Divergent UNIVERSITY ✅

chapter 23

The next day is spent on the beach. Marlene and Christina talked Tris into wearing a bikini instead of a one piece. They insisted that Four would go crazy seeing her in a bikini. And they were right. As they swam in the ocean and played in the sand, Four could not keep his hands off of her. He kept finding excuses to touch her and wrap his arms around her tiny frame.He even got extremely jealous when she decided to go to one of the venders for a drink and some guy started talking to her. The guy tried to make small talk and Tris was obviously being polite and completely oblivious to the fact that he was hitting on her, Four decided to go up and 'help' her. He towered over this guy in both height and size. When he saw Four wrap his arms around her he quickly retreated back to his part of the beach.Tris just smiled at Four and passed him the drink she had bought for him. "You do know he was hitting on you, right?" he asked her."No he wasn't. He was just commenting on the weather and asked what I was doing in Miami."Four smirks because he is now certain that guy was hitting on her and she didn't even know it. "Tris, he was hitting on you. All those questions, he was trying to learn something about you.""No, why would he do that? I mean I told him I was here to see my boyfriend play football.""He probably ignored the boyfriend part until I came over. But he was hitting on you.""Why would he do that? There are so many pretty girls here.""Did you look at yourself when you got dressed this morning? Do you have any idea how gorgeous and provocative you look in this?""You're supposed to think that, I'm your girlfriend."He shakes his head at her and smirks. This is another one of those things that he loves about her. She is so oblivious to how pretty she is that she doesn't understand why anyone would hit on her so she doesn't even notice it when it happens.~oOo~After a few hours of playing on the beach they go back to the house and get ready to go out to dinner.They shower and change. Tris puts the clothes that Christina told her to wear, a pair of short low rise jean shorts and an off the shoulder half shirt. Christina just loves to make her show as much skin as she can. She says it's because if she didn't Tris would probably go out in athletic shorts and a T-shirt, and she's probably right.Of course Tris complains, but secretly she loves the way Four looks at her when she's dressed like this. He always looks at her, but when she wears things like this, he can't keep his eyes or his hands off of her.When they get to the restaurant, the guys go up to the bar to order drinks while the girls stand around and talk and wait to be seated. This is a great restaurant with a bar and a dance floor. The girls can't wait to get out on the dance floor.When they are seated, they order their food. They talk, joke, tell stories, and have fun. When their food is done, they continue to hang out."Do you want another drink?" Four asks Tris."That would be great."Four, Uriah, Will, and Zeke go up to the bar to get drinks while the girls decide that they are going to go out onto the dance floor. While the girls are dancing, they are approached by a group of guys.One of the guys immediately goes up to Tris and starts talking to her while the other three guys start talking to the other girls."Don't you remember me?" he asks trying to dance with her. She pulls away from his advance, but he keeps moving closer."No, I'm sorry I don't. What was your name?" Tris asks."I went to school with you. My name is Peter. We had several classes together over the years. And I even played Little League with you."She looks at him for a minute, and then remembers a horrible boy who used to pick on her constantly. "Yeah, I remember you now," she says. She looks over to the bar where Four is and wishes he would hurry with that drink. This guy is making her incredibly uncomfortable.Peter advances on Tris while all of his friends are trying to make time with the other girls. Kenzie and Lynn are able to make it be known that they definitely are not interested when they start to make out on the dance floor. But the other girls are pursued relentlessly."Come on baby, what's your name?" a boy asks Marlene.Another guy tries to put his hands around Shauna, while another has Christina's hand and won't let go.Peter wraps his arms around Tris' waist and pulls her to him. She stomps on his foot and kicks him in the shin and then in the groin, but all this does is make him hold tighter so she can't get any good shots in on him. She gets one more shot with her elbow into his face, but he still doesn't let her go."You are a feisty one, aren't you? I don't remember you being so hot when we played ball. Were you always this hot?" Peter says as he grazes his hand down her chest and grips her waist tightly. He moves his other hand down toward her crotch."You are so hot, Tris," Peter says. When he touches her she tries again to fight back, but he pulls her firmly to his body and she can't move to do anything against him.When Four turns to the dance floor to find Tris, he sees Tris struggling against this guy. She looks terrified, and then he notices the rest of the girls being manhandled."Hey, guys we need to get out on the dance floor, look."All four of them look out and see what is happening. They run out on the floor to their girlfriends.Fury has taken over when Four sees this guy with his hands all over Tris. He has a bloody lip and he can see where Tris must have been kicking him in the shin, but she couldn't get away from him."Get your hands off of my girlfriend, now," Four says in a deep authoritative voice. He's afraid to hit him right now because of the grip he has on Tris.Zeke runs full speed onto the dance floor and punches the guy that is all over Shauna. The guy was out cold on the floor with that one punch. Zeke turns to a crying Shauna and pulls her into his arms. "Oh Baby, I'm so sorry," he says to her."Wait your turn, you can have her when I'm done," Peter says without looking at Four.Uriah and Will ran onto the floor, but when the guys that were on Marlene and Christina saw them, they ran out the door. Uriah and Will followed them out of the restaurant and they started fighting in the parking lot. In a matter of seconds, Uriah and Will had them on the ground kicking them into unconsciousness.Four grabs Peter by the throat and squeezes. "I said get your hands off of her," Four growls. The look on his face is ferocious.Peter finally looks at Four and terror passes into his face. Four squeezes Peter's throat until he can't breathe. The lack of oxygen forces him to release Tris. She kicks him in the groin one more time before Four drags him out of the restaurant. He throws Peter and forces him to fall down the steps. Peter stands as Four lunges at him from the steps, taking him down onto the pavement causing Peter to fall on his back. Four throws blow after blow into his face. Then he stands and kicks him several times in his stomach and side.Tris runs up to Four and cautiously touches his arm. He turns to see her and sees tears streaming down her face, and she is shaking like a leaf. Seeing her so scared and upset snaps him out of his rage. He pulls her into an embrace and kisses her forehead."Oh God, are you okay?"She nods into his shirt but the tears keep coming."He wouldn't let me go. He just kept touching me. I tried to make him stop. I tried to fight, I swear," she weeps into his chest."I know, I'm here. I've got you now. He won't touch you again."Kenzie and Lynn come out of the restaurant with all of the other's personal belongings."We paid the bill, it's time to go before the police come," Kenzie says.They all agree and leave the beaten men on the ground.~oOo~When they return to the beach house, Natalie can see that something has happened. Tris, Marlene, Christina, and Shauna look like they've been crying and all of the guys look like they could rip someone apart."What happened?" Natalie asks."Some guys started hitting on us. They got very physical," Kenzie explains gesturing to the other girls."So the guys beat the crap out of them," Lynn finishes."Are you girls okay?" Brian asks."Yeah, we're fine," Christina says. "Just shaken up. They were really aggressive.""Tris didn't you try to fight him? I've taught you how," Brian says."She did Brian. You would have been proud of her. She split his lip and he was limping because of her, but he wouldn't let her go. The more she fought him, the more he seemed to enjoy it. He was sadistic," Four explained. "Come on Tris, let's go so you can get cleaned up and changed."Four begins to lead Tris down the hall, but Natalie stops him. "Four would you mind if I helped her for a minute?"Four backed off and Natalie took Tris by the hand. When they enter the bedroom, Natalie looks over her daughter's body. She doesn't see any real physical damage, except for the bruises on her arms and her stomach that looks like finger and hand prints."Are you okay?"Tris nods, "It was Peter Manns. He played Little League with me. Mom, he touched me. He was groping my chest and he put his hands here," she says gesturing toward her croch. "He would let me go. Even when Four came he still wouldn't let me go."Tears streamed down her face again, but now she looked more angry than scared. "I thought Four was going to kill him.""Well, I can't say that I'm disappointed seeing the damage that this guy did to you without even really trying."When Tris looks in the mirror, she can see the finger prints around her arms and the bruises to her stomach. Peter had such a tight grip on her that he left bruises all over her.Tris puts on a pair of gym shorts and a tank top. Her mother helps her to clean herself up."Tris, does Four know that he was groping you?""I don't think so. He was at the bar getting us drinks when it all started.""You are probably going to have to tell him."Tris looks at her mother terrified. She just nods.When they come out of the bedroom, Tris finds Four sitting on the patio. When he sees her and the bruises on her arms he is immediately enraged again.She sits down on his lap, "Calm down, please. I'm fine because you saved me.""When I think about him having his hands around your waist like that it just infuriates me. What if he would have done more? I would have killed him I think."She looks down. She's not sure if her mother is right or not, but she listens to her advice. "Can you take a walk on the beach with me?"They stand and start walking. She stops and he looks at her, "Everything okay?""Tobias, you need to know something, while you had your back turned at the bar, he..." she pauses, the thought of his hands on her makes bile rise in her throat."Tris, what did he do to you?""He touched me," she whispers almost inaudibly. "He had his hands all over my body."She doesn't look at him. She's ashamed of what happened and not being able to do anything about it.Four looks at her, the fury building at her last words. But when he sees how scared and ashamed she looks, he pulls her into a hug."Oh Tris, I'm so sorry I wasn't there."He wraps his arms around her body. He can feel her trembling from her sobs. "Tris, he'll never touch you again. No man will. I promise."They sit down in the sand and he pulls her into his lap. They sit by the ocean silently as she cries. After a while he can feel that she has calmed and that her breaths have become rhythmic. She's fallen asleep in his arms.He stands; lifting her into his arms and carries her back to the house.No one says anything when he carries her into the house and up the steps toward their room. He lays her on the bed and pulls the curtains closed.He changes into gym shorts and a T-shirt and goes back down to the sitting room where everyone else was."Is she okay?" Lynn asks."Yeah, she'll be fine. She's just wiped out.""I think we all are," Marlene says. "I think I'm going to go get ready for bed also.""I'm going out for a run," Four says."Do you mind if I accompany you?" Brian asks.Together they go running down the beach. Four is running so hard and so fast that Brian can barely keep up. Four is trying to run the fury that he is feeling out of his system before he goes back to Tris."Four, what happened?" Brian asks trying to slow him down."He touched her," Four shouts. "He had his hands all over her, in her most private areas."Four starts running faster and faster until he collapses on the sand out of breath. When Brian catches up with him, Four is sitting in the sand. The anger still evident but he seems to have calmed slightly."Four, you have to calm down. Being this angry isn't going to help her get over it. She needs for you to be okay and to know you don't blame her so she can get over it."Four looks at Brian shocked, "Why would I blame her? She fought back. She tried to get away from him. He was almost as big as me. She couldn't get away from him.""You know that, and I know that. But Tris is going to blame herself. She's going to want to hide herself away. You can't let her do that. And if she sees this anger in you, it is just going to make her cower even more," Brian explains. "She needs you to be strong so she knows it is okay for her to be strong too. Understand?"Four nods, "Come on, let's go back. I want to be there in the room when she gets up."