Divergent: Four

Chapter 15

I was going to find Tris and apologize to her but Eric called me.

"Where's Tris," Eric says carefully and eyeing me.

I shrug. "I don't know."

"She's at the Erudite compound." He taps his fingers next to the wall. "They just called me and told me she's going to be at our compound."

I stare at him blankly and said nothing.

Eric pokes me in the chest hard with his finger and says quietly, "Keep your eyes on her. She seems... different."

My body stiffens and I try to remain blank. "Okay."

Eric clears his throat and steps back. "I'm going to pick her up."

I nod and went my own way. I look back and quietly follow Eric to make sure he doesn't do anything to Tris. He walks outside of the glass building and I stay behind the door, listening to him talk to Tris.

"... like to hear an explanation for why you betrayed Dauntless, yourself, and me..." He pauses, "... by venturing into another faction's headquarters."

"I..." Tris's voice says stiffly.

"If you cannot explain," Eric says softly, too softly, "I maybe be forced to reconsider your rank. Or, because you seem to be so attached to your previous faction. . .perhaps I will be forced to reconsider your friends' ranks. Perhaps the little Abnegation girl inside of you would take that more seriously."

Tris says nothing for a while. She takes a deep breath and tries again. "I..."

If I don't come in there, she'll be dead. Tris doesn't know Eric's weakness like I do. I open the door and walk in.

"What are you doing?" I say calmly to Eric.

"Leave the room," Eric says loudly.

"No," I say. "She's just a foolish girl. There's no need to drag her here and interrogate her."

Eric raises his ringed eyebrows and snorts, "Just a foolish girl. If she were just a foolish girl, she wouldn't be ranked first, now would she?"

I pinch the bride of my nose and look at Tris through the spaces between my fingers.

Pretend some vulnerability, my eyes say to hers.

"I. . . I was just embarrassed and didn't know what to do." Tris puts her hand a in her pockets and look at the ground. She sheds some tears and look up to Eric, sniffing. "I tried to. . . and . . ." Tris shakes her head.

"You tried to what?" asks Eric.

Then an idea came up in my mind. "Kiss me," I say. "And I rejected her, and she went running off like a five-year-old. There's really nothing to blame her for but stupidity."

I would never reject Tris. That is stupidity.

We both wait.

Eric looks from Tris to me and laughs, too loudly and too long. "Isn't he a little too old for you, Tris?" he says, smiling his evil smile.

I groan quietly, why does everyone think I'm too old for her? It's just two years!

Tris wipes her cheeks. "Can I go now?"

"Fine," Eric says and relief flows through my body, "but you are not allowed to leave the compound without supervision again, hear me?" He turns toward me. "And you. . . had better make sure none of the transfers leave this compound again. And that none of the others try to kiss you."

I roll my eyes. He's just jealous that no one will kiss his ugly face of his. "Fine."

Tris leaves the room and walk outside. Eric goes in another direction and I was left alone. I stayed in the room for a while, thinking what to say to Tris. I finally made up my mind twenty minutes later and walk outside to Tris.