A/N Some things to clear up. Eight is not abused by Zeke. Those were scars from when he was younger, and from another person. Also, Zeke is now alone. Everyone at his table got up and left him. Because, honestly, who would like that jerk face? Honestly, he is being a butt-munch!
Chapter 20
{The Next Day}
Tris POV
Tobias drives us up to school near the front of the parking lot. Today, we are wearing leather jackets, and black skinny jeans, you know, to keep the family look. Tobias and I lead Percy and Ana into the office. I am about to sign them in, when Tobias grabs my hand. I turn around in shock. Tobias smiles at me. "Let me do it." He says. I smile as well, remembering that Tobias is now a legal guardian of Percy and Ana. He grabs the pen from the desk.
"Excuse me"
I look up, and see the secretary, glaring at Tobias. "You are not allowed to sign them in, you have to be the legal guardian to sign them in." She says. Tobias smirks, and pulls out the form that proves that he is the guardian of them. "Here, look at this." He says with a smirk in his face. The Secretary huffs, and waves her hand at him. Tobias' smirk widens, and he signs in Percy and Ana. I give a hug to both of them, and Tobias ruffles their hair, earning him a glare from both of them. Tobias just laughs at their glares. "Get to class." I say, using my fake angry voice.
Percy and Ana smile and they turn away, "Bye Mom and Dad!" before running to their class. Tobias grabs my hand, and pulls me into his side. His hand lets go of mine, and his arm snakes around my waist. I blush a little, but nothing too noticeable. I walk to my locker, and grab my books, so I don't have to stop at my locker until lunch. I use my binder as a tray, to carry all the textbooks. Tobias just laughs at my mountain of stuff, and grabs my math and history textbooks for me. We walk side by side into choir, and place our stuff near the door. "Go sit, I'll grab our binders" I say. Tobias nods, and kisses my cheek. I blush and look down. Tobias chuckles, and goes to the risers. I go to the 'Wall of Folders' and grab my folder, from slot 139, and Tobias' from slot 119. I take them and plop down next to him. He wraps and arm around me, and I lean into him, my head resting on his shoulder.
I look around, and see that no one is here yet. I look at the clock, which tells me that we have 30 minutes till school start. I stand up, grabbing Tobias' arm, pulling him up. He looks at me, his right eyebrow raised. He has a ghost of a smile on his face. "Let's go for a walk." I say, while pulling at his arm. "So demanding Tris, but fine." He says with a chuckle. We walk out of the choir room, and walk through the hallways. We walk a few of the halls, and turn the corner. I hear some muffled yelling, coming from the janitor's closet. Tobias stops, causing me to stop as well. There is some more yelling from the closet, and then a quiet sound following. The door opens, and Zeke walks out, his knuckles split. I glare at him. I am still mad about the whole situation with Eight. I can see that Tobias is glaring as well.
Zeke sees us, and smiles. "Hey Guys!" he says brightly. I don't respond. Zeke walks up to us. "What's wrong Ten?" he says still smiling. I just shake my head, and push him out of my way, while muttering "Jerk" Tobias follows me, and Zeke just shakes his head slightly and walks away. Tobias leads me to the janitor's closet. He pulls the door open, revealing a bruised Eight, drawing in his sketch book. His head snaps up, and he whimpers, and scoots to the back of the closet. "Please don't hurt me" He whispers. I feels my heart break, seeing this. "No, we won't hurt you." Tobias says. "We just want to be friends." He finishes. Eight shakes his head. "No, you just want to betray me, I'm not good enough to have friends." He says. He gathers his stuff, and stands, his stance wavering. He tries to walk past us, but I grab his wrist, causing him to wince. "Eight, does Zeke abuse you?" I hiss. Tobias looks shocked. "No? Why would you think that?" Eight says. "I saw the scars, who abuses you?" I whisper. Eight shrugs of my hand. "Abused. It was from the past. Now, let me be." He says. He tries again to walk away, but Tobias stops him.
"Eight, we want to help you. Let us help you. Please." He says quietly. Eight looks at us warily. "Fine, but if you hurt me, my friends- Who am I kidding? Like I would have friends." He scoffs. I grab his hand, and pull him through the now crowded halls. I pull him into the Choir room, and lead him to the practice room. "Okay, so we have like 15 minutes, before you have to go." I say. Eight just shakes his head. "Nope, I have Choir first period." He tells us. I instantly feel bad. I never even noticed him. "It's fine if you didn't notice me, I like to be hidden." He says. I nod slowly, but Tobias remains still.
"Anyways, I will tell you some things about me." He starts. I nod again. "Well, I was abused by someone for maybe a year or two, when I was about three? Four? No Three, yes three. Anyways, the teachers found out, and sent the police after the woman who whipped me. See, she was my babysitter, my parents were perfectly fine. After they got her arrested, I was kind of nervous, but nothing too bad. For another few years, I was just really shy, you know. But then in 6th grade, I got a threat, from someone. Actually a few people. They said that they would hurt my family, if I didn't do something." He is cut off by Tobias.
"What did you have to do?" Eight looks down. "They wanted me to blow up a school bus, filled with kids." I gasp. He nods. "But I refused to do it, well kill the children. I told my family, and told them to run. I don't know where they went, but it is better that way. When I told the police station, they told me to blow up an empty bus. They tried to protect me, they really did. But when they found out, I didn't kill anyone, they were furious." This time I cut him off.
"Why did they want you to kill the children?" I ask. Eight looks up at me, "They wanted to kill the kids, to form a diversion, so they could perform a larger crime. I don't know what it was, but luckily it never took place. The empty bus didn't cause a diversion, so the criminals were caught. But back to the story. When they found out, they were furious. They kidnapped me, and held me hostage for eight days. I was saved by the police, and one of the officers, was Zeke's dad. He found out, and started calling me Eight, symbolizing my eight days of captivity. After I got freed, I got a job, and bought a small house. I live their now, it's about 40 minutes from here, I just take the bus or train to get to school. They were still after me, but I changed my name to Eight, preventing them from finding me. I went to school one day, and Zeke started to scream at me. He was always nice, but he just changed. He started to hit me, but nothing to bad compared to the eight days of captivity. Ever since then, I have been afraid of people. You are the first people I have opened up to." He finishes.
"So you live alone?" Tobias asks. Eight nods, "Yeah, I live in a two roomed house. Still have to pay some money to actually own the house, I am in debt now." He says, while rubbing his eyes. "How much debt?" I ask. Eight shrugs. "I don't know, but to pay the bills, I have to sacrifice food two or three times a week." He admits. I am taken aback. Tobias looks really angry right now. "Who are those people who basically ruined your life?" he asks. I punch his arm. "Four, that's not nice!" I scold. "No, its fine, they did ruin my life." Eight says. "Anyways, who was it?" Tobias demands.
Eight sighs "They were named Marcus Eaton, and Andrew Prior."