Rat (A Divergent Prequel and Eric Love Story)

Chapter 10- Dauntless Tradition

My shoulders were being shaken, though a tad more gentle than I had been awoken the past few days.

"The bridge is fixed," Eric announced. My eyes fluttered open. Eric was still dressed in his Dauntless shirt and black jeans, except now he wore a frown. He looked more stressed than he usually was. I rubbed my eyes and sat up.

"I said the bridge is fixed, Rose." His eyes moved as if motioning for me to look behind him. Max stood at the door, his arms crossed angrily as they always were. "The second stage starts tomorrow. Here's your stuff." He placed a bag in my hands. A rather large bag actually. I was pretty sure that I had only wore about one or two outfits during my stay here. This was about an entire closet. Eric winked at me before moving out of my way.

"Do you need another dose of the serum before you go?" Eric asked.

I placed a hand on my hip and pushed down to see if I felt pain. Nothing. I pulled my shirt up to see that the stitches had already dissolved. "Nope," I said popping the 'p'. I had finally healed. I was walking normally too.

I followed Max out of the door, apparently he intended to question me during my walk to the dorms.

"Rose, during your stay with Eric, how did he treat you?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. He was cocky and sarcastic but normal Eric, I guess." I answered nonchalantly.

"Did he..." Max started. "...have... relations with you?"

My eyes opened widely. "No!" I shouted, bringing about attention to Max and myself.

The walk to the dormitory was quiet then on. As I approached, two arms were swung around me, bringing me into a tight embrace that would have hurt like hell if I hadn't been healed already.

"I. Was. So. Worried." Kait shouted.

I laughed and tried to hug back as tight but my small self was not as strong as Kait. I hadn't realized how much taller she was than me until now that my face came to her shoulder.

"Who did you stay with?" I asked, throwing the huge bag of clothes onto my small bed.

"Tori. You know, the one that did my tattoo?" I nodded in response. "Who did you stay with?"

"Eric," I replied, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"YOU STAYED WITH ERIC?" Kait screamed, causing Alicia and Jackson's eyes to widen as they walked into the room.

"I had too. I was in critical condition and the nurse put him in charge of my medication." I sort-of lied. I probably would have asked Eric if I could stay with him regardless.

"What's his apartment like?" Jackson asked, sounding like a young girl.

"There's torture devices hanging from the walls and pools of blood everywhere." I answered with a serious expression.

Jackson's eyes widened in disbelief, but he shrugged it off with a laugh when I rolled my eyes at him.

"Finally!" I heard Zeke scream. He ran into the room, Shauna trailing along behind him. "We've been looking for you everywhere!" He pulled me into a tight hug, tighter than Kait's. Shauna joined in, wrapping her arms around the both of us.

"We're going to celebrate!" Shauna announced, as the two of them let go of me.

"Celebrate what?" I asked.