Chapter 2: Your First Night

Hellooooooooo, this thing on? I have made a long awaited return from a deep hiatus. Four years has not been kind on the soul. Between college, heartbreak, discovering other passions, and figuring out what to do with my life when I graduate in about 260ish days from now, it has been quite an adventure. I've hit a low point and am reminiscing on the past things I enjoyed but stopped doing when things started to fall apart. Celebrating 10 years from my first chapter being published on here as of two days ago! Here I am now, 4 years older from my last installment but maybe not any wiser, wanting to get back into a thing I love: writing. So without further ado, here is our next chapter for our little story. More chapters intermittently coming (hopefully soon).

As always, Veronica Roth owns the characters and the original storyline of Divergent. Any other potential relations to anything fictional or current is purely coincidental. This story is of my own creation! Happy reading!


-Beatrice Prior: 8:47 p.m.-

By the time I finally made my way to my new apartment, the leasing office was already closed. Figured...that's what I get though for not leaving Charlotte earlier in the morning.

Accepting my defeat, time to go in search of a temporary stay for the night. My car will be a last resort with this cold front moving through and blasting frigid air and flurries throughout the night. Pulling over to the side of the road, I look for hotels nearby that have both vacancy and not too wildly out of a small budget.

While it isn't the most budget friendly, Home2Suites is right down the street from my new building and there is a room available. Expensive, but it's a bed with a pillow at least. Parking wasn't nearly as much of a nightmare as I thought it might be to find, so I quickly got to the front desk to book a room for the night.

Making my way to my room, I feel increasingly more cheap as I pass sophisticated looking people in the lobby and halls. My ratty backpack from college has seen the worst over the last six years, and is literally hanging on by the threads on the straps I restitched last year. All that's in my backpack are the essentials: overnight toiletries, change of clothes, my laptop, chargers, a few protein bars from the Walmart, room temperature bottle of Dr. Pepper, and of course my most prized possession: the small piece of the hand-knit light blue blanket left from my parents before they walked out of the hospital and never saw me again.

I made it up to my room for the night and gawked at how nice it was. While it was entirely out of my budget plan for moving up here, I needed somewhere to stay that I knew I wouldn't get mugged at. Immediately closing the door, I do my room check. Finger on the mirror to make sure it isn't double sided, turn the lights off and use my phone to make sure there are no hidden cameras, check curtains to make sure no one is hiding, and of course check for bed bugs. After that, I deadbolt the door and move the chair from the desk in front of the door to keep anyone from getting in.

Trust issues? I'm the textbook definition of it.

Finally, I collapse on the bed and just stare at the white popcorn ceiling. My mind is racing about everything: leaving my entire life in Charlotte behind, my first time ever being outside of North Carolina, those beautifully dark eyes of that officer, the way all the snow and coldness of my window being open melted away when he was talking.

Jesus, Tris. He was literally doing his job, and you're thirsting over a man you'll never see again?!

I shake my head at myself. Pathetic. You can't be doing that. You're here to start over. To get away. For no one to know who you are or your past.

I sit back up and decide I need to desperately change out of the clothes I was stuck driving in for 12 hours. Stripping my gray sweater off, I exchange for a ratty, oversized Charlotte Hornets t-shirt, a pair of leggings, a black and gray flannel, paired with the dark gray coat I bought the night before leaving Charlotte for good.

Popping my contacts out, I replace my eyesight with my thick lens, oversized glasses. The round frames have always been too large for my face and slightly too large to where they slip down the bridge of my nose. I take a look at myself in the mirror and my stomach immediately growls. Maybe a bunch of protein bars don't count as a full meal...

I check my wallet for how much cash I have left after booking my room for the night: 83 in my purse's wallet plus the emergency stash (500) I have hidden under the inside sole of my shoe.

Time for my first meal of the day and first one in Chicago. I stuff my wallet in my coat pocket to not worry about lugging my purse outside, and grab my phone off the edge of the dresser. I flick the lights off and grab a washcloth to place barely in the door handle. That way when I get back if it falls, I'll know no one has been in my room.

Like I said, never can be too cautious. Not when you've had a past like mine. And with that, I closed the door to my room. Ready to start walking into a new life. I was no longer Beatrice Prior of Charlotte. I am someone different. I will be. I have to be. My first night in Chicago, and I finally felt that pressure lifted off my chest. No one knows Beatrice Prior, so goodbye to the old me.


- Four Eaton 9:14 pm -

Finally, I'm off of work for the weekend. I would've been home sooner had I remembered I had to pick up my part best friend, part dumbass, Zeke, from work because of his car being in the shop for its crap heater, again.

His shift at the Fire Department was supposed to end at 9, but he never gets off on time cause he can't shut his trap. Their department's lovely front desk lady, Glenna, always chats him up when he comes in. From my Jeep, I give him a call at 9:05 reminding him that I'm driving him home and to hurry it up. We are responsible for picking up the pizza tonight from Masala Pizza.

Normally we just get a traditional pizza from Pizano's right down the street, but we are making the switch up tonight for Zeke's brother Uriah. He was craving Indian food and pizza, so Masala it was tonight. It was Friday which meant our weekly hangout at Asbury with the whole gang.

Zeke hustled his way out of there, and we are rushing to get to Masala before they close at 9:30 to pick up the takeout Uriah ordered for the crew. With just three minutes to spare, Zeke hops out of the Jeep and runs inside to pick up and pay for the mountain of pizzas that Uriah ordered.

I stayed in the car in a metered spot with my hazards on. I wasn't particularly in the mood to pay for parking for this quick run in. The radio starts playing 'Dial Drunk' by Noah Kahan featuring Post Malone. With as much as this station plays the song, you would think the DJ would be sick of it and put something else by Kahan into rotation. While waiting on Zeke, I'm vibing along to the song and tapping the little guitar riffs against the steering wheel.

Next thing I know he is knocking on the window with a mountain of pizza boxes blocking my view of him. I hop out of the car and hear him say, "I made a friend!" Walking around to the other side of my car I start to say, "Zeke I swear if you think the rat crawling out of the sewer is going to be your next pet again, I'm going to"

I don't get to finish my threat before my body collides with someone shorter than me.

"Oh shit! I am so sorry."

It's her. I know it's her because of those eyes. She smiles up at me meekly as she says, "It's okay! I was just going to help Zeke here open the door."

She has glasses on now. The large round frames cast a light shadow onto her cheeks. Our eyes don't break from one another. I didn't think I'd see her again. Not this soon again at least. Her eyes bore into mine like they're looking for something. I'm struggling to find words and thank god for Zeke interrupting.

"Four this is Beatrice! Beatrice this Four! She just moved to Chicago, and was looking for somewhere to eat but Masala turned her away since they were closing so soon. Since Uriah ordered entirely too much pizza and she's new to town and couldn't get any pizza before they closed and that the gang would absolutely adore her, I figured she could come hangout with all of us!"

"It's nice to see you again, Officer Eaton."

Still, I cannot seem to find any of my words. I'm still just staring at her eyes.

"Hey you two, can someone actually open this door? I am not in the mood for burning my hands or freezing my nuts off."

Beatrice breaks the eye contact first and scurries to open the door from him. She opens the door while glancing at me and readjusting her glasses with her free hand.

It's like I'm a toddler learning how to talk for the first time as I start to stutter and stumble with my words, "Zeke that's a phenomenal idea, but you could've used less words to get to the point and not scare her off."

Both her and Zeke laugh. God her laugh is perfect. It's like listening to the score of a movie composed by Hans Zimmerman for the first time. She looks at me and smiles, but in an instant, it falls from her face.

"No, I couldn't possibly impose on you guys and your group. Plus how do I know you're not an axe murderer?"

Both Zeke and I laugh while sharing a glance at each other. I shake my head because we would be the last two people on Earth that could be axe murderers.

"As you know from our stop earlier, I'm a cop. Zeke here is a fireman for the city of Chicago. Trust me if we were axe murderers we wouldn't have let you get this far in the conversation," I explain.

Zeke laughs while saying, "Yeah, the background checks for our jobs are enough to prevent us from ever getting too far into that potential side hobby."

She firmly nods her head. Smile still missing from her face. Eyes no longer meeting mine. She's staring at her hands while she picks underneath her fingernail and glasses start to slip down her face.

There's a brief silence between us before I say, "Beatrice it would be great if you came over to hangout with all of us tonight. Zeke and I just live two blocks down at Asbury Place. His brother Uriah and our friends Will, Al, Peter, Christina, Marlene, Shauna, and Myra. You can hop in the backseat and guard the pizza from Zeke if you want to join?"

Zeke is obnoxiously rubbing his palms against the sleeves of his coat as if he has been freezing in the wilderness for days and trying to warm himself up. She keeps picking at her fingernails, but her eyes finally meet mine again. Pushing her glasses up, she forces a small smile. There's something still in her eyes that indicates she's unsure of everything.

"I guess I can't turn down some free dinner and not spending my night alone in a hotel room," Tris says while flashing a bigger smile at Zeke.

Zeke shrieks and jumps up and down while saying, "OMG this is awesomeeeee! You are going to love everyone!"

Zeke pops the passenger door open and gestures for Beatrice to take his seat in the front seat. She looks back at me with the same smile as before but less hesitation is in her eyes. Beatrice breaks the eye contact again and moves to get in the passenger seat of my Jeep with Zeke softly closing the door behind her.

"Dude why didn't you say the last stop of your patrol was a stunning girl new to the city? You also gotta get better at talking to her if you don't want to scare her away," Zeke harshly whispers while grabbing my elbow to drag me to the driver's side.

He hops in the backseat behind the driver's seat while I assume the position behind the steering wheel. Three seatbelt clicks and we're off.

It's not that far back to Asbury and my parking spot. While driving, the radio station starts playing "End of Beginning" by Djo. It's a good song to start the night. I take a quick glance over at Beatrice in the passenger seat, and she is lost looking through the window and up at the buildings and street lights.

Looking back at the road, the flurries started to morph to larger flakes. Maybe by morning there would be a few new inches in the ground and a new friend for the group. Her eyes said so much in such a little amount of time. There was such excitement at first, and in a moment's notice, they shifted to being concerned and apprehensive. There was so much allure to her, I couldn't keep my brain focused on anything but her.

Lost in thought as I pull into my parking spot, Zeke exclaims, "Here's to your first night in Chicago and to new friends!"