Chapter 24
What a Relief

In my defense, she knew I knew. I can't lie around her. But that doesn't make me less awful.

.xx.

"You may not admit it, but you like him too." Christina says right after she closes the dorm door.

"What are you talking about?" I ask. But I know what she is talking about. It's obvious.

Last night, I couldn't sleep. All I could think of was Uriah. But not in a romantic way. What he asked, what Christina said, what I said and what I thought. None of this let me get any sleep. And the fact that in less than an hour I'll have chemistry test, makes me want to crawl back to bed, badly. And due to that, I have huge under eyes purple-blueish circles. Christina said she would lend me a creme to cover that up if I wasn't so pale. But honestly, I couldn't care less about those under eyes circles.

"Uriah, duh."

"I don't like him."

"Oh, come on. How can you not like him? I would like him, if I didn't like Will." She says. I don't like how this conversation is going.

"You don't choose who you like." I say, trying to change the subject.

"Wait a minute..." She stops and eyes me suspiciously.

Pointlessly, of course. "Christina, let's go. I need to eat breakfast. I don't know if I can go through the day wit-"

"Unless..." She interrupts me, holding her index finger in front of me, clearly telling me to stop talking and ler her speak. I feel my body tense each second she looks at me with that look on her face, but try not to show it. "You like someone else."

"I-I do not." I deny, trying my best not to stutter, but it's a pointless effort.

"You're stuttering." She says and begins walking again.

"Well, of course. With you looking at me like that."

"You're such a bad liar, Tris." She says. We run down the stairs, headed to the cafeteria. "Who is he?"

"No one."

"Do I have to start saying names? Because you know I will." She says as she opens the cafeteria double doors and we get in the line to get food.

I decide to ignore her last words. She can say the names she wants to, because I know I don't like anyone. It's a dead end. At least for her, is it. She stares at me for as long as she can, neither of us saying anything. I pick up my tray and head to our table, Christina right behind me. She hurries and his now in my left side.

"Will." She says.

"Uh?"

"Zeke."

Oh, I get it. She is saying all the names of the boys we know until I tell her. How will I tell her something I don't know?

When we are almost at our table, I immediately spot Four. He is looking at me, for my surprise, and instead of looking away, I look back at him. The corner os his mouth turn slightly upwards and he looks away.

I look to my left side, and Christina is no longer there. I stop and look over my shoulder. She stopped in the middle of the cafeteria and I frown, but she quickly begins walking. When she is by my side again, I continue walking but she just elbows me, making me stop.

"Four? You like Four?!" She whispers loudly to me.

Something inside my body tightens, like someone is squeezing it.

"No." I tell her, maybe too quickly, and keep walking. She walks by my side.

"Sure. We seriously need to talk more..." She whispers to me again. "Good morning!" She greets everyone out loud as soon as we arrive at the table.

I sit in my usually seat, next to Uriah. He greets me and I smile at him. I feel weird next to him, today. Something is not right. I feel like there is a tension between him and I. But apparently, I'm the only one who feels it, besides Christina, that doesn't stop looking at me, since Uriah is talking to me like he always does.

When the bell rings, stating the breakfast hour has ended, I get up and walk towards the doors.

"Tris, wait!" Uriah says, stuffing his mouth with the read of his bread.

But for some reason, I ignore him and just walk faster. What am I doing? He is my friend, I don't need to avoid him. But my body doesn't seem to do what I want, and my legs just keep moving.

Eventually, Uriah runs after me, and touches my shoulder. I stop and say hi to him.

"Did you heard me? I was telling you to wait." He asks.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't. I have my mind somewhere else, I'm so nervous about the test."

What am I saying?

"No worries. Did you studied anything else, yesterday?" He asks and I shake my head no.

On our way to class, he asks me a couple of questions about what we studied and I ask some to him as well. We arrive at the class, and Mrs. Matthews is already inside, distributing the test. Without a word, we sit in our chairs and start our test.

I read the first question and I'm surprised to know the answer. I write it down and I look at the next one, to which I don't know the answer to, but I don't panic. I also don't know the answer to the third question, and I start to be worried. I take a quick look at the entire test, but my mind is blank. I'm too nervous to think, I need to calm down and think. I know this. I studied this yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that one. I just need to focus.

I loosen my hair, and pull it all to the side, to hide Uriah. I just keep thinking of what should I do about him, and that is distracting me. After that, I take a deep breath and read the test once more.

When the bell rings, Mrs. Matthews proceeds to gather the tests and we get out of the class.

"It wasn't that hard." Uriah says once we get out of Chemistry.

"At first it was." I admit. "But I think I'll get a good grade."

"Me too. Well, I've got to go. I need to do... Some stuff. See you at lunch?"

"Yes, sure. See you." I wave as he goes away.

What is he up to? I ask myself as I walk to second period.

.xx.

"Good morning." Four says to me as I sit next to him, in third period.

I've been sat next to him for more than a month now, but I still blush every time he talks to me in class.

"Good morning." I smile.

"How was your test?" He asks. I frown at him. How does he know?

"It was horrible at first. But then... Meh." I say. "I've been studying with Uriah this past week. We were both pretty nervous."

His expression suddenly becomes serious, his lips pressed into a line. "Yea, Zeke told me."

The teacher starts the class and we end our talk. She talks about a project we will have to do before the test. We can do it alone, in pairs or in groups. I look at the end of the classroom, to where Peter is, and I remember the project we had to do in the beginning of the year. It was hell... For both of us.

Almost at the end of the class, Four slips a piece of paper to my side of the table and I open it.

Want to do the project together?

I blush so badly I have to use my hair to cover my face, like I did with Uriah in chemistry.

Want to do the project together?
Sure

I slip the note back to him and I remember I could have drawn a smiley face or something like that after the "sure". But the lack of smiley faces doesn't seem to bother him, since he just looked at me and smiled, before turning his attention back to the teacher.

The bell rings, I walk out of the classroom and Christina is waiting for me near the stairs. We walk silent to the cafeteria, to meet the others. Halfway through our meal, Zeke whistles loudly, catching our attention. He points somewhere and our gazes follow his finger to the lunch line. Somewhere in the line I see Uriah and Marlene. They are talking and laughing. Marlene is all nervous and blushing. And I see something else. Their hands. They are holding hands.

Christina shoves her tray, and it is now next to mine. She gets up from her seat and sits next to me. She looks at me purely shocked.

At least, now I know he doesn't like me. I feel a kind of relief, because if he did like me, I wouldn't know how to deal with that whole situation.

"If you think about it, it makes sense." I say.

"It does not." She says. "He asked you, for advice on Marlene." She whispers. "You are opposites."

"I wouldn't say opposites..." I reply.

We both shrug and look at them again. They make such a cute couple. I've never thought about that.

I elbow Christina. She looks at me and I say, "Can you believe we thought he liked me?"

She looks at me for a couple of seconds, like she is analyzing and thinking about what I just said.

"We thought he was asking you, for advice on you." She says, realizing that that whole scenario we built on our heads, or should I say, that Christina built in both our heads, was simply stupid.

I can't control myself and burst out in laughter. Christina laughs as well, and the next thing we know, the both of us are laughing like maniacs in our seats.

I hope you liked it, because honestly, I didn't.

I had this chapter all planed in my head, with lots of details, but I wrote it in two separate days (with almost a week in between) which made me forgot half of what I was originally thinking of writing... The original idea of the chapter, is still there, but I feel like it misses something. I don't know.

Anyways, don't forget to tell me what you thought of it and what you are thinking of the story itself,

liv x