Stay Away | Eric Coulter [1]

thirty-seven

NESSA

    I found myself seated in one of those stiff metal chairs again, bouncing my leg and chewing on my thumbnail- yes, I'm aware it's kind of disgusting. I can't help it.

"See what I mean?" Lynn groans, "She was like this the last time, too."

Uriah grins at me, reaching over to pat me on the knee. "Don't fret, Nessie. It'll be fine."

Lynn frowns at me, "Why are you still so nervous, anyway? At least we know what to expect this time."

Marlene nudges Lynn in the side before turning to me with a reassuring smile, "It'll be fine, Ness."

I force a smile at her when the door to the testing room swings open, "Nessa." Tobias sticks his head out of the room and calls.

With a sigh, I push myself to my feet and enter the room where my brother is already by the monitors clicking away on his keyboard.

"Take a seat," He says, without even looking up at me.

I oblige, settling in that icky chair that I've developed an intense dislike for.

To say I was nervous about my brother finding out I was Divergent- because I'm pretty sure he will- is an understatement and I wonder if I should maybe give him a heads up. Hey, Toby? You've heard of Divergents, right? The ones you've told me people are out hunting? Yeah, funny story; I'm one of them. I cringe at the idea of uttering those words to him and decide to keep my mouth shut and deal with the consequences later. I admit, not my best plan, but I find that I've been running low on good ones lately.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tobias asks. Again, his gaze never leaves the screen in front of him and I frown.

"Huh?"

Finally, he lifts his eyes to meet mine. "That you're Divergent." He replies, "I had to find out from Eric of all people."

Damn you, Eric. I cursed in my head.

"I didn't know how to!"

"V, you're my sister. You can tell me anything and I'll be there for you." He says, making me feel hella shitty.

"I'm sorry, Tobias." I apologised, "I promise, I didn't intentionally keep it from you. And the only reason Eric knew was because he ran my test."

"Well, that isn't hurtful at all," Eric's voice drawls sarcastically and I turn to see him leaning against the doorframe, glaring at Tobias. "What part of 'we need to be more careful' did you not understand? This isn't something you should be openly discussing like this."

"We had all the privacy in the world until you barged in without knocking. Again." Tobias retorted.

I rolled my eyes at the way the pair of them bickered like an old married couple.

Eric finally breaks the stare-off, coming over to me and giving me a kiss on my cheek, to which Tobias scowls at.

"What are you doing here?" I asked and he smirks.

"Your brother and I have come to an agreement that we'll both be training you in preparation for your final test." He replies, "Isn't that right, Tobias?"

I knew he was only addressing Tobias by his given name just to piss him off and my brother seems to know this, too. But though he's clearly annoyed by it, he's also too stubborn to give Eric the satisfaction of granting him a reaction.

"Right," Tobias grits out.

I raise a brow at them, "The both of you are agreeing on something? Is this an early Christmas miracle?"

Tobias groans in annoyance and I can't help but smile, "V, please do shut up."

"Agreed," Eric says, "We're trying to help you here."

I wrinkle my nose at him, "Just for the record, I'm starting to like you guys better before you started agreeing with each other."

"Noted," Eric answers, obviously trying to fight a smile as his adoration-filled gaze held mine.

There's a beat of silence that's broken when Tobias clears his throat. As if knocked out of some kind of trance, Eric rolls his shoulder and stands up straighter.

"Here's how things are going to work; for the next couple of weeks up till your test, you'll have your daily training with either one of us right after dinner. No slacking."

I smirk at his bossy tone, "Yes, sir."

Eric's eyes darken at my words and Tobias simply rolls his eyes at me.

"You'll be training with your brother today," Eric informs before leaning in once again. This time, he plants a quick kiss on my lips. "I'll see you later. Get him to call me if you need anything and I'll be here, okay?"

I nod, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek one last time before he turns on his heel and leaves, shoulder-checking Tobias on the way out.

Tobias glowers at his back, but as soon as the door slams shut, his gaze softens.

"You're right about him," His words take me by surprise.

"Oh? Care to elaborate?"

"He really cares about you," Tobias says before adding, "I still don't like him, though."

I laugh at his words and a small smile breaks across his face.

He shrugs, "But I guess he's not so bad."

"Aw, look at you. My two favourite boys getting along."

A look of what resembles disgust crosses Tobias's face and I swear, he might have even shuddered at the thought.

"Alright, that's enough." He grumbles, "Be back here after dinner. We'll start training, then."

I furrow my brows at him, "We're not starting now?"

"No," He replies, "After dinner. I have a couple of things I have to attend to right now."

I nod and rise from my seat, refraining from asking any more questions since Tobias doesn't seem like he's in the mood for them.

As I exit the room, I find myself almost bumping into Tris.

"Hi," I greeted and a flush, much like the one she spotted when I saw her leaving Tobias's room spreads across her face.

"Hey," She returns before lowering her head.

I continued down the hall, trying to ignore her odd behaviour. Giving in to temptation, I looked over my shoulder to see her slipping into the testing room and wondered what exactly was going on between those two. But from what I could tell, my brother seemed quite taken by her.