Roommates

Make Me Forget

Thank you again to everyone who has commented! I am so excited every time I see that someone has taken a moment to tell me what they think, and the encouragement means so much to me.

This chapter was originally just a couple of paragraphs at the beginning of what is now going to be chapter 13, but then I decided that it deserved a full chapter and I'm very glad I decided to do so. It was a little challenging wedging a new chapter in between the last one I had posted and the two upcoming chapters that were written and in the final revision stages, but I'm pretty happy with the result! I hope you like it, too.

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Tris
Late September

I glance at Four nervously as we walk down the hallway on the tenth floor of the dormitory. I know we said we'd forget about the kiss, pretend it never happened, but the closer we get to walking into the apartment Four shares with my boyfriend-- where Eric very well may be waiting-- the more powerfully the memory dominates my thoughts.

We're just yards from their door when I stop, grabbing Four's arm. He pauses and turns toward me, eyebrows raised. "You okay?" he asks.

I bite my lip and nod slowly. "Just... um... you swear you're not going to say anything to Christina, right?" I whisper. "Because I think the only thing worse than having to tell Eric about... what happened... is for him to hear it from someone else."

Four shakes his head firmly. "I definitely will not be telling her, Tris." He sighs. "I don't want that trouble any more than you do," he adds, his hands raised with his palms facing out, as if surrendering.

"Okay," I say, taking a deep breath. We turn in unison and continue to the apartment. I don't know whether to be relieved that Eric has to work tonight, or anxious about the prospect of being alone in the apartment with Four. Things are just... awkward, at the moment.

Four and I walk into the apartment together, me a few steps ahead of him. Eric is in the kitchen, leaning with his back against the counter, and when I stop between the small entryway and the kitchen, staring at him blankly, he pushes off the counter with his hands and approaches me hesitantly, grabbing a small bouquet of flowers I hadn't noticed resting on the counter. Eric glances at Four with furrowed eyebrows, questions in his eyes.

I glance at Four. "Uh, thanks again, Four, for the ride today. I really do appreciate it." Four scratches the back of his neck, he seems to be looking anywhere that is not directly at me, and I see Eric bite his lip, chewing on the metal stud in his lower lip, eyes downcast. He almost looks ashamed.

"Sure, Tris. No problem." Four's shoulders are tense as he glances between Eric and me, then crosses to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water, before trudging to his bedroom and closing the door.

I finally take the flowers from Eric. Daisies. I smile remembering the first time he brought me flowers-- an image of sixteen-year-old Eric, only his lip and ear pierced at the time, standing at the door of the apartment I had just moved into with a bouquet of daisies just like this one. He had looked nervous as he handed them to me, and I had summoned up my courage and pulled him closer to me to give him a sweet, tentative kiss. We had spent the evening playing arcade games. It was a warm night for October, and we had been eating ice cream cones at the lake shore when he asked me to officially be his girlfriend.

The memory melts my heart and for a moment, I almost forget about what today is, what I had to do today... what Eric refused to help me with today.