Thanks for all of the lovely reviews, y'all! I was originally gonna wait to post this, but I thought what the heck, I might as well. I'm gonna try to update a few more times before the new year, then starting in 2016, my goal is to update on Sundays. Hopefully I'll be able to get that going. Until then, enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!
Xox Tris Eaton xoX
Tobias
Pounding on the front door is what wakes me. I look at the clock and groan when I see the red, glowing 5:00 staring back at me. I don't know who it is, but I'm going to kill them. Tris is sound asleep, still curled into my side looking like an angel. I lean forward slightly and slide the pillow down behind me so that when I get up she won't fall onto the bed. I stand up slowly, making sure she's securely on the pillow, and then I pull my boxers on. The pounding continues as I walk out of the bedroom and towards the front door. I unlock the bottom lock, the top lock, and release the chain before I open the door abruptly, interrupting the person mid-pound.
"What?" I say when the door is open enough for me to see the person on the other side, my Four mask fully in place.
Tanner stares at me, his mouth hanging open. I can see and feel his eyes roaming from the floor up my body, and when our eyes meet, he quickly shuts his mouth. I fold my arms and state at him, waiting for him to speak.
"Tris, uh," he stammers, "she's supposed to be at work at 4:30."
"Well, she won't be in today," I grunt in response.
"You can't," he begins before I interrupt him.
"Tris just spoke at a ceremony yesterday about the war and losing her friends and family. She also has some things to pack up that we'll be taking back to our apartment," I add for my own satisfaction. "And I happen to work closely with the leaders of this city, so yes, I can. And I did," I finish and shut the door.
I turn around to head back to the bedroom when Tris comes stumbling into the livingroom wearing my shirt from yesterday.
"Tobias?' She says drowsily. "Who was at the door?"
"Tanner," I spit his name. "He was coming to get you because you're late for work."
"What time is it?" She snaps, her eyes widening.
"A little after 5 now," I respond, "but I told him that you won't be in today."
"Oh, okay," she says with a sigh of relief.
"I can't say that I want you working there," I fold my arms again.
"Tobias Eaton," she smiles, "are you jealous?"
"Yes," I say affirmatively.
"I can't just quit," she shrugs. "I mean, does it even work that way?"
"Typically no," I say, "normally you'd have to wait until the choosing ceremony. However, you're Tris Prior. You can do anything you want to do," I grin. "Well, that and you have to wait for the choosing ceremony to pick another job, but if you don't pick another job, well there actually aren't rules about that."
"What do you mean if I don't pick another job? I can't just not work," her face contorts.
"Says who," I shrug.
"Tobias, we need points. Ya know, to pay for things."
"I'm the control room supervisor, I'll be training the new initiates that choose Dauntless jobs and I work as a liason with the city leaders. I make enough."
"I don't know," she shakes her head. "It feels wrong to just do nothing."
"You won't be doing nothing," I protest. "You'll be keeping me in line," I joke.
"Tobias," she smiles.
"Alright, how about this: you quit working in the cafeteria now and wait for the choosing ceremony. If, by then, you can't stand not working, you can pick a job," I suggest.
"Okay," she agrees.
"Alright," I nod. "Let's go back to bed."
"No, I'm wide awake now," she smiles.
"Who said anything about sleeping?" I wrap my arms around her waist and raise my eyebrows.
She smacks my arm, but let's me scoop her up and carry her back into the bedroom.
At 7 we decide to go have breakfast with everyone in the cafeteria. We're the first ones there of our group, so we each sit down and make a plate. From our table, I can see Tanner staring at Tris. It's childish, but I wrap my arm around her hips and kiss her neck when she leans into me. Everyone finally joins us and they all cheer when they see us sitting together. I can see Christina constantly glancing at Tanner with what looks like sympathy in her eyes. I can't help but glare at her. He knew that our relationship had unfinished business, yet he rushed in and tried to build a relationship with her. I can't say that I blame, necessarily. Tris is amazing. But almost everyone in this city knew about our relationship, so he should have known better. Christina's eyes meet mine and she quickly looks away and down at her plate. When I look back at Tanner, he's walking this way.
"Tris, can I talk to you?" He asks.
I immediately feel my body stiffen and my blood gets hot. Tris feels me shifting to stand up and places a hand on my thigh.
"Sure," she says to him, turning her back to me and following him away from the table.
Everyone at our table is staring at me, most with a terrified look on their faces. I glance down and see that the fork that I was holding is completely bent in half. I throw it down and take the one off of Tris's plate and finish my breakfast, staring down at my food, knowing that every eye is on me. When Tris comes back to the table, she stops a few feet from me, undoubtedly assessing the situation. She comes closer and places her hand on my arm and I tense under her touch.
"Let's go," she says.
"You haven't finished your food," I say to her, my voice mimicking the same tone that I used when she was just an initiate and we had our little confrontation about her talking to me.
"It's fine," she responds calmly.
"Eat your food," I say getting up from the table. "I need to get to work."
I walk away without saying another word. I make my way to the control room and immediately pull up the cameras in the cafeteria and right outside the doors. Finally I see where he led her to just outside the kitchen doors. I put some headphones in and turn the volume up.
"What's going on, Tris?" Tanner asks her.
"Four and I are back together," she says hesitantly.
"He stayed at your apartment last night," he hisses. "He answered the door this morning in nothing but underwear."
"We were sleeping," she says in a condescending tone. "Do you wear a complete outfit when you sleep? And why is it any of your business?"
"You are my business," he frowns at her.
"No, I'm not," she shakes her head. "Look," she pauses, "you knew things were unresolved when you asked me out. You knew that he came to the cafeteria everyday waiting to talk to me. You knew that my friends were trying to get us back together. I'm sorry if you were expecting more out of this, but honestly, I had no idea where it was going. I love Four. We have a lot of history. Even if we hadn't gotten back together, I don't know what would have happened with you and me."
"We'd be together," he grunts.
"Maybe," she shrugs. "We had some fun together, and I won't forget that. But my heart is somewhere else."
"He doesn't love you like I do," Tanner protests. "You're just an object that he can control."
"That's not true," she shakes her head. "You don't know him like I do. No one does. He's a completely different person with me."
"If you believe that, then you're really stupid," he tells her.
"Good bye, Tanner," she says and walks away.
"This isn't over," he yells and then storms into the kitchen.
I follow her on the camera back over to our table, where I sit hunched over my plate, the broken fork in front of me. She looks at my posture and the fork and then she reaches out and puts her hand on my arm, never hesitating like she's afraid. I can see the fear that everyone else has for her on their faces, and I can't believe they think that I would hurt her. I sigh as I close out of that feed and start scanning the current feed for any sign of Peter. When I finally find him, he's heading toward Nita's apartment. I hear a knock on the door and immediately close out of the feed.
"Hi," Tris says when I open the door.
"I'm a work," I mumble in response.
"Yes, I can see that," she gestures to the room behind me. "But I still want to talk."
I sigh and open the door wider so she can come in. I lead her through the room and to my small makeshift office. I close the door behind her and kean against it with my arms folded.
"You don't have to look at me like that," she says, sitting on the edge of the desk.
"Like what?"
"Like I'm an initiate that disobeyed you," she narrows her eyes at me.
"Why did you go out with Tanner?" I blurt out.
"Because you were out with Nita."
"No, I wasn't!" I yell.
"To me, in my head, you were," she shrugs. "And I thought that if you could move on so quickly, then so could I. I wanted to find someone that would take the pain away, make me happy, make me laugh."
"Did you sleep with him?" I scoff.
"Tobias!" She yells and her cheeks turn pink. "You know you're the only one."
"I wanna make this work, Tris, ya know, but there are still a lot of things to discuss," I try to sound calm, but my voice betrays me.
"I know that," she nods. "Believe me, I do. I know that it's going to take time to trust each other again and to get back to where we were. But we'very done it before, Tobias. We've made mistakes and had to live with them and work hard to fix them, but we've done it. We made it through every obstacle that's been put before us, and we can make it through this, too."
Before I can respond, I hear the control room workers coming in and know that at any moment, one of them will be banging on the door to ask me a question that they should already know the answer to.
"I've got to get back to work," I gesture to the door behind me.
"Yeah, okay," she says biting her lip, her eyes grazing the floor.
"We'll talk about the rest of this at home tonight, okay?" I tell her, lifting her chin up.
"Okay," she gives me a half-smile.
I pull her closer to me and wrap my arms around her waist. I give her a long, deep kiss and then rest my forehead against hers.
"I love you, Tris," I tell her.
"I love you, too," she says, holding onto me for a few seconds longer and then she walks out the door.