Oops I haven't updated in two months. Sorry lovely readers:)
Okay so a reviewer pointed out ti me hat I made the 21 and 23 year old characters go to high school. Oops my mad what can I do. We can pretend it was college or whatever.
Also so glad that (at least two months ago) some people were still following my fanfic, hanks for the support :)
Enjoy the chapter I'm probably gonna Finnish this story in one or two more chapters plus an epilogue maybe
Chapter Seven
Tris
I still see he look of shock on Peters face, the feeling of protection and confidence I felt standing next to Tobias. I continue to replay the scene in my mind: the baffled look on Tobias's face when he very obviously didn't understand the concept of a lunch line, the way he tensed when he saw Peter and his goons, like he could sense my emotions.
I find it hard to concentrate during my final period class, world geography, with the worlds most vile teacher, mrs. Dodds. I nearly jump out of my skin when my friend Christina kneed me in the thigh. I turn to glare at her but realize I must have been asked a question.
I feel my face heat as I ask the teacher to repeat the question. She rambles on about some name at some place in history that has no relevance to the present day, ending her sentence with a question that makes no sense. "Um, actually I'm feeling a bit queasy can I be excused?" I ask, earning some snickers from the rest of the class. After giving me a snarl worthy of a monster she dismisses me.
As it's the last class of the day I decide to go home. On the way home I find it difficult to concentrate on the road as my mind seems to have been hijacked by images of a certain dark haired boy.
Only after pulling up into the drive way do I realize that I left the school with out him, leaving Tobias with out a ride. Well, I think. I suppose he can wait a little more while I water the horses.
" Hello, Tris." I spin on my heel to the origin of Tobias' voice. I force myself to not suck in my breathe or let out any other reaction that may suggest certain feelings that may or may not be brewing in the pit of my stomach towards this extremely attractive boy standing four feet in front of me.
"How did you get home?" I ask him.
He gives me the same smirk that's plastered into my brain, and it takes everything in me to remain calm and collected. "I hope my coming home didn't foil your plans to ditch me at that hell hole."
I feel a smile creeping onto my face but force it down and reply, "Well to food levels certainly have decreased since you've been here." An adorable half smile forms on his face, as if he's amused but it's sure whether or not I'm being serious. "That was sarcasm." I inform him with a smirk of my own.
"Of course." He replies, his smirk smoothing out into a more confidant smile.
"How about you put yourself to use and help with the horses." I tell Tobias. "Sure thing." He replies and holds the back door open for me. "After you, miss sarcasm." I stick my tongue out and lead him outside.
We walk outside and I feel the warm of the sun and a slight breeze. The long overgrown grass of the pasture blow like the ocean. We walk in a comfortable silence to the first water bucket and I turn on the water bucket.
"So... How exactly am I helping with this oh so important task?" Tobias asks with false politeness.
"Well, for starters, you provide me with entertainment." I glance at him from the corner of my eye and see him watching me with a small smirk.
"How so?"
"Like this." I point the hose at him and press my thumb over the nozzle, creating and pressurized blast of water straight at his stomach. The look in his face is priceless: shock, puzzlement, cold and then flustered when he realizes that a full on water war is about to commence.
I keep the spray of water streaking towards Tobias while he runs around looking for shelter in an empty grass field. He finally realizes hiding is useless and he runs at me, completely soaking wet.
I squeal and duck out if the way right before he arrests the hose from my grip.
I gasp as the water hits me, screaming I run around trying to stay out of the line of fire. I decide to get back the only weapon available and charge towards him, but instead of tackling him-as that would have been about as effective as tackling a brick wall- roll under his legs at he last second, turn around and pounce on his back. I doubt my force really did much to help the effort but Tobias was so shocked he almost fell and was forced to drop the hose, giving me access to it.
I shriek in victory as I point the hose in his face, which is a success other then the fact that it soaked my face as well and got Tobias so off balanced that he tumbles into the water bucket, me on his back. He immediately shot up so I held no risk of drowning. He grabs my hand lifting me up, but not completely out of the water. I'm grinning but he look concerned. I have to hold in a laugh.
"Are you okay? Oh my gosh, Tris I'm so sorry, I never meant to hurt you-" He was about to say more but cut him off by pulling him into the water next to me. "You're not mad?" Tobias asks, completely genuinely.
I laugh, a pure, happy sound I haven't made in a long time. "Of course not."
I can see how flustered he is so I decide to actually get him to work; one thing he actually has experience doing.
"Let's go halter the horses. We'll groom them and then I'll teach you how to ride, maybe you'll be good enough to actually be helpful around here." I look back at him and smile just to let him know I'm joking and see him smiling right back at me.
Tobias POV
I can't keep a smile off my face- that's certainly a first, the muscles of my cheeks feel sore from overuse. I don't really know where we're going. Tris said we would halter some horses but there aren't any in sight. As well as my cheeks my arms ache from carrying four halters per arm.
We're both soaking wet and my jeans are uncomfortable against my legs but somehow seeing Tris's clothes stick close to her thin body make up for it.
Over the rise of the hill were on I can finally see the horses. Tris slows down a few paces and I begin to walk along side of her. She points to the horses.
"You see the pretty paint mare?" She asks me, her southern accent flaring up as it usually does when she talks about horses. I stare at her blankly. I have no idea what these horse words are.
She gives me a look suggesting how dumb I am. I hold in a smile.
"The horse that is brown and white, with the long mane? That's Gypsy. She was my first horse. The other paint, the smaller one, is Fia. The brown one-"
"Which brown one?" I ask and have to try very hard to laugh out loud at the look on her face.
She squints her eyes at me. "The light brown one. He's Griffin. Then there's Cinco the dark brown one. The little yellow one- that's called dun by the way- is Beau. The other three are my dad's ranch horses, I train them to sell so he doesn't want me to name them and get too attached. So, you go halter four of them." We get to work haltering the horses and begin leading the herd back to the barn.
We brush them off and release all of them In a large round pen. Tris picks up a bull whip and I unintentionally back away. She doesn't see my movement and heads out to the pin with the horses.
"You coming?" She calls. "Yah." I reply, and follow her out. Once were in the pin I see that Tris is smiling.
"What are you smiling about? And what's that whip for?" I ask. She looks at me strangely and too late I realize how pathetic I sound, the part of me the fear always brought out was starting to show itself: the part of me that Marcus always brought out.
"Are you okay?" She asks.
"Yah, fine." I reply, working to control the stammer in my voice. Tris seems to realize the attention isn't helping me and turns her gaze back to the horses. I see something change in her eyes when she looks at the animals, something admiring and loving in her gaze. The kind of gaze I want directed at me.
"So this is called lunging." Tris tells me. I don't know much but I thought lunges were some kind of yoga, not some thing you do with horses.
"So what will happen is I raise the whip and the horses will start running. It's just good exercise, plus it's pretty fun to watch with this many horses." With that Tris raised the whip and the horses took off, the 'dun' one, Beau, rocketing off and the pretty paint horse, Gypsy, taking a little more pushing. Eventully all the horses were loping at the same speed. Tris was right, it was mesmerizing. All the horses running together, legs blurring, the spontaneous buck from Beau or Fia, the dust rising up around us and he sun shinning through it. Too soon Tris asked the horses to stop, and they did.
"That was pretty cool, huh?" Tris asks. "Cool? That was awesome!" I reply with smile, and from the smile that Tris returns, I assume that complementing her horses is one way to earn points with her.
After releasing all the horses but two, we head back to the barn and saddle up. We talk and joke about nothing in particular, but the conversation flows naturally, comfortably, and I've never felt so at peace.
Tris walks to a room containing saddles and other tack and comes back with a saddle pad in one arm and a saddle in the other, as if it weighted three pounds and not thirty. She throws the tack up onto the horses back and I takes all of me not to stare at her toned arms.
"Go get the dark leather saddle on the second rack." Tris tells me while cinching up her girth.
In the tack room i see at least ten saddles, some dusty, some shinning as if they've been freshly oiled. An entire row of saddles have inscriptions where the legs would sit, some spelling out random letters and years, some with city names. I walk out again to see tris completely saddled up. She looks at me with hands on her narrow hips. "What took you so long?" She asks.
"Ooh got distracted. So how does this thing go on?" She smiles and takes the saddle pad from my hands and lays it on the horses back. "Just set the saddle right up here, like mine." She looks away then looks back at me, a small smirk playing on her lips. "I know you were watching."
I try to keep my cheeks from reddening, and sling the saddle onto the horses back.
Tris comes to stand next to me starts pulling on the straps to get the saddle situated. In a matter of seconds were ready to go, and we lead our horses out to the pin. Tris hops into the saddle and seems to forget about me for a second. She sees me and describes what to do to get up onto the horse. Soon enough-soon meaning in approximately three minutes- we're walking around to edge of the pin while Tris describes her training methods. Although I only understand thirty percent of what comes out of her mouth I find myself wanting to listen to her. Then Tris kicks her horse and leaves me in the dust, literally. My horse lurches forward and I almost fall off, but secure my self. I feel myself flopping around in the saddle and my back arched outward. Behind me I hear Tris snort in amusement.
"You look like you've had one too many to drink," she laughs but I cant force myself to follow. I know what having one too many really looks like.
"Just straighten your back and use your leg muscles to hang on." I look back her and see how comfortable she looks on the back of her horse and I'm determined to earn my place next to her. I try to sit up but find my leg muscles protest, but I am no longer flopping as bad so I force myself to stay in the position. I see Tris kicking her horse to go even faster and before I know what's happen my horse lurches forward to follow. This time I'm not so lucky and I tumble down. I hit the ground and hear a thump and momentary see black. Next thing I know Tris is looking down at me, concern etched clearly on her face. "Oh God, Tobias, are you okay?" Her accent is full on now, amplified by her worry. I smile. "I'm fine. Just a little fall." I try to push myself up but feel a sharp stab of pain come from my hand. "You're not okay!" Tris accuses at snatches up my hand, make me grimace even more. After recovering from the shock I begin to feel the full force of the pain, throbbing out in dizzying waves.
"Distract me." I say. I don't know where my voice is coming from, but I speaks clearly, impressing myself.
Tris clears her throat, "um, sure. What do I say?"
"How about... I remember the saddels in the tack room. "How about all of those saddles in the tack room. Where'd all those come from?"
A cloud if emotion washes over her face. "Well." She says, and I can see she's putting up walls, to protect herself or keep me out I'm not sure. "Never mind, we can talk-" i try to say, but she interrupts me. "No it's fine. So.. The saddles. Well when I was in high school, and during my gap year, I did rodeos and jackpots all around the area. I was on fire- modesty intended. First place prize for a lot of the events were saddles, so that's where most of them came from, I did barrels mainly, on a horse I started as a colt. I trained him myself. All through high school he was my best friend. I spent all my time in the saddle, most of the time with my sister." I almost ask a question but I hear how her voice gets choked up. I also don't recall her saying anything about her own competition horse when she told me about the horses we groomed earlier. "College scouts came to several of my races and offered me a scholarship at the college here. I took it, it was the best offer I would hope for. My sister, Ellie, she was offered a scholarship too." She stops and seems to collect herself.
"You don't have to continue." I say in a voice so gentle I surprise even myself.
"Yah. Yah I need to.' Her words come out rushed. "On our way to a barrel race right out side of town-" her voice cracks and I have to hold myself back form wrapping my arm around her. "I was driving, Ellie was in the seat next to me,the trailer hooked up behind the truck. This big shipping 18 wheeler came out of no where, right in the middle of the road. I tried to swerve- it didn't matter. He slammed right into the trailer. Both horses, Ellie- they-" She can't get the rest out, but she doesn't need to. This time I don't stop myself from hugging her. I can feel her tears flowing onto my shirt but I don't mind. I don't try to console her with words. Words are empty.
After no more than a count of twenty she pops back up, discretely whipping tears from her cheeks.
"Now your turn." She sits cross legged and looks up at me, waiting for me to speak. She looks good for some one who was crying a minute ago. Finally, I oblige. Somehow I find it easy to open up to Tris, easy to just let loose. I talk about my past, not about details but it's enough. About how my mother left me, leaving me with my monster of a father. About how he came home drunk, about how he abused me. I find it feels good to let it out of me, like sawing down a tree; difficult, painful even to get started but after getting through enough, it becomes impossible to stop. When I'm done I'm afraid to look up, hoping that I won't see pity in Tris's moon eyes. Instead I see something else: anger. Anger so fierce I almost want to scoot away. But I realize it's not directed at me when she flings her arms around my neck, burying her face in my neck. "Oh Tobias. He's terrible. I'll never let him hurt you." I wrap my arms around her-mindful of my still throbbing hand- and smooth my good hand over her soft hair. I can feel her anger, her strength, and can feel myself filing up with the same passion.
"Well, we've got work to do." Tris stands up and offers me her hand. I've never felt carefree, so happy, like I finally belong somewhere.
I hope y'all got my Percy Jackson reference at the beginning of the chapter ( ) haha I thought I was pretty funny
I hoped y'all liked that chapter I thought it was kinda cute. Next chapter won't be so much I gonna begin to wrap it up a bit and kinda jump forward in time. (I never intended this story to go on this long) .
Also thought I'd mention all the horses I named are my horses except 3 :) the more you know :
Hope y'all liked this chapter please review