The Heart's Melody | ✅

Chapter 6: Visiting the Big Apple

During the Valentine's weekend Divergent released their new single, a romantic ballad written by Tris and inspired from what went down with Drew. She avoided his name or the word "rape" instead used words such as "master" and "slave" or phrases like "you couldn't see the woman I was", "you took without giving", "possessed me without earning" or "killed my spirit". The song was a huge success and Divergent was called to several TV shows or musical festivals.

Tobias went through with his plan, meaning he randomly sent Tris e-mails checking how things were going at school. He knew that if he started asking too many things she might get suspicious so he called his sister first. Of course, Marlene picked up that something was off; her brother rarely called and she couldn't figure out what the devil had gotten into him, which she told him. He rambled for a moment before he looked at the wallpaper on his laptop which was of them during the snowball fight. His dad took the picture just when Tris laughed at Tobias for slipping and landing on his behind. He smiled to himself at the memory.

"I looked over some pictures dad took when we were in Aspen," he told his sister.

"And you remembered you had a sister," she challenged teasingly.

"That's where I know you from," he said messing with her and she started laughing. He loved his baby sister. She was a gentle soul who would cut off her own arm to help others; she got that from his mom. "But seriously, Mar. I watched you and the others and Will mentioned that he was jealous," Tobias told her truthfully.

"Jealous of what?" she asked her brother confused.

"Of how close you four are."

"Well, we've known each other since we were kids and no offense, big brother, but I feel like these three are my siblings," she told him. He had that figured out.

"In any case, it made me realize that I barely know you and you are my sister. So obviously I barely know the rest. I know there is this age gap between us, but I think we should stick together," he told her, hoping she would agree. Until he could actually talk to Tris he would get to know more about her via his sister and at the same time be more in touch with Marlene.

"I don't know, Toby, we are a very exclusive group," she teased and he chuckled, but her words held truth in them. They barely allowed anyone in on whatever went on in their lives. He didn't even think his parents knew much about what happened in New York.

"Come on. You are adults now," he said.

"Yeah, but we're cool," she countered.

"And I'm not?" he asked amused.

"Nope. But it's okay. You're my big brother and I love you," she said and he smiled.

"I love you, too."

They started chatting more often, either on the phone or Skype. He randomly asked what the others were up to, how school went and one by one they all started chatting with him, often even all at once. He was the first to inform them that Caleb and Cara were expecting and Lynn of course teased him if he had a low sperm count and that was the reason he didn't get married and had a bunch of babies. Uriah and Tris laughed their asses off, while Lynn grinned at Tobias' dumbfounded expression and Marlene trying to salvage the situation.

"I just haven't found the right one for me," Tobias replied.

"You sure you can rule out the sperm thing?" Tris asked, her face split into a ginormous grin which made him smile as well but quickly put on a pouty face to fake hurt.

"Positive," he said.

It was from then on that Tris started talking more often to him, even without Marlene present. It was trivial at first and they were both comfortable. If he wanted to get to know her he needed to put himself out so that she could get to know him. Sure, they've known each other their entire lives, but not like that. Some days Tris and Tobias spent hours talking about everything and nothing in particular. Tobias shared things he never shared before with anyone and it wasn't just because he had feelings for her but because he could genuinely trust her. He sometimes sought advice from her regarding several topics and she tried to help him as much as she could. He could tell that it was still hard for her to open up and he wondered why. Sure they talked about many things, from hobbies to hopes and dreams. They even discussed vacations and where they would like to go.