Fractured | Tobias Eaton ✓

13 | He's An Asshole

Another sleepless night. I wake up and see that someone vandalized Tris' bed. She wasn't their only victim either because somehow they've ransacked all of my stuff. Every headscarf and piece of modest clothing is gone and it enrages me.

My headcap is still secure on my head as I begin narrowing down the suspects. When I stand up to look around at my roommates, my eyes settle on Molly and Peter. My intuition bell rings and I know they stole my things.

"See you two have taken up painting," I spit, walking right up to them just as Tris walks back in from wherever she went.

She sees her bed surprisingly quickly, the red paint is awfully hard to miss. Stiff. Is painted on every piece of pillow, mattress, and bedding. This only adds to my own anger.

"And that you two are thieving assholes, where's my shit?" I've never been the nicest in the morning anyway and they've just lit a fire under me.

Peter pretends to be surprised at my accusations, "What are you talking about, factionless?"

Air fills my lungs as I consider attacking him for being such a little asshole.

"Did I do something to you that I'm unaware of?" Tris is stripping her bed as I stand in front of the culprits. There's red paint on their fingertips. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we are in the same faction now."

He shrugs, "I don't know what you're referring to," He says this to me, "And we'll never be in the same faction." It doesn't take much thinking to understand he's talking to Tris and I. What a dick.

When I turn back to punch Peter, Al conveniently grabs my arm and shakes his head. "They stole all of my modest clothing!" I argue and hear them giggle.

"Come on," Al practically drags me away from the Candors.

I end up being enlisted to help Tris wash the paint from her bedding. It's grueling work. We scrub for a while before rushing to get ready for training. I show up in my sleeping clothes and the short training shirt on top of my plaid pajama top. It's a bit embarrassing but nobody mentions it.

—

Tris is set to fight Peter. I'm a bit jealous and she seems visibly shaken by the thought. "It's gonna be fine," I reassure her and she shakes her head. "Seriously, the only thing he knows is how to be a dick."

"Are they seriously going to make you fight him?" Christina's Candor-honesty isn't helping in the slightest. But we all remember how he beat Drew in mere minutes. Even today, Drew is carrying the bruises his supposed best friend riddled him with.

"Maybe you can just take a few hits and pretend to go unconscious, no one would blame you," Al says, being serious.

I shake my head, "No you have to beat him. If you don't I will." Tris seems to like my answer as she gives me a nervous smile. Molly is set to fight Edward but I'm not focused on that. I finally see my name on the board, right across from Russell's. What ironic luck.

Tris and I stand side by side and I can't help but tell her what to do in her fight against Peter. "He's an asshole, we know this. Just–he thinks he's the best right? So play into that. If he thinks you're submitting... maybe he'll relent. Then you go right for the groin and turn him into ground beef."

"I mean... that might work but if it doesn't I'm toast."

I shrug, "You're kinda screwed, either way, Tris. Four said to exploit weaknesses, Peter's is obviously his ego–I mean," I nod toward his stupid face, "Look at him, he's laughing right now. Who laughs during a fight?" Especially when his friend is being literally turned into shredded lettuce.

I wince when I see how dazed Molly looks when she finally escapes from Edward's calculated hits. Peter and Tris' fight is kind of hard to watch. I mean, every fight has been hard to watch. That comes with the territory. Watching kids beat each other up isn't something you just, enjoy watching.

Peter taunts Tris before Eric berates him for "toying" with her. I can see what Eric means, Peter hasn't even begun to rain pain on Tris. The way he punches at her has me wincing some more. I remember the one time David got me good and I was off balance for at least two days.

Somehow Tris is fighting back and it makes me look at her a bit differently. She's stumbling around but obviously set on getting a couple of good hits in. Peter, on the other hand, is delighted by this situation. Not only did he humiliate her, he managed to get the chance to temporarily damage her. Sadistic.

When she goes down that last time, I just know she's done. He's kicking her–much like Molly did to Christina–over and over again. I'm not sure who yells "Enough!" but he stops moving and so does Tris.