Dauntless High School

Chapter 59

A/N: Hi.... it's me. I'm still alive. Tried to write occasionally but I just wasn't feeling it, and there was stuff happening in 3D life, but I'm back now. If you're still reading, thank you, and I hope you like the new chapter. Fingers crossed that I can get another one to you next week!

TRIS

It's one of those perfect mornings where I drift slowly into consciousness, unrushed, feeling warm and calm and loved. The skin of Tobias's chest is smooth against my cheek and his heart beats a soothing lullaby beneath my ear. He's still asleep, his chest rising and falling in slow, even breaths, but he keeps an arm wrapped across my back like he fell asleep wanting to be sure I stayed right there with him. He looks younger in sleep, peaceful and innocent. His lips are slightly parted and strands of dark hair has fallen across his forehead. His hair was much shorter when we met, but Tobias has let it grow out in the months since he transferred to Dauntless.

I hold him a little tighter, savoring the moment. I wish I could wake up this happy every day. I know it's because of him. When I'm with him, I feel alive. I feel like he believes in me, and maybe I could believe, too. He just makes everything better. He's amazing: really smart, and he is strong, and no matter how broken he thinks he is, I look at him and see a survivor. He's gorgeous and sexy, with the body of a Greek god. He could have anyone but he chooses me. And he loves me.

I haven't said it back. That word may be only four letters long, but it is as big and scary as they come, and it never seems to end very well. Sometimes I'm not sure I even know what love is. I thought I might love Peter, and I was certain I loved Uriah. I love my family, but now my mom is gone, my brother and I barely see each other, and Dad doesn't want anything to do with me. I always thought of love as a forever sort of thing. I want to believe that it can be. I wish I believed it was worth the risk. But I just can't. It hurts too much when it ends.

"Good morning." His voice is deep and rough with sleep. I hadn't noticed that he had awakened, but he doesn't startle me. I place a kiss over his heart before I raise my head and shift to lay with both hands under my chin, propping it there on his chest and looking right at him.

"Hmm, good morning." I close my eyes, feeling perfectly content. "Is your mom expecting you home, or can we just spend half the day here in bed?"

"I told her I would crash at a friend's, after the game and everything. I didn't say when I'd be home and she didn't ask, so..." He lifts a shoulder.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Hmm, I was daydreaming about this guy..." I say dreamily.

Tobias' face twists for a second but he catches on fast. "A guy, huh? What's he like?" His hand rubs slowly and gently up and down my side.

"Well... he's smart and talented and strong, and I'm not sure if he realizes it, but he's pretty much the school heartthrob. He's devastatingly handsome and he treats me like a princess. He makes me really... really happy."

Tobias reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. "You make him really, really happy, too." His hand trails from my ear down to my chin, then he slides it back to rest his palm on my cheek. Without warning, he suddenly rolls us over so that I am laying on my back and he is hovering over me. The hand that has been trailing up and down my side slides lower to caress my ass and thigh, and slowly he lowers his lips to mine.

It's a half-hour later, when both of us are bare and sated, that our plans to spend most of our day alone in bed are thwarted. We hear a knock at the door and Marlene's muffled voice from the other side of the door. "Tris? Are you guys decent?"