Tourniquet//Eric Coulter Romance

Like Two to the Chest

Seven

                "Hit it faster," Eric bit. His arms were crossed over his muscular chest (hugged deliciously by a tight black turtle neck) and he was glaring at me like I was the last person he ever wanted to see. I probably was. My head hurt because I'd only slept two hours before he came in at five in the morning to start this crap. My knuckles were torn to hell from lack of proper instruction and my nerves were wearing thin with him barking at me like a feral dog. So I did hit faster, and harder too. 

        I managed to move the mannequin punching bag a meter in all the hours I'd been down here, and I was huffing and puffing. By the time he told me to stop, I was huffing and puffing. We weren't done yet. We'd been doing this dance for several hours and shooting was next. My arms were tired and sore and I didn't want to hold the gun. It was so heavy now. Why was he doing this to me? 

        "Plant your feet," he said through clenched teeth as I shot off another blank at the target. My legs were restless and wanted to bounce or move or something. My will was breaking.  

          "You know what? You can shove it up your ass! I'm tired! I'm hungry! And I'm sick of you treating me like crap!" 

        "I'm training you. It's what you wanted, isn't it? To be bad assy?" 

        "Not like this! You're being a prick!" 

        He closed his eyes and I saw his jaw tighten. I threw my gun down on the table thing near by and started to storm off. "Wait," he called behind me. I halted. "We should be able to catch the last part of breakfast. It's 8:00." So it wasn't as late as I thought. Well, I was still tired and angry. 

        I didn't even hear him walk up behind me before he was pushing open the doors in front of me. The cafeteria area was huge to say the least, but barely anyone was eating. It was pretty much empty. "Where is everyone," I asked. Eric ignored this and handed me a tray with utensils and grabbed cereal and a carton of milk and plunked them on the tray. He grabbed a thing of frozen peaches and plunked it down too. I kind of smiled at this because peaches were his favorite. He didn't grab anything for himself though and it concerned me. Breakfast was supposed to be the most important meal of the day. And like I said, peaches are his favorite. 

        We sat down at a long table that was deserted and freshly cleaned off. I wanted to apologize to the staff who had just cleaned it. I tore open the frosted flakes and poured half the milk into it and dank the rest. I began to shovel the cereal into my mouth greedily. Eric just sat there, not looking at anything in particular. When I was finished, I set aside everything but the peaches, to which I scooted over to him. He looked at me incredulously. 

        "Eat," I commanded. He pushed them back to me. I pushed them back. He stared at me, I stared back. I wasn't the smartest, but I think this was a game he had unintentionally started. I smirked at him. "Fine then," I said as I took the peaches back and started to rip the plastic cover off. The peaches were torn from my hands, however, the cover flown off, and Eric was tilting them back down his throat with a victorious grin. I couldn't help but laugh. 

        He threw the now empty package behind him and made it into a trash can without looking. I clapped and shouted that he was a show off and the grin on his face wore on. Slowly it melted though, and he was back to looking somber. My laughter died in my throat and now I was figuratively choking on sand. I bit my lip and laced my fingers together. 

        "I'm sorry," I said suddenly. He looked at me again with a raised eyebrow. "I feel like I've betrayed you." 

        "You did," he bit and stood up. I stood up too as someone came to take my tray. "But it doesn't matter. Dauntless is more important. Go back to your room." He started to walk away, but I had one more question that I needed him to answer. 

        "Did you know," I shouted after him. He stopped, but did not turn. "All this time, did you know what I was? And who I was made from? That...that...mean, emotionless bitch who has my name?" 

        "I did," he said after a silence. "I knew." 

        "What about my family? Did you know I had one? All those times I confided in you that I wished I knew them, or something about them!" 

        "I knew it all, Ariel. The entire time, I knew. I have a job to do." 

        "Eric! You betrayed me too. You cannot hold it against me that I looked out for myself, when this entire time you've been lying to me! I did tell you there were here, didn't I? That's all I promised you!" 

        And he walked away, just like that, without another word. Tears welled in my eyes and I fought the need to cry. I was sniffling and tightening my lips to keep it in all the way back to my room. 

        Everything was falling apart. My heart was being stomped on, yet I couldn't help but admire the strength the person stomping on it had. It seemed to me this entire thing had been planned out from the beginning. What if Eric hadn't ever been in to me? Was he actually with my other self? It's still so freaking thinking about it. There was another me somewhere within this compound who shared my name, my looks, and my exact DNA. 

        I wished I had her memories.Maybe everything would make sense? Maybe I would know for sure who was for me and who was all about their faction. I guess it didn't really matter, though. Jeanine's going to kill me when she get's what she wants. 

        I would never get to know my brother or my father. I laughed watery thinking about telling Flynn that he'd been flirting with his sister. And then cried a little thinking about how cold and unpleasant Trent had been to me. At least I'd gotten to meet them. I spent three days with them. Flynn, Trent, Marcus, Tris, and even Four seemed like family. What would I know about family though? 

        I lay on my bed and fell asleep. 

        ***Dream Sequence***

        My hair was floating around me in white waves. I could see myself in the third person, but the person I was looking at only looked like me. She was lying on the ground and I heard muffled yelling through the liquid I was floating in. A man with dark hair rushed in the room, dressed in white. He went to the girl on the floor first and picked her up into his arms. I watched as he circled the room and set her down on a table above another body of a girl on the floor. 

        The man then came and looked at me in my tank. He said something to me, but I couldn't understand. He lifted a heavy object from the ground and flung it at my tank. I screamed and bubbles obscured my vision. The glass shattered and I tumbled into the mans arms. 

        "It's okay darling, it's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here." 

        His coat came off and around my shoulders while I was hacking and gasping for air. I'm carried past the girl on the table who is passed out by now and the man sets me down on another table. I watched the man pull out a syringe and fill it with some cloudy blue liquid. He came back and stuck it into my arm with a pinch. 

         "It's okay darling, I'll get you out. You won't remember a thing." 

        My head got heavy and my vision swam.  "It's okay darling, it's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here."