Dauntless High School

Chapter 60

TRIS

"Matthew," Caleb says through gritted teeth. He is stiff, his slim body humming with tension.

Matthew hardly reacts to my brother, simply nodding and returning his greeting in kind. "Caleb." He notices me childishly peeking past my brother. "Tris. Can I come in?"

"Hi Matthew, of course," I respond with a forced smile. I kick Caleb in the ankle and he finally steps back to let Matthew in. "It's so good to see you. Marlene didn't mention you'd be stopping by." I can feel Caleb's resentful glare as I welcome Marlene's brother into my home.

"What are you doing home? Was Stanford too much for you?" Caleb sneers.

"Stanford is great, I just wrapped up my finals. I'm home for winter break. How about you, how's..." he furrows his brow. "Was it DePaul?"

"I'll just go get Marlene," I cut in.

As I make my way to the stairs, I hear Caleb's flat voice informing Matthew that he attends Loyola, not DePaul. I am a little worried about leaving those two alone together, as Caleb's grudge is clearly still alive and well, but I can't help being amused.

I knock on Marlene's door and enter when I hear her response. She is sitting in the middle of the double bed, comfortably dressed in yoga pants and a t-shirt. A mess of damp curls falling into her face as she paints her toenails with nail polish the same bubblegum-pink as her shirt.

"Marlene, your brother's here."

Marlene's hand pauses mid-brushstroke, and she instantly is looking up at me, eyes wide in alarm. She swallows. "Did he― did he say anything about... anything?"

"Anything? Not really. When I left him in the living room, talking with Caleb about college. We should probably get up there before Caleb snaps." Marlene is well aware of Caleb's grudge.

Marlene screws the cap on her nail polish and gingerly scoots off the bed. "Do you think my parents already told my brother about the baby?" she worries. I don't have an answer for her. So far today, Matthew has been his usual personable self, but he has always been hard for me to read.

We find Matthew and Caleb in the kitchen. Caleb is pulling his Molecular Biology textbook out of his heavy backpack while Matthew leans back against the kitchen counter, a glass of water in his hand.

"So," Caleb is saying, "how's Zoey?" He flips through the pages of his book, pretending not to be watching for Matthew's reaction.

Matthew looks down into his water glass and grimaces. "We broke up," he says quietly.

Marlene glances at me in concern. Matthew and Zoey dated all throughout high school. They were both well-liked, only had eyes for each other, and easily won the "Cutest Couple" title in their senior yearbook. But shortly after graduation, they broke up. Marlene told me that one day out of the blue, things suddenly got strained between them and a few weeks later they were over. Matthew was pretty torn up about it, and Marlene was still a little worried about him when he left for California.

"Matty!" Marlene cheers, quickly and easily pulling her brother from his solemnity.

"Marshmallow," he returns fondly, quickly setting the glass on the table and coming toward her with open arms. Marlene is soon enveloped in a bear hug. "Why didn't you tell me?" he murmurs into her hair before pulling back and looking at her seriously. "I just talked to you two weeks ago, you didn't think to mention that Mom kicked you out?"

Marlene's eyes well up in tears. "So I guess they told you."

"Wait, what? You got kicked out?" Caleb demands. We all ignore him.