~DIVERGENT~ Paradise

Day 8

It's Sunday, so we sleep in, and meet for brunch around noon.
"God, I'm starving," Christina says as she piles food on her plate. "And don't think I didn't notice you and Four last night."
"Shh!" I say. "Although I'm not sure how since your face didn't seem to leave Will's at all."
"I know. He's cute, isn't he?"
"He is, actually. And really nice too. Nothing like the usual guys you date."
"I know. So Four?"
"What about him?" I ask.
"Well he doesn't exactly talk a whole lot, Tris. It makes it a little hard to get to know him. So...?"
"So...he's probably the nicest person I have ever met, honestly."
"And..." Christina says, dragging it out and staring at me.
"And, okay. I like him. Just a little bit though."
She squeals and I give her a look. She makes a motion over her mouth, like she's locking it, and I roll my eyes.
"So, what's the plan for the day?" Marlene asks as we sit down.
"Honestly? I want to just lounge around for a while. I feel like we've done so much the past couple of days and I just want to read and relax," I say.
"Pool day?" Christina asks.
"I agree, and can definitely handle a pool day," Shauna adds.
"Well it's settled then. Lazy Sunday, activated," Marlene says. "Let's meet at the Star Pool. They don't allow kids in that one, so it'll be extra relaxing."
We head back to our room, and I grab the other suit Christina picked out for me. It's a bright teal color, with small little jeweled stars on one hip, and another small grouping of stars on the back just below my shoulder blades.
"Look at you, hot stuff," she says as she comes out of the bathroom. "This wouldn't be for a certain someone, would it?"
"That's it. I'm changing," I say, even though I'm just messing around with her.
"No don't! You look really nice, Tris."
"Thank you, Chris. You look beautiful too, as always."
"Oh you don't need to tell me," she says, as she mocks like there's paparazzi in the room. We laugh as I grab my Kindle and head down to the pool.
We're the first ones there, so we pick out a spot in the shade, and drag enough loungers over for everyone. I lay my towel down, stretch out and close my eyes. A few minutes pass when I hear conversation, and a loud wolf whistle.
"Look at you two," Uriah says. "Couple of babes if I do say so myself." I open my eyes just in time to see Lynn shove him.
"Dammit! What the hell, Lynn?"
"That's for perving on your friends in front of your girlfriend. And this," she says as she punches him in the arm, "Is for the whistle."
"What the hell is wrong with whistling?" he asks as he rubs his arm.
"They are not here for you to gawk at and treat like a piece of meat. Have a little respect."
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry for whistling at you instead of just telling you that you look nice," he says to Christina and me. "Better?"
"Better," Lynn says.
I smile at Lynn. "Thank you for that. We've missed you. Where have you been?"
"I met some cool people, but they had something they had to do and I couldn't join them. So I decided to hang out with these dorks today."
"Well, I'm glad you did," I say. She gives me a small smile before jumping in the water. Everyone follows suit; jumping and splashing and laughing, but I just take out my Kindle and start to read.
Not long after I feel a presence creep into the lounger next to me and look over to see Four. "Whatcha' reading?" he asks.
"Oh, I was in the middle of re-reading Harry Potter when we left. Prisoner of Azkaban," I say, turning the Kindle slightly.
"One of my favorites," he says.
"Really? When I was little, we would always pick out which character we were, and then read the book out loud as that character. I know, kinda nerdy."
"Not at all," he says. "So who were you?"
"Hermione."
"I should have known," he says with a grin.
"So who would you be?" I ask.
"Dumbledore," he says without hesitation.
I watch him for a moment to gauge whether he's joking or not, and I smile. "Okay, I give. Why Dumbledore?"
"Why not? Who doesn't want to be the oldest and most bad ass wizard there is?"
I have to give it to him. He has a point. "Fair enough," I say.
He leaves me to my book and joins the others again in the pool. After a few chapters I put my Kindle down and join them too. I watch Four rough house with Zeke for a moment, and I don't know why it didn't occur to me before, but he has his shirt on; he had it on the other night too. I swim over to him and grab his attention by tugging gently on the hem. "Why don't you take your shirt off? It's not like you're out of shape," I say. Clearly he is quite defined, as I'm able to see every muscle as the wet shirt clings to him.
He looks at me, and I notice a flash of something in his eyes; maybe a wave of sadness?
"Shoot. Forget I asked. I'm sorry," I say.
"No. It's okay. It's a valid question," he says. "Come on. I have something I want to show you."
I follow him out of the pool and over to the showers. He pulls me into the family one and closes the door. I'm a little nervous, but then I notice he has that same look on his face that he had just before we went zip lining.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Fine. I just didn't think this through. Small spaces are a no for me too."
"Let's go then," I say.
"No. I want to show you."
He turns around and takes off his shirt. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. He has a massive tattoo, covering the majority of his back. There are five circles down his spine, each with a different symbol inside. All around them are massive flames, covering the rest of his back and most of his ribs. It's all in black ink as dark as my ravens, and I run my hand across my collarbone, remembering how painful it was.
"It's...," I trail off, not even sure which adjective I want to use. "Just...massive. Wow."
"Would you like to hear the story behind it?" he offers.
"Yeah, I would."
"When I was little, my mother used to tell me a bedtime story about a brave hero, and the trials that were set forth for him in his life. The first one," he says, reaching up over his shoulder and pointing to the flame enclosed in a circle, "Was about bravery. The hero had to overcome his greatest fear, fire, and save a family from their burning home. It was extremely difficult for the hero, and he almost let them perish in the fire because he was too overcome with cowardice. But he found the strength by looking in the window, and into the eyes of the littlest child. It sparked the courage that allowed him to face his fear and fight it, thus saving them, and for that, he was rewarded with the traits of bravery and fearlessness."
"The next one, the clasping hands, involved taking that family with him on his journey. They were a great burden to the hero. They slowed him down, used up what valuable resources he had, and gave away their position more than once, almost getting themselves killed in the process. But the hero managed to get them to a safe place, and for that, he was rewarded with the trait of selflessness. Coupled with bravery, he learned what it meant to do things for others, without any gain for yourself."
"The third one, the eye, was a trial in which the hero had to use intelligence to win over his opponent. He had to make his way through an ever changing maze, and each person he encountered inside was there to confuse him and make him fail. Eventually he was able to see through their trickery, intelligence over ignorance, and was rewarded with the trait of great knowledge."
"The fourth one, the scales, involves honesty. The hero met a man on his journey who asked him a series of questions. Even though they were personal and involved things that this man had no feasible way of knowing, the hero answered them all truthfully. Afterwards he was shown the bones of the men before him who were dishonest. For this he was rewarded with the ability to know when others were being dishonest, as well as learning the valuable lesson that honesty really is the best policy, and it will get your further in life than those who are deceitful."
"The last one, the tree, represents his final task. The hero had finally reached his destination; a great city waging war over the Tree of Abundance. Each side wanted to use this tree for their own selfish gain, and neither one was willing to cooperate with the other. The tree had given the people a prophecy; a man would be willing to lay down his life to set their fair city at peace. When the hero realized that the prophecy was about him, he was afraid because he had no idea what to do. So he reflected on his past trials and his newfound abilities; bravery, selflessness, intelligence, and honesty, and told the people about them. They didn't believe that one person could possess all of those noble traits, so he showed them. The hero laid down between the warring sides, and proclaimed that he would gladly die as the prophecy said he would, and that the only way to save his life, would be to stop fighting. The men laid down their weapons, realizing that the hero was indeed all of the things he said he was. Brave for lying down in the middle of a war, selfless because he was willing to die for what he believed in, intelligent for knowing this would get their attention and make them stop, and honest for sharing with them everything he had learned. For this final quest, the hero was rewarded with inner peace. The hero spent the remaining days of his life sharing his knowledge with others, and creating a better world."
"Four...I don't know what to say." I reach out and touch each symbol, taking in the story and the lessons his mother was trying to teach him at such a young age.
"After her death, it was the one thing that I always thought of. She wanted me to be a good man, and the day I turned 18 is the day I got these, in her memory."
"And the flames?" I ask as I touch them gently.
"My life wasn't the best after she died, and to top it all off, when my father found out what I did, well..." He pauses, and a part of me is afraid of what he might say next. "I was in a dark place for a really long time, and it made me hate what they represented; made me hate all the things I was certain I could never be. I wanted nothing more than to watch it all burn, so I set it on fire."
I feel my heart drop. "Four, I'm so sorry," I say.
"Don't be. I'm not in that place anymore. I use the pain of it all though; let it serve as a reminder that one day I can be those things, if I try hard enough. I keep it covered because it feels too personal to share with just anyone."
"You already are all those things," I say softly, blushing a bit that he wanted to share this with me.
He turns around and gives me a small smile. "Thank you," he says.
"You're welcome," I say. "I have a tattoo that nobody can see too." I feel a little awkward talking about it, as it's nowhere near as meaningful as his.
"Besides these?" he says, touching my ravens.
My breath hitches in my throat for a moment at his touch, so I nod. I turn around and lift my tank up just enough. I feel his touch on the left side of my back, just underneath where my bra would sit. "Saturn?" he says.
"Yeah. It's kinda my thing," I say. "It's nowhere as meaningful as yours, but it's my own personal story, I guess. Something just for me." I turn and touch my ravens. "My parents died in a car accident. That left just me and my brother. It hit me harder than it hit him, and he was already in college, so I was sort of left to deal with their death on my own. My father and I would go out every summer to the roof of the building he worked at, and take a telescope and look at the stars. Saturn was always my favorite thing to look at, and after their death, I got it, as a little piece of him."
"Then after I moved here, I really had this sort of empty feeling inside of me. I left our home, left my brother, left everything I ever knew. That's when I got these; one for each family member I left behind."
"Tris," he says softly. I take a step forward and wrap my arms around him. He shared something so personal with me and I him, and in this moment, I just felt the need to show my gratitude. He hesitates a split second before returning my embrace.
"We should get back," I say.
"Okay."

"Okay. The game is simple. You have to describe your underwear in one word, and we have to guess what they look like. Whoever guesses right, gets a shot, and whoever has the most shots, wins," Zeke says as he sets down a tray full of shot glasses and a bottle of vodka. We decided to spend our evening in one of the clubs. It's actually a dueling piano bar tonight, they just don't start until an hour from now.
"And what do you mean by wins? Because drinking a bunch of shots is not my idea of winning," Christina says. I nod in agreement.
"Ahh, that's the fun part you see. You get to dole out all the shots however you like. You can dole them out evenly, or give them all to one person," Uriah says with a smirk.
"Oh, I am so winning this," Christina says.
"Okay then, why don't you go first," Zeke says.
She taps her finger on her chin for a minute before saying, "Autumn."
"Orange," I say.
"Ding! Ding! Ding!"
"Aww. Not fair! You probably saw them this morning," Uriah whines.
"She did not!" Christina defends as Zeke puts a shot in front of me. "Who's next?"
"Tris, since you guessed right," Zeke answers.
My underwear are two different colors, so it takes me a moment to figure out a single word. "Cheshire," I say.
The group looks at each other for a moment before Four speaks up. "Pink and purple," he says.
"That is correct. I do believe that makes you next."
"Forest," he says.
"Green!" I shout. He smiles.
"Since I already went, Marlene, you go."
"Okay," she says. "I'm going to have to go with, checkers."
"Black and red!" Uriah and I both shout.
"I don't know, I think I'm going to have to go with Tris on this one," Marlene says. "She was a split second faster than you."
"Cheater," Uriah says as Zeke places another shot in front of me.
"Go on then, Uriah," I say.
"Lumberjack," he says.
The table bursts into laughter as Zeke says, "Plaid!" and pours himself a shot.
In the end, I win with the three shots. I make sure to give everyone a single shot, including myself, and we start the game over again, this time guessing favorite colors.
After a few rounds, we are sufficiently relaxed enough to head out to the dance floor. I can't dance to save my soul, so I stand off to the side and watch everyone do their thing.
"What, no dancing?" Four says as he comes up next to me.
"Not exactly one of my strong suits," I say.
"Well, come on then. You and I can have no rhythm together." I smile as he drags me a little further into the crowd.
The song changes, and while it's an upbeat remix of a slow song, it's still on the slower side from what they've been playing. Four gestures to me, and says, "Middle school dance?"
I laugh. "Okay." I put my arms around his neck, and he puts his hands on my waist.
Four leans down just a little bit, and at first I'm not sure what's going on, but when I realize he's singing, I listen closely to the lyrics. It's a song I know, and listening to him absentmindedly sing along sends a jolt of electricity through me.
Not really sure how to feel about it.
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay
The song ends and we sit back down at our table because it's finally showtime. The two pianists introduce themselves, and we have a great time singing along to all the songs we know. I can't stop myself from sneaking looks at Four, and each time, he is already looking at me. As much as I went through in my last relationship, I decide that there are times that it's worth forgetting about.
I reach under the table and take Four's hand in mine.

Song is "Stay" by Rihanna.
Also, I'm sorry I haven updated in a while, but thanks everyone for reading!
Be brave,

Christina Eaton🔥