Discoveries ✔ (Divergent Fourtris Fanfiction)

Chapter 12: Wednesday, 10 days until initiation

Tris

Somebody's knocking vigorously at my door. I try to tune out the sound, but it won't stop.

"Tris, open the door!" I hear Christina's muffled voice from outside.

Why is she here? I sleepily swing my legs out of bed and stumble over to the door. Christina looks at me concerned.

"Tris, you're alright? I've been knocking my knuckles wound here for two minutes now."

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine."

"You overslept."

"I figured that's why you're here."

I don't like having conversations in the morning. I need my time to wake up properly first. Christina slips into the room past me and hands me a mug filled with steaming hot coffee. It smells delicious.

"Feel free to sit down," I motion to the couch.

"You have about ten minutes until we have to leave. Simulations again this morning, do you remember?"

She keeps babbling about this and that while I gather some clothes and quickly change into them in the bathroom. I keep the door slightly open, so Christina can continue filling me in on her plans for today. When I step back into the room, she eyes me from head to foot.

"You look as if you haven't slept at all last night," she asserts.

"Can't you try to be a little less Candor around me for once?" I shoot back at her.

Her remark doesn't help to improve my mood. Now that Tobias and I have shared so much last night, I don't want to destroy the trust we've built by another of my stupid simulations. I know the way my brain pictures him in them upsets him and it always seems to throw us back a few steps, so I can't stop worrying about it.

Christina drags me back into my small bathroom and makes me sit down on the closed toilet seat. During the next five minutes she applies make-up on my face. I come to think she uses at least twice the amount of the few products that I actually have since she gave them to me. Obviously she uses some of them more than once. Then she brushes my hair and twists it into a loose knot at the back of my head.

"Okay, now I think I've made up for my comment. Take a look!"

When I look at myself in the mirror, my eyes light up. I don't know how she does it, but I really look a lot better now. The soft rosy color on my cheeks makes me look as if I'd just taken a walk outside and the soft silvery eye shadow and mascara let my eyes shine brighter.

"Thanks. You know, some day you'll have to spill me your make-up-secrets."

"Speaking of secrets: Whose sweater is this?"

She gestures to Tobias' sweatshirt hanging over the towel rack. I left it there last night before I went to bed.

"I found it in my cupboard. Whoever lived here before me must have left it there."

Christina eyes me suspiciously and it takes all my strength to keep eye contact. I'm surprised that she lets me off the hook.

"If that's what you say."

"We should head down, or we'll both be late," I change the topic quickly.

We hurry to the fear simulation rooms without speaking. I wonder if she's angry with me for lying to her. Maybe she noticed it, after all? If all Candor are like her, why do they need a truth serum at all?