"So how was school?" Ryan asked me over his bowl of food.
"Huh?"
"I asked how school was"
"Oh fine"
"That's cool"
"Uh-huh"
Ryan pressed his knuckles to my forehead and knocked.
"Hello? Is somebody in there?"
I smacked his hand away.
"What the hell Ryan?"
"Oh good, someone's home!"
"What are you talking about?"
"You've been acting strange lately. Is everything okay?"
"Yes, of course"
"Is there something going between you and....Eric?"
Ryan still wasn't too keen on me and Eric dating. He wasn't one of Eric's biggest fans, but then again, neither was half this compound. He was a firm believer on the fact that letting your little sister date the compound leader was inappropriate. And maybe it was, but damn, I couldn't care less.
"No!" I protested.
Though there was. I was still very uneasy about yesterday's morning. I simply didn't want to explain all this to my brother.
"Alright..."
He retreated to his bedroom, and as I soon as I heard the door click shut, I left to go find Jessi. Maybe hanging out with my friends will help get Eric out of my head.
I watched a fight between two Dauntless members in The Pit with a couple of my friends, cheering madly. One of them kicked the other square in the face, causing a gush of blood to erupt. A group of guys let out a holler at the sight. A large hand gripped my side causing a breath to hitch in my throat. I spun around immediately to find Eric, but before I could object, he pulled me into a hallway. I leaned against a wall and crossed my arms across my chest, turning my head away from him.
"Come on, you're not still mad at me, right?" Silence. "Come on Alice, you haven't talked to me in almost two days!" I shot daggers into his eyes before continuing to avoid eye contact. "Please Alice! Let me make it up to you!"
"You can make it up to me by telling me the truth!"
"I....it's....it's dangerous Alice. You don't understand"
"And I never will unless you tell me!"
"I can't!" he pleaded.
"Than you'll just have to deal with my ignoring you"
I slipped away swiftly.
I lifted my fist to the smooth wood and knocked firmly. A couple of seconds later, the door swung open with a single creak.
"What are you doing here?" Eric inquired suspiciously.
I leaned against the doorframe.
"I wanted to see how you were holding up"
I moved inside to hear the crackling of a fire roaring in the fireplace. Eric slammed the door shut and locked it.
"Why did you change clothes?"
I turned to look at him, biting my bottom lip.
"What do you mean?" I cooed.
"Well you were wearing jeans and a shirt earlier. Now, you're in a skirt, that is way too short by the way"
"Hmmm really? I thought you'd like it" I spoke, pressing my back against one of tall posts of his bed.
He narrowed his eyes at me.
"You little...minx!" He ran up to me. "You dressed like this on purpose!"
"Maybe"
Eric leaned his face closer to mine, our noses brushing. Right as our lips were about to touch, I pushed him away.
"Not yet baby." He raised a confused eyebrow at me. "You can have me, as soon as you tell me the truth"
"Now that's not fair!"
I threw my arms around his neck.
"What's not fair is your boyfriend getting to keep things from you"
"It's not that I don't want to tell you Alice-"
"Than what is it?"
He let out a frustrated sigh. I retracted my arms and slowly began to unzip my leather jacket. Eric's eyes widened when he realized I wasn't wearing anything underneath. I hugged my jacket to my body, to conceal my bareness. Eric reached to unzip my jacket the rest of the way, but I smacked his hand off. I crossed my arms across my chest and glared at him.
"The reason I've been leaving the compound is because," he looked around, anywhere but my eyes, "I've been helping the Erudite."
I crinkled my eyebrows together.
"Helping the Erudite do what?"
"Capture the Divergent"
"The Divergent?"
"They're people who are threatening the system"
"Threatening the system how?"
"They want to overthrow the government, get rid of factions, rid us of order"
"Get rid of factions? Why would someone want to do that?"
"They believe that we shouldn't be told where to be and how to live our lives"
There was a part of me that agreed humans shouldn't be told how to live their lives, but I didn't feel like sharing that opinion would be such a smart idea.
"What do you do to them?"
"The Divergents?" I nodded. "We uh....we kill them" he let out.
"You kill them for having a say on what to do with their own lives?"
"See, this is why I didn't want to tell you. Don't give me that look!"
"What look?"
He sunk down onto the edge of the bed.
His voice grew low and silent. "The look of pure repulsion, disappointment."
I put my hands on his thighs and rubbed them comfortingly.
"I won't lie and tell you that I'm okay with this, but I am willing to turn the other cheek and let you do what you deem as necessary." He looked at me in bewilderment. I took his face in my hands and smiled widely. "Because I love you Eric!"
I squeezed his cheeks together and giggled stupidly. He picked me up, stood up, and tossed me on the mattress.
"Can we fuck now?"
"Yes" I laughed.
I sat up and connected my painted lips to his mouth.
