Resurgent

Chapter 14

Exhaustion.
That's the first thing I feel when I wake up in the morning. My shoulder is aching a lot. My body feels weak and my arms are stiff.

I look at the other end of the bed. Tris isn't there. The feeling that greets me is panic. My heart sinks. Not seeing Tris when I wake up is the worst of my fears.

Fears, I think.
Do I have a new fear? I don't know, but even if I do, I don't mind because losing Tris is that new fear.

"Where are you, Tris?" I mutter, panicked.

The house seems extremely quiet. I get up from my bed and check the bathroom. No one's in there. I go down the hall calling out for Tris. No, I couldn't possibly lose her again. I experience a sinking feeling. Where is Tris?

"Tris? Where are-" I stop when my eyes see a note on the table. I go over and read it.

Going over to Christina's. Be back in a while.
-Tris

I breathe out a sigh of relief. Ever since I lost her, I have become possessive about the people around me. I feel as if I might lose them too easily. First I lost my mother, then Pete and then Tris. I really want to protect all of my friends after the time I Accidentally......killed Uriah.

My phone starts ringing, and annoyed by the sudden loud music, I pick it up rashly,"Hello?"
"Tobias," comes a creaky voice. Even in those syllables of my name I can tell who this person is. It's my mother, Evelyn. It's been one year and I haven't heard from her, which isn't surprising considering the fact that she could leave me for ages with that brutal father guy of mine, telling me that she was dead. I don't even know where she lives. She seems too busy in her life, and I'm fine with it.

Evelyn had settled in Chicago, too, after the attack. She became a normal person- well if writing a bunch of useless letters and mixing up chemicals is normal, anyway- and began to lead her own life. She left Marcus. In Fact, I don't even know where that man is.

"Hello, Evelyn," I say.
"I'd really like it if we set aside our differences and if you'd refer to me as 'mother', or 'mom'."
"Well," I say, not interested in her nonsensical talk,"How may I help you?"
"I want to meet you urgently. Can you come to my place today?"
"Evelyn, I don't even know where you live."
"Oh, don't you worry about that. I'll give you my address. So shall I consider it a yes?"

What does she want from me? Why'd she want me to meet her? These questions revolve around my head. But some gut instinct tells me to go and meet her, so I do.
"Uh-huh."
"Great," she says, and I can hear a smile in her voice. Now if it's an actual smile or not, is something I cannot tell ,"I'll see you at two?"
"Okay."

Evelyn has a small apartment which is sparsely decorated. The walls are wooden and and there's the old kind of look to this place. I haven't come here even once since Evelyn moved in here. I haven't even bothered to ask her, neither had she bothered to tell me. It's been a great mother-son relationship, you see.

I knock on the door of her house and almost immediately, she opens it. She looks at me in such a loving way, as if she's actually that mother who brought up her own child. But I know this is all hypocrisy and that she doesn't even love me.
I raise my eyebrows questioningly, asking her why she called me here. She opens the door wide apart and gestures towards the sofa set. There sits a young girl of about twenty. She's a brunette with green eyes. She has sharp features like a hawk, but somehow there's something subtle about her appearance.
However, I won't call her beautiful- my definition of beautiful is Tris.

"Meet Lucy," Evelyn says.
I flash a forced smile at her and she smiles back at me. Getting up, she shakes my hand in one firm handshake. This is the thing I like about people who don't go on shaking your hand. Just a single shake, that's it.

I smile at her again, but this time it's not forced.
"Would you guys like to go outside?" Evelyn asks. It seems very abrupt - she just called me here to meet a girl and then when I meet her she asks me to go outside.

"Yes, Mrs. Johnson, we'd love to." Lucy says.

Lucy pulls me by my hand and then ushers me outside. The touch of her cool hand sends a tingle up my arm. I begin to feel a little uncomfortable. She doesn't even know my name and she's already taking me outside Evelyn's house.

"Well," she says, turning towards me once were outside. Her voice immediately becomes more cheerful,"Hello, Tobias."

I look at her wide-eyed. She didn't seem to know me until now, and all of a sudden she knows my real name.
"How do you know my name?"
Her eyes look summery in the sunlight and her face looks so colourful. She doesn't reply. I guess Evelyn must've told her.

"Why are you here?" I ask and I know I'm being rude. But, who cares?
"Your mom thinks-"
"I'd prefer if you didn't call her my mom."

She looks at me with her big eyes,"Mrs. Johnson thinks that I'd be a good match for you. As a wife."

I let the words settle in. So Evelyn wants me to marry Lucy?! That's not going to happen. Because Tris is already here. Why would Evelyn ever think that I'd like to marry a girl like Lucy? She's pretty but, I barely know her. As if Evelyn cares about who I marry.

"Look, Lucy, you're nice and all but I already have-"

And then, I don't know what happens. I feel devastated. She comes closer to me and presses her lips against mine. I try and pull back, but she's holding me really tightly. I hate it, because I cannot imagine kissing anyone except Tris. Finally, pulling back hard, I get away from her. She looks at me questioningly. I stare at her with disgust.

"How dare you?!" I exclaim.
"What.." She looks flustered,"I did..."
"Do you have any idea that I have a GIRLFRIEND?! And I'm madly in love with her, so even if you try to kiss me, you're not getting me! Just go away," I say as I turn back and rush to my car to leave this disgusting place. She looks at me sadly but I don't care.

I speed away, and as I do, I notice Lucy staring at me with those big green eyes. Somehow, I feel as if I have hurt her, but really, it was her mistake. It's not her job to go about kissing random people. Even if those random people's moms think that she should marry them.

Within a few minutes, my phone rings and I know it's Evelyn.

"Tobias!" She exclaims, and I'm sure I hear sobs in the background.

"Don't say anything, Evelyn. What do you think of yourself? You don't choose who I marry. How can you get that Lucy girl to think that I'd be a perfect match for her?!" I add an edge of bitterness in the word 'match',"And please, in case you don't know, Tris has come back, so choose all the girls in the world for me, for all I care."

I click the phone off and drive home in silence. My mind feels clouded and I am not lying when I say that I almost banged my car into the trunk of a tree twice and almost ran over a policeman.

I reach home to see that Tris isn't back yet. I call her to ask if she's okay, but she doesn't pick up. I call her again and again, but she doesn't pick her phone up.  Anxiety starts to fill me up, but I decide not to go to Christina's house. Tris will be back in no time, I assure myself.