Divergent: Unleashed | ✓

Chapter 24

No one had expected this news.

First Marlene had told Shauna and Lynn, and then Lauren, then Cara, and finally Christina. Shauna and Lauren told Zeke, and then he and Lynn explained it to Uriah. Cara told Will, and Christina told Al. It took a month and a half of explanations and questions, but eventually the others knew the whole story. They were not happy. They were upset and mad. So, so mad.

Tris was glad to have Caleb on her side again. She talked to him about the problem, added the others into the calls so that they could all discuss a strategy, even at two in the morning. Whenever someone learned something new, they told the others immediately.

Tris and the other girl still talked. She, out of everyone, knows and finds the most information. But only Tris and Marlene know who she really is. For now, that's fine. But soon the others are going to have to know how she's getting so much information....

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Evelyn had gone out for a job interview. Four, Bryn, and her mother are out getting groceries, and her dad's at work. That leaves Ashlyn alone with Marcus. Probably not the best idea in the world, but she needs information.

Ashlyn sits down at the dining room table across from Marcus. He doesn't look up from the papers that he's reading, keeping staring at them as if she isn't there. When she smacks her hand down against the table, he looks up.

"Yes?"

"What do you know about Four and Tris being separated?"

He gives her a level look. "What are you talking about?"

She glares at him. "Oh, don't you play dumb with me. I'm not an idiot. Now, I need to know, and I need to know now. I'm not Tris- I won't play your petty games."

He lets out a sigh. "Why do you need to know?"

She rolls her eyes. "Because Tris and I need to know so that we can get this damn thing over with. And you have information that we need, and I swear if you don't tell me I will find a way, and you won't like my way." she sounds older than thirteen. Her blood ties to Four are more obvious now than ever.

"What do you need to know?"

She gives him an irriated look. "Everything. From the beginning."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

When Four gets home, he goes upstairs to find Ashlyn on her cell phone. "Okay, I gotta go, bye." She hangs up and smiles at Four.

"Who was that?" He asks.

She shrugs. "A friend. I had to talk to her."

"What friend?" Ashlyn is usually open with him, but today she's guarded.

"Does it matter?" Her tone is suddenly cold.

"Yes, it does."

She lets out a sigh. "No, Four. It doesn't." 

Faster than she can comprehend, Four reaches out and snatches the phone from her hands. He unlocks it- her password is MAYTHEODDS- and then checks her recent calls list.

His stomach drops at the name. "Why did you call her?" He looks betrayed.

"It's not what you think, Tobias." She tells him. This is the first time she's ever used his first name, so he knows that she's being serious. Then she clicks on the name and calls Tris again. "Talk to her a little bit, please?"

He sighs and nods slowly, defeated. Ashlyn presses the phone to her ear. "Hey Tris, um, do you mind talking to someone for me?" The voice on the other line must say that it's okay, because she hands him the phone and shuts the door.

"Hello?" Four sits down on his cousin's bed.

"Hey, Tris. It's Four." He replies.

The other end is quiet for a moment. "Oh, um, hey." she finally responds.

"Why haven't you been calling me back?" He asks. "It's been almost three months."

"Something just...came up." She tells him. He gets her meaning- that there's someone else, that she's moved on. His chest aches. "Uh, so you know how your cousins are going to Disneyland in December?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to be there around the same time. Maybe we could hang out...?"

And see some other guy all over you? He thinks angrily. Not happening.

"Maybe."

"Well, talk to you later, I guess." She almost mumbles it, and he can see her sitting on a bed in a room somewhere in California, looking down at her sheets, her blonde hair falling over one shoulder and hiding half of her face, smiling a little while another boy watches her curiously. He can see her hanging up the phone, telling him that it was no one, and then him brushing her hair out of her eyes in the exact same way that he used to before leaning in and kissing her gently.

"Bye." He says quietly, but she already hung up. He puts down the phone and stares at the bottom of the closet doors. Ashlyn walks back in, and when she sees the expression on his face she stops.

"That bad?"

He looks up at her. "You could have at least warned me that she has a boyfriend." He stands up and hands her the phone, starting out the door.

"She doesn't. Did she say that?"

"No." Four says angrily. "But she might as well have. She said that something came up, and that's why she never replied."

Ashlyn rolls her eyes. "She didn't talk to anyone for a while."

He raises his eyebrows. "Oh. So she talks to everyone else now? But not me. No, I'm just her ex-boyfriend. What do my feelings matter?"

"It's not like that." Ashlyn snaps.

"Really? Then explain it to me, Ash, because I'm no goddamned psychic!"

She sighs. "Just...come to Disneyland with us. It'll be easier if we all explain it together." She leaves the room without another word.