Fractured | Tobias Eaton ✓

04 | I'll Live Just For You

I feel as though I am functioning on auto drive for a few days after Tammi and I fought... we haven't spoken since then. It feels wrong to be fighting with him, we've never gone more than a day without speaking... but he really wounded me. He's never been so mean or angry with me, Tamino's been angry at the world but never me.

We can't ignore each other for much longer because the weekly family dinner is tonight, everyone is coming and it's odd that I don't feel excited. I'm happy to see my aunts for longer than an hour because they work when I get home. David doesn't do much but he helps Evelyn and the other fractured with manual labor.

I've only met Evelyn once but she irked me, her dark eyes reminded me of a snake. And she wasn't too nice to me, if I'm being honest... but that could have been because I ran right into her without apologizing. My stomach growls loudly and I groan, I shouldn't have skipped out on Annabelle's offer to buy me lunch today.

"Ritty, mom said to help set the table with Tammi." Ada's black head of hair appears in the hole, she's hanging onto the ladder.

"I'll be down in just a minute."

Ada pauses for a moment and I hear her yell my response toward the kitchen, "Mom said right now." She says in a sing-song voice.

I sigh loudly and make my way downstairs. Ada clambers down the ladder and lands on the floor loudly. My body feels heavy as I climb down slowly, my mom shouts at me to hurry, "I'm coming ma!"

The kitchen is loud as my aunts and mother cook, I walk past and into the dining room. Tamino has already set the placemats, he hands me the utensils wordlessly. I try not to feel too hurt by his silence but I've been ignoring him as well so it's only fair, right? Setting the table comes as second nature, I do it practically blindly as Tamino follows with bowls.

"Hey, lil cousin! Guess who got a job at the factory?" David's voice brings a smile to my face, "Me! I did, out of all those people and your cousin got a job after all this time of waiting!"

"Congrats, D! That's amazing!" He engulfs me in a hug. "Is the pay any good?"

He nods with a grin, "Better than what those parents are paying you to teach their kids."

I lightly smack his arm, "Haha," I deadpan. "But seriously, congrats. That's awesome." He ruffles my hair before I can stop him.

"Rita!" Aunt Marigold calls from the kitchen, "Help us carry the food!" I rush into the kitchen to help before their patience dissolves.

Despite it being any normal Thursday afternoon, they practically made mountains of food. "Who is this all for, mama?" She explains that Evelyn donated some so we could give it out to some families in need.

"The soup doesn't need to be kept cold so it will last a while, we'll eat our portion and keep some for leftovers but give the rest to the families nearby."

I carry a tray of Abnegation bread rolls, we must have just gotten them because they look fresh. But then again, Aunt Enola is a master at doctoring foods up (just like my ma).

—

Not even halfway through dinner, I'm asked if I've come to a decision. It's only been three weeks, a month... I've got plenty of time. They won't even like what I have to say. I poke my spoon at the meat in my bowl, "Uh... not a full decision. Just thinking mostly." My voice is not like normal, nothing about me is. Fighting with Tamino makes everything hard to do.

I glance at him and I can tell he wants to say something, "But I've narrowed it down to uh... to two factions." I hold up two fingers. Baba nods for me to continue, "Um... Erudite was the obvious one, because I like learning."