But Then I Met Her | ✓

Chapter 43

A/N: Also known as Chapter 24, if you're trying to keep up with the book. It's page 301, if you want me to be more specific.

"This is for your own good, Tobias."

My father flicks his wrist, his belt hitting me in the arm. He flicks it again, and the belt hits my neck. Then my face, my side, my leg. On and on it goes, and I can't move. Red welts form on my skin where the belt strikes, and pain shoots through me.

"Four! FOUR!" Shauna's insistent pounding on my door saves me from the worst part of my dream. I get out of bed and throw on a shirt. She keeps banging against the door, and I open it just before she hits it again.

"Shauna, it's the middle of the night. What do you want?"

"It's one of your initiates. The one that you said liked Tris that attacked her. What's his name?"

"Al..." I trail off. "Why? What happened?" Oh God, if Tris killed him or something...

"Just get dressed." She doesn't break eye contact with me. "You'll have to see it to believe it."

She waits in the doorway while I pull on a pair of boots- I don't feel like getting my sneakers from the closet- and I throw on a jacket. She leads me down the hall and then starts running. We run across the Pit and towards the ledge just as a small crowd starts to form.

Two men heave a form up over the ledge, and several others rush over to help. They pull a body up over the ledge, and I recognize who it is immediately- Al. He's obviously dead, his eyes glassed over and his lips an icy blue.

I see someone sink to their knees on the ground, but don't pay any attention. Shauna points it out. "Didn't you say Al helped Peter and Drew with the whole throwing-Tris-over-the-Chasm stunt?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Shauna shrugs. "No reason. Just the fact that she's on her knees and I think crying." I look over at the girl on her knees and realize that it is Tris. "You should go and say something."

I shake my head. "There's nothing to say, Shauna. He was her friend, now he's dead. End of story." Tris pulls her arm free from Christina and runs.

"Do you think she liked him back?" She has to tilt her head up a little to look at me.

I don't meet her gaze, watching where Tris had disappeared into the crowd. "I don't know. It's hard to tell with girls like Tris."

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

I linger at the edge of the crowd for Al's funeral, an hour or so later. It's about six in the morning, and I'm working off of a few hours of sleep. I cover a yawn with the back of my hand, not joining in the cheering that accompanies Eric's speech.

I turn and leave just before they start chanting, turning down one of the dark hallways. This same thing happened two years ago, to a girl in my intiate class. I remember it clearly, too. She'd been an Amity transfer. She was second only to me, and would only talk to me, Zeke, Shauna, and Lauren. It was about this time that they found her dead in the Chasm, too. But I knew what really happened to her. They called it a suicide, but Eric killed her. I'd heard him muttering about it in his sleep, mocking her last words to him.

I see someone walk into the hallway and hide in the shadows. I'm not in the mood for conversation. I want to be alone, to think about what happened and whether or not I should feel bad about Al's death. I don't want to be bothered.

I recognize who it is, and decide that maybe I am in the mood to talk. "Tris." I step into a blue circle of light near the drinking fountain, so that she can see me. She turns around, and her eyes flick over me in a quick, calculating way.