Dauntless High School

Chapter 40

FOUR

The party celebrating our victory in the first play-off game of the series raged well into the night, but now at nearly 1:30 in the morning, the crowd has dwindled. There are a few drunk teenagers stumbling around, and our friends have found their way home. Marlene, keeper of the keys (apparently a requirement at any party Tris hosts ― that's my girl!) is taking some of the drunk party goers wherever they need to be dropped off at, and I have helped to organize Uber rides for a few others. Nobody drives away wasted from a party at Tris Prior's house.

While I did have a couple of beers to celebrate our win against Roosevelt High, I have been careful not to go overboard. If Tris won't talk to me once the stragglers clear out of her house, I am sure I will regret that decision, but I am still holding out hope. Marlene gave me a little pep talk earlier and seems convinced that Tris is just about ready to talk it out with me. I hope she's right.

Last night, Zeke told me that Uriah has always been the only person who could coax Tris into talking before she was good and ready. I considered going over to try my luck after our little game of one-on-one, see if Tris holds me in the same regard as her ex-boyfriend, but in the end, I chickened out. If I don't rate high enough on the Tris-o-meter to garner the same magical powers of persuasion... I'd rather remain ignorant to the fact for now. Zeke insists that she'll be over it in no time. He says he's pissed her off worse than this...many times...so he should know. I say that Zeke is basically her family while she hardly knows me in comparison, and what we have is still new, so I am reluctant to get my hopes up on this.

I walk around Tris's house with a trash bag, two parts for an excuse to stick around a little longer and one part purely to suck up to her. I know she's right. I should have told her. She's just had so much to deal with lately, I thought Zeke and I could deliver justice for her and have the whole thing over and done with without piling any more stress on her plate. I didn't even think of how she would feel if she found out anyway. I certainly didn't anticipate this bothering her as much as it seems to.

When I find a beer spill in a corner of the living room carpet and mentally thank the asshole that left it there because it helps me stall for another three or four minutes. I am putting the spray bottle of carpet cleaner away under the kitchen sink when I hear Tris's voice behind me. "You didn't have to do all that."

I turn to face her. Her dress is short, and all that skin showing on those slender legs has been taunting me all night. More makeup than usual, probably thanks to Christina; I wish she wouldn't hide her face behind that stuff. Behind the mask, she looks tired, I can see it in her eyes.

"Most people would just say 'thank you,'" I retort, offering her a small smile.

She takes a few steps toward me and smirks. "I'm not most people."

"Thank God for that. I'm not a people person." I walk toward her now, meeting her in the middle but leaving a couple of feet between us, and tentatively place my hands on her hips. She doesn't push me away.

"We should talk," she says. Even though I have been waiting for her to be ready, for her to say that, my heart pounds. Those words don't have the best connotation in a boyfriend-girlfriend context.

"Lead the way."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The fact that Tris has lead me to her bedroom is a small comfort. I realize that it may simply be that she wants to talk where Marlene won't overhear, but we have had some great moments in this room.

I know I need to apologize, so I decide to do so before she can start to yell at me. "Tris, I'm sorry. I should have told you right away. I was drunk and distracted, and then, I guess you've just been dealing with so much I thought that I could deal with Al myself but he never showed up. I should have known it would get around anyway. I couldn't have been pleasant to hear it through the grapevine like that."