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I gave Jenn a strange look, trying my best to not let her know how true her words were. "What?"
"I saw the look on your face when Max told us about his plan," Did I really make it that obvious?
I stepped aside, letting her in. "Hundreds of people are gonna die if we do this," I finally said as I sat next to her on the couch.
"Hundreds of Divergents," Jenn countered.
"Divergents are people too, ya know." I snapped.
"You would know, wouldn't you?" I looked away from her. "I know you're Divergent."
"What?" I looked at her wide eyed. I felt this weight drop on my shoulders, an ice cold hand griped my throat.
"Its okay, so am I," she confessed, a slight smile on her face. "But that's why I need your help."
"How does me being Divergent help you?" If anything it seemed like it would only worsen the situation.
"Because you see things from my point of view. You understand that people like us aren't a threat."
"Do the rest of the leaders know? How did you manage to keep it from them all these years?" I had so many questions that I wanted to asked. I'd never know of any other Divergent besides my brother.
"No, they don't. It's not that difficult to hide from them. Whenever the topic of Divergents comes up, you just have to go along with the conversation, side with them and they won't question where you stand," she informed me.
"So you just pretended you felt the same way about Divergents as they did?" I wouldn't have thought something that simple would work.
"Yeah, of course. This is Dauntless, not Erudite," she chuckled. "But that's why in the upcoming meetings that we have about the plan, you have side in favor for it."
"But how is that going to stop it?"
"Its not. Max has put us too far in the mix with Erudite to even have a chance to stop it." I could see that she was bothered by this. Bothered by the uselessness that came from not being able to save hundreds of innocent people.
"So then what do you need me for?" If we couldn't stop it, then what could I possibly do?
"Damage control. We have to find out who the Daultless-Divergents are and get them out of here." I ran my hand through my hair, taking out my ponytail, letting my hair fall over my shoulders.
"Here?" I asked.
"This city. To the other side of the wall," she looked confused at my lack of understanding.
"There isn't anything on the other side of the wall. And wouldn't it be obvious if people just started to disappear?" I began to play with the hair tie that was threaded around my fingers.
"Not if we fake their death. I've been doing it for years and no one has suspected a thing." Jenn was probably about five to ten years older then me. How many people had she gotten out of this factions unnoticed?
"How would you fake their death?"
She gave me a strange look, as if the answers to the questions I was asking were obvious. "People find a body at the bottom of the chasm that's beat up, unidentifiable and then you have someone who missing, they connect the dots and make assumptions. Like I said, this is Dauntless, not Erudite."
I let her words process as they bounced around my head. A name found its way to the surface of my thoughts and I just had to ask about it. "So you're saying Amar isn't really dead?"
"Nope," she said, popping the 'p'. "I remember Amar. He was one of the instructors last year during Eric and Four's initiation. Max was starting to get a little to close to finding out about him so I helped him out of here."
"Wow, that's brilliant." I said amazed.
There was a knock at the door, that drew both of our eyes towards it. "Its probably Eric."
"You can't tell him about any of this," she motioned between the two of us, referring to all the information I'd just received. "He's very anti-Divergent due to all the bullshit he was told growing up in Erudite."
"I can't hide that I'm Divergent from him forever," I frowned. "He'll find out eventually."
"Not if you don't want him too," as Jenn spoke she got up. I followed suit and walked over to the door. I wiped my current emotions off my face and replaced them with a smile as I opened the door.
"Hey," Eric looked a me first and then over at Jenn.
"I was just leaving," Jenn smiled.
"Where are you headed?" I asked.
"Dinning hall," she informed us.
"We'll walk with you," I offered since me and Eric were headed there anyway.
"Yeah, sure why not," she agreed and started off towards the stairs.
Me and Eric fell in step behind her. "What were guys talking about?" he asked out of curiosity, hints of his Erudite past showing.
"You," I chuckled, thinking of something on the spot.
"Yeah, and how you've gone soft," Jenn said, playing along.
"No I haven't!" Eric said defensively. Jenn and I both laughed at his sudden reaction.
I nudged him and smiled. He smirked back, putting his left arm around my shoulders. I took my left hand and intertwined my fingers with his. The rest of the journey to the dinning hall was filled with teasing and joking, the mood becoming much lighter then what it was in my apartment.
As we went to the enter dinning hall, I tried to untangle my hand from his, but he tightened his grip. I looked at him, confused. He just smirked as we walked into the crowed room. "Are you sure?" I asked him.
As we continued into the dinning hall, he leaned over so his lips were a few inched from my ear. "Don't tell me you've forgotten about our earlier conversation. I'm not gonna try to hide this anymore. I want every guy in here to know that you're mine."
I couldn't help smiling at his words. As we made our way to our table, I could feel the eyes of the majority of the room on us. I brushed off their stares as we sat down at our table, joining Jason.
"It's about time," Jason smirked.
"Shut up, Jason," I could almost hear Eric's eyes roll. I chuckled, shaking my head. Besides the occasional stare or gossipy whisper, dinner went off without a hitch, the same stupid banter bounced between the three of us.
I jumped a little when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned, smiling at Olivia. "Hey, Liv!" I was super excited to see her. I felt like I hadn't spent any time with her since we finished initiation.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt," she said shyly.
"No, not at all," Jenn answered. "Sit."
Jenn patted the open seat next to her which was across from me. Olivia obliged, her muscles still tense as she sat at the table full of leaders. "What's up?" I asked.
"Well, I planned a little party for you tomorrow at my place…" She trailed off.
"For what?" Eric asked. There was a little edge in his voice, but it wasn't nearly as harsh it usually would be when he talked to anyone else in our faction.
"Oliv-," I tried to stop the information from leaving her mouth but it was too late.
"For her birthday," Olivia answered. Eric sent her a confused look, then shifted his attention towards me.
"Tomorrow's your birthday?" He raised his pierced eyebrow in question.
"Well, yeah…" Birthdays weren't my thing. They weren't a thing for any Abnegation past, present, or future. The Abnegation didn't believe in a day that celebrated your birth. They thought it was very selfish and should be treated as any other day. My mom would aways sneak me something though, a small intriguing object she had found or another thing that was forbidden for an Abnegation. After she 'died', birthdays were just another day that were a painful memory of my thought-to-be dead mother.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Eric seemed a little offended.
"Yeah, seriously," Jason chirped it. "Drinks are on the house at the bar when it's your birthday."
"Birthdays just aren't my thing I guess," I shrugged. Tobias wasn't fond of his birthday either, but I always found a way to celebrate it in a small way.
"You can't not celebrate your birthday in Dauntless," Jenn smiled. "I won't let you."
"You guys are welcome to come," Olivia smiled, inviting them. Olivia shifted her attention to Eric hesitantly. "So are you, Eric."
I smiled at her and mouthed the words 'thank you'. She gave me a small nod and I nudged Eric. "I'll think about it," he muttered.
"Sounds like a plan!" Jenn beamed. "We'll see you tomorrow, Olivia."
"Awesome! See you guys then." Olivia excitedly said as she got up and made her way back over to her previous table.
Three Dauntless leaders and an apartment full of my friends? Sounded like a situation that I should avoid at all costs, but hey, what the hell.
Eric remained quiet throughout the rest of dinner as the remaining three of us continued on. I noticed this, but wasn't going to point it out in front of Jenn and Jason.
A little while later we deciced to part ways and call it a night. Eric walked ahead of me, which confused me. After our entrance into the dinning hall, I expected to leave the same way or to at lease have him by my side and not five feet in front of me.
This space between us, allowed a certain degenerate asshole to step in my path. "So you and Eric, huh?"
"Get out of my face, Seth," I growled. I could feel my heart rate begin to accelerate and my palms begin to sweat. He still scared the shit out of me, but I wasn't going to let him know that.
"That explains a lot," he gave me one of those smug smirks that I wanted to slap off his face, "the only reason you ranked so high was because you were fucking one of the leaders."
My fist balled up as I fell my anger rise through my body, but before I could say or do anything, Seth was spun around, Eric landing a hard punch square to his jaw. Seth dropped to the ground, his eyes nearly rolling back into his head as he struggled to come back from the blow.
The whole room had gone quiet, but my focus was on Eric as he motioned me forward, wrapping his arm around my shoulders as we made our way out of the dinning hall. I was expecting him to say something as we made our way back to the apartments, but he didn't.
Once we found our way to his apartment, I wiggled out of his grasp. "What's up with you hmm? Why are you being so quiet."
"I'm just a little peeved, that's all," he huffed as kicked off his boots.
"Well, no shit." I rolled my eyes. "You just laid out Seth in the middle of the dinning hall."
"It'll make people think twice about saying shit," he reasoned.
"That's not my point. There's something else bothering you," I pushed as he pulled off his jacket.
"You really don't know?" He looked at me like I was stupid and I swear I was getting ready to pick up a book and throw it at his stupid attractive face.
"I wouldn't be asking if I knew, now would I?" I returned his look, rolling my eyes.
"Were you really not going to tell me your birthday was tomorrow?" He asked. All of this was bout my birthday?
"I didn't even realize it was tomorrow until Olivia brought it up," I mean I knew it was tomorrow, but it wasn't a thought that was prioritized at the front of my brain.
"Bullshit, Alex!" he snapped back. He voice stayed at a consistent volume, but became harsher.
"I don't like my birthday, okay?" I said defensively.
"Still," he started. "You can't keep shit like that from me. If this is going to work," he motioned between the two of us, "you have to be honest about things with me."
"That works both ways, ys know?" I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"There hasn't been anything that I haven't let you know or a question that I haven't answered honestly. I'm closer to you then I am to anyone in this faction, shit, you're one of the few people in this faction that actually sees me, for me." He seemed more upset then angry. He started to make his way to the bathroom before he turned back around. "It bothers me that your friends know more about you then I do. I don't want that to be the case."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that it bothered you that much," I said lowly.
"Well, it does. I know you've had a shitty past, but I just want you to be open with me, I don't think that's too much to ask for," and with that he ended the conversation, stepping into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
He may not think so, but being open with him, or anyone for that fact, isn't as easy as he might think, at least not for me.
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