tobias | ✔

eight - tobias

There was a knock on her door and Tris, sitting on the couch with Beau across her lap, waited a few minutes before placing the dog, who was getting bigger in size each day, aside and jumping up to open the door.

Tobias was out of his police uniform, and instead had on a grey t-shirt under a black jacket. He smiled at her, one Tris recognized had become special from his other smiles. But as much as this one was her own, it was small and strained. She welcomed Tobias into her apartment, shutting the door behind him and standing faced towards the wood to compose herself before the conversation she knew they were going to have. She wasn’t sure why there was so much panic she had because of it, when it was just a matter of who his parents were. Tris didn’t know what her father knew about the mayor but somehow she had a gut feeling it was horrible, especially what Marlene had told her that morning.

Marcus wasn’t the best father. Wasn’t the best, how?

“Hey,” Tobias was still standing when Tris turned around and he pulled the lunch he had got them both out of the way of the investigating dog. A laugh made its way out of Tobias’s mouth as he instead knelt down to pet the top of Beau’s head. “That’s not for you.”

“Beau thinks everything is for him,” Tris’s voice was fragile and small, just how she felt when Tobias turned his eyes to hers. “Anything food related, anyways.”

Another huff of a laugh came out of Tobias’s mouth and he stood up from where he was next to the dog. He went over to the table and placed the food on the wood surface. Tris slowly walked toward him, watching as he flattened the bag down and placed both of their entrée in front of where two chairs sat. He pointed to one of the trays, mumbling that it should be Tris’s.

“How’s your day?” Tobias asked, sitting in the chair across from the one Tris sat down into. “Why do you have no classes?”

“My professor called in sick and then emailed us the assignment. I finished a few minutes ago.” Tris sighed when she realized she would need a fork in order to eat her pasta and she picked at the utensil drawer, getting two because of the cake she had glanced to when looking in the bag. She remembered the comment Tobias made when they were at the diner last night. Tris hadn’t requested for a piece of the heavenly chocolate cake everyone in their town, or really around the state, loved. But, in the end, Tris had reached over with her spoon and stole a bite from her soulmate’s plate.

Tobias’s reaction was priceless. His eyes widened and he stared at Tris as if she had done the world’s worst crime.

But after Tris let out a laugh, dragging the spoon out of her mouth, Tobias shrugged and said, “You’re the only one I’ll ever allow to share Dauntless Cake with me.”

Even from what she found out this morning, the memory of their date would always lift her mood.

It was quiet between them the first couple of minutes. Tris stabbed a few of the pasta onto her fork, heart beating fast as she didn’t glance once to Tobias. But the only reason they were meeting today was because of the question she asked him on the phone that morning. Just because she ached with curiosity didn’t mean she particularly wanted to talk about it, now with the tension between them.

“So,” Tobias swallowed his mouth of burger, placed the food down, and wiped his mouth with  napkin, “my father?”

If it was possible for the beat of her heart to increase any more, that’s what it did in that moment. Tris breathed, taking a sip of her cherry soda. “If. . .If he even is your--”

“He is,” the words that came out of Tobias’s mouth were sharp, and he clenched a fist on the table. “This might change your view on me,” Tobias said. “But yes, my father is--was the mayor of Chicago. He--Is that all Marlene and Uriah told you?”