Chapter 17

Tris' POV

He arrives at my house at nine- thirty sharp. Tobias' hair is wet and messed up when he arrives. He wears a long sleeved gray shirt and a back best over it. Cute.

"Hi. Did you eat breakfast yet?" I swing the door open.

"Uhm yeah." He says awkwardly. "I brought you this." He hands me a bouquet of flowers that I hadn't realize he was holding until now.

"Oh. Thank you." I take the flowers inside to the kitchen and lay them on the table finding a vase to put them in. When I find one, I fill it half way up with water and place the flowers in it.

"Tobias!" My mom practically runs over to him and gives him a bear hug. "How are you?"

"I'm well. Thank you Mrs. Prior. How about you?"

"Good. Thanks for asking. Okay, we will be taking off now. Kids, why don't you wait in the car."

Tobias follows me out of the front door and we both sit in back seat. Caleb comes a few minutes later with me sitting in the middle between the two boys.

"So...where are we going?" Tobias ask as my father starts the engine to the car.

"Beatrice didn't tell you? We're going fruit picking!" My dad exclaims.

"What?" He looks at me with wide eyes. "You didn't tell me that!"

"Well, I knew if I told you, you wouldn't have come with us." I say innocently.

"I hate you." He pokes me cheeks.

I sink down form my seat and lay my head against his chest. I haul my feet on Caleb's lap.

"Well then." Caleb rests his arms on my lap. Tobias wraps his arms around my torso and brings me closer.

"How long is the drive?" He whispers into my ear.

"An hour and a half." I answer softly.

"God damnit. I really hate you right now."

"I would hate me too. But I don't. I'm fabulous." I throw my arms in the arm dramatically.

He shakes his head at me. "You want to watch something?" He pulls out his phone.

Caleb sneaks glances at us every few seconds.

"Jealous?" I tease.

"Oh shut up."

"He's just annoyed you got to come and not Susan." I say loud enough for Caleb to hear.

"No I'm not!"

"Yeah, so annoyed." I laugh.

I take Tobias' phone from his hand and try to unlock his phone.

T-r-i-s. I type down.

"Darn!"

"Here, let me do it." He quickly types down his passcode. Once he does, I snatch the phone from his again and go to the Netflix app.

"Wow. Thanks."

I look up and smile at him.

"So Tobias-" my dad starts. Great, just the thing I need. "How come you and Tris haven't been hanging out in a while."

"Dad."

"Uhh..." I look at him.

"We got into a little argument and now we're talking again. Let's just say that." I answer for him.

Caleb scoffs. "Ha, little argument."

I kick him in the groin.

"Aw- fuck!" He swears quietly. I laugh at him.

"I see. So you three excited to go fruit picking? Your uncle has lots of produce and they're all organic!" My mom loves farming. She loves it too much.

"Well I sure am excited. What about you, Tris?" Tobias smiles innocently at me.

"Well it was my idea to go in the first place, so yeah, I am excited actually." I really am. Just like my mother, I have a secret passion for growing produce and eating them.

"Sure you are..." I scoff. He doesn't believe me.

Dismissing what he is about to say next, I steal back his phone and start to browse his Netflix account.

I click on the TV series Psych, which he happens to be on season six, and we watch from where he left off.

My parents have wifi in the car somehow. I don't know how or why, so I remember to connect to it on his phone first.

When I look up, I notice that Caleb is engulfed into a book. His eyes are furrowed and are constantly moving left to right determining where he is on the page. His mouth moves slightly when he reads.

My parents have a conversation with each other. It's funny how they've been together for so long and is still able to be this much in love. My father's right hand and my mother's left are entwined together. My dad's thumb is constantly rubbing over her rings.

I shift my eyes back to the little screen. By this time, my back is fully against Tobias's chest resulting in me being able to feel the soft rise and fall of it. His breath send little tickle spots on my neck causing my shoulder to move upwards and rub against it. It tickles.

Maybe it was a bad idea for my to hold his phone because with the sound of my parents quietly speaking, the comfortable position I am currently in- being wrapped in Tobias' arms, I soon drift off into a dreamless sleep.

"Mm. Wake up Tris, we're here." Tobias's soft voice wakes me up. I stretch out my arms causing me to accidentally hit Tobias in the face.

"Oops sorry." I draw my hand down.

"It's fine." I unbuckle my seat belt and slide myself out the car. I stretch my sore muscles since I've been in an awkward position while sleeping. Once stretching my arms and tippy toeing and reaching up to the sky (I must look so stupid, but hey, don't tell me you don't stretch like that as well) like an idiot, I grab Tobias and we follow my parents into my uncle's home.

I uncle's house in nice and small. The inside is very modern and plain and the interior design is very nice. He has a two bedroom home with his wife Eleanor and daughter Jessica. However, Jessica is attending college at North Western (which is over two and a half hour drive from here).

"Tired?" A deep voice ask me.

"Hm?" I yawn. "Eh. Not anymore I guess." Usually when I wake up from a nap, I enter a daze. I space out and I blink my eyes rapidly to get them moisturized. I wear contacts so when I wake up from either a nap and still have them on or when I accidentally forget to take them off the night, my eyes are dry as fuck when I wake up.

"Okay."

I gently take his hand and lead to the greenhouse. It's now spring so new fruits are growing.

When we enter the greenhouse, my parents and my uncle are already somewhere. I pick up two baskets that sit next to the door entrance and hand one to Tobias.

"Let's pick some apricots." The greenhouse is unbelievably huge so I wasn't surprised when I saw a tree full of deporting apricots.

"I love apricots." Tobias tells me. I grin at him.

While picking the fruits, I notice Tobias picking the one that are not ripe. Biting my lip, I put my hand over his ignoring the weird feeling I get in my tummy when I do.

"See how those are still green? Those still need to grow. But these are rippe." I guide his hands to the fully orange and the ones that are slightly tinted with a red color.

I can feel him starring at me and I have to resist the urge to look back at him.

"You're so beautiful."

"What?" I'm taken back by the random comment.

"What? Oh nothing." I bite my lip and suppress and grin.

"Hey look." I change the subject. "I want to pick some strawberries.

My mom and Caleb are picking and the small bushes looking for large sized and ripe strawberries.

I seem to notice that I've been taking his hand a lot lately. But who cares? I like him and I'd do anything to have physical contact with him. What if Tobias kissed me right here, right now? Gosh he's so hot.

"Hey you okay?"

"Huh?" My cheeks turn red from the though of him kissing me.

Tobias shakes his head at me and leads me to one of the rows of strawberry bushes.

"This is actually a lot more fun than I though." He tells me while gathering the berries.

"And why is that?"

"Because I get to spend time alone with you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I really like you Tris." Like didn't know that already.

"I like you too." I say while my attention elsewhere.

"Good. Because I'm going to kiss you right now."

"Wait what?" I feel Tobias's hand grip my waist and spin me around. His eyes search mine briefly before leaning in.

"Mm. As much as I want you to kiss me, you shouldn't." I say pulling away.

"And why is that?" He pouts slightly.

"Because our relationship is still mending and until we are fully ready, I'll commit. But until then, I think we should stay...friends." I am not making any sense in my head right now.

"Did my crush just friend zoned me? Great, just great." Tobias throws his hands in the air.

"Don't get me wrong, you're amazing and all but I just ended a relationship and I think I need time." I really like Tobias, but it's better if we take things slow. After all, he hasn't quite proved himself worthy yet. We need to build back our trust. His lips though...

"Yup, just got friend zoned."

"Tobias," I say softly. "I like you, I really do. I just need time, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay." I can tell he is frustrated.

I lean my forehead against his chest.

I'm sorry.

My dad, Caleb, and Tobias help load the boxes of fruit and vegetables we collected the past day. My aunt taught me and my mom how to make homemade jam. It's quite simple especially the ingredient.

I grab the two jars of jam and place then into a small cardboard box so they won't somehow break on the drive back home.

"Thanks for having us." I say to my uncle and aunt.

"Of course! We'll see you next time, hopefully in the summer?"

"Yes, definitely." I give them both one last hug before going back to the car.

"Beatrice." My uncle calls. "That's one fine lad you have over there." He motions to Tobias's figure that is patiently waiting the car. "He's a keeper."

I smile. "Yeah, he is." With a sigh, I open the car doors and slide myself over Tobias's lap onto the middle seat.

"You're right you know. We should take things slow. I have to prove myself to you before doing whatever it is we have between us. I just-"

I cut him off. "Thank you for understanding."

"Mhm. Yeah." He buries his face into the crook of my neck.

My parents finally come back and we speed back home.

Whether I like it or not, I need Tobias and he needs me.

A/N: How's school (if you started this week)? High school is so much more different than middle. It was first day of my freshman year on Wednesday, God dammit everyone is so freaking tall and there's so many people. I swear, teachers must love giving out homework, cause I have a lot- sort of. But it's okay. So I've been working on a bother chapter for this story although I don't have the other chapters that is supposed to go before it. But I realized is that when I write something sad, I have to get into the mood. So I read sad post that I search on Google. I cry, and then I write the chapter because I'm so sad after reading the post. So that's how I get into the mood.

Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed. I'll see you soon.