Danger is Near

Chapter 28

Once I was done getting my piercings I said thank you and began to walk back around to the tattoo parlour. 

"Goodbye Eliza" Eric said obviously. Showing me how I 'forgot' to say goodbye to him. 

I turned around, really confused. Why would he care if I said goodbye or not? He was the person who never greeted anyone and he was the person who, at times, didn't even answer peoples questions. I think back to the time I simply asked him 'who Max was' and he just walked away, without answering me. 

"Goodbye" I said, it sounded like more of a question though. He just smirked and then I walked away. 

I was frowning at myself. Why would he even bother to say 'goodbye' to me? An initiate. This guy is just too confusing.

I arrived back at the tattoo parlour and sat on a chair outside. I waited. 

As I sat there, bored out of my mind, playing with my piercings, a young man came and sat down right next to me. At first I was scared he was going to hit on me, because most Dauntless boys seemed to do that. But he just sat there, peacefully. He didn't even look at me. 

After about five minutes or so he turned to me and asked whether I was waiting for someone. 

"Yeah. Two people actually" I said spiritlessly. 

"Yeah same here. My friend, Joe, is getting a massive tattoo across his entire back... So it's been a while" he said back, spiritlessly, like me. 

"Well I passed a little bit of time by getting some more piercings" I uttered while showing him my ears. 

"Mmm, interesting. I like em'" he boldly stated. 

"Well, thanks" I smiled. 

It went quiet for a bit. 

"Sorry! I'm Jamie by the way" he said abruptly. Feeling sorry about not introducing himself straight away. 

"Oh hahaha, sorry, my name is Eliza. Nice to meet you Jamie" I said formally while shaking his hand. 

We laughed for a little before he asked me whether I was an initiate, for he had never seen me around before. 

I explained to him that I was an initiate and had just made it past the first stage of training. 

"Ahhh yess. Initiation. Pretty scary stuff" he voiced. 

"Mmm, yeah" I agreed. "What faction did you transfer from?"

"I transferred from Candor, what about you?" he answered, and then questioned. 

"I transferred from Amity" I cheerfully claimed. All the fond memories flooding back. 

"I bet it was fun there" he staked. 

"Yeah, I guess it was. But I don't think it was as fun as this place is" I then opinionated. 

We ended up talking for ages and ages. Just waiting for our friends. Amy eventually came out, seeing as her tattoo wasn't as big as Matisse's. I introduced her to Jamie and then we all continued talking. 

Jamie was a really cool, calm and collected guy. He had shaggy blonde hair and majestic blue eyes. He was pretty tall, but I was almost as tall as him. But the again, I was pretty tall for my age. He also seemed different in some way, compared to all the other Dauntless people. I liked him. I wasn't attracted to him but he was definitely someone I wanted as a friend. He was so nice and funny. I instantly knew we would be good friends. 

As we continued talking Eric walked past, on his way out. He slowed down as he eyed the two of us. He didn't eye Amy. Just Jamie and I. I could've been wrong but I swore I spotted a tiny hint of jealousy in his expression. But I didn't have much time to read into it before he was out the door. 

"Woah. Did you see that?" Jamie then asked. "He full on gave us a greasy" he finished. He seemed so surprised. It was cute. 

"Yeah well, that's Eric for ya" I said, watching him walk off. 

After Matisse was finished we decided we would leave. We said goodbye to Jamie. 

"I'll see you girls around" he shouted out, as we left. 

I turned back to him and smiled while waving. 

On the way back to the dorm we walked through the Pit. And that's when we saw Jem with Kaden. And they were flirting. I wasn't that surprised though. Ever since they met they seemed to have been around each other, and now it was official. You could tell they both fancied each other. You would be an absolute idiot if you couldn't tell. I decided to hurry things up though. 

"Oh hurry up Kaden. A girl like Jem won't be on the market for that long" I said to him as I walked past. He stopped talking to Jem and turned to look at me. He looked a little pissed off, but I just smirked, wiggling my eyebrows at the same time. 

The girls and I walked away and headed down a hallway towards our dorm. 

We talked about boys. Usually we never did, for the boys back in Amity were never our 'types'. But here in Dauntless, the whole place was swarming with hot guys. 

Matisse talked about how she really liked Edward. Amy and I explained to her that she should just go for it. For we could totally tell Edward had the hots for her as well. 

"Well... Maybe" she gave in. 

"What about you Amy? Who do you like?" Matisse then teased Amy. 

"Ohhh, I don't know. I do kinda like Ace. I mean he's not too bad and he always seems to talk to me, so..." Amy explained. 

Matisse and I began to giggle. We weren't exactly sure what we were giggling about. That tended to happen with us though, we found almost anything and everything funny. 

We continued walking down corridors and hallways slowly making our way to the dorm, before a large group of Dauntless boys approached us. 

They wouldn't let us pass and they said vile and crude things. The most horrid thing being; 'I'd screw her'. 

We kept trying to walk past but the held us back. These were the Dauntless people that I was afraid of. I'd even prefer someone like Eric over these dickheads. 

After a couple more minutes they suddenly went really quiet. They seemed to be looking over our heads, behind us. I turned around too and saw Eric. In a way I was thankful. I couldn't wait for him to verbally 'attack' these guys. 

"What the fuck do you think your doing?" he questioned the boys in front of us criticizingly. 

They didn't dare say anything. 

"You boys oughta knock it off. These girls are initiates... And they're not for you" he intimidatingly stated. Staring them down. 

I couldn't help but wander why he said 'they're not for you'... What did he mean by that? 

After looking at the boys for a while Eric spoke up again. He sounded fed up with them, "Well, go on then... Move! Get out of here". 

Matisse, Amy and I were quite terrified, so we all thanked Eric. I expected him to walk away and not accept our gratitude but he actually said something. Something real. 

"You girls ever get this again, then come straight to me. Alright?" 

And it was in that moment I realised how much I liked him. 

As vicious and rude as he was, I still liked him. I was still attracted to him. For now, I knew, he had a bit of good inside him.