The Girl Who Cried Dauntless

Chapter Seventeen: Lessons With Peter

The game of Candor or Dauntless plagued my thoughts last night to the point no other thought crossed my mind. Not even the fact that Visiting Day was tomorrow entered my chaotic train of thought. It was just my kiss with Peter playing over and over again, and it was frightening because I found myself rather enjoying it in some strange way. By the time sleep fortunately interrupted the flow of my thoughts and I could finally get some sleep, morning was already there.

I laid in bed as all the initiates got up one by one to go to breakfast. My body didn't budge from it laying position when they did so, instead I kept wrestling with my conflicting, restless thoughts about last night.

Only when the last person left the room did I have some sort of energy to hoist myself out of bed. Without much of a rush, I picked out my clothes for training today and went into the poorly maintained girls' washroom. The washroom looked bad on the outside, and was just as disgusting on the inside. Metal toilets that looked as though they hadn't been cleaned for ages, rolls of crumpled up toilet paper was scattered across the floor and an unpleasant, lingering odour stained the air. For my sanity, I skipped over checking the showers.

I got changed into my black tank-top and matching exercise tights before brushing my teeth. I looked in the mirror as I continued brushing my teeth, assessing all the differences from now since the time I started initiation at Dauntless. The hair was the first thing to pop out, especially on my fair complexion, but I also noticed the new muscles on my body. My calves' muscles appeared more defined and strengthened, my triceps and biceps were more firm, and my core was naturally tighter and smoother, instead of me sucking it in.

I nodded in content at my appearance and gladly left the washroom, still expecting no one to be in the dormitory. A shock of freight rattled my body when I saw Peter by his bed, rummaging around in the contents of his drawer. When the gasp left my mouth, he looked up in confusion, but then smirked when he made eye contact. "Aren't you suppose to be at breakfast, princess?" He asked, turning away from his stuff to look at me, his smirk still on his lips. "Can I not say the same for you? I thought you left with the rest of them."
"I did ... but I needed to get something." Peter didn't elaborate on what he was looking for, but it peaked my interest. "And what said thing are you looking for?" My question left silence between us for a few seconds before he responded. "All this time in Dauntless and you still haven't lost your Erudite curiosity?" I didn't answer him. I didn't know how, which was unusual for somebody like me. At this point in training, the qualities people developed in their previous factions have disappeared almost completely by now - except for me.

I turned my back to him and pulled out the drawer from under my bed, putting my toothbrush in a case and placing it in the drawer. As I shut my drawer and get my shoes from under the bed, I heard Peter getting up from kneeling on the floor, though I paid no attention to it. That was until I turned around and there he was. A yelp of terror left me from not expecting him to be at such close proximity to me. He was close enough that I could see a light dusting of freckles subtly littered across his nose.

"Is there something wrong with your brain!" I seethed at his alarmingly quick movement to me. His wide eyes brightened, as they usually did when he got a reaction out of me. "Just because I didn't come from Erudite doesn't mean I'm a meathead," his tone sounded serious, though his expression didn't match considering the smirk was still plastered on his face and never faltered. I rolled my eyes at having succumbed to his idiocy and tried to pass him. Peter seemed to have other ideas since he blocked my path of exit with his arm. "I have no time for you Peter! I'm hungry and have to eat before -" Peter cut off my sentence. It wasn't with an insertion of his own words or a noise of disagreement with mine - it was with him pressing his lips to mine.

The scene unfolded exactly how it did last night. Peter quickly took control of the kiss and I stood there, not contributing to the kiss at all. Though unlike last night, this time Peter noticed the hesitation and pulled away to look at me, a slightly irritated expression playing on his features. "Do you not know how to kiss?"
"Maybe if you didn't just come out of nowhere and kiss me without my permission, I would've kissed back!"
"And you're excuse for last night?" My mouth opened to answer back, but I quickly closed it soon after. At this, Peter's smirk found life again. "You don't know how to kiss, do you?" I still didn't answer him. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Peter from continuing on. He laughed at the realization that I didn't know how to kiss. "Are you sure you're not secretly a Stiff?" Annoyed with the ridicule, I pushed his hand away to allow myself a clear path out of the room. I didn't get very far before his hand closed around my biceps, preventing me from furthering my strides towards the door. He turned me around to face him again and put his lips back onto mine, though this time, it was patient and slower than the last one. It was clear he altered the pace of the kiss for a reason, which was most likely for me to mimic the movement of his lips. I did so, and started moving my lips along with his. Peter brought his hand to the back of my neck to deepen the kiss and this time I found myself shamelessly enjoying the contact, though I pulled away when I ran out of breathe.

He didn't let go of me, even after we pulled away from the kiss. Instead, he rested his forehead against mine as my body inhaled and exhaled rapidly to get oxygen to my quickening heartbeat. "You're kissing was terrible, but don't worry. We'll work on it." A scarce laugh escaped me as I jokingly pushed at his chest, causing a small smile to appear on his face too.

We stayed in comfortable silence the whole time, while never leaving our position. It was only when someone came through the door, calling my name did we break apart to see Christina. She was staring at us, her dark jasmine eyes wide in shock and what I believed to be disgust.