Finding The Courage

Part 9

"Four, what was that?" I squeaked out, unable to really form sentences. He just ran his hand through my hair and cupped my face in his hand. I leaned into it out of instinct as I had so many times before when he had comforted me when we were younger.

"I had to make sure they wouldn't think we were eavesdropping. That was Jeaniene, the leader of Erudite. It looks like they're hunting Divergents." I just nodded along touching my fingers to my lips that felt tingly now.

"Four, why did you kiss me? What about Tris?" I tried again. I needed an answer to why he had just risked not only his position but also his potential relationship with the other girl. He shook his head. 

"I told you I like you, you told me to figure out who I like more and I can't do that fully while you're both going through initiation. It wasn't my intention to kiss you just now, I wanted to ask you about what Peter had said to you. He looked like he wanted something from you and I don't trust him with you." He ran his thumb across my bottom lip as he said that last part and I almost forgot how to breathe. 

"He wanted to be friends," I felt him tense against me. "I told him that he had to prove he was worth it." I looked up into his eyes and for the first time in a while I saw him crack a smile. " Toby... Toby, I don't think Tris and I will make it through the second stage." I whisper, my eyes searching his. I needed to know if I could trust him. He released a breath and placed his forehead against mine.

"We'll figure it out once it starts, the only thing I can tell you is that you have to calm down or face it. Now go before someone comes looking for us." He pushed me out of the dark corner and I made my way back to the dormitories, asking Tris to hold a curtain for me while I took a shower and changed. We both got into bed and for the first time Tris crawled into bed with me. We hadn't seen the final rankings for the first stage yet and I could tell that it was eating Tris alive. I woke with a start to a loud thump and then screaming.

My eyes searched the room furiously in the dark and I held Tris to my body as she tried to get up to see what was happening. Someone switched on a light and we were all horrified to see that someone had stabbed a transfer in the eye. He was screaming and curled up on the floor. Tris and I were immediately by his side trying to comfort him and stop him from pulling out the knife in his eye. I didn't know what was happening around me but I knew someone had been planning this for a while. Eventually I was pulled away from the boy and I was instructed to take a shower as I was covered in blood. Christina blocked the shower for me while Tris started cleaning the blood off the floor. When I was done I picked up where she left off as she showered. Christina pushed her bed closer to mine which was against the wall with Tris in the middle, we all cram together as if that would somehow protect us from whoever was out to maim us. 

The following days are filled with more cleaning and buying new clothes to suit the new muscles of our bodies. The rankings had been released and with the injury of an initiate and his girlfriend leaving with him everyone had gone up. I was ranked third while Tris was now fifth. Four was watching the two of us like a hawk and I could tell that Wayne was now doing the same. Tris and I were eating breakfast on one of our days off with our friends, Uriah, Lynn, Marlene, Zeke, and Four included. Christina was poking fun at Uriah when Wanye sat down beside me and ruffled my hair that was half pulled up. The others hadn't noticed yet and he took advantage of that in order to have a hushed conversation with me. 

"No I'm okay I promise." I placed a hand on him in a reassuring manner and smiled at his attempt to finally play big brother. I had noticed that Eric had left me alone once he had figured out that Wayne was my brother. It seemed that even the toughest of the Dauntless leaders were afraid of something. Someone was playing games and I wasn't too keen to find out if I was also on their list. My eyes searched for the board that held the official stage one final ranks, I found my name near the top, number three. I was below Peter which was not a surprise. I knew he was probably the one to attack the poor boy the other night.

My eyes found Peter and I saw the smirk on his face as he found his ranking on the board. His eyes found mine and he raised an eyebrow at me in a suggestive manner until he looked past me and his eyes landed on my brother who probably looked far less welcoming and for the first time I was glad I had an older brother who was Dauntless. Peter was quick to look away and Wayne let out a low chuckle.