The Damaged

Chapter Nine

Today, Mia and I are joined by Tara at breakfast. She isn't a morning person, only mumbling and sipping her coffee with her head almost touching the surface of the table.

"Is your tattoo itchy? Mine is" Mia moves around in her chair, one hand trying to rub her back with the other holding tightly to a muffin that might explode if she grips any tighter.

"Sort of. I keep forgetting it's there" I chuckle, placing my hand on the covered bandage; wearing a jacket today with the zipper only halfway rather than my neck.

"You got a tattoo?" Xander asks from a few seats down, a fork of food halfway to his mouth.

"Yeah, why?" I ask with my eyebrows raised.

"Because... you're a Stiff. You're supposed to be afraid to alter anything about you, especially with you scared of your own reflection" he narrows his eyes.

"She's not a Stiff anymore, so knock it off" Tara looks at him with her own eyes narrowed. Xander sets his fork down and holds up his hands as a surrender.

"Sorry, sorry. I just didn't think Mal would have it in her" he turns his head back down and finishes his breakfast.

I sigh and take another piece of my muffin, looking around the room as a distraction. My eyes suddenly stop at the Dauntless-born initiates a few tables away.

Four sits among them, talking to Zeke-the boy from the train- and his friend Shauna, a girl I haven't met officially but I've come to know most of their names by their faces.

"What are you looking at?" Mia asks when I still stare confused. She turns and sees immediately what I see.

"No way...," she trails off for a moment, "I didn't think we'd see the day Four would have friends, other than you."

"You jealous?" Tara looks at me, I make my eyes pull away from Four when I catch his blue eyes coming into our direction.

"Why would I be? I'm happy for him" I bring my hands to my lap.

"Hmm" Tara sets her elbows on the table. "That's a tell, you know."

I squint. "What do you mean by "tell"?"

"In Candor, we're taught how to figure out when someone's lying; one way is by their tells. My brother for example would always rub his ear whenever he lied. Some woman who lived in an apartment away from me threw up every time she lied. And yours is bringing your hands together, probably rubbing your thumb into your palm or something."

I stop my hands and bring them on top of the table. "I'm not jealous of Four."

Tara cocks at eyebrow and shakes her head. "I don't buy it but fine. You're not," she does air quotes, "jealous."

Mia giggles and Tara joins along. I groan with my head on top of the wooden table.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Tomorrow is the last day of stage one, that's when you'll resume your fights. Today we'll be focusing on another sort of target practice." Amar paces back and forth in the line we've formed, gesturing his hand to the table of knives.

Behind him are now wooden boards with circles growing smaller and smaller. Each board already has multiple marks on them, slashes from prior use from probably years before.

"Pick up three knives then line back up" Amar stops at the end of the lineup.

We all do as he says, I walk up the table and pick up three of the daggers. They're not as heavy as I thought, but they're not as light as the ones from the Choosing Ceremony.