Weather For the Brave

Chapter 5

Author's Note: Woo-hoo! As a thank you for all of you, I've decided to update back to back because you have all stuck with this story for months! Thank you all for voting and reading and all that great stuff! Please shoot me anymore comments on how you feel about the story and the characters; I really enjoy reading your feedback! Hope to update soon :)

***

By the time the rankings went up, every fiber in my being was ready to go back to Amity, to the comfort of those I had known for years, to the sun and the earth. But that was not an option.

I had ranked first, which no one seemed to be surprised about.
"You were better than all of us, Vee. You deserve this," Matthew had told me with a huge smile. I couldn't help but smile back at him. He had ranked third, which was also an achievement, and we decided to go out for drinks later that night.

"So," I started as we were getting ready to meet the others, "I've been noticing, and you don't have to answer, that you haven't been sleeping well... Is everything alright? I worry about you, you know," I finished zipping up my pants, turning to look at him.

"Uh..." Matt mumbled, not looking at me directly as he put on his shirt.
"See! That's how you started last time! It can't be that bad, Matty-boy! Matt... Matthew-Mateo! Look at me!" I giggled, grabbing him by his shoulders. I felt Matt relax under my touch.
"You know what I just realized that I really love?" He says with a smile.
I raise an eyebrow, also smiling. "What?"
"The way you just can't seem to call me by my name!"
Matthew spins me around and tackles me onto my bed and I let out a loud cry.
"Argh! Matt!" I laugh loudly, sure that everyone in the damn compound can hear us.
"Let gooooo!"

"Am I interrupting something important, kids?" A voice comes from the door.
Matt and I immediately stop and from my view I can see Eric, arms across his chest and an annoyed expression on his face.
Matthew pulls away from me and offers his hand so that I can get up. I take it, and though I should feel slightly bothered and embarrassed that he's interrupted Matt and I, I can't help but also feel a little bit excited. What's he doing here?

"N-no, Eric," I say, conscious of Matthew tensing up beside me.
"It's fine, nothing against initiates dating each other. But I would think that you two would prefer the door to be closed," he smiles sardonically, no doubt wanting to make us both uncomfortable.
Instead of showing that, I smile. "What, like you wouldn't want to see?"
Eric's eyes show a flash of shock, but as soon as it appeared, it was gone.
"I need to speak to you alone," Eric says, his expression hardened now.
"I'll see you at the bar," Matt turns to me, with an uneasy smile. Be brave, it seemed to say to me.

Once he had left, Eric fully entered the room, looking around as if he didn't know where to start with the conversation. Luckily, I did.

"What, are you not concerned that some people may think that you are giving me secret training lessons?" I asked, careful to not use the word scared. If I'd said scared, then he, as many of the Dauntless do, would go into a tirade about how they're not scared and this and that. I was not in the mood.

While some other version of me would not have held such contempt towards Eric, his behavior during the first stages of initiation had erased any hope I might have had towards a working relationship with him.
He looked at me seriously for a minute.
"See something you'd like to comment on, Master?" I heard myself say sarcastically. Where the hell was this coming from?
"Everything you did was perfect," he states simply,
I can feel myself mentally taking a step back. What? What did he say?
"What do you mean?" I ask stupidly.
"I mean what I said," he replies, again making his words sound simple. And I guess they were.
"I can't imagine the next round of initiation being difficult either. The thing is... In this world, there's rarely anything... Truly impressive anymore. Everything seems to just be a cycle. But..." He stops suddenly, staring at me with steely eyes that made me believe in all things good and bad at the same time. Oh.

"I'm nothing special," I say, feeling a bit embarrassed now.
"I didn't say you were," Eric replies with a joking smile. I can't help but smile back.
"Woah," I say, snapping back to my senses. "Eric, are we having A Moment?!"
He rolls his eyes but smiles despite himself. "I will see you later, initiate," he says, turning and walking out.
"I'm counting on it!" I call out.
****
"Victoriaaaaa!!"
I walk into the dark room, seeing people everywhere.
I turn to where I heard Kiernan call my name; she sat with the rest at a table in the corner. The table was already littered with various cups, no doubt filled with alcohol.

"What's up, fellow initiates?" I ask, sitting down next to Matt who gives me a questioning look. "Later," I whisper to him. He nods and I appreciate that he decides not to push it.

After Eric's departure, I decide to change out of my tank top and into a cropped blackish-greyish shirt, and sliver of my midriff showing, the rest covered by my jeans. I was becoming more comfortable wearing all the black, and since I obviously had no other choice, I was proud of myself for not fighting it any more.

"This is for you," Tristan passes me a plastic cup from across the table. Situated next to him were Nathan and Hafsha, who were in a heated discussion about the origins of Dauntless life, Kiernan on my right, her friend Diane next to her, and Nathan on my left.

"Thanks!" I accept the cup, taking a small sip. Not bad.

"Victoria, I've heard that you did amazingly on your first part of training," Diane tells me, her voice like soft butter. I smile at her.

"Well, I did the best I could," I shrug nonchalantly. "But this isn't about me, you guys did awesome as well! Nathan, I can't believe you came in second!"

"Yeah, you gave Mark a real beating!" Tristan whooped, his excitement and pride for his cousin apparent.

"No, no, the best was Matt and Hafsha, and how they wouldn't fight each other?" Nathan turns to Matthew with a laugh.

"Oh gosh! He kind of just turns to me and goes, 'just do it, but don't leave a mark, baby!' I wouldn't ever even dream of laying a hand on that gorgeous face!" Hafsha says, giggling through her words.

"Yeah, but you still did it anyways!" Matt feigns annoyance, but Hafsha just sticks out her tongue and says, "it was either you or me!"

Matthew wrinkles his nose at her and looks at Kiernan. "How did things go in your group?"

We spent the entire night like that, our small congregation. Talking, laughing at almost everything, and drinking.
"I'm starting to like this," Matt says to me as we are walking back to our shared room. Hafsha, Nathan, and Tristan all walked in front of us, Hafsha and Nathan holding Tristan up since he'd had one too many drinks.
"Me too," I smile up at him. We were walking silently, arms linked.
"Victoria," Matt says suddenly, slowing down a bit. "I... Need to talk to you about something... I don't know, it's kind of embarrassing and I don't even know what I'm feeling-"

"Matt!" I cut him off, stopping in front of him. "You can tell me anything. You don't have to be embarrassed to share anything with me. We're on the same team, remember?" I place a hand on his cheek, feeling his warm face.

"See, that's kind of the problem... we are on the same team," Matt says with a sigh.

"Huh? I'm not following, darling," I say, confusion setting in now.

"I, uh, have these thoughts about-"

"Aren't you all supposed to be in bed?" Eric's voice boomed in the now empty hallway. "You looked pretty comfortable there earlier, I cannot imagine you'd want to waste any time now," he smiles, unashamed.

"We were just going there, uh, sir," Matt stammers out, and gives me a look. I blink back at him.

"Oh, uh, yeah, our friends seemed to have walked ahead of us, but we will be on our way," I say, hoping to reinforce our excuse.

Eric tilts his head to the side. "You both did well during the first stage- don't slip now because you got a little bit of freedom to yourselves. Tomorrow, we start the real work," he walks back to where he came from, probably to torture another soul.

I feel a breath escape me. "God, he's so freaking cryptic," I say with a short, relieved laugh. Matthew and I continue to walk towards our room, and I can tell that that small window of Matthew finally opening up to me was closed. I'd have to try again tomorrow.