Stay Away | Eric Coulter [1]

thirty-two

NESSA

    I stood amongst a sea of Dauntless members, most of whom are all fellow initiates waiting for our final rankings to be announced.

Marlene clutches my hand in one of her hands and Lynn's in the other squealing excitedly as she stares at the still-blank screen in front of us.

"The anticipation is killing me!" She hops on the balls of her feet, drawing a chuckle from Uriah.

Based on my ranking the last time I'd checked it, I was above the line and knew I hadn't done anything that warranted being dropped to a lower number. Still, anxiety and self-doubt- that I'm pretty sure wouldn't go away until I've finally seen my rank- eats away at me.

"If you're ranked above the red line, you'll move on to the second stage of training. If you're ranked below it, we'll waste no more time on you." Max, one of our leaders, announces from where he's looking down on us from a platform above, "Here are your rankings."

The board flashes, revealing the list of names and beside their ranking. Skimming the board, I see Uriah's name ranked in third place, then further down, Marlene is ranked fifth and Lynn was tenth. Finally, my I spot my name in twelfth place. Relive fills my chest and a smile stretches across my face as I start celebrating with Marlene, unable to contain my excitement.

From behind, Uriah wraps us all in a hug, throwing his head back and yelling, "Yeah! We made it!"

I don't even realise my eyes have been unconsciously seeking Eric out until I meet his gaze.

Eric was on the platform with the rest of the leaders, where he watches me small smile playing on his lips, mouthing 'congratulations' when he sees me looking his way and I beam back at him.

"We need to celebrate!" Uriah declares before dragging us all towards the stairwell that leads to the roof.

I peer over my shoulder at Eric, gesturing for him to join us. As expectedly, he shakes his head in reply.

I wasn't going to force him, but one day, I'm going to convince Eric to join us.

✧

I stretch out the kinks in my neck as I walked through the door of our room the next morning.

Funny how I used to refer to this room as Eric's room and now, it was ours.

Eric curses under his breath when he nearly runs me over as I come to a sudden halt in the doorway.

"Damn it, Nessa." He grumbles, his hand coming round my waist to steady me. "You need to stop doing that." Eric pauses as well, having spotted what I've been staring at. "Well, damn."

Tris startles at Eric's voice in the midst of closing Tobias's door behind her.

"Uh...Good morning," I decide to say instead of prolonging the awkward silence.

"Morning," Tris mutters before she hurries down the hall, a flush working its way up her neck.

I narrow my eyes at Eric as he snickers from behind me, "Did you know about this?"

"No," He shrugs, "But I suspected there was something going on between them."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't think you would've wanted to know about your brother's sexual escapades."

Eric laughs at the face of disgust that I make, "Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't have wanted to know." I agreed.

Thinking back, I'm not sure how I missed the signs. From the stolen glances and the way Tobias seems to gravitate towards Tris, it was all right in my face and suddenly- much like when we were little and had to know absolutely everything about what's happening in each other's lives- I'm itching to ask Tobias about it.

Eric seems to see right through me and sighs, "It's killing you that you aren't grilling him about it, isn't it?"

I smile sheepishly up at him, "I'm dying to find out, now."

He jerks his head towards Tobias's door, "I guess I'll see you later, then."

"Don't miss me too much," I tease as I lean up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Not possible, I already do." He replies, hooking a finger through the belt loop of my pants and pulling me back into his arms when I turn to leave and crashes his lips to mine.

Smiling against his lips I shove him back lightly by the chest, "Go, I'll see you later."

Closing the short distance to Tobias's door, I rap my knuckles lightly against the wood and waited for him to answer.

A minute later, Tobias cracks the door open slightly and peers out to see who was on the other side. When he sees that it's only me, he pulls the door open all the way.

I peer over my shoulder when I notice him glaring at something behind me, only to catch a glimpse of Eric's back as he disappears down the hallway.

"Will it kill the both of you to try and get along?" I ask and my brother simply grunts in reply, reminding me much of another hot-head I know.

I enter the room, closing the door behind me. The smell of coffee instantly fills my nostrils, making my stomach growl just from the delicious scent.

Wordlessly, Tobias pulls two cups from a drawer and fills both of them up with coffee before passing one over to me.

Taking it, I plop down on the edge of Tobias's bed, noticing how bare his room was. If I thought Eric's room was plain, Tobias's was worse...and a whole lot messier.

"So...last night was eventful, huh?" I comment as casually as I can, "I saw Tris doing the walk of shame," I add when my brother raises a questioning brow at me before pausing thoughtfully, "Which reminds me, should I be sitting on here?"

Tobias shoots me a look, "Nothing happened last night, V."

Wrinkling my nose at his sheets, I scurry off of his bed as a precaution and settled on a stool by his kitchen counter.

My brother rolls his eyes at my dramatics, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. "Why do you care? It's not like it has anything to do with you. I don't shove my nose into you and Eric's business." He grumbles.

"That's because you don't like Eric," I shoot back, "I, on the other hand, have no problem hearing about you and Tris. Just...maybe don't go into too much details."

With a scoff, Tobias turns to his refrigerator, "I'm not telling you shit, V."

When he turns back, I notice he has a chocolate cake with the words 'Congratulations, V!' written in icing on the top of it. Placing it in front of me he says, "I never got to congratulate you last night," He smiles, "Congratulations, V. I'm proud of you."

"Do you celebrate everything with cake?"

"If you don't want it, I'll finish it myself." Tobias starts pulling the cake towards him and I hurry to snatch a fork out of his hand.

"I never said I didn't want some!" I argue, stabbing my fork into the cake and taking a bite of a large chunk.

Tobias chuckles under his breath, tossing a wad of paper towels at my face and I laugh.

"You know, normally people are less grumpy after they get laid." I narrow my eyes at him, "It doesn't seem to work the same for you."

Tobias groans, "You're insufferable, you know that?"

I shrug with a large grin, "I try my best."

Tobias and I enjoy our cake over mindless chatter and for the first time in our lives, it felt as if we could just be the kids we never got to be when we were younger. And that in itself felt fucking amazing.