The Heart's Melody | ✅

Chapter 8: One down, one more to go

Tris returned to the apartment and as expected her friends waited for her in the living room. Lynn and Uriah played one of their video games while Marlene tried to bake cookies again, the fire extinguisher close by. Tris chuckled at the sight.

"Hey guys," she said, letting them know she was home. She went straight to her room to change into some comfortable clothes and returned to the living room where Uriah's character just killed Lynn's leading to him jubilating and her frowning. Marlene came into the room with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and set it down on their coffee table. It wasn't like Mar didn't know how to bake or cook, but she often got distracted and forgot about her previous task, which unavoidably led to small mishaps in the kitchen.

When Tris sat down on the couch, Marlene sat down in the armchair and the two who played the video game turned around since they were sitting on the floor in front of the TV and faced now the couch. They all were curious why Tris asked them to leave, especially so directly and why it took her so long to come back home. They didn't text her because they knew that even if her meeting with Tobias concluded she would have wanted to be left alone. It became their thing that Tris would text or call them to let them know she's fine, unless she wanted or needed some space. And given that she told Uriah she went to see Johanna they figured that something must have triggered a memory or something and she needed to sort through it before she could share it with her surrogate siblings. But the waiting was killing them and as expected Lynn was the one to urge her to speak.

"Spill it, sis," Lynn said and Tris chuckled.

"Tobias and I went on a date," she told them leaving them with their mouths hanging. She knew that would be their reaction but she chuckled nevertheless. They were always honest with each other and never talked around the topic. They went straight to the point no matter what it was.

"Excuse me?" came from Marlene, who stared at her friend. Tris didn't think that Mar would mind her dating Tobias, but it was a bit of a shock for the three.

"Tobias asked me out and I said yes," she explained.

"Just like that? Out of nowhere?" Lynn asked, trying to understand the situation.

"He came to the school earlier and we started talking and he, well, he told me he liked me, not like a sister, but a woman and he would like to date me," she told them, a little shier than before. Obviously, she dated before, but with Tobias it seemed different. Different good, definitely, but still different.

"What does this mean?" Uriah asked.

"What?" Tris asked confused by his question.

"Are you two together now?" he asked further.

"I don't know yet. I mean we just talked after you left, shared some stuff and then went to a movie. It wasn't a big deal, but we had to start somewhere," Tris said with a little smile.

"But are you okay?" Marlene asked. The question was so much more than it would have appeared to the bystander. They all knew how difficult it had been for Tris to open up to men again. Her last date was almost two months ago, with that architecture student and Tris told them what happened. Or rather what didn't.

"I'm not there yet, Mar, but I trust Tobias. Not just because I've known him my whole life, but because I have a good feeling. I won't rush things and I told him there are things he doesn't know. I told him there are two major secrets that I have, one good and one bad and I asked him if he is okay to wait until I'm ready to talk about them."

"And what did he say?" Uriah asked.

"He agreed," Tris said smiling.

"But isn't it weird. I mean he is older than you," Lynn said.