Starting Over

Chapter 42

I wake up the next morning and roll over to look at the alarm clock. It claims it's 11:37 in the afternoon but I don't believe it. I never sleep that late. I roll over and see that Tobias isn't beside me anymore. He must be up already which would mean that it is 11:37 in the afternoon. How did I manage to sleep so late? Oh yeah, I didn't go to sleep until after three am and I was exhausted.

I get out of bed and walk into the main room where I see a note from Tobias saying he went to meet Zeke, Uriah, Shauna, Marlene, Christina, and Lynn for lunch. I quickly change clothes and head down to the cafeteria so I can eat lunch with them. I don't want to be the only one not there. When I get there I see that Christina's not there and Uriah looks exhausted.

"What's wrong with you, Uriah?" I ask as I sit down with my lunch.

"I was up till three am and Marlene woke me up when she was getting ready for work. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't. I'm exhausted," Uriah replies.

"Dude I was up that late too and I had to actually go to work this morning. I'm doing fine too. I'm awake and ready to go," Zeke points out.

"Yeah but that's your third cup of coffee since we sat down to start eating. You're all jacked up on caffeine," Uriah argues.

"How many cups of coffee have you had today?" asks Tobias.

"Well, there were the two this morning, the three now... eleven," Zeke says.

Uriah spits out the water he was drinking all over Lynn who looks like she's going to kill him. Uriah starts to choke and everyone but Lynn is stunned. I think she's too mad to feel any other emotion right now.

"How did you get eleven out of two and three?" asks Shauna. "I may now be Erudite but I know that that's not right."

"Well I had two when I woke up, six at work, and three now. That's eleven," says Zeke. "At least I'm pretty sure it's eleven. Everything's kind of fuzzy from all the caffeine."

"Yeah, you're good," says Marlene.

"Uriah might not be in a minute though," growls Lynn.

"Hey, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to spit water all over you!" exclaims Uriah.

"Why don't you try not spitting water at all?"

"I didn't mean to! Zeke surprised me!"

"That doesn't change the fact that I have to go change clothes now!"

Lynn storms out of the cafeteria and we finish eating quickly. Just as we're about to leave a girl walk over to our table and taps Marlene on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, do you know where Lynn went?" the girl asks. She's a pretty girl with long, strait black hair, seven earrings up one ear and three in the other, and a nose ring.

"She went to her apartment to change, why?" Marlene replies.

"I'm her girlfriend, Alex. I saw her storm out and I wanted to make sure she was okay. Thanks."

Alex leaves to go see Lynn and we're all left in shock. I mean we know she likes girls but we didn't know she has a girlfriend. Our silence is beginning to get awkward when Christina walks in.

"What did I miss?" she asks as she sits down.

"Well, Uriah's an idiot, Zeke's had eleven cups of coffee today, and Lynn has a girlfriend," I tell her.

"What?!" Christina nearly shouts and everyone around us turns to look at her. "What are you looking at?" she asks them and they turn back around. "When did this happen? How did you find out? Where did they meet? How long have they been going out? What-"

"Christina I don't have the answer to all your questions!" I interrupt. "All I know is her name is Alex and that they're going out. Lynn stormed out because Uriah's an idiot and Alex came over to make sure Lynn was alright."

"Aww! That's so adorable! Did Lynn tell you that they go out or did Alex?"

"Alex did. I don't know why Lynn didn't tell us," says Shauna.

"So did she say how long they've been dating or where they met? Did she say anything about their first date?" Christina asks.

"No, she just asked where Lynn went and explain that they went out and that she wanted to go check on her," I explain.

"Look there they are you should ask them Christina," Marlene says.

Lynn and Alex walk over to our table and sit down. Alex looks a little embarrassed.

"So, that's not how I wanted to tell you all about my girlfriend but I guess it's one way to get it out," says Lynn. "I guess you have all figured out that this is my girlfriend Alex." Lynn reaches down and grabs Alex's hand and smiles slightly at her. "She didn't know that I hadn't told you all yet."

"So, I guess it's question time," says Christina with an evil smile.

Lynn laughs at Christina and tells her to do her worst. Lynn looks relieved but Alex looks nervous. I guess being around Christina and her million questions is pretty weird at first. That or she's scared of what the questions could be.

"How did you meet?"

"I was shopping and knocked over a whole bin of socks that were on sale. Alex stopped to help me pick them up and we started talking. She asked if I wanted to go get some coffee and I agreed to go. A week later she asked me out."

Christina goes on asking Lynn and Alex questions until Lynn says that they have to go back to work. We learn that they've been going out for three weeks, their first date was at a bar, and that Alex works as a fence guard. Alex said she actually was ranked third in her initiation group- the one between Tobias' and mine- and just wanted the excitement of guarding the fence. Alex is also Dauntless born and has a younger sister.

When everyone who has to go back to work leaves we all go back to Christina's apartment to work on planning the rest of initiation. It's extremely boring and we have to work on it for two and a half hours before we're done. It would have been two if Uriah would have stopped joking around.

When it's finally done we hang out until dinner and then go to our own apartments. I go to bed with Tobias thinking about how lucky I am to have gotten this life back after I messed up so badly. Sometimes I still can't believe he forgave me after I caused him so much pain.