Dauntless Brothers

[Chapter 16] Rejetion and dealing with it.

A knock on my door wakes me up.

It's Evelyn. "Get up! We have to go train initiates!"

I groan and lift my head up. My head throbs and the last thing that I remember is falling asleep. I run last night's events over in my head. I went on a date. The girls bailed out, so Zeke and I got drunk and after that I remember falling asleep.

I sit up and wince as my head protests. I take a quick shower and change into clean clothes, then I head for the initiates's dorm. I push open the door and step in. None of them is up yet, they're all asleep.

I'm about to follow my normal protocol which includes banging a metal object on the railing when something catches my eye and makes me stop my hand in mid air.

It's Kate and Henry.

They're both in one bed. Kate has her head on his shoulder and Henry's arms are loosely draped over her. It seems as if they don't want to be seperated. They want to keep each other close.

I walk out of the room and lean against the wall. I take a couple of deep breaths. A voice makes my head snap up.

"Hey!" Tris says.

I wave at her and reply. "Hey! Ready to move onto knife throwing?"

"Yeah. It's the one thing I was good at from the begining in stage one." She says and stops in front of me.

"You with the knives and me with the guns." I say to no one in paticular.

"Guns and hand to hand combat. You were really good at both." She complements, with a smile.

I force a smile too and say. "Thanks."

She nods and goes off to get her own initiates. I take a last deep breath to calm myeslf down and go back into the room.

Without looking at that one paticular bed I bang on the railing and everyone's up within five seconds. Kate springs up from the bed and rubs her eyes. I ignore her and shout orders at them.

"You start something new today! So don't be late! Youu have ten minutes to get ready, grab some breakfast and be in the training room. If you're not then well, your bad luck."

With this I leave the dorm and go to the dining hall for breakfast.

I'm about to turn a corner when Eric's voice makes me stop. It sounds as if he's trying to get someone to say yes. Curiosity takes over me and I peek around the corner. I catch a glimpse of Tris and Eric.

A smile spreads across my face because I know exactly what he's trying to do.

"How're things?" He asks her.

"Good. Why're you even talking to me?" She demands.

"Just trying to be friendly." He says.

"Are you brothers trying to trick me or something? First Tobias and now you. Why're you being so friendly? Aren't we suppose to be enemies?" That's a lot of questions to be asked at the same time.

"No! I swear, all I want is..." He trails off but of course I know what he wants. I'm his brother after all.

"You want what?" She asks and from her tone I can clearly tell that she's loosing patience with him.

Eric suddenly blurts out. "Do you want to go to the dance with me?"

There is no reply for some time. She must've been to stunned to speak because I've never seen her lost for words.

But finally she speaks up. "Sorry. I'm already going with Al. Plus, I don't think I would've gone with you anyways. I can't ever trust your family."

With she walks off because I can hear her shoes squeak against the floor. I'm smiling to myself when Eric rounds the corner and comes to a hault when he sees me there.

"You little sneak!" He growls at me.

I can't hold it anymore. I laugh out loud while he stares at me in disbelief. After some time, he realizes that he's had enough so he grabs my shirt and slams me into the wall.

"You won't ever laugh at me." He tells me.

I make him let go of me and then say. "Come on, man! I got rejected too but I didn't react like this. She's just a girl. There are plenty out there to choose from."

"I'd rather go alone than without her." With this he stalks off, leaving me thinking.

He's really in love with her because he'd rather go alone than with someone else. This is something that one doesn't often see leaders do.