Tris POV

My hand curls into a fist as I gently knock on the door three times. Through the door, I can hear groaning and the shuffling of feet as someone drags themselves across the floor. A few seconds later, I hear the sound of the lock slowly sliding away as the door opens with a loud creak.

"What do you want?" Eric grumbles.

"I need to ask you a favor."

"No." He moves to slam the door shut but my foot stops it just in time. I slide through the narrow opening and enter into Eric's apartment. Because of his placing as second, he got one of the biggest apartments in the nicer section of Dauntless. There was even a window with a view. This rarely ever happened due to the majority of us having to live underground.

"Nice place."

"Great, get out."

I turn around and blurt out before I lose the courage I was so painfully able to work up, "Can I stay with you?"

He rubs at his eyes, trying to force away the sleepiness. "Tris, it's midnight already."

"That's not an answer."

"Why exactly do you need to stay with me?"

I suck in a breath then simply say, "Boy problems."

"Boys? What boys besides Zeke and Uriah are part of your life? And how did they get past all the security checks?"

I chuckle a little, "Zeke and Uriah are half of the problem."

"Oh," Eric nods understandingly, "Well, I guess you could sleep on the couch-"

He's stopped mid-sentence as I tackle him in a hug. His arms hang awkwardly at his sides for a few seconds, before he finally wraps his arms around me in a hug. I rest my head on his shoulder. Finally, I'm somewhere familiar. Somewhere I know I don't need to hide.

I slowly pull away from him and smile. "I am so ready to go to sleep."

---

Nothing heals a broken heart faster than Dauntless Cake.

"Thanks," I smile towards the chef as she places a slice of heaven onto my plate. I walk over towards my usual table as the sweet smell of chocolate wafts up towards me.

My eye catches on Four sitting across from my seat causing me to immediately stop in my tracks. I ignore his small nod towards me as I slowly sit down and bite into the cake.

He leans over the table and says with a pleading voice, "Look. We need to talk."

I give him a sharp glare, "Yes. I agree."

"Great," he manages a small smile.

He pushes himself up but I remain in my seat, happily eating my breakfast. He sighs and sits back down, impatiently waiting for me to finish. But as he could obviously see, I was in no rush to finish.

---

"Finally, I thought you would never finish," he says irritably.

I simply shrug and leans against the wall facing him. "You wanted to talk, so talk."

Four pinches the bridge of his nose, "Look, it was all just a big misunderstanding."

"How so?" I ask sarcastically.

"I'm sure we both have questions so I'll start," I roll my eyes at that, "What were you talking about with Eric? Why did you want to break-up with me?"

I unhitch myself from the wall and give him a look of utter confusion. "Break-up with you? What are you talking about?"

"I heard you and Eric talking about how you should get rid of me. How you never really even wanted me in the first place, that you just felt bad for me."

"Ooooooh," I exclaim in relief, finally understanding what had happened. "We weren't talking about you. Eric and I are both co-captains of our Capture the Flag team. Eric was telling me that I should get rid of player number four. Uriah. Since I was captain, he had begged me to let him join my team. He was extremely clingy and annoying, and honestly, I felt bad for him. So I let him on our team as a courtesy. But what Uriah failed to mention was that he sucks at Capture the Flag. Like a lot."

Four smiled at that. His shoulders sagged in relief once the situation finally came into light for him, "So you never wanted to break-up with me?"

I give him the brightest smile I've managed all day, "No, of course not."

"Does that mean we're good?"

"We're good."

"Great, because I know this really cool restaurant we could go to, you know, to make up for our disaster of a first date-"

I hold up my hand to cut him off, "About that, I don't think we should, uh, be together anymore."

"What?" Four asks, completely surprised, "I'm sorry about my outburst but-"

I cut him off again, "It wasn't about that."

"Then what is it about?"

His gaze locks on mine and I take a moment to actually look at him without getting lost in his dark blue eyes, his long lashes almost covering them. The light cast a shadow across his face, making his eyes so dark they're almost black, with a small patch of lighter, bright blue on the left iris next to the corner of his eye. I gaze down at his spare upper lip, wanting to brush my own lips against full lower one. I'm almost lost in a trance before I remember where I am and what I'm doing. "I saw you kissing that other girl."

"Oh!" He stares back at me, shocked. "That, that was an accident."

I cross my arms in front of my chest, "How do you accidentally make out with someone?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that," he stutters and trips over his words, "Well, uh, it's just that I was really pissed, you know. And I can see now, it wasn't your fault. But I just couldn't control myself. And trust me Tris, I know I screwed up. You have no reason to forgive me, but please, I'm begging you to just wait and think about it."

"That's exactly what I plan to do." I spin around and begin to walk off, but Four runs in front of me, blocking my path.

"Tris-"

"Four. I just need time." I duck my head and try to walk past him as quickly as possible. But our shoulders brushed for half a second. And even though I was praying it wouldn't happen, I felt a spark.

I suck in a slow breath as I walk back to the table. I calmly sit down, trying to just erase Four from my mind.

Fortunately, I was able to experience five minutes of peace and quiet before it was all ruined. Uriah plops his plate down and sits next to me. I open my mouth to protest but he stops me.

"Okay, okay, I know. Before you start yelling at me, I just want to say sorry on behalf of me and Zeke," I give him a pointed look, "Screw grammar, whatever. Anyways, I know we crossed a line. You know that we just want to protect you."

"But that's just it, I don't need you to protect me! I can take care of myself, when will you be able to just trust me?"

"It's not about that! Tris, we trust you. You are responsible, and smart, and amazing. But we know what guys will do to get a girl like you. And personally, I don't trust boys. Those guys are snakes."

A small laugh bubbled from my throat. No matter what, I could always count on Uriah to put a smile on my face. "Wow, you're making this a lot harder than it was going to be."

"What?" he asks, still smiling.

"You're kicked off the team."

"WHAT?!" He explodes off the chair, eyes wide in shock or anger, I'm not quite sure. "Is this because of yesterday? Because that is completely unfair-"

"No, this has nothing to do with our fight."

"Then why am I getting kicked out?"

"Because you suck. Like you are just absolutely horrible."

Before he can say anything back, Zeke silently sits down on the other side of me. He stabs his slice of cake and awkwardly nibbles the edge, trying not to stare at us. Finally, through a mouthful of food, he mumbles, "I agree. Whatever it is, there's a 99% chance he sucks at it."

"Thanks for sugar-coating it," Uriah scowls at both of us.

I take a deep breath and sigh. With no control from me whatsoever, a stupid, cheesy smile spreads across my face. I wrap my arms around their necks in one of my famous chokeholds and pull them into a tight hug.

"Aaagh," Uriah complains, desperately trying to claw at my arm, but to no avail.

Zeke mirrors his actions for a few seconds before realizing he already lost. The next thing I know, I feel a pair of strong arms wrapping around me and holding me even closer. "How can I possibly stay mad at you two knuckleheads?" I ruffle their hair causing another uprising of complaints.

"I love you Tris."

"You're still off the team Uriah."

"It's still true."

"Still off."

"Worth a try at least."

I rest my head on his hair and even though it seemed impossible, my smile managed to grow even bigger. "I love you guys too."