Divergent UNIVERSITY ✅

chapter 41

When Tris hears Four speak, she stops talking and looks to see Four walking in the direction of her mother and Bud standing where Four was. She stops and stares at the man that has always been there for her. Who was her biggest fan, her most trusted coach, and her most honest critic. She loves him, there is no doubt in her mind that she has always felt a special connection to him. Now that connection makes sense."Tris can we talk?"She nods her head. She looks at the man standing before her and for the first time she realizes that his eyes are hers. The almond shape and blue/grey color that resembles the sky before a storm is exactly like hers. How did she never notice this before? His nose is also the one she sees when she looks in the mirror. The same shape, just hers is more proportionate to her face. His hair color is much darker than hers, but the texture and waviness is the same.She continues to look at him more closely than she ever has before and finds more similarities that she has never noticed before.Bud walks up to her and takes her hand. He guides her to walk with him and they begin to walk down the beach.He stops and turns to look at her. "Tris, I'm sorry. I should have fought harder for you, I should have..." he bows his head and shakes it. "I should never have agreed to let Andrew replace me as your father. I thought what I was doing was right. I never imagined..."Tris cuts him off. "I'm not going to say I understand why you and my mother made the decisions that you made. I'm not going to say that I think it was right to lie to me, but I don't hate you," she says as tears start to make a path down her cheeks.Bud looks at his beautiful daughter and for the first time he allows himself to call her his daughter, even if it's just to himself. "Tris, I will do whatever it takes to gain your trust and forgiveness. I love you. I have loved you since the first time I felt you move in your mother's stomach, since I held you in my arms after you were born. I have been with you, part of your life from the moment that you entered it.""I love you too," Tris responds quietly. She doesn't look at him, but she knows that what she says is real. She knows that she loves this man like her father, she always has. She was so happy and excited that he was finally going to be a real part of her family, so why should that change now. He really is part of her family.Hearing Tris say those words to him, make Bud's heart swell with love and pride. He moves to her and pulls her into a hug. "I'm so proud that you are my daughter. I have always been proud of you, of everything that you have ever done. You are the reason that I never moved on, that I never tried to leave. I had to be with you, even if you didn't know the truth."Tris smiles. This is what she has always wanted. She buries her face in his chest and sobs.She pulls away when she hears voices and footsteps nearing them. She looks up to find Four, her mother, and Caleb approaching. Caleb has a look that she doesn't recognize on his face. When they are close enough, she turns her attention to Caleb."Why are you looking at me like that?" Tris asks."Well, it just makes sense is all. Genetics say that we should have a certain number of attributes that are the same, like eye color, face shape, things like that. We never have. I never understood why, now I do.""Leave it to you to go all nerdy on me, Caleb," Tris scoffs."I'm happy for you. I never understood why dad treated you the way he did. You have always been so good at so many things. I've only ever been good at my school work, but you can do that and so much more." Tris can't believe what she is hearing. Caleb has never seemed to be worried about Tris or what was going on. He seemed like he was oblivious to the relationship she had with Andrew.She moves toward her brother and pulls him into a hug. "Thanks Caleb," is all she says.Caleb then turns to big brother mode. "And who is this Four guy?" he whispers in her ear."He's my boyfriend, Caleb.""Well, isn't he a little too old for you?""Sure, because two years is such a huge age difference," she says sarcastically.Caleb snickers, "He seems like a good guy, Tris. I'm just messing with you."Tris smiles and pulls away.She turns to her mother. Of anyone here, she is actually angry with her mother."Tris, I'm sorry. I screwed everything up. I really thought trying to keep our family together was important. And even when I realized that I had really messed up, I just could never figure out how to tell you. First I thought you were too young, and then suddenly you were gone off to college.""Mom, I'm angry, I'm not going to lie. Please just tell me that there are no more surprises. No more secrets.""No, nothing. My biggest secret is out there now."Tris moves toward her mother and she hugs her. Seeing her parents, her real parents, she can see every part of her mirrored back. Her blond hair and petite frame come from her mother, her eyes and nose from her father."We should get back to the party," Caleb suggests. "People are going to wonder what happened to the bride and groom."Without another word, Bud takes Natalie's hand and leads her back to the reception. Caleb follows close behind them.When Tris starts to follow also, Four grabs her hand and pulls her into him. "Let's just stay here for a moment," he whispers into her ear.She smiles at him. She looks up at him and sees the love and desire in his eyes."You look so beautiful tonight," he whispers into left ear as he glides his lips down her neck to her shoulder. His fingers glide across her bare back and shoulders. He moves his lips up her throat and presses them to her lips. Their tongues massage one another as she wraps her arms around his neck and deepens the kiss.He slides his hands down her spine to the small of her back and presses her body against his so that there is no space between them. He pulls back just enough to look into her eyes. "I love you so much," he says, his blue eyes full of desire and love.She smiles and pulls him back in for another kiss.The sound of people talking comes up quickly behind them. Someone clears their throat. Tris looks up to see Brian standing there with a smirk."Do you get some kind of pleasure out of interrupting us?" Tris asks him sarcastically."Well if you two weren't always lip-locked and groping each other when I'm around I wouldn't need to interrupt, now would I?"Tori, Zeke, Uriah, and Marlene walk up behind them. "We were wondering what happened. You left with your mom and Bud, they came back but you never did," Marlene says."I received some interesting news," Tris begins. "Bud isn't just Bud, he's my biological father. It's a long story that I don't want to recount, but that's the jist.""I always thought something was up. You resemble him too much for him to just be a friend," Will says walking up behind her."Where were you two?" Tris asks."Walking along the beach, we saw you standing here talking and decided to come over. Guess we were just in time to hear the news," Christina says."How are you doing with this news?" Tori asks."I'm okay. Mad that they waited all this time to tell me. But what can I do? I can't change it, I just have to move forward.""That's very mature of you," Brian teases."Yeah well, I guess I've gotta be some times," she says sticking her tongue out at Brian."We are missing a great party," Zeke says. "Let's go! There were some hot girls up there that I need to go hit on.""Over Shauna already are you?" Marlene asks him skeptically.He narrows his dark brown eyes at her, "Shut up Mar." He turns and starts to walk back toward the reception.Marlene smirks and takes Uriah's hand in hers."Lay off Mar," Uriah tells her. "He's having a hard enough time without her here. If he's going to joke around and hit on some unwitting girls, then let him. Shauna left him and didn't want him to go with her, not the other way around.""Besides," Will chimes in, "he deserves happiness with our without Shauna."The group starts to walk back to the reception just in time for Natalie to throw the bouquet. The girls all go running while the guys keep their distance and watch."Who do you think is going to catch it?" Uriah asks."I don't know. All I know is that if it's Tris, no one will be getting the garter but me," Four declares."Don't want anyone touching your lady?" Zeke asks sarcastically.Four scowls at him, but doesn't answer. He watches as all of the single women stand behind Natalie and wait.As soon as it's in the air, elbows start to fly. There is pushing and shoving as all of the ladies try to grab the bouquet out of the air.When the dust clears and the ladies separate, Tris stands with the bouquet in hand smiling ear to ear."Who didn't see that coming," Christina says walking over to the guys. "The only other person that had a chance was Marlene."Next they call the guys out to throw the garter. Four glares at all of the guys that walk out onto the dance floor. Some get so intimidated that they back away. But Uriah, Zeke, and Will don't back off. There are also a couple other guys that stay."What's your problem, dude?" one of the guys asks Four. "The chick is hot, I have to at least try."Four narrows his eyes at the guy and is ready to lunge when Uriah pipes up, "She's this guy's girlfriend." He says gesturing toward an angry looking Four. "I'm not sure you want to be standing here right now.""Whatever. She doesn't have an engagement ring on her finger, which makes her fair game."Four is ready to lunge when Brian grabs him from behind. "It's not worth it Four. Just focus and get the garter."Bud turns and lets the garter fly. It lands right in Zeke's hands, but when he sees the look on Four's face, he immediately hands it over. He doesn't want to upset his friend besides he definitely doesn't want to put the garter on Tris' leg anyway. He only came up here for this because Uriah dragged him. Being around all of these happy couples just makes him more miserable without Shauna.Zeke and the others walk off of the dance floor as a chair is set up for Tris to sit on while Four places the garter on her leg. All of the guys hoot and holler as Four slides the garter up Tris' leg to her thigh. He takes her hands and stands as a slow song begins to play and they dance together.The remainder of the night flies by as all of the friends dance and have a good time. Zeke is miserable and refuses to dance until a tattooed girl comes up to him at the bar."Do you know you are at a wedding?" the girl asks.He smirks, "Yeah, I heard something about a wedding.""Cute and sarcastic, love it," the girl says. "My name is Zia, what's yours?""I'm Zeke, nice to meet you.""So are you here for the bride or the groom?" Zia asks."Both I guess. I'm friends with Tris, so I know them both. How about you?""I actually grew up with Tris. We went to high school together. I work in her mother's shop as a tattoo artist," she pauses and looks at him again. "Wait, didn't you get a skull with at top hat at the party that Tris had?""Yeah, that was me, how did you know that?" Zeke asks looking a little closer at this girl."Because I gave you that tattoo, I had blond hair then. I recently went back to my natural black hair color."He looks closely at this girl and pays special attention to her eyes. He remembers those eyes. They are bright blue, like the color of a clear sky. He noticed how pretty this girl and how easy it was for him to talk to her then, but he was with Shauna."Where's your girlfriend?" Zia asks. "You talked a lot about her that night.""We broke up a couple weeks ago. She moved to Pittsburgh."She doesn't say anything to this. She knows that no one wants to talk about things like that. "So, do you want to dance?""Oh, I don't know..." Zeke starts.Zia cuts him off, "I'm not asking you to marry me, just want to know if you want to dance."Zeke thinks about this for a few moments then smiles. "Yeah, I'd love to dance. Let's go."They go onto the dance floor as 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica is on."Love this song." Zia says. "Most DJ's won't play it at weddings. One told me once that it wasn't much of a slow song.""That is crazy. It is the best metal ballad ever."She smirks. She likes this guy but she also knows that if he just broke up with someone, there is no way anything could come of this. She ignores her attraction and decides that she would love to be friends with this guy. He's fun and funny.Zeke feels something he hasn't felt in a long time. He feels a real attraction to someone. But how could he possibly forget about Shauna already. It has only been a couple weeks. But things weren't going well with Shauna; she was definitely right about that. He was comfortable with her, avoiding change. Does that mean he wasn't in love with her anymore? This girl is beautiful and just like him, sarcastic and a jokester."You graduated, didn't you?" Zia asks him."Yeah, I'm starting in the Chicago police academy in a couple weeks. I'm going to be a cop.""That's cool. You seem like you'd make a good cop. So do you still only have the one tattoo?""Yeah, I just haven't gotten back to get another. I've been working all summer.""I'll tell you what, you come in and I'll give you your next one. I have an awesome idea for something that I think would be totally you.""What?" Zeke asks intrigued."Guess you'll have to come in and find out."