Alex was surprisingly thankful to get back into the training room. At least that gave her something to focus on. She gladly took the distraction and ran her laps around the lake, entering an almost meditative state as she focused on her breathing. For the first time after her incident, she managed to free her mind from all the uncomfortable thoughts swirling around in there. Jason, Eric, Dauntless, Jack …
Alex spent the day focusing on her training, which led to her being so tired, she fell straight into bed that night. At least that meant she couldn't be tempted by Eric.
This strategy got harder as Jason joined training the next day. She could feel his hateful gaze wherever she went and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't escape the tension that built up inside of her.
Normally she would have drowned her sorrow in a bottle of whiskey after days like this, but that would have sent her straight into Eric's bed and she was definitely too proud to go down that road. Yet.
She had finished her research project weeks ago and thankfully Eric seemed to ignore the fact she was still supposed to do detention. So, she just laid in bed, watching the ceiling, trying not to think until sleep would take her.
Alex didn't really feel like talking to Lucas and Kylie either. Where would she even start? So instead, she spent most of their time in the cafeteria silently listening to their conversations, evading questions and playing with her food.
Days came and went, turning into one blurry mess. Eric was incredibly busy with things he didn't trust Alex to know so she spent most of her evenings in her room alone anyway.
It was Saturday night. Lucas and Kylie were probably drunk right now, dancing until they couldn't feel their feet. Alex on the other hand lay in her bed again, wishing sleep would finally take her. She kept on looking at the flame tattoo on her arm and the longer she looked at it, the worse she felt.
"Well, well, well, look who's sneaking back", Eric teased as Alex opened the door a crack and peeked into his room. She took that as an invitation to come inside.
"Get off your high horse. My heating isn't working and I'm not sleeping in a freezing room, so move." Alex got into his bed.
She expected more teasing comments from Eric, but he just watched her, his brows furrowing for a short moment before looking back into his tablet.
She lay there next to him, wondering if she should say something else but she couldn't think of anything anyway. Alex was more than irritated by his reaction but tried to shake it off.
As she turned onto her side, he wordlessly placed his tablet on the bedside table and switched off the light.
She waited to see if he would say anything else but all she heard was the sound of his breathing.
"Good night, Eric", Alex finally whispered.
"Good night, Initiate." Alex bit her lip but smiled. She never would have thought she would have missed being called Initiate.