Hey readers, here is the next chapter in this story! I'm sorry it is late, but my weekend was a little crazy. Thank you to everyone who read the last chapter and to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. DivergentWitch, thanks for the review! I'm glad enjoyed the last chapter! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Happy Reading!
Chapter 2: Lost My Cool
Quickly, I jump out of bed after Tobias saunters out of the room, laughing, tossing on a black, tight, tank top and black running shorts. Lacing up my running sneakers is the last thing I do before I speed out the door, trying not to let my mind drift too much, thinking about Tobias leaving again for deployment. As hard as I try, my mind goes to the worst-case scenario, of two more soldiers knocking on the front door, giving me heart-shattering news. My fingers shake, my mind recalling when the two men showed up on the porch at Travis. Taking a deep breath, I try to calm myself. Making a mental reminder to call Chris once again to talk. Maybe, she can help ease some of my fears of Tobias leaving. After all, she goes through this all the time with Will, and she doesn't get any advance notice like I am now. I was going to ask her for tips when I called her to inform her of the news of my engagement, but I forgot to ask her, her excitement and mine swallowed my fears for the moment.
My feet pick up the pace, trying to reason with myself, to sort out my feelings of confusion and fear. My lungs beg for air, the harder I run, the quicker my mind races: I wish it would still. Suddenly, the conclusion hits me: I have become attached to Tobias, more than I ever was to Peter. Reeling, I'm not sure how I feel about that, or even if I am comfortable admitting the statement to myself. I have never felt such a strong attachment to another human being, and as the thought passes through my mind, I realize I'm scared. I try to shake the feeling, but I can't.
Running on the side streets, toward the center of the base, the humidity mixing with the sweat causes my hair to begin to stick to the back of my neck and frizz everywhere. My eyes catch my reflection in a window, I look like the loche ness monster. Tobias would laugh if he could see me right now. A smile tugs at my lips, my mind happily drifting to Tobias. I can't believe how miserable I was before I met him; I can't believe . . . I was waiting for death. I can't believe, I didn't try to escape Peter before Tobias appeared in my life. Without him, I wouldn't have had the courage to face my demon, who killed my parents, who almost killed my brother and me.
Some days, I still can't believe I was lucky enough to have found the love of my life by chance in an airport, of all places. Now, I'm lucky enough to be engaged to him. Slowing to a walk to catch my breath, the morning sun bounces off the diamond of my rose gold cushion floral art deco design engagement ring. My eyes are drawn to the ring automatically, Tobias couldn't have picked out a better ring for me if he tried to. When he proposed in our home, I took off the wedding band he gave me in Vegas, the day after our fake wedding. Handing him back the wedding ring for safekeeping until we tied the knot this time. Tobias's smile dropped off his face when I slipped my band into his folded hands. I whispered, "Give this to me when we finally say, I do, for real this time."
A sly smile tugged at his lips, immediately, he placed the band back into the ring box for safekeeping, he said, "After our wedding day, will you promise me, the ring will never leave your finger ever again?"
"I promise," I whisper, "After all, I will officially be your wife for the rest of my life, our life together." A smile lit up his face, his fingertips touched my chin, bringing my mouth up to his, pressing his lips to mine.
The blow of a whistle breaks the memory. My eyes rapidly move around my surroundings, looking for clues to where I am. Realizing, I have run to the center of the base when I see a group of men through a fence in a field, each is split into groups, some are running, some are doing pushups, and some are doing situps. My eyes catch on one of the men running. He is wearing black Nike running sneakers with bright green and orange tread. He is outpacing all the other men, making the running look easy. Whispering under my breath, "Go, Tobias! Go!" My heart pounds out of my chest, wondering if it is him.
As if he can hear me, he picks up speed, running quicker. The man, whom I believe is Tobias, is followed closely by a dark-haired guy, and two other men, one with blonde hair, and another with short black hair. The blonde-haired man looks familiar from afar as does the one with the dark hair, but I can't place either of them, my mind fuzzy from all the running this morning. Suddenly, the men stop running, once they cross the invisible finish line. Another whistle is blown, "Formation!" Is loudly screamed across the field. All the men stop their movement, forming lines. Someone walks back and forth in front of the men, talking for several long moments. Suddenly, "Dismissed!" Can be heard. All the men scatter across the field.
The man in the black Nike sneakers with bright orange and green treads jogs toward me. Blinking, the image comes into focus, Tobias. "Tris!" He smirks at me through the fence, like I am the answer to every prayer he has ever said in his life, his fingers loop through the holes, his eyes scan my body. Holy crap he looks hot, especially with the sweat dripping off him. A smile tugs at my lips, my eyes scan him from head to toe, looking for injuries or something else, I'm not entirely sure. I grin playfully, "Fancy meeting you here, Captain Eaton." He smiles at me, "Fancy, isn't it. I wasn't expecting you."
"Are you done for the day?" I ask, hoping he is, my fingertips tentatively touch his. He replies, "Yeah, I am, stay right here, and I will be right there." His fingertips grasp onto mine, through the fence. He eyes who is around us, then, his eyes meet mine, and he kisses my tips quickly. A man's voice breaks our moment, he loudly laughs, sarcastically, "Four, stop, flirting with your girlfriend! Are you looking to get publically humiliated by the Colonel?" Jumping backward, away from Tobias, my eyes connect with the dark brown-haired, hazel-eyed, sun-kissed skin man, who is standing next to me. "Shut up Zeke! Actually, it's fiance!" I yell. Tobias flips him off discretely, I continue, "You're mad Shauna isn't here to greet you like I was with Tobias."
"Damn straight! We would be putting Eaton and you to shame with our displays of public affection. Then, Eaton and I could share the verbal beatings." Zeke laughs, slinging his arm around my shoulders. Rolling my eyes at Zeke, I try to shrug his arms off of me, I ask, "Aren't there rules against that?" Rules, Tobias won't share with me, even though he has been scolded more than once by more senior officers since coming to this base. Zeke grins, laughing, "Please Tris, rules are meant to be broken. Four needs to learn that! You will be my first call when I end up in the brig for my rude and disrespectful behavior. Hold up, did you say, fiance?"
I bite my lip, I ask, smiling over my shoulder, "Perhaps. How is mommy-to-be?" He sighs, "Beautiful as ever, I can't wait to get home to her. Speaking of which, I promised her, I would figure out how to put the nursery furniture together today. I fly a plane for a living. I don't understand how baby furniture can be so complex and complicated. She is beginning to get nervous since I am leaving next month, then having to pack again, and move again when I am away while pregnant."
"It's understandable, I feel nervous too. I don't want to have to pack the entire house and move while Four is gone all by myself." I mutter, glancing at my feet, already feeling the list of things weighing on my mind of everything that needs to be gone through and organized before it is time to move again. Zeke begins to talk about trying to put together the crib, I nod my head, attempting to follow along with his speech. Our conversation is interrupted by a male voice, one I have never heard before, he snaps, "Well, don't you deserve a father of the year award." A guy smiles at Zeke and me, he laughs, then walks away. "Piss off, Derek!" Zeke yells at the man's turned back, "God, I hate everyone on this base. They are all jerks! The culture is nothing like Travis, right, Four?"
"Correct," Tobias laughs, pulling me into his arms, kissing my hair. Zeke and Tobias talk for a bit, then Tobias whispers, "We are going to be late, for your surprise, if we don't hurry." I grin, "Okay," meeting his eyes. Tobias pulls me away from Zeke, who I wave to enthusiastically before turning to follow Tobias.
Walking home, I ask, "How was PT today?" Before Tobias answers, he pulls me to his left side, something he has been doing more frequently for some unknown reason, he glances at me, replying, "It was okay." Eyeing him, I ask, "Just okay? Did you win?"
"Win?" Tobias asks, lifting an eyebrow at me, a look of confusion plasters across his face, "If you mean, I passed, then yeah, sure." Rolling my eyes, I reply, "Yeah, did you beat Zeke?" He grins, placing an arm around me, "Of course, Miss Prior, I won. Don't think, I was about to let Zeke best me in his first timed PT on this base. I had to show him who was the boss after all." He winks at me. I giggle, "You two are so competitive, it kills me."
"Really? I kill you? You look perfectly healthy to me," he answers, quipping an eyebrow. I poke his chest playfully, laughing, "Yes, you do. How did Zeke and you get that way? Have you always been like this?" He grabs ahold of my fingertips, placing them onto the crook of his elbow, pulling me close to his side. Tobias whispers into my ears, his breath sending chills down my spine, "Well, you can thank our high school track coach for making Zeke and me so competitive if you must know."
"Oh tell me more, please. You can't stop there," I grin, batting my eyelashes at him, wanting to hear more about a younger version of Tobias and Zeke, a version, I hardly hear about. Tobias sighs in defeat, rolling his eyes at me, "Okay, it was junior year. I had changed schools, once again because of Marcus having to move due to his job, and Zeke was the king of the popular kids in the school, believe it or not. He was also on the football team, basketball team, and track team. I was the farthest thing from being popular. I wore glasses too big for my face, hadn't grown into my body yet. I was tall, had no muscle nor any fat on my body. I was completely awkward looking. I'm sure, I was a sight to behold. I didn't speak a word to anyone except when called on in class. I was shy. I had no friends, what-so-ever. Marcus beat me nightly for anything and everything he could think of. Toward the end of my junior year, the daily beatings had gotten bad. I learned how to suture up my own wounds from watching videos on the internet to avoid going to the hospital, the hospital staff were beginning to ask too many questions in the ER. Leaving the ER one night, after Marcus's drunken tirade, when he used his belt buckle across my back was when I learned I needed to figure out how to care for myself. I was asked by multiple people that hospital visit, 'Are you being abused at home.' Every one of them, I lied to, I looked into their eyes, and I told the person 'no.' I heard a doctor mutter, under his breath, on my way out the door, 'No kid is as accident-prone as he is, something is going on at home. Next time he comes in, notify CPS.' After that night, I never went back to the ER. Marcus was a shitty father, but he still was a father to me, he was still the only home I knew. I didn't want to end up in foster care. I didn't want to have to change schools again. I had already gone through three schools since starting high school. I had no intention of changing schools again." His eyes catch mine, I stay silent, letting him unload everything about Marcus. He continues, "School was my safe place until it wasn't. Zeke began spreading rumors about me during the second month I was in school. He told everyone, the reason I wouldn't talk in class was that I was deaf, dumb, and blind. His favorite nickname for me was four eyes, that was one of the nicer ones, his group of friends used to call me every mean name in the book."
"With friends like that who needs enemies? How are you friends with Zeke now? I don't think I would have ever forgiven him!" I answer, shock in my voice. Tobias shrugs his shoulders, "People change once they are removed from certain situations. Zeke and I weren't friends in high school, and I didn't care. I had nothing to prove to anyone. To be honest, I was used to being bullied by this point in life; every time I changed schools, I was bullied, it was all part of the growing pains. I needed to stick with my plan. I needed to keep my straight A's, to get my one-way ticket out of Maine forever, to never look back."
"Obviously, there was something that happened between Zeke and you, what was it?" I ask. Tobias smirks, "I remember it being warm outside, it must have been late May, maybe early June, it was around Prom time, and I had a huge crush on Stacy." I shoot him a pointed look, he continues, "Yes, before you even say anything, that Stacy. I had a huge crush on her. We went to the same high school. She was a cheerleader, and I was forever crushing on her since the first day I saw her, too scared to talk to her, until, I was forced to we were paired together in a Physics lab for the semester. I only talked to her when I had to, but fate stepped in one day, my freshman year of college. I grew up, learned how to talk to a girl, the worst part, I was drunk, I don't remember any of our conversation from the day, but that is a story for another time." I give him another pointed look, begin to open my mouth, he says, "Sorry, I forget to mention, Stacy in high school was dating the Captain of the Varsity Football team. Classic high school story, probably. Anyway, Zeke noticed, I liked to stare at Stacy, and that I liked to go to the football games, not only to watch her but to stay away from Marcus as well. He noticed how Stacy and I worked on our Physics homework together frequently for the whole semester. It was a requirement, but he never knew that." Listening to his story, the only thing my mind catches on is Physics and Junior Year. "Wait, you took Physics as a junior in high school?" I ask suspiciously. Tobias shrugs his shoulders, "Yeah, why?"
"What the hell did you take as during your senior year for a science?" I ask, wondering what kind of brain Tobias was in high school. Tobias rolls his eyes, replying, "Anatomy and Physiology and Advanced Chemistry. Are you going to let me finish the story?" My cheeks heat, answering, "Yeah, sorry."
Tobias smirks, "Anyway, one day at lunch, I was staring at Stacy, trying to gather the courage to ask her if she wanted to work on our Physics homework together during study hall. Zeke yelled something across the entire cafeteria, loud enough, for everyone to hear about my staring, something about undressing Stacy with my eyes. Stacy's big beefy boyfriend looked directly at me. He caught me staring at Stacy, he had a look of murder in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to kill me, right there and then, for even looking at her. Needless to say, he walked over to me in the middle of the lunchroom and beat the crap out of me in front of the whole cafeteria. The only thing besides the pain, I recall is Stacy, trying to stop him, but he didn't until he was satisfied, I got the message. The rest of the year, I was on the run at lunch, trying to outmaneuver Stacy's crazy-ass boyfriend."
"What a jerk! He sounds like what Peter did to Sam!" I mutter.
"Yeah, but that isn't the worst part. Zeke's group of friends after things calmed down finally, decided for fun to start leaving love notes to Stacy from me in her boyfriend's locker. Besides the regular beatings at home, Stacy's boyfriend was on the hunt for me again, because of the love notes, that weren't even from me. One day, I saw Zeke, slip a note into Stacy's locker. I called him out on it, and challenged him to a fight after school, having had enough of the abuse from his group and him. The track coach found us from the group of kids surrounding us before any punches could be thrown. Instead, he tossed Zeke and me onto the track. He yelled, 'race your damn hormones out or go to detention, your choice.'" Tobias chuckles, then he continues, "I beat Zeke easily, Zeke who at the time was on the track and field team, every day would challenge me, trying to beat me. The track coach noticed how quick I was, he recruited me to join the team. One day after track practice, Zeke and I started talking, we became friends, sort of. He never knew what was going on in my home life. We separated after high school, going to different colleges, kept in touch occasionally, somehow ended up in the same Officer Training School class together. We even ended up as roommates. It is a small world."
"I guess it is." I muse. Tobias looks lost in thought, he laughs," When Stacy and I started dating in college, I texted Zeke, he joked with his friends and me the next time he came to visit, asking Stacy if she was covering for me."
"Covering for what?" I ask, lifting an eyebrow, wondering where the hell he is going with this. Tobias laughs, "My gayness, of course." I smile, "Why doesn't that surprise me, especially with how my interaction with Zeke went the first time." My mind quickly drifts back to Zeke, asking a similar question to me. Tobias shrugs his shoulders, tugging me into the house, whispering, "I'm going to take a shower, care to join me?" He wiggles his eyebrows at me, making me laugh. He pulls me up the stairs with him. "I guess if it will help cover for you." I giggle. Tobias rolls his eyes at me, pulling me against his smooth, hard chest. His lips crash into mine, he lifts me into his arms, and carries me up the stairs, into the cascading water, where we lose ourselves in one another.
Thoughts? Opinions? Any guesses on what Tobias's surprise is for Tris? Would be have become friends with Zeke after everything he put you through if you were in Tobias's shoes after high school? Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter. Next chapter will be up a little earlier than normal, I'm going to shoot for Friday, January 17, if it isn't up that day then the latest will be Saturday, January 18th.