Chapter 26:
TOBIAS POV:
It's been a full week since Christina talked to me about how she went to go check on Tris. I decided, with the help of Zeke, to wait until this week had passed and if she still wasn't at school, I would go check on her myself.
The final bell for school just rang, and usually this would be around the time I go home and except a beating from my father, as I feel I deserve it for the pain I've put Tris under. Then go talk to Zeke, but today instead I'm going to go check on Tris.
The ride there is slow and on the inside my nerves are beginning to get the best of me. Everything that Tris is doing to herself is because of me, and it's not like I haven't heard enough from Christina. As soon as I pull into Tris driveway, I'm out of my car and not wasting time trying to knock as I'm sure she wouldn't open it for me. Immediately I go for the key I find hidden away, though Tris told me about it on several occasions.
After I retrieve the key, I go to her front door and begin to get it open, only taking a few minutes. As I slowly turn the knob and push the door open my heart rate picks up an exceptional amount. I know that coming into her house without warning is very risky, especially with the way Christina explained her condition to me.
"Tris?"
Silence.
"Tris? I'm here just to talk." I announce, but I get no response.
I cant help but begin to panic, a white hot heat wave crashing through my body as I begin to search the house for her. Going into the kitchen I see nothing except a few glasses lying in the sink, which according to how Christina explained it, were only filled with water.
I move my way to the living room, first searching behind the couch, but as I circle around it, I hear a quiet moan. There lying on the couch with a heavy blanket over her is Tris. She's got two gallons of water sitting next to her, though only one seems to have been touched. She moans again, though her eyes are shut tightly. I can tell she's in pain by the way she's curling in a ball under the blanket.
I go over by the couch she's laying on and kneel down next to her head, I can feel a wave of relief that she's still alive, but the fact that she's in some sort of pain, any sort of pain, causes tears to prick my eyes. Hesitantly, I bring my hand up and stroke her thick, long blonde hair from her face while whispering, "Tris."
She groans again, her eyes cracking open, the beautiful blue grey colors peeking out. At first she's calm as she begins to open her eyes slowly, but after they are all the way open, I can see the clear panic behind them. Tris struggles to sit up, her limbs giving out on every movement she tries to make and eventually she lays back down shutting her eyes as tight as she can, almost as if she wants me to disappear, which is, I'm sure, the case.
"Tris, please calm down, I just want to talk, please." I beg, not daring to touch her now.
"I don't want to talk to you, Four. You are a coward, just like your father. I hate you." She spits at me, making me flinch when she says Four.
The words create this aching, deep in my chest, and I feel like a thousand pound weight was just dropped in my stomach. Just like my father. That's what I am to her now. I push the thought out of my cloudy head, but nothing I do will stop the throbbing of my heart.
I can't leave her here, and I came here for a reason, to talk to her. I need to tell her what happened, but I know that that doesn't excuse what I did. I love her, and I want to be her's and her to be mine. She needs me and as I stare into her eyes that are filled with hatred and anger, behind those emotions I can see pain. Not just the pain I caused her, but physical pain she's causing herself too.
"Get out of my house now." She states, turning her head to the side, but I don't miss the glistening of the tear that now streaks her cheek.
I sigh, not in annoyance, but in my own pain, "I just want to talk to you, and if you don't ever want to see me ever again, even after that then I will be out of your life for good, I promise."
Tris doesn't speak, so I just take that as a sign to start the speech I've been mentally preparing for a week.
"That night...that night. The last thing I remember from that night is Zeke handing me one of his famous Pedrad mixtures. Everything after that is just black. I woke up the next morning with a major headache, on one of Zeke's couches. I woke Zeke up who was on the other side of me and checked my phone. I had a missed call from Caleb…. the fact that your brother called immediately set a red flag off in my mind. I couldn't understand why I wasn't with you at that moment. I knew I was supposed to take you home that night.
"I asked Zeke where you were and the look he gave me, instantly I knew something bad had happened… but never in a million years would I have thought it would be because of me. When he told me that you and him found me in his room kissing another girl, at first I was in shock and didn't really believe him, but after a while of complete panic, I realized it was true and I… I broke myself. I could tell Zeke wanted to be mad but I was sobbing in his shirt, Tris. I'm pretty sure I scared him half to death because not once in almost three years I've known him have I even as much as shown a sad look on my face, but there I was, soaking his shirt through." Silence follows my long speech and I know I need to know what she felt that night because of me. "Please Tris, please tell me how you felt. I need to know."
She takes a deep breath, turning her head back to face me, tear now streaming down her face in a steady flow. "I-I….," her hesitation is mixed with the battle behind her eyes on whether or not she wants to tell me the truth, "It hurt so bad."
After the words leave her mouth, she's sobbing, her body contorting with the cries leaking from her clenched teeth. I can feel my heart tearing into shreds, breaking for this girl in front of me that I've known for my whole life. This girl I'm in love with.
Without thinking about the possible consequences, I help her hunched over figure sit up as I take a seat next to her one the couch. I wrap my arms around her, letting the blanket drop from her to the ground. I pull her into me, hugging her tight to my body, hers covered in a long sleeved shirt and just a plain black nike pro.
As her body is flush with mine, her crying into me, I take into notice that all I feel is bone. No meat is distributed throughout her body. When I run my hand up and down her back, her spine and ribs stick out, rough against my palm. I shiver when I take a hold of her wrist, and feel my way up her arm to her collarbone. Tris collarbone juts out almost as if it is about to rip through her skin.
"Tris…." I question, slowly rubbing up and down her arm. Her sobs slow into silent cries soon enough and I'm glad she hasn't moved away from me. "Tris, please let me get you something to eat."
"Okay," she mumbles into my shirt and I sigh with relief, though she doesn't let me get up, "Tobias, I did something bad."
The words are barely whispers past her lips, and when she looks up at me, I can see the guilt deep in her stormy grey eyes.
"What did you do?" I question cautiously.
"I t-think you need to take me to the hospital…." She hiccups, tears glistening in her eyes. "I haven't eaten anything in two w-weeks."
It only takes me a few seconds to react, and as soon as it's processed in my brain, I pick her up and am caring her to my truck outside the house, not bothering to even lock the front door. I sit her in the passenger seat and she moans in discomfort when I strap her in. In my peripheral vision, I can see her limbs shaking in a cold and scared manner.
As soon as I know she's in the car I run around to the driver's side and hop in, starting the engine without even thinking about my own buckle. I can still see Tris shivering as I speed down the road, not caring to get a ticket or the chance to get pulled over.
"T-tobias?" Tris asks in less than a whisper.
"Yes?"
"I-I think I'm going to pass out, 'c-cause I feel really dizzy." She explains slowly turning her head to look at me.
I breath out nervously, "Tris, you need to stay awake, okay? I need you to keep your beautiful eyes open for just a few more minutes and then once we are at the hospital, you can sleep all you want, okay?"
"Okay." She whispers, her voice so weak I'm almost positive she will pass out before we make it to the hospital.
Every so often I glance at Tris, and eventually, when we are about two miles from the medical help she needs, her eyes start to shut and her head begins to hang. I reach over to her and grab her small hand in mine, rubbing it in tiny circles with my thumb.
"Tris, come on, one more mile." I say loud enough for her to look over at me.
I can see the clear fight in her eyes, but I know well that she is losing and her body is reacting poorly to the fact that no food has been ingested in two weeks, and that her break down earlier took it all out of her. I pay attention to the turn off and Tris's hand in mine, pulling into the parking lot. I find the first spot I can, not caring about how far it is from the building.
I move quickly, unbuckling and running around the car to her side. Tris's head has now fallen forward, her body limp in my passenger seat. I take no time trying to wake her up though, I pick her up and run across to where the entrance is.
"Help! Somebody please help her! She is unconscious!" I scream and not to long later, a woman in blue scrubs comes running towards me. She grabs the nearest wheelchair, telling me to set Tris in it when she is close to me.
I'm muttering cuss words under my breath in a continues stream of profanity, and I can't seem to stop as she wheels Tris to a nearby empty room. She tells me to help Tris onto the bed and I do just that.
"Sir, you need to calm down. I will help your friend, but I can't do that unless you tell me what's happened and her name as well as yours." The nurse explains, beginning to check Tris's pulse and normal procedure stuff.
I take a deep breath, "Her name is Beatrice Prior and she's been recently struggling with eating habits. I checked on her today to find out that she had skipped every meal for the past two weeks."
"Oh my. Has she consumed any type of eating pills?" The nurse questions now hooking her up to the heart monitor and other various machines.
"No."
"Is there any chance of her being pregnant?" She glances at me, watching my reaction.
"Not that I know of," I mutter, then under my breath, "better not be."
The nurse huffs out, "And who did you say you were?"
"I didn't, but I'm Four." I respond, not taking my eyes off of Tris's face now. Her chest rising and falling with every slow breath she takes.
"I assume that's a nickname." She huffs, then asks, "What is your relationship to Miss Prior?"
"Umm…." I think about this for a second, knowing well that Tris and I have been not on good terms by any mean lately so I respond, "I'm her ex-boyfriend."
"Alright well I'm going to ask you to step outside while I get her changed into a hospital gown, but I will be out there to talk to you as soon as I have a IV in her, okay?"
"Yeah." I say, stepping out into the hallway, pulling out my phone.
The first person I can think of is Zeke, so I call him, just telling him to head to the hospital and to room 146 that Tris is in. He sounded a little panicked and as soon as I'm about to hang up I can hear the roar off his engine and Uriah's yelling voice in the background.
As I sit there and wait, the nagging feeling of all this being my fault pulls at my mind and deep down I know that whatever happens to Tris is on me. Eventually the nurse exits the room, taking the seat next to me and sighing deeply.
"So she is being fed nutrients through the IV currently and should be fine as long as it hasn't affected her organs and livers. I'm not technically allowed to do anything to check those until I have guardians consent…." She trails off, looking at me for the answer to the unasked question.
"Her parents along with her brother are out of town, I have their number though if you want me to call them." I offer pulling my phone out once again.
"That would be wonderful. I will allow you to tell them the news but if you don't mind, I will need to talk to them."
"That's fine." I say, dialing up Tris's moms number, hoping and praying they answer.
Hey guys... I'm so sorry it took so long to update. In my last chapter I told you guys that I was just finishing up school and yay I'm finally on summer break...but I had a ton of volleyball, like a ton. I had it everyday of the week and weekend except for saturday for 4 hours. As you can imagine I was very tired and I know this is a really lame excuse and I'm really sorry. This chapter might not be the greatest because I had to keep stopping in the middle to go to bed and then pick back up later so it was a little hard. I hope you guys stayed and I hope I didn't lose any of you, because I love you all!
As for the story, I was thinking that the next chapter would be good if I did basically this chapter in Tris POV instead so you can see what was going on in her brain as well, but that's all up to you guys. And if I did do it in Tris POV it would be up very very soon, like one to two days! Please review what you think I should do, or just Review! I love you all!
~divergent24-7