tobias | ✔

five - tobias

“Your handsome and charming soulmate asks you on a date,” Christina said, staring at Tris as if she’d done something so bad, “and you say no?”

Maybe she had, though. Done something wrong.

“I didn’t say no,” Tris said, stopping her walk to wait for Beau to finish smelling at a bush to the side of the pathway. “The boy who was helping me with my Sociology class saw us. He came up to me and asked me how I felt about the test. I got into a conversation with him and before I knew it, Tobias squeezed my free hand that was hanging by my side, and left.”

“And now you’re avoiding him.”  

“I am not avoiding him,” Tris said, tugging back on the leash when Beau got too excited and began to run. “I am just--”

Her cell phone rang then, but Tris just pulled it out of her pocket and silenced the ringer. She didn’t look back to her friend, who likely had a told-you-so look on her face. “I’m not avoiding him,” Tris said, not looking up to Christina once. Her eyes were only to her puppy as they reached inside the dog park. Leaning down, Tris took the leash off of Beau’s collar and let him run free inside the fenced area.

“Are you sure about that?” Christina asked, answering to a text on her phone as she raised an eyebrow at Tris. “So the silencing your phone when he called, ignoring his texts. . .that’s not avoiding him?”

“There isn’t even a reason to be avoiding him!” Tris exclaimed, putting her hands into her pockets and sighing as she sat on a wooden bench. She kept her eyes on Beau, making sure he didn’t go anywhere that would put him in danger. He was only a few months old, but Tris watched as he ran around the park in circles, a small smile on her lips.

“You turned to another boy after he asked you out!” Christina said, knocking Tris back into reality. “That is why you are avoiding him, Tris.”

Tris stayed quiet. She couldn’t get the way Tobias’s face looked as she turned away to the boy--as if he was more important than her soulmate. The feeling that was felt in her gut, a feeling that wasn’t hers and surely belonged to Tobias, would forever guilt her. She should’ve just accepted to the date. She should’ve ignored the stupid tutor and stayed with her eyes connected to Tobias’s and told him what she really wanted; that date.

“Um, oh God--”

Christina hopped up from the bench, running to where the gate inside to the park was open. “Beau slipped out!” She yelled to Tris, and it wasn’t any more than a millisecond before Tris was up also, jogging after Christina and looking left, then right, where she finally spotted the Australian Shepherd pup running away from the park.

“Beau! Get back here!” Tris shouted as she ran again on her feet, towards the dog. He turned around the corner, by a brick building, The turn wasn’t even for a few more feet and Tris pushed herself to move faster. When she did make the turn, breathing deeply in and out as her chest moved up and down. Her eyes searched all around and as she realized that she had lost her dog, Tris brought her hands up to hold her head.

Where did he go where did he go where did he go.

At first, Tris believed that there was no way an animal as small as Beau was could get away that fast. But maybe he could, considering how much her puppy was growing, how much he had grown ever since she adopted him just about a month ago.

Just a month ago. It wasn’t even that long ever since Tris had gotten Beau, and he was already lost, had already run from her.

How had she managed to mess up everything so quickly?