*Ten Years later*

Tris

There isn't a strength in enduring alone.

She strolled down the prim and proper streets of her New York neighbourhood with a small smile. Today was the day, the day she had been waiting for since her parent's death. If only they could see the amazing young woman their daughter had become, if only…

Tris stopped at the corner of her street, for the bus, having given up on driving. The bus rounded a corner and slowed to a stop, opening the doors Tris boarded it and paid. Slowly the bus started up again and speed up to the speed limit and maybe even a bit over because hey, who actually drives the speed limit?

Tris took a seat next to a little boy and his mother. The little boy waved and smiled showing off a row of gaps between his teeth, Tris waved back. The boy kept looking at Tris before he finally said something.

"How come you're the only person on this bus with a smile?" He asked just before the mother apologized for is blunt rudeness.

"Oh, don't worry it's alright," She spoke and offered a small smile before turning back to the boy. "Well, little guy today's a big day for me and I'm having a great day."

The boy smiled and turned back to his mother who even with Tris' protest chastised him on him bad behavior.

A few minutes later Tris stood up and de-boarded the bus, still wearing the smile she had before boarding. She walked fast due to the cold October day it was. The wind whipped at her hair and tore at her cheeks but nothing and I mean nothing would rid Tris of her smile. This was HER day and nothing would ruin that for her not even some pesky wind.

As she walked she thought of all the things that had changed since last year.

*Flashback*

Tris stumbled out of the kitchen a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bottle of whisky in the other. She was drunk, she had relapsed…. Again. Taking another step forward and she stumbled before taking a swig of the whisky. She heard the keys click into the lock of her and Tobias' apartment.

Tobias' walked into the living room where Tris had situated herself and her bottles. Tris reached over and grabbed the magazine which had triggered the urge to feel the burn go down her throat and for the world to fall away but the words stung worse that bee stings. They pierced farther down into her soul where her demon demanded to release from its prison of control.

Tobias dropped the flowers he held in his hand and brought a shaking hand to his mouth, whispering over and over again the same words, 'oh god, no, please no'. A tear ran down the length of his face.

"Beatrice or Tris Prior, does it again. First she steals away the man of every girl's desires and maybe even some guy's dreams, then she decides to make an unbashful comment about the way we criticize the celebs and how we need to leave them alone. Damn Four, watch out for this one she's a firecracker and reportedly she struggled a long battle with alcohol abuse. Tris states in an interview on the red carpet that these rumours are life ruining and pathetic. We quote,

"'The rumours you people spread on the internet and TV are pathetic, you should be focused on more important things than whose cheating on who or in my case if I have a past of alcohol abuse. Why can't you see that digging into someone's personal life could harm them more than on the surface, just because we are known around the world doesn't mean we wanted this. Sure we knew loving someone or being in this this business comes with side effects but that's a choice between holding yourself back or loving what you do or a person who does this thing.'

"Wow, Four looks like she's upgraded to the l-word but do we think he has? Mr. Player, Four, the one who bounces from person to person like a bouncy ball. Tris here has gotten herself into a heap of drama."

Tris stared at Four, the words she'd spoken slurred her vision blurry. She felt tears pouring down her cheeks silently. The silence between them was thicker than cement. Tears rimmed Four eyes, but he broke the silence with nine words.

"I can't keep doing this to you, I'm done."

*flashback ends*

Tris shook her head and kept the smile on, Tobias had ended it and she moved out a few days later. She moved back into her brother's home and he let her stay there before she decided to go back to school and set herself on the long road to recovery and a psychology degree.

She got a simple job at a small coffee shop close to her brother's home. She went to university and finally got her degree. At first she got a job at a hole in the wall therapist's office, slowing moving up the chain of professionals. She became well known and opened her own business with the help of her close friend and brother's wife, Cara. For the first time in her life Tris had been truly happy.

Although Tris was the happiest she'd ever been, she wasn't completely for her heart screamed for the touch of him. Her brain ached for the way he said her name. Her body longed for the feel of his hands. She still loved him with all her heart and the day he had ended it she broke down in a different way.

Tobias had thought that if he let her go would help her get better and truth be told, he had been right. Tris strived to prove to him that she could get better and then they could go live happily ever after but she never heard from him.

In fact Tobias had gone off the grid and he, Four, cancelled all his shows, terminated his contract and disappeared. Years went by and Four never resurfaced and of course no one let the authorities know because they figured he was happy were ever he was but Tris hoped he wasn't.

Deep down she knew he was right under their noses going by his birth name getting a real job, living life like a normal person, happy and healthy.

Determined to stay positive Tris marched up the stair of a large building and out of the cold. She walked in to the foyer and hung up her coat and hat. Her heels made loud smacking noises as she walked down the long hallway before turning into a gymnasium.

The gym was covered in fold out chairs and plastic tables were hot chocolate, coffee and tea were being served. A podium was set up at the front of the room along with two chairs off to the side.

After a couple of minutes Cara stepped up on the podium. She wore a simple blue peplum dress with a black lace back, she tapped on the microphone and asked everyone to take their seats. Tris slowly walked over to the chairs up front and took a seat in her simple black and red laced dress.

"Hello everyone, for those off you that are knew, I'd like to introduce myself and then one by one we'll move around the room saying our name and age." Cara smiled at the group that sat in front of her, "My names is Cara Prior and I'm 34"

The names and ages moved around the room before they stopped at a young girl that sat in the back of the room. Slowly she stood to reveal a small child in her arms the young girl didn't look a day over 19.

"My names Taylor and this is Azaria and I'm 16." The girl sat down as a small murmur went around the room but Tris broke it.

"I'm pretty sure most of you know me but my name is Tris or Beatrice Prior and I'm 31." Tris sat as some gasped and others laughed because they had known Tris for 10 years now.

The rest of the meeting went along relatively fast, Tris met most of the newbies. Eventually Cara asked if everyone could return to their seats, usually the talking part of the meeting went on longer but today was special.

Tris walked back up to the front and stood on the podium she smoothed out her dress and wiped her sweaty hand before finally speaking.

"I'd like to personally apologize about the shortness of the speaking part of the meeting because well it's my fault, I guess." Tris heard a laugh rise up among the group. "I wanted to cut that part short so I could explain to you about my life.

"I grew up in a small house just outside of New York with my older brother and my parents, I was fortunate. I had a home where I was safe and had a loving family. As I grew up my friends came and went, I didn't really click with anyone but I had a long list of enemies. At the beginning of sixth grade I was walking down the halls of my school when a girl that I hardly knew came up to me and told me I was fat and ugly, of course at the time I took it in stride and told myself they were simply jealous.

"By the time I got to eighth grade I started to believe them, my clothing got baggier my hair covered my face and I dove head first into my studies, forcing myself to be smart so I could prove I was good at something. I was bullied a lot told I was fat to the point I began to eat my feelings away then throw it all up so I wouldn't gain weight. Eventually I stopped eating completely.

"My life turn upside down in high school. I hated school, more than anything I ever hated before. A girl, Molly, would always pick on me for being a goody two shoes, a smart ass, Molly called me too fat to even be human. I cried myself to sleep so many times that it became a sort of twisted routine. The only person that knew what happened on a daily basis was Al.

"Al, a good friend of mine, had been the only one I cared for really. He was my only supporter, he got me through life when I had wanted to die, but after the death of my parents, I guess leaned to heavily on him and he walked away. How could I blame him, he simply didn't want to deal with my problems and who was I to stop him. That night was the first time I tried to commit suicide and definitely not the last time. Word had gotten around school of what had happened and Al came to me." A tear ran down her cheek as she held back a sob. Tris composed herself and started again.

"He told me to kill myself that he had wished I had died the first time I tried. He told me I was just a piece of worthless shit, a waste of space and air. So I broke down right then and there, I could hear the laughs of the brainwashed teens who all thought of me as a fat worthless piece of shit. The laughs haunted my dreams, my sleep and reality so I did what I thought was best. I tried again to take my life but later resorted to alcohol as my permanent solution.

"At graduation later that year, everyone showed up hugging and crying because they wouldn't see each other on a daily basis but I stood in the background, invisible like I had always been. I was still buzzed from an earlier celebration I gave myself for graduating. I hardly even noticed when a boy came to see me. He took me by the shoulders and only then did I notice who this boy was. Al. oh how I hated him, how I wished I could have caused him pain. All of the pain I had felt after he left.

"He had come to ask forgiveness for his sins, forgiveness in which I could never give him. And I told him that. I let my feelings for him pour out of my now blackened soul, I told him how much I hated him, how much he had ruined my life. I had turned away and left a tearful Al standing in the corner.

"Al had killed himself that night. That night that was supposed to be a happy and celebrative night. People came by his family's house offering condolences but found no one there. I had stayed in my family's house cooped up in my parent's bed as I cried, at first I blamed myself like any other human being but a few years ago I came to terms with what had happened and how it would never be my fault or any others for he was the one who jumped.

"My eighteenth birthday, was the day that caused this fiasco of hatred. I was out shopping with my parents when a robber took control of the small shop. He told everyone to put their phones on the table but my parents refused. They tried to call 911 twice. The first time they were cut off and second time they succeeded only to be shot down, right in front of me, their now eighteen year old daughter. I was never been the same. Unlike everybody else I didn't go to university the next year. Instead I stayed home and drank myself sick." Tris paused to wipe her eyes and offered the crowd a small smile.

"I was an alcoholic when I got into this huge three car crash, I nearly died twice along with paralyzing another girl. But that crash changed the way I saw life, I realized how precious it was. That it could all disappear with the blink of an eye.

"Slowly I stopped relying on the alcohol to get me through the day. Sure I realized a few times and believe me it was extremely hard but if I could do it, you can. You can let yourself be this happy, you just have to push, for it want it and never lose hope." Tris finished and stepped of the podium with a smile plastered on her face because she, only she knew she had given up on something and his name was Tobias.

She spent another hour at the meeting telling people she believed in them before she finally left to go get groceries.

She rode the bus to the store and slowly walked down the aisles looking for the things she needed to bring home with her. She grabbed some apples and pears along with some chicken for dinner. She was walking to the cash when she notice a flash over deep blue eyes and black hair. Anxiously Tris rounded the corner and nearly had a heart attack.

In the middle of the aisle stood Tobias. She stood there shocked and began to walk forward on shaky legs.

"Four?" She called before placing a hand to her head, thinking about how much of an idiot she was, of course he wouldn't answer to Four because he was no longer Four.

Mustering up a heap of courage Tris walked right over to where he was standing and without looking at him started shopping for spices.

"I just like the smell of oregano don't you?" she asked playing it cool before she turned to him. He merely nodded and crouched looking for something specific.

"Do you need any help, Tobias, I come here all the time I could tell you exactly where everything is." His head shot up an angry expression on his face when he got a good look at her he realized who it was.

"Tris?" he whispered so quietly she barely heard him.

"Yup and you better be buying me dinner cause you have a lot of explaining to do." Tris spoke and she took a pen out of her pocket and wrote down her cell on his hand before he stopped her.

"Tris, I already have your cell, I never got rid of it."

THE END