Forever and Always

Chapter 17

Tris POV

The bell rang for science. Immediately dread filled my body and I feel a hand on my back. Four's. I get up and we walk down the hallway together. When we reach Science, I sit down. I wait for class to start. I really don't want to be here. Anywhere but here. Then the bell rang.

Someone that I've never seen before walks up to the center of the room. "Hello class. I'm Mr. Evan. I'm Mr. Langley's sub. today. He gave me worksheets to hand out to all of you but before I do that I need to figure something out. Who is Beatrice?" He asks. Fingers pointed at me and I raised my hand shyly. "Oh. You don't seem at all like what Mr. Langley described. Well, okay. I'll hand out the worksheets now." He said. He handed out 10 pages of work. But I didn't complain. I've had worse. When I finished, I had 10 minutes of extra class time. Lots of other students were done with there work and he told us we could talk. "Are your ribs feeling better?" Four asked. I nodded. "Good." Then we started a regular conversation.

The bell rang and we went to math. It was horribly boring. Like REALLY boring! But the bell saved us and we went to gym.

After we changed Coach Slay started to give us instructions. "Today we will do a workout routine. Okay, so, 50 push ups, then 20 Burpee's. One lap around the track, 50 jumping jacks, and to finish it all off, 40 sit-ups. Go!" He yells and we all get to work.

I was almost done and I was about to start my sit-ups. I tried to do one. Bad idea. I nearly screamed in pain. I tried again, but that only resulted in tears running down my face. I tried one more time, and I just ended up sobbing on the gym floor. I tried to stop but couldn't. The pain was to much. I felt a hand on my back. "Tris?" It was Four. "What wrong?" He asked.
"It hurts!" I choke out, my words getting cut of by my sobs.
"Shh." Four says. "It's okay. Let's go over to the bleachers."
With his help, I walk over to the bleachers. I sit down and desperately try to stop the sobbing. Four sits down next to, rubbing my back. The pain stops and I calm down after a minute. I wipe my eyes. "Better?" Four asks. I nod. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He says.

I was able to do my sit-ups, and soon it's time to change into our original clothes. When class is over, I go and grab my stuff, then sit on the gym floor, waiting for practice to start.

"Hey girls! Welcome to the first practice of the year! Today we will be working on a new cheer. But, in order to do this, you will need to be able to do a back walkover. So, if you are not flexible enough for that yet, then I want you to do some stretches over the weekend. I don't expect for you to be perfectly flexible for this trick by Monday, but if you work at it then there should be some improvement. If you can already do this, then I want you to practice it even more and try to make it even better! And when you think it's good enough, then come to me and I'll judge it! Alright! Get to work! Tori says.

I go into a small corner and do my back walk over. I can nail it, so I try something. I bring my feet up closer to my hands when I do it. It makes my back go into its true flexibility. When I'm done, I go up to Tori. She judged it and says it excellent. Then she says that I can do whatever. So I do my favorite move. The chest roll. It's so fun! I end up challenging myself to see how many I can do in a row. I am able to go from the wall of the gym, to the other wall. Length wise. Which is the longest distance of space in between walls. When I hit the wall, I get up and position myself to go back. I do and end up going back again. I make 4 trips, front and back=1, before I make myself stop. Well, that was fun. Before I know it, practice is over and I go get my book bag.

When I walk outside, I see that my dad is already outside waiting. I hop in the car. "Hey, Princess. How was practice?"
"Good." I answer. The rest of the way home is silent.

I go upstairs and work on some homework. Let's see, all I have is ELA! Yay! I was able to finish in about 10 minutes. When I was putting up my homework, I heard my name being called, "BEATRICE!" Oh, that can't be good. Especially since it came out of my mother's mouth. "Yes ma'am?" I asked politely. Normally she couldn't hear me, but she was walking up the steps and was at my bedroom door looking furious. "Don't play innocent with me! Your lucky that I let you go to practice! You were supposed to start on dinner as soon as you can back!" Mom yells. "S-sorry. I didn't know. I was working on homework." I say. "I don't need your excuses! We are having a early dinner tonight! Go downstairs and make it NOW! She yells, making me jump. I practically run out of the room. "You know what will happen after you make dinner!" Mom threatens. A chill goes up my spine. She will beat me. I know it.

I go make dinner which is, steak, mash potatoes, green beans, rolls, and a salad. I pull out the dinner and display it on the table. On my way out, I see my dad. "Why are you making dinner this early, Princess?" He asks. "Mom said we were having a early dinner." I state. He looks at me with confusion. "Huh. We weren't planning on it, last I heard. Oh well. Thank you, Princess." Dad says. I smile and walk upstairs. That means that Mom was lying. We weren't really having an early dinner, she just wanted an excuse to beat me.

When I get upstairs, Mom is already in my room with a belt in her head. "Over here! Shirt off!" She says. I obey. "Lay down." I lay down. When I feel the first lash, I scream in pain. "Shut up!" She yells and hits me again. She lashes my back and my shins. I bite my lip to keep from screaming. I count the lashes, though my vision is dazed. 30 lashes! She's never done that many before. At least, not that I remember. When she's done with the belt, she hurls my up to my feet. Which brings unbearable pain. But I don't scream, because the beating will get worse. She starts punching my gut, over and over again, and then my ribs. Oh my ribs. They BURN! She moves to my face and before I know it, I'm on the ground. "You're nothing but a mistake. Your not good for anything or at anything." And with that, she leaves.

I start sobbing on the ground. This is the worse beating I have ever gotten. And I've gotten some pretty bad beatings. I physically could not move. Everything hurt terribly. All I could do was cry on the ground and put my shirt back on. After a few minutes of nothing but pain, my phone goes off. I don't answer it, obviously. Even if I wanted to, I still couldn't move. A few more minutes later and my phone goes off again. Then, I get a text message. I can't answer it. Then 3 more minutes later, and I hear the home phone go off. I hear my dad answer it.
"Hello?"
A second of silence.
"Oh, I'm sorry but she's not available right now."
My dad isn't allowed to come in and help me after a beating. My mom threatens him. Nether can Caleb. So they know I'm in pain but they just can't do anything about it.
I hear my dad hang up.

Who in the world wanted to talk to me?

Four's POV

I call Tris to see how practice went. I'm worried because Lauren and Nita are both on the cheer team. I don't get an answer. So, a few minutes later, I call again. Still, no answer. A few more minutes pass and I send her a text. What if Lauren and Nita said something to her that made her not want to talk to me. But...Tris isn't like that. Yeah, she doesn't want to talk about everything, but she wouldn't keep ignoring me like that. So why won't she answer? Then, an idea hits me right in the face. Her mom. I've been called multiple times after a beating but, it hurt to move so I didn't answer. I call her home phone. Please don't be what I think it is. Her dad answers.
"Hello?" He asks.
"Hi, this is Four. Is Tris home?" I ask.
There is a pause. I hear crying in the background. Oh no.
"She isn't available at the moment. I'm sorry. I'll tell her you called." He says, then hangs up.

No, no, no, no, no. Having no other choice, I hurry downstairs. "I'm going over to a friend's house!" I yell to Marcus before running out the door. I run across the street to her house. (They're neighbors if you forget.) I look up, remembering where her bedroom was, and I scale a tree. When I reach her window, I push it open. What I see on the floor breaks my heart. Tris, on the ground, beat up and bleeding heavily.

Tris POV

After a minute or two, I hear my window push open. I move my head in the direction of my window, and I see...Four?
"Four?" I manage to choke out.
"Tris, oh my gosh." He jogs to over to me. "Where's your first aid stuff?" He asks. "Under the sink." I say weakly. He runs over to the bathroom and pulls out my red first aid kit. He comes back over to me. Then he gets out neasporin and peroxide. First the cleans up the cuts on my face. It they burn. When he's done he asks, "Can you get on you side?" I try but he has to help. He lifts my shirt up, just enough to see the deep cuts, and he inhaled sharply. "Oh my gosh." Is all he says. I know it's bad. He starts to address the cuts and I cry out in pain. "I know. This hurts. Just try to focus on something else." He says gently. I focus on the ground in front of me. When he finishes my back, he moves to my shins. He cleans that up too, which is also extremely painful. When he finishes everything, I'm sobbing. After he puts up the kit, he sits next to me. He pulls me into a gentle hug. "I know. I know. Shh. It's okay. I'm here." Is what Four said constantly. It helped though. I calmed down after a few minutes. He stayed with me until he had to leave. "I gotta go. I'll come check on you tomorrow." He says, then leaves through the window. I took a painful shower, then got in bed. After an hour or so, I was able to go to sleep.

*hey! Did y'all like it? I hope. What about Four's POV? I hope you liked that too! Bye!

-Stay sparkly ✨