tobias | ✔

seventeen - tobias

“Caleb?”

Seconds later, she could feel Tobias a shadow behind her. He was a step behind, but the sight of her brother standing in front of her, on her doorstep, had her falling back into the comfort of her soulmate’s arms. Tobias didn’t fully wrap his arms around her, instead setting a hand on her hip softly, letting her lean on his chest.

“Hello,” Caleb said, limbs stiff. “It’s nice to see you again.” Her brother had his eyes wide, as if even he was shocked he was there.

“You already said that,” Tobias said. Tris looked back to him, and Tobias was slightly glaring at her older brother. Oh no.

When she looked back to Caleb, her brother glanced from where his eyes were on Tris to Tobias. “Who is this?”

“Tobias.” Tobias’s hand tightened, just a bit, where it sat on Tris’s waist. “My soulmate.”

Caleb nodded his head slowly, but there was still a furrow in his brow. “You’ve found him?”

“Yes,” the uncertainty in Caleb’s short question brought an eerie feeling to Tris as she spoke the confirmation slowly. “Don’t you remember? I got the name when I was thirteen, so you were still in my life then.”

The bite to her words was obvious enough that Caleb shifted from each foot, the hand that wasn’t holding a duffel bag reaching up to rub at his neck. “Beatrice--”

“Which part are you about to apologize for? When you left a week after graduation? When you didn’t come to dad’s funeral? Or the part when you didn’t even show up to mom’s house, when she was grieving so hard she didn’t want to get out of bed, didn’t want to eat--didn’t want to live?”

Her brother flinched at the questions, as if he wasn’t expecting the reality as soon as he showed up on at Tris’s apartment. “Beatrice, I regret that. I do. But it is not the reason I am here--”

“Then why are you here?” Tris snapped, “Have you visited mom?”

“No.” The response made Tris roll her eyes, hand going to the door as she readied to slam the door on his face. Caleb struck out quickly, duffel bag dropping as he pressed a palm to the door. “Beatrice, please. You’re in danger. I’m here to help.”

It was enough to encourage Tris to let him inside, as a shiver of fear slipped down her spine.

+++

“You’re saying, we all have to work and deal with him until he catches whoever is trying to kill you?” Christina asked, a deep frown on her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she glanced between Tris and Tobias. “Are you truly saying that? After he was an asshole, and dropped the both of you from his life when your mother was grieving?”

“I know how it sounds, but he said he could help, and maybe he can--”

“Tris, even your boyfriend doesn’t even look like he believes it. You’re going to trust Caleb, with everything he’s done before? Everything he said?”

Just with the reminder, Tris tried to not let her flinch show. With the short sentence, the harsh words her brother had spit at her that day she’d seen him, right before he disappeared, slipped so easily back into her memory.

Leave me alone. Stop texting me. Stop calling me. I couldn’t care less about you and our parents, and I will be moving away from this town.

Dad’s dead! She had screamed back at him, not caring about the others in the train station, the looks they attracted. He’s dead! Is that what you wanted? Can’t you stay in town for a few days just to go to his damn funeral? To care for our mother who just lost her soulmate? To mourn for your own fucking father?