Delirium (A Divergent Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine: The Bridge

It stung lying in bed that night since the tattoo on the back of my shoulder was so fresh. My t-shirt covered the black rose design that was the size of my hand. I had taken off the locket and clasped it around the bedpost so it didn't get lost, but also didn't get broken or in the way during training. I had showed Hazel the tattoo after she handed me a stack of clothes and she admired the artwork of the woman, whose name I had learned was Tori.

So far, Al had seemed happy with the design I had picked out that now permanently remained on his inner forearm. Kate had gotten a simple tattoo. It was a tiny butterfly on the inside of her wrist. Will had three simple black bands that stretched around his arm, just under his elbow. Before we had left, Hazel insisted that I get my ears pierced and I now had black diamond-look studs in my earlobes. They hurt less than the tattoo, but still stung a little.

In the morning, I was the first one up as I always was. I pushed my body out of bed and grabbed my training clothes and went to the bathroom where I changed into the clothes and pulled my hair into a ponytail. I had intentionally left my hair long enough to do so. The bathrooms in the dormitory were similar to the ones we had at school, only bigger. There were four bathroom stalls in it along with two showers. On the opposite wall were four mirrors. Each mirror was fastened to the wall above a sink. As I stood in front of the mirror that was farthest from the door, I examined the features of my face. The makeup Hazel had put on me was still noticeable since I hadn't taken it off the night before. I was surprised to see none of it had smeared. I was expecting to look like a racoon by now. The only makeup that had been naturally removed was the dark red lipstick I had been wearing. My blue eyes seemed to be accentuated by the dark eye makeup and the light pink blush partially covered the freckles on my cheeks that were so light, you had to look very closely to notice.

I turned around and looked over my shoulder, pulling back any of the racerback tank top that covered my tattoo as I realized it didn't cover it. I admired the design and gently touched it with my index finger. I pondered whether or not I should find another shirt to wear that covered the tattoo, but I ended up deciding to leave it exposed. I imagined how my Mother would feel about the tattoo. I wondered how she would feel about me choosing Dauntless in general. I imagined her standing there, looking at the tattoo, not being able to choose whether she should be appalled since I had defaced my body and wrapped myself with unnatural beauty, or honored since the tattoo was a memorial of her.

I remembered how beautiful my Mother was and how none of it came from artificial techniques. I gently touched my finger to my eyelid and looked at my index finger. From touching my eye alone, makeup glimmered on the end of my finger, coloring it grey. I wiped the makeup on my pants and pulled a foot of paper towel from the dispenser in between the mirror I was facing and the one next to it. I used the sink to dampen the paper towel and brought it to my eye, gently rubbing away the eye shadow, hoping it didn't leave my skin red. After I had successfully removed all my makeup, I turned around and looked over my shoulder again, memorizing every petal of the rose.

"Nice ink." I heard a familiar voice say from behind me. I spun around to see Peter, crossing his arms as he stood a few feet away from me. "I would have gone with something a little less cliche than a flower, but hey, what a sweet memorial to your sweet mother." He turned around and left the bathroom and I was left pondering how he found out about the meaning of the tattoo. I shook off the suspicion, which I shouldn't have, and left the bathroom. Before returning to my bunk, I spotted Peter, leaning over his bed. I quickly made my bed, throwing the light covers and sheets over the thin mattress and straightened my pillow on top of the blankets at the head of the bed. As I leaned the pillow against the bar that posed as a headboard, I looked for the locket that I had put there. As I didn't see it there, my face felt hot as I clenched my teeth.