After a brief conversation about Tris being embarrassed for having initiated the kiss, which promptly ended by Eric kissing her, and an in-depth discussion about a fish called salmon brought on by Tris asking if Eric had tried any of the other recipes in the cookbook, Tris had been sent home to change into workout clothes for their 'second date.'
As Tris makes her way through the halls back to her apartment, she can't help but wonder what had gotten into her. Kissing Eric has been wonderful, it had been gentle but passionate and the memory alone was making her entire body flush. But it had also been stupid, or at least that's what she kept telling herself.
According to Eric, spending the day with him was supposed to make her choice easier and while she doubted that theory very much, she also didn't think there was too much harm in it either. But she was falling hard and fast and she desperately wanted someone to tell her what to do. So, for the second time that day, she opens her com device and messages Marlene.
SOS. My apartment. ASAP.
OMW.
Tris is surprised to find Marlene already outside of her door when she arrives, and even more surprised that Uriah is with her.
"What's going on? What wrong," Marlene asks immediately.
"Why are you both here?"
"We were at his apartment when you texted, he saw the text over my shoulder and insisted on coming with me," Marlene responds looking briefly at Uriah.
Tris slowly puts her code into the keypad, wondering if there's a way to get rid of Uriah without raising suspicion.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asks.
"I'm fine, I just need to talk to Marlene. You can go."
"You sent an SOS because you need to talk?" he questions in disbelief as they make their way into Tris' apartment.
"Yes, so there's no need for you to be here," Tris replies, glaring at a sheepish looking Marlene. Marlene had to have known her SOS was about her date with Eric, why couldn't she have thought of something to get rid of Uriah?
Uriah looks between the girls before breaking out into a big goofy smile.
"Girl talk?" he says excitedly. "I'm in!"
Tris' eyes grow wide.
"Absolutely not."
"Oh, come on," Uriah starts, making himself comfortable on the couch. "I can do girl talk. I bet I'm great at girl talk. Give me a chance."
A male perspective could be helpful, but she barely wanted to share the details of her predicament with Marlene never mind bringing Uriah into it too.
"I can tell by your face that you're considering it, go with that feeling Tris. Tell me what's on your mind. Let me in on what's going on in that pretty little head of yours."
Tris rolls her eyes and sits down on the far side of the couch sighing.
"Fine, you can stay. But nothing I say leaves this room, and I don't want to hear from you unless I explicitly ask for you opinion. Understand?"
Uriah looks far too happy for Tris' liking.
"I accept those terms," her replies with a wink.
Tris gives Marlene one last glare as her friend sits down gingerly on the corner of the coffee table.
"What happened?" Marlene asks.
"I kiss him," Tris blurts out.
Marlene expression brightens with excitement.
"Oh my God. How was it?"
"Amazing," she can't help but gush. "But that's not the point. The point is, it was stupid, and I shouldn't have done it."
"Why not? You were on a date. It's perfectly acceptable to kiss someone that you're on a date with. Encouraged even."
Tris shakes her head.
"But I can't fall for him. I just can't."
"You know all those details you left out this morning? I think it's time for you to spill because I'm confused."
"You're confused?" Uriah interjects. "I don't even know who we're talking about!"
Marlene turns towards Uriah and puts her finger to her mouth while making a loud shushing noise.
Tris takes a deep breath.
"While Eric," Tris says, looking pointedly at Uriah then turning back towards Marlene, "was walking me home last night he asked me if I would reconsider my stance on joining leadership. When we got here, he came in and we had coffee and I admitted that I regretted turning down the job offer. Long story short, Eric is going to ask Max if I can be his assistant. Eric's, not Max's. But I told him that if he's going to be my boss then we can't get involved romantically. He argued and somehow convinced me to spend today with him in order to see if we have chemistry. I told him it was a terrible idea, agreed anyway and just promised myself that I wouldn't let anything physical happen between us."
"But something physical did happen and now you're freaking out," Marlene says. "Okay, I think we're more or less caught up. What happened that made you break your promise?"
"I don't even know really. We were just having such a good time and it was fun and easy, nothing like it was with Four, and he was just so sweet, and I don't know what came over me, I just wanted…needed to kiss him so I did, and it was even better than I expected and now I'm just so screwed."
Uriah's eyes grow wide, and he opens his mouth to speak, but Marlene covers his mouth with her hand stopping him.
"Would it really be so bad? To be in a relationship with him and work for him?"
Tris looks up at the ceiling then back at Marlene.
"It's just not a situation I want to put myself in. Working together could put an unnecessary strain on our relationship or it could affect our work. What if we disagree but don't want to fight and then suddenly, we've made bad decisions for our faction. Or what if we break up and then we still have to work together? Or what if people think I'm getting special treatment because I'm 'sleeping with him'? I just don't know if the good outweighs the bad in this case."
"You could keep it a secret?" Marlene suggests.
"That only helps with one of the 'what ifs' and either way, I'm not doing that again," Tris responds causing Uriah to open his mouth which forces Marlene to physically keep him quiet once more.
"Okay, so no to a secret relationship. Are there any other jobs in leadership you could have instead?"
This time, Uriah speaks before anyone can stop him.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure Khloe mentioned that she doesn't have an assistant. Maybe you could work for her?"
Marlene's eyes brighten but Tris' face remains unchanged.
"I mean, it's not entirely out of the question, it's just that I'm more drawn to what I could learn from Eric than what I could learn from Khloe," she responds tentatively.
There's no way she can fully explain to her friends why working for Eric is more enticing than working for Khloe without revealing her divergence. At first, Tris wasn't entirely sure what it was that made Eric's position more interesting to her. Sure, she didn't want to have to work with Marcus in the future but that wasn't enough to completely dissuade her from wanting to learn from Khloe. But after really putting some thought into it, Tris realized that it was Eric's ties to Erudite that were drawing her so strongly towards him.
Her aptitude test had shown that she had aptitudes for Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. Growing up Abnegation, Tris spent many years understanding her Abnegation side and now, being in Dauntless, she was starting to appreciate the Dauntless side of her too. But the part of her that had been left entirely untapped was her Erudite side. She had thought she had made peace with that, but when Eric revealed that she would get to work with Erudite as part of her job she was excited at the prospect of finally getting to explore that side of herself. Plus, since Eric was born Erudite, she thought he might be able to provide her with insight that no one else could.
"Well, at least it's an option. I mean learning from Khloe could end up being amazing and it's a steppingstone, right? You wouldn't be an assistant forever. If you're this worried about things going badly by working for and dating Eric, then why not just work for Khloe and date him. I mean if you're stressing this hard about what to do, you must really be into him. Working with Khloe could mean you end up with an amazing career and the perfect guy. That sounds pretty good to me," Marlene suggests.
"Or I could end up putting myself on the wrong career trajectory and things with Eric might not work out. I know you probably think I'm being stubborn, but it feels naïve to choose a guy I barely know, regardless of my feelings, over what could essentially be the biggest decision of my professional life. I'm so scared that I'm about to let my feelings for a guy dictate my future again and I don't want to have any regrets this time," Tris replies sadly.
Tris watches as Marlene and Uriah exchange an indecipherable look.
"What?" she asks.
"I was going to let this go, for now anyways, because it doesn't feel like the right time, but that's the third comment you've made, and I think Uriah might explode if I don't ask –"
Marlene starts but Uriah cuts her off.
"You dated Four?" he blurts out.
Tris blinks rapidly and looks down at the floor.
Shit.
Had she really made that many comments about Four without even realizing?
When they broke up, they made a promise to each other that they would continue to keep their relationship secret. Technically, Four had broken that promise first by telling Eric, so maybe she should just tell Marlene and Uriah. Afterall, they are the only people left that she felt bad not telling to begin with. If she told them, then everyone important in her life would know and she would have no more secrets.
"Yes, I dated Four. I'll be honest, it's not really something I'm dying to talk about. But keeping it from you guys has been hard and I feel like you deserve to know some of the details. I'm just going to tell you the basics and when I'm done, you can ask whatever you want and I'll answer honestly, but then it's done, okay? Clearly, we're not together anymore and I'm trying to move on."
"I'm okay with that."
"Me too."
"Thank you. It started during initiation and lasted until around a month ago. We kept it a secret because we were worried people might think he helped me finish first in initiation and, apparently, he was breaking rules by being with me. It turned out we wanted different things and neither of us were willing to compromise, so we broke up. Nothing bad caused our breakup, we just weren't compatible in the end."
Marlene and Uriah nod in unison before Marlene speaks.
"Did you sleep with him?"
"Really Marlene? That's your first question?" Uriah asks in disbelief.
"Sorry, I just remembered Christina made a comment last night about Tris getting over someone by getting under Eric and now I'm curious. She said we could ask anything."
Tris feels her face heat up, but she just shrugs and answers Marlene.
"Yes, we were sleeping together."
"Does anyone know about this? Other than us?" Uriah asks, quickly changing the subject.
"I told Christina, and she told Will, so they both know and Four told Zeke."
"My own brother and he didn't even tell me," Uriah replies with fake offence. "Is that it?"
"Well, Eric kind of found out too."
"You told Eric?" Marlene asks sounding hurt.
Tris shakes her head.
"No. I ran into Four last night and he blurted it out in front of Eric. He was drunk and jealous and didn't handle it well," Tris replies, subconsciously rubbing the bruise around her wrist.
Uriah's face hardens.
"Did he do that?" he asks through gritted teeth, pointing towards Tris' arm.
Tris looks down and is almost surprised to see the bruise, she had nearly forgotten about it.
"He didn't mean to. Like I said, he was drunk and upset, and he apologized. It's never happened before, and it won't happen again." Uriah goes to speak but Tris cuts him off. "It will never happen again. Besides, based on his reaction last night, I'm pretty sure Eric would kill him if he ever did it again."
"But Tris," Marlene starts.
"Nope. I'm not talking about this anymore. Next question please."
Uriah and Marlene go quiet for a moment.
"Were you in love with him?"
"Yes."
"Would you ever consider getting back together with him?"
"No."
"When you said earlier that you're scared of letting a guy dictate your future, how do you mean? What did he do?" Marlene asks thoughtfully.
"He wasn't supportive of me joining leadership," Tris starts, choosing her words carefully. "He…doesn't trust easily and he has his reason's for being suspicious of them. We argued about it for a while, but he was adamant that I not accept the job offer and he just kept getting more and more upset the longer we fought. It was the first real fight we'd ever had, and I got tired of fighting with him and didn't want to be the reason he was upset anymore, so I gave in and declined the position."
"What were his reasons?" Uriah asks skeptically.
"It's not my place to talk about it."
The room grows quiet once more.
"This isn't the same situation at all," Marlene says finally, shaking her head.
"What do you mean?" Tris responds.
"I don't want to upset you, but I think you need to hear this. Tris, I'm sorry, but your relationship with Four wasn't healthy. It actually sounds really toxic."
"You're wrong," Tris replies adamantly. "You don't know anything about it."
"I only know what you've told me, but it's enough to know that it wasn't healthy. Please, just hear me out. Your relationship started in secret, a relationship that never should have happened because he was in a place of authority, and you were in a vulnerable position. You even said it yourself; he broke the rules by pursuing you. Rules like that are there for a reason Tris."
"You're twisting my words."
"He decided his own crap was more important than a life changing opportunity for you, and he argued to the point where you just gave up because you wanted to please him. That seems pretty controlling to me. You said being with Eric is fun and easy and that the opposite was true of Four which means being with him was difficult. Plus, you obviously broke up for a reason and considering he was jealous when he saw you with Eric, I'm going to assume you broke up with him. Also, I don't give a shit how drunk someone is, that bruise is not okay, and I am not convinced that if you had stayed with him, it wouldn't have become a regular occurrence."
"You don't know him. Okay? You're making him sound awful and he's not. He hasn't had an easy life, you don't know anything," Tris hisses protectively.
"I don't understand how you can defend him after everything he's put you through," Uriah says.
Tris stands up with an irritated huff.
"Asking you to come here was a bad idea. I think you should both just go."
Marlene and Uriah stay put.
"I'm sorry okay. Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't have a clear picture of your relationship with Four. All I was getting at is that I think the situation with Eric is different. First of all, he's encouraging you to join leadership not holding you back from it. He's giving you a second chance at the future Four selfishly stopped you from pursuing. Eric has made it clear that he has feelings for you, but he hasn't asked you to choose him over a job. Sure, he convinced you to spend today with him but he's not trying to convince you to turn down the job, he's trying to convince you that you can have both. I'll be honest, I always thought he was kind of an asshole, but with everything he's doing and the way he's treating you, he must not be the asshole I thought he was, and he seems to make you happy."
Tris doesn't know what to say to Marlene, she knows she's made some good points, but she just can't ignore the way Marlene tore down her relationship with Four.
"Thank you for your opinion," Tris says firmly. "But I need to get changed now, so you should both leave."
Marlene sighs and motions for Uriah to follower her to the door. As she turns the knob to leave, she addresses Tris one last time.
"Just…don't let this conversation ruined your day with Eric, okay? Who knows what will happen tomorrow when you find out about leadership. Try to forget about that part and let yourself enjoy spending time with him. The way you lit up when you were talking about being with him earlier…you just…you deserve to be happy."
Tris merely nods at Marlene as her friends make their way into the hall.
Tris barely has time to change into a pair of leggings and a workout top before she hears knocking at the door.
She works at putting her hair into a high ponytail while making her way to answer it.
"Eric," she greets, biting her lip as she takes in his appearance.
Tris has never seen him looking this casual before, but even in a simple t-shirt and sweats he looks damn good.
"You ready?" he asks with a smile.
"I just need to find my sneakers and then I'll be good to go."
"You have something other than what you had on this morning, right?" he asks in a serious tone. "Don't get me wrong, they looked good on you, but I'd rather you didn't break an ankle on my watch."
Tris laughs immerging from her bedroom with a much more practical pair of trainers.
"I'd probably end up breaking both my ankles in those. What are we doing anyway?"
"You'll see," Eric replies vaguely as Tris ties up her shoes.
"Okay, I'm ready. Lead the way."
"You know, you didn't actually answer my question earlier," Eric says as they walk down the stairs, exiting the apartment floor.
"Which question was that?"
"Your 'first' date, what would you rate it? Feel free to take a minute to think about it."
Tris smiles.
"That's easy. 10 out of 10."
"Maybe I shouldn't have started out so strong. Your expectations are high now, hopefully the next two dates I have planned won't disappoint you," Eric says, smiling.
"I have a feeling no matter what you have planned it'll be a ten just because I'm with you."
Tris internally scolds herself for not being more reserved with her feelings. She really has enjoyed every minute she's spent with him so far, but there's a good chance she's going to have to end this, and she doesn't want to lead him on.
The sudden feeling of Eric's lips on hers pulls her from her thoughts and her mind goes blank as she responds to the kiss. Without breaking apart, Eric steps forwards, gently guiding Tris backwards until her back is pressed up against the wall. She doesn't know how long they kiss for, but when they finally break apart, her face is flush, and her lips are slightly swollen.
Maybe Marlene was right, maybe she should just forget about leadership for now and enjoy her time with Eric.
Eric takes a step back and Tris pushes herself off the wall before taking in her surroundings. She hadn't been paying much attention to their path and is startled to find they are standing outside of the initiate training gym.
"What are we doing here?" she asks, confused.
"You're going to throw knives at me," Eric says, pushing his way through the double doors and into the gym.
Hey there! This probably isn't exactly what you expected of the chapter. My original intention was a short convo with Marlene followed by the entirety of Tris and Eric's second date, but I started writing and here we are. I debated whether or not to put this in, but I think it's important for Tris to realize things with Eric are different and that she needs to stop comparing.
I hope you liked it! I promise the next chapter with be entirely Eris with Tris will get out of her own head a bit.
Thank you for reading and, as always, comments are always welcomed!