.
"What're they gonna do to him?" asks Lynn, while pulling her cereal back and taking another spoonful.
"Dunno." I reply.
"Well I've got to go do some things, if you know what I mean"(I never asked Lynn what her job was, and I never found out, but she thought I did so whenever she headed off for work I just nodded along). Marlene gulps her toast down and stands up.
"I'll walk you there."
"Sure" she says it with a kind voice but she doesn't look that enthusiastic. They both smile and walk off to the pit. I look back at Uriah who I suddenly notice was peaking at me from under his eyebrows. When I look back, he indiscreetly flutters them away.
"Uri, you know, Four gets them as well, I know all you guys get them, and I might as well say, Four's might be the slightest bit smaller than what I saw-." I try to make him comfortable with the topic but he cringes and finally looks me in the eye.
"Don't. Ever. Tell me. About. Another, guy's… Junk. Ever. Again." It takes him a whole two minutes to spit it out through gritted teeth, and when he's done he gets up and leaves, with his member tucked away.
Aaaaaaah, fuck.
But I smile anyway.
At training, I put up the new list:
Dakota Eve
Kathryn Rob
Addie Declan
Simon Bill
Whispers circulate the room when they notice James hasn't even been put up. I was told by Max through Tobias to leave James out of the list and to continue the fights we were meant to do yesterday. They will take care of James for the time being.
"Okay, so yesterday, from Kathryn to Bill, you all will have the same partners, because you didn't get the chance to fight them yesterday." I'm given a couple of groans. "Eve, you didn't have a partner yesterday, so you will be replacing James as Dakota's partner." Eve and Dakota both give each other sympathetic looks.
"Why isn't James up there, he could kick any one's ass and you decide to not allow him to do any more fights? What's wrong with this faction?" says a rather obnoxious voice to my left.
"Then become factionless like I'm assuming James will be. If I were you I'd keep your goddamned mouth shut." I snap back.
Simon gives me an unsatisfied look, and I know that I've won until Dakota says:
"So you don't even know if he's going to be factionless?" everyone looks at me with the strangest looks. I feel awkward, like they think I'm stupid, that I'm not someone they should take seriously.
"No, but I definitely shouldn't know. That's the leaders' decision, not mine at all." I say.
The air of doubt is sucked out of the room immediately and a blanket of relief covers me. In times like these I really do need Tobias here. Too bad he's the one making the decision.
The fights go on as usual, only there's less talk amongst those who aren't fighting. During Kathryn and Rob's fight I discover that Kathryn's fast, and agile, but Rob can aim. He hits her in the neck after she swerved from getting hit in the face. She quickly ducks and grabs him by the ankles and tosses him over her shoulders with all the might she can conjure. He hits the ground face first, and I hear a gasp come from Dakota (who lost to a feeble fight between her and Eve). He scrambles around quickly and picks her up. They're both definitely not dirty fighters. He lets her catch her breath and blocks her punch before he punches her in the nose sending blood all over his front. She coughs and lands on the ground shaking.
She gets up with a grueling look on her face and kicks him in the stomach, sending him sprawling on the ground like herself. They both squirm for a couple of minutes before they try charging at each other and I break it up.
"It's a tie!" I yell. They both clutch at their injuries and stumble off.
Addie is sneaky. But she lets Declan get a few unsteady kicks before she sends her whirl of kicks and flips and swerves and ducks. I'm sad to rank Declan down a couple marks, but also glad to rank Addie up.
Simon beats Bill easily, kicking him in the shins and kicking him in the back, punching him in the face, pulling him up by the front of his shirt and punching him in the jaw.
I sigh once he's knocked Bill out cold, and he looks at me with the most devious smile. I'm incredibly annoyed to rank him number one. He reminds me exactly of Peter.
At the end of the day everyone walks out without a word.
Once I've printed everything out from my computer, clipped it to the clipboard and placed it down on the table, I turn around to see Tobias standing in the door frame.
"Hey."
"Hey, babe."
"Since when did we start calling each other babe?"
"Since now."
"I don't like it."
"Fine then, I'll just have to call you pansycake." He lifts me up and pushes me against the wall. I wrap my legs around his waist and we kiss.
"You definitely know how to surprise a girl." I whisper. He smiles and puts me back down.
"I just came by to tell you about tonight."
"What about tonight?" I put my hands on his shoulders and bite my lower lip.
"No, no, not that" he says, laughing. "We're playing capture the flag tonight." A glimmer goes through my eyes. Tobias laughs and laces his fingers with mine
"Can we be on the same team?"
"Do you really think I'd let you see my competitive side?" I giggle and give him a light kiss on the nose. "We'll be playing against Peter and Christina."
I think about Christina. She shouldn't be running or playing around like this. That's not healthy for the baby. I try to conceal my reaction to his words as best I can.
But he notices it.
He always does.
"What's wrong? Oh, don't worry, Christina's not a bad sport, she won't mind losing to us." I give him a weak smile. It's cheap, but it works. He plants a light kiss on my forehead.
"By the way, James won't be playing tonight, so if the kids ask where he is, just come up with some excuse."
"Okay."
"Cool."
"Cool."
We kiss for a final time and he leaves.