Eric

The Change

"Ow!" I call out obnoxiously. I can feel the cold air sting at the tiny wound on my face, but man, it felt like a really bad paper cut on my jaw.

"What did you expect when you picked the one part of your body with hardly any fat?" Ethan remarked smirking like he enjoyed seeing me in pain.

"Screw you." I said casually, tousling my dark hair. I haven't got to cutting it in a while so it was down to the bottom of my ears, it was really bothering me.

"Hey you do hair cuts also?" I asked slanging my words still playing with my hair. Ethan sighed, wiping the disinfectant wipe all over my face. "I'm already ten minutes over my time, but Tori's not here yet so I guess. But you owe me." He said tiredly.

"What would you like?" he said, reaching behind him then picking up a large black booklet. My piercings were done already, so I wondered how long it would take him to do a haircut.

I flipped the book open only to find the first page was for long boys hair like mine. But I want something different. I flipped the page, to find a haircut that intrigued me. It was a man with dark hair, and deep brown eyes like me. His bangs were only on the right, almost covering his right eye, and the rest of his hair was short, his left bangs non-existent.

I decided to flip the binder one more time to see another selection.

"Could you hurry up?" Ethan's voice says, sounding annoyed. "Relax." Is all I said.

I went back to scanning the page and found another haircut I was interested in. A boy with light blonde hair and green eyes, had the two sides of his hair shaved like a mohawk, except the hair part was much wider and about half the height of a normal haircut. But I decide to flip back to the other one.

"I would like this," I said pointing to the picture with the weird right bangs.

Ethan turned around, looking at the picture, then me. As if calculating me, how I would look. He must have been Erudite. "Are you sure? Kind of a stereotypical haircut." He said paying no interest at all.

"Yes, I'm sure." I replied, scolding. I plan on people recognizing me after initiation for my reputation, having a stereotypical hair cut or not.

Within a few seconds I hear a buzzing noise beside my ear, and felt hair trickle down my shoulder. It nicked my ear and I just let out a subtle huff.

Would my mom recognize me on the visiting day, or Jon? Of course they would I scolded myself. Just uncertainties taunting me.

"Alright, now your looking like a hardcore dauntless," Ethan said smirking an ugly grin. "You can go." He said, eagerly shooing me out the door, already starting to pack up his own stuff. I'm surprised I am not intimidated by Ethan, he would probably have good looks if I were a girl, and a wide build, although he is almost a head shorter then me.

I wiped away the remaining hair on my shoulders and my shirt and walked out the door. "I prefer parcore." I finally responded back. "And I don't owe you jack-shit!" I hollered. I jog out of the little tattoo parlour sector only to bump into Kaiden. "Ah, I've been for you. Zoelton and Livia went to 'Ups Maxus' to get us a drink and some seats. It's kindof like a fancy bar." He explained. "Okay," I responded, cool with the idea but unsure with drinking. My mom was very strict on some things. "How far is it?" Kaiden laughs obnoxiously. "Eh, Eric," he said. "How far is anything."

I grinned he, was right. All the bars, stores were lines up in a wall surrounding the one side of the pit that wasn't an actual underground wall. If it was in fact far, well there was always sprinting.

We walked through the pit, and for some reason tonight it was abnormally crowded- or if it was like this regularly, it wouldn't matter to me. I never minded crowds or tight spaces. I would rather be close than distant.

Some cocky Dauntless who looked only about two to three years older than me would walk right threw us and I found myself elbowing one tall blonde girl hard in the back and hearing an unexpected yelp. After that I eyed them and they seemed to move around me and Kaiden after that. We finally arrived at a slight curve on the wall and stood in front of a restaurant that had neon navy blue lights illuminating it and written along the top of the entrance walls 'Ups Maxus' in neon pink lights. Their was no door, more like a dome across the whole entrance wall. I could hear a high bass song with mixed up words and it really confused me. What was the point of this music? I don't advertise it among my friends- well now ex-friends from Erudite, but I listen to music for the emotions. Not the relaxation. In Erudite music was just the sound of calm rivers, or perhaps the sounds of crickets and the cracking of fire. But I heard something different.

Kaiden takes a step forward and I grab his arm lightly.

"Wait," I say. "What's this song." I ask. "Stranger," he replies. "It's an old song. But good dance music." He says. I groan, but he doesn't hear me. That's not what I meant. I meant what type of sound, or could it be described as genre? Like a book genre? But I also groan because I have never danced before, and I felt pressured. But I decided not to care. If someone wanted to make me dance, just watch them try.

"Kaiden, Eric!" I heard someone call over, and looked in the direction to see Livia and Zoelton waving us down. I sighed and Kaiden grinned at my annoyance, or stubbornness even I couldn't tell how I was feeling.

"We got a great table. Right between the bar and the floor. Well they are pretty much the same thing." Livia laughed to herself. "What did she have?" I questioned. The only reason I knew about intoxicating drug were because in my sixth year of elementry, the kids learn about serums, medical drugs, alcohol and self inducing drugs. They only talked to us about the negative side effects though. Wonder what they talked about in Amity. Gosh, I've heard some things about Amity.

"Nothing," Zoelton laughed. "She's just like that." He explained. "Aren't we all?" Kaiden smirked. Nope.

"Lets go sit down." I said poker-faced.

We pushed through groups of people, some sweaty, some fruity smelling, some whom you could smell the reek of alcohol from there breath from five feet away without their mouth open. Ugh.

We sat down and waited for a waiter and it didn't take my nose long to become accustomed to these awful smells (excluding the girls with strawberry perfume).

"Any drinks, food?" Approached a waiter. She was wearing a low tight black and white spotted shirt, which I found the pattern odd, but I guess it would be the only way to distinguish the from other normal Dauntless girls. I couldn't take my eyes off her, but not for the loyal reason of course.

"Mmm..." Sighed Zoelton, trying to decide something. "Whatever... there having!" He pointed to a group of girls at the bar. "Well round one is spiked Shirley temples." She said walking away. Zoelton groaned and dragged us all up. "Then what's round two?" I gulped.

"I don't know, girls come up with some pretty weird stuff here." He said boredly. Livia elbowed him in the ribs and Kaiden walked ahead. Zoelton approached a girl and was about to tap her back. "Where are we going?" I said before he could make any further move. "Erm, right. Who would want to get with an initiate anyways? That's why I brought you Eric! Good call. Lets go back to our table." He nervously said, right behind the girls ear whom flipped her hair and had an annoyed look in her eyes. She pushed in the chair and moved to a table.

As Zoelton awkwardly walked back I narrowed my eyes at him for two reasons. First, was he seriously going to ditch us for some skank. Second, did he just assume it was my recognition and not his own that no one would want to sleep with him, just because I'm Erudite? God, I know how this is going to go down if this happens again.

"Good call on the spiked Shirley temples Eric!" He said. I rolled my eyes. Confirmed. A tall brunette in a grey short sundress strolled past him, almost brushing against him. "Fruity drinks weren't my idea..." he said, his voice and eyes both lingering on the girl. A hint of jealously sparked in Livias eyes, what I could probably only notice being so observant in this loud, busy place.

Ill have to ask her about it later.

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A/N

Comments on my writing? Good, bad, anything like that. Any comments on it are appreciated. Not sure how my writing is. How could I improve? Anyways, hope you all are enjoying the story :)