Roommates

Breaking the Girl

Tris
Mid-November

It is eight PM and I can finally turn off the cafe's OPEN sign and lock the door. I finish the last of the clean-up and count out the till before I climb the stairs to the small apartment upstairs and sink onto my bed.  Well, actually, it's a couch.  But it's where I sleep now.

"Thanks for closing everything down tonight," Tori says. "It's nice to have a break."

"Don't thank me until you confirm that I didn't totally fuck up the till." I yawn, and I wish I could say it was only for effect, but that would be a lie. "I'm exhausted." Tori just chuckles. I just drag myself off the couch to start catching up on my schoolwork. I missed my classes Monday and part of Tuesday, between moving my stuff and still being sick. Okay, if I'm being honest, the only reason I missed part of Tuesday was that I wasn't ready to walk into my English Lit class and face Four and Marlene.

The past few days have left me completely drained. When Tobias- no, Four- walked away from me in that hallway I didn't know what to do. Unless I went back to my dorm room with Molly, which wasn't going to happen, I was homeless. So I called Tori. After all, she said I could always come to her.

*Flashback:*

After Tobias disappears into the stairwell, I slide down the wall with tears streaming down my face. I am not sure how long I sit there, it could be minutes or it could be hours. Christina and Eric are still in the apartment. I dread going back in there, but I will have to. I have the duffel bag full of my stuff, but I forgot to pick up my school bag. Even worse, I left it just inside the door to Eric's room. Finally I pull myself together enough to go back in and grab my bag, which is now sitting nicely by the door. I wonder if Eric did that, or if it was Christina. I am done with Eric no matter what, but seeing my backpack sitting there waiting for me still feels like a knife to my heart. After I remove my key to the apartment from my key ring and hastily drop it on the kitchen counter, I only pause for a moment before throwing the backpack over my shoulder and hurrying back out.

I wander, and find myself sitting on a bench outside. The medicine Four gave me is beginning to wear off and I just want to lay my head down. But I have nowhere to do so.

No. As completely alone as I feel, there is still someone who cares for me. I pull out my phone and scroll through my recent calls, and my eyes land on a name: Tori. I don't hesitate now, I just place the call.

"Hey, Tris, how's Indiana?" she answers.

At the sound of her voice, all the strength I had gathered back up crumbles and I break into sobs. I can't get words out, which isn't very good on the telephone. But I don't need to.

"Tris, where are you? I'll come get you." She doesn't even know if I am in this state, and she's offering to come for me.

"In front of the dorm," I manage to choke out.

"I'll be there in ten."

Twenty minutes later I am sitting in Tori's little kitchen in her apartment above the cafe. I take the fever reducers she handed me with a few sips of water while she busies herself wordlessly in the kitchen.

"Here you go," Tori says. She hands me a steaming mug that smells like peppermint. I hold it with both hands, my fingers prickling with warmth.

She sits down across from me. I managed to calm down enough by the time she picked me up, that i was able to at least give her a basic explanation of what happened.

"Drink it," she says. "It will make you feel better, I promise."

"I don't think tea is the solution," I say slowly. But I sip it anyway. It warms my mouth and my throat and trickles into my stomach. I didn't realize how deeply cold I was until I wasn't any more.