Fractured | Tobias Eaton ✓

30 | Flirting With Death

The door is thrown open right into me and I stumble backward, losing my footing and falling onto my back. "Ow," I mumble as I watch Will carry Tris out of the dormitory. "Thanks for the push, Will." He doesn't even spare me a second glance and that confuses me more than being thrown to the ground.

I sit up and see everyone looking through the door with wide eyes. Save for Peter and Molly. He's holding his foot in one hand and she's got an evil smile on her face–scratch that–that's just her normal smile!

"What happened?" Christina pushes her way through and helps me up, "What happened?" I ask again and she leads me away from the dorm. Al runs out after us.

"Erudite is writing about the Abnegation. They wrote about Tris and her brother. Said her father must have done things to them for them to want to leave. Guess who said she heard Tris mumbling in her sleep about her dad?"

I shrug, "Asshole Molly?" Christina nods with a tense expression and I wince. "Glad to know she's so ruthless as to make an insinuation so damning. I don't like the Abnegation but that's a line you don't cross." I pause, "Isn't insinuating the same as lying in Candor?"

"I dunno, probably. It leads to confusion so it seems wrong." Christina says, "Let's try to find Will and Tris. She stomped on Peter's foot so hard I swear I heard something crack."

"I pray she broke his toes, maybe then he'd mysteriously lose his ability to walk and be sentenced to factionless life."

—

Christina brings us to the parlor once we find them. My parents said it's fine for me to get regular tattoos. In fact, Ma basically encouraged me to do so. So you may fit in with your friends. I can't help but want to make my dad's writing permanent on my skin. When I showed them it, I asked my mom to write something for me so I can have everyone. Then Ada wanted to join in and so did Tammi.

I doubt I can get it all done in one sitting as it seems the real tattoos are still done using tattoo guns and not the plastic thing Billie used on me. Christina wants us to get the Dauntless seal on our shoulders. I tell her I'll think about it on the way there but eventually cave.

Russ is getting something done by Billie when we walk in and I can't help but be nosy and stare. He's laughing and I realize he's quite pretty. He looks a lot like Four in that way. I shake my head, what brought that up. I stifled a groan.

I hear the end of their conversation as we enter the parlor, Russ looks up and smirks at me. The slight lift of his lips reminds me of how he looked in the fear simulation and I have to look away or else I might get stuck in my head. As I turn away with no response, I see his face fall.

I wish I could explain it without it being weird.

"Rita, you should get your temporary tattoo turned into a real one. It's really pretty." Christina points at where it is. I'd only shown them when I got it, my sleeves cover it for the most part. I doubt anyone but them even knows I have any tattoos.

"That's actually a good idea, I talked to my mom and she said I should get tattoos."

Christina giggled, "That's funny. She must understand the need to fit in here," She comments as she flips through a book of designs. They're by an artist named Tori and they're quite beautiful. "This one is killer," Christina says, pointing to a dragon breathing fire as it's wrapped around the Dauntless seal.

"That looks like a Chinese dragon," Will says, going into Erudite mode as he jumps into a story about what a Chinese dragon is. It's really endearing when he dumps information on us. I've learned a lot so far just by listening to him. "Sorry, I kinda went Erudite for a second there."