You And Me Against The World | ✅

Chapter 52

Evelyn remains silent for a long while. I stood up almost immediately after Tobias spoke and pulled him with me. We are currently in the kitchen making sure everything is warm for us to have lunch. I knew this would be difficult. The fact that Evelyn is closed minded isn't much help either. I know she means well, although not for everyone. She has lived factionless for so long that the faction system is just nonsense and a threat to her way of life. I am very much aware that the factionless population in the city is way higher than the council thinks. No one seems to have actually taken an interest in finding out for sure, but it has to be this way. Tobias told me there are many and considering recent years and the number of dropouts from each faction after the initiation process is complete leads me to believe that the factionless combined would be in pure numbers just as many as the members of any given faction.

Tobias is carrying the food into the dining area and placing it on the table. I return to the living room and sit down next to Evelyn. She looks up at me, her eyebrows furrowed and a scowl on her face.

"I believe that we should have the right to choose for ourselves and the faction system is undermining that right," she states.

"I partially agree with you. Listen, Evelyn, it's Christmas. Let us postpone the politics for another time. We haven't invited you here for this. I know you have your opinion and I have stated mine. All I'm asking is that you keep an open mind about this. You don't have to give me any kind of answer now or in the next few days. Take your time, think about it and then let me know. I respect you, Evelyn, you are their leader and you have lived among them for many years. They wouldn't look up to you for leadership and advice if you wouldn't care for them, but let me demonstrate that I have everyone's best interest at heart, including your people," I say and smile at her. She looks at me serious for a moment before giving me a smile of her own.

Tobias walks into the living room and tells us that lunch is ready. We get up and walk to the small dining area where we sit down, Tobias on the end of the dining table and Evelyn and I on each side of him. We start eating in comfortable silence, broken only by polite remarks such as "what a wonderful meal" or "please, pass the salt". After we are done with lunch, we return to the living room and I give Evelyn my gift for her.

"What is it?" she asks looking at me curiously.

"Your Christmas present. I hope you like it," I say sincerely.

"You didn't have to," she says almost shy. "I wasn't aware that we would do this," she tries to say but I interrupt.

"Doesn't matter. I wanted to get this. Disregard the holiday and just think of it as a small token of my appreciation," I say.

"You appreciate me?" she asks disbelievingly.

"Yes. Even though we don't always see eye to eye I told you I respect you as a leader. And without you this man I love so much wouldn't exist," I say looking toward him with a slight blush spread over my face. "But what I really appreciate is how you try to mend your relationship with your son. This means more to me than anything. I've told Tobias that I don't care if you are mean to me as long as you honestly try to make it work with him. I would go through fire for him if necessary only to see him happy. You proved to me more than once that you really are honest and you even helped him when I was missing. Thank you again for that. I hope you like it," I say and leave the room.

I need to calm myself. Even though I've learned over the past months to control my emotions in public I still explode easily when I'm too frustrated and right now Evelyn really frustrated the crap out of me. I go into the bedroom and close the door behind me. I let myself drop backwards on the bed and close my eyes for a moment. Gosh, she's so stubborn. She wouldn't see a good thing in front of her eyes even if it would spit in her face. I realize this is where Tobias must have gotten his stubbornness from. I breathe in and out trying to calm my nerves. I knew it would be difficult to make her see reason. She wants the same thing I want only in her opinion it has to be now. You can't go and change everything over night. She is a leader, yes, but a lousy diplomat. Sometimes you can catch more flies with honey than with a sledge hammer. Now that I think of this, my mom used to say this to me when something didn't go my way. I understand Evelyn, more than she might think. True, I haven't had the life she had, first being married to an abusive man and then forced to live factionless, to struggle every day for survival, but I know what it's like to live guarded and afraid to trust anyone. I know how it's like to fight wind mills when all you want to do is change things for the better. I struggle with this every day. I realized that if I really wanted to change things I needed to take things slow. Make others see my point of view. I know it's somewhat manipulative, but some people are just too dumb to see what's good for them. I mean, there has to be a reason why I'm divergent. Why divergents exist for that matter. The fact that we fit in more than one category can't be all that's to it. Mom once told me that my mind works in a million different ways and that I see things others miss or disregard. It's time I put this to good use.