Thankfully Eric and Tobias didn't see the need for a punishment, just a warning and an hour of nonstop yelling. Part of which I might have fallen asleep for.

Tobias pulls Tris to the side, whispering to her about something I couldn't decipher. "What was that about?" I questioned when she made her way back to my side.

"He told me to meet him here tonight, couldn't tell why he wants me to." Her brow furrowed and her lips pursed.

"Want me to follow you back there tonight for back up just in case." I joked, we both knew Tobias wouldn't hurt her. It was easy to tell he had feelings for her, although it wasn't easy to tell how deep they ran or how real they are.

"Ha-ha, so funny."

"Tris, Alessa!" Chris nearly rushed us when we walked into the dorms, "Where have you guys been all day?!" her eyes scanning us for any sign of injury. "I was looking all over the compound for you guys, even outside. You two were nowhere to be seen. Did you get in trouble for hitting Four?" she directed the question towards Tris, her face temporarily flushing pink.

"Uh…no I didn't, he yelled at me but that's it. And I just…I needed to get away, I went for a walk; a long one." She was getting better at lying, keeping herself relaxed but steady and her gaze on Chris.

"And you?" Chris believed her story and now turned her eyes to meet mine.

"I was with Peter, we left the compound and just had some time to sort through things." I shrugged, "After everything we needed it."

Her expression softened, "Is he okay?"

"I don't think he will for a long time, he puts on this front but it's so easy to see through. But let's move onto a new subject, to something good, please."

"Well…" we all plopped onto Tris' bed, waiting for Chris to keep talking. "Can you two be…ugh…girls for a second?"

Tris and I exchanged confused looks, "We're always girls…" Tris almost made it sound like a question.

"No! You know what I mean. Like a silly, annoying girl."

"'Kay" Tris shifted her voice and twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

"Please kill me." I groaned, "Just spill, Chris."

She stifled a laugh and grinned, one that reached her eyes and showed every single pearly white tooth. "Will kissed me." She stated simply.

My jaw dropped, ""What?" Tris and I overlapped each other, speaking as one. "When? How? What happened?"

"I knew you could be girls!" she laughed then straightened, "Well, right after Tris' little episode, we ate lunch and then we walked around near the train tracks. We were just talking about…I don't even remember what we were talking about. And then he just stopped, and leaned in, and…kissed me."

"Did you know he liked you? Tris asked, "You know, like that."

"Oh come on, it was so obvious, she had to have known!" I shook my head until my eyes met Chris's, her face a blood red. "Or not...I guess."

"No, I didn't know!" She laughs. "The best part was, that was it. We just kept walking and talking like nothing happened. Well, until I kissed him."

"How long have you known you liked him?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't. But then little things…how he put his arm around me at the funeral, how he opens doors for me like I'm a girl instead of someone who could beat the crap out of him."

Tris stays silent for a moment, maybe thinking of what she and Tobias could be after initiation, after the rebellion. "I'm happy for you." She finally says.

"Thanks," she says. "I'm happy too. And I thought it would be a while before I could feel that way…you know."

As if on cue we look around the dormitory. Some of the initiates have already packed their things. Soon we'll move into apartments on the other side of the compound. Those with government jobs will move to the glass building above the Pit. The forced memories of this room will be gone, the incessant smell of blood and bleach, the pain my brother went through in that bed, the empty bed of someone who was once our friend. We wouldn't have to see it every waking moment.

"I can't believe it's almost over," she says. "It's like we just got here. But it's also like…like I haven't seen home in forever."

"You miss it?" I hug my knees to my chest and Tris leans heavily against the bed frame.

"Yeah." She shrugs. "Some things are the same, though. I mean, everyone at home is just as loud as everyone here, so that's good. But it's easier there. You always know where you stand with everyone, because they tell you. There's no…manipulation."

"Yeah, I can agree with that…" I sigh, "Back in Candor we wouldn't have had to worry about what is going on right now, we wouldn't have been corrupted so easily. The serum would have been used, the truth is far uglier and Jeanine would have been shut down so much sooner." I almost laughed, it tasted bitter in my mouth.

"I don't think I could have made it through Candor initiation, though." Chris shakes her head. "There, instead of simulations, you get lie detector tests. All day, every day. And the final test…" She wrinkles her nose. "They give you this stuff they call truth serum and sit you in front of everyone and ask you a load of really personal questions. The theory is that if you spill all your secrets, you'll have no desire to lie about anything, ever again. Like the worst about you is already in the open, so why not just be honest?"

I don't know when I accumulated so many secrets. Being Divergent. Fears. How I really feel about my friends, my family, Al, Lynn. Candor initiation would reach things that even the simulations can't touch; it would wreck me. I couldn't regret leaving too much.

"Sounds awful," Tris says, she looks away from Chris.

"I always knew I couldn't be Candor. I mean, I try to be honest, but some things you just don't want people to know. Plus, I like to be in control of my own mind."

Don't we all.

"Anyway," she says. She opens the cabinet to the left of our bunk beds. When she pulls the door open, a moth flutters out, its white wings carrying it toward her face. Christina shrieks so loud I almost jump out of my skin and slaps at her cheeks.

"Get it off! Get it off get it off get it off!" she screams.

The moth flutters away.

"It's gone!" Tris nearly screams it, then realizes what just happened and starts laughing. "You're afraid of…moths?"

"They're disgusting. Those papery wings and their stupid bug bodies…" She shudders

"Oh no, poor Chris let me go fetch Will to protect you from the scary moth!" I laugh and head for the door, I didn't make it far before Chris tackled me to the ground. Tris' laughter echoed around the room, she fell onto her bed and held her stomach. Chris sat on me with a humph, unwilling to let me go in case I ran.

"It's not funny!" she argued, her voice barely audible over our hysterical laughter, "…okay maybe just a little." She couldn't keep her own laughter in.