Unloved (Eric x OC Divergent)

Part V: The Festivities

After ending my shift I decide to go to my apartment to take a quick shower before I join my friends at Zeke and Shauna's for a night of games, and undoubtedly, drinks. I let my thoughts flow away with the water and relax myself. Unsurprisingly I find my thoughts wandering back towards the events that occurred earlier today, I try to analyze what actually happened and after quite some pondering, I conclude that I have no freaking clue as to what makes Eric behave the way he does. But somehow I feel like it has something to do with the way I react to him. I'm not scared of him, I don't take his shit and he knows it, which is probably why he has trouble keeping up his act around me.
I can't believe I saw Eric cry.

I decide to dress up a bit for tonight, as this is probably the last game night in a while with the initiation season upon us. I curl my hair and leave it hanging loosely, framing my face perfectly. I put on some black eyeliner and some mascara and finish it off with some red lipstick, liking the way it makes me look like one of those ancient pin-ups. After looking at my wardrobe for an unwarranted amount of time, I decide upon a fit and flare black dress and some black heels to top the pin-up look off. I'm giddy as I leave my apartment and take off towards Zeke and Shauna's, I'm looking forward to a night of laughter with my friends.

When I knock on the door it swings open almost immediately, Zeke welcomes me with his familiar big and insane smile, patting my head and enthusiastically telling me all about the shots he made, which are probably made out of pure alcohol and sugar, catching a glimpse of the color of the shots confirms my suspicions, they look absolutely chemical and it makes me giggle, Zeke is such an idiot. If anything, he loves throwing a party and he is a damn good host at that.
I walk up to Shauna and give her a hug, she smiles and asks "last slow day at the infirmary today?". I decide to not tell her about Eric and nod in agreement. "Come sit down" she pats the spot on the couch next to her and I take my seat. Zeke immediately rushes a beer towards me and clinks my bottle yelling "Cheers to the freaking weekend"! He bumps his brother Uriah's fist and they break out in a spontaneous dance I can't quite place or replicate, they look like they're somewhere between dancing and convulsing and it makes me giddy.

The last one to arrive is Four, who is loudly greeted by Zeke and Uriah, who serve him an ice cold beer that he undoubtedly deserves. "So how's the new harvest of initiates Four?" Shauna asks. Four rolls his eyes, settling on the couch next to me as he starts to explain how his new transfer class has some of the worst Candor big mouth's he has ever encountered, his voice is laced with the agitation he has probably built up by having to shut them down all day.
"But the first jumper was an Abnegation" he says it quickly, trying to downplay it by taking a nonchalant swig of his beer. Shaun is immediately all over that statement and wastes no time throwing Four into a cross examination:

"Whooo, girl or boy?" she asks.
"Girl" Four answers, the corner of his mouth twitching up involuntarily.
"Whoooo, is she pretty?" Shauna can't contain her excitement.
"I don't know" Four answers trying to perfect his 'I don't care'-glance, but I see right through that and can't help cooing. "Whooooo, Four has a crush!!" Shauna joins me quickly as we start to make kissing noises, making Four blush and shuffle around on the couch uncomfortably.
I can't help but think to myself how much I hope this Abnegation girl did fall into the Dauntless net to end up falling in love with Four. He deserves that kind of luck and love in his life. Just the thought of it makes me smile.

"Allright allright, enough with the girly stuff!" Zeke looks around to make his usual dramatic announcement: "It's time for...drum roll please...." Uriah mimics the sounds of a drum roll on his lap and Zeke continues: "...Candor or Dauntless"! We all meet his announcement with "Whoooohoooo" and get in formation around the coffee table. Zeke explains the rules again, acting like this isn't the millionth time we have played this game together.
"Failure to comply will result in one of these" he says grinning and pointing towards the chemical shots he manufactured especially for us. I find myself hoping I won't have to down one of those tonight.

"Four, Candor or Dauntless?" Zeke always takes first pick as he is, or so he has appointed himself, the Game Master. "Dauntless ofcourse" Four answers, Zeke acts like he is thinking very hard about what dare he is going to throw Four's way, after a few seconds he utters "I dare you to run to the initiate dorms and kiss the Abnegation girl". We all know what's going to happen next as we witness Four grabbing one of the shots and he downs it without even uttering a word in response to Zeke's dare, which is much to Zeke's pleasure as he laughs so hard I think he might actually fall off of his chair.
"Flo, Candor or Dauntless" Four immediately shifts the spotlight off of him onto me, making me throw him a sarcastic smile, I'm not the best at this game and I like it more when other people are the subject of matter, but I'll have to endure it for the sake of my friend this time. "Candor" I choose with determination, never ceasing to surprise my friends.
Four looks at me with a witty smile, apparently happy with the question he is going to ask me. "Flo is there someone in Dauntless at the moment you care for in a romantic way?"
As surprised as I am with this question, my friends to be even more surprised as they break out in all sorts of sounds and clapping. I think for a bit and can't believe it when a certain asshole of a leader creeps it's way into my mind, what the hell, why think of Eric right now?
I fix my eyes on Four's dark eyes and say what I feel is most truthful at the moment: "Not that I know of." I detect a smile on Four's face, it seems like he knows more about this matter than I do myself, but I decide not to ask him about it right here. Shauna lets out a disappointed "Awwww" and it appears she was hoping I had been hiding a relationship from her.
I chuckle at the thought, with the hours I make at the infirmary I don't have the luxury or time to go around and look for Mister Right, she of all people should know about this, right?

The game continues on, with the dares getting more out of hand the further the evening carries on. Zeke ran around the pit in a G-string, Uriah peed off of the roof of the compound, Shauna and I kissed much to the boys entertainment and Four punched a random passer-by in the shoulder as to comply to a dare Uriah gave him. I manage to avoid drinking the chemicals Zeke made and stick to my one beer rule, all the while laughing at my friends who definitely do not uphold a rule like that, which is evident by them slurring their speech and walking impairments.
Uriah crashes on Zeke's couch as I offer to take a slightly inebriated Four to his apartment, which is down the hall from mine. I say my goodbyes to Zeke, Shauna and Uriah and bring Four's arms across my shoulder to support him while walking the few corridors to our apartments.
"You do know why I asked you that, right?" He slurs his words and gives me a smile as he continues his statement: "You know, the question about Eric?" I stop dead in my tracks and look up to him in disbelief. "What are you saying Four?", a chuckle leaves his lips as he brings his face closer to mine as if he wants to tell me a secret. "Eric, he talks about you, you know?"
I seem to not be able to process this information and look up to Four, puzzled.
Another chuckle leaves Four's mouth as he looks me dead in the eye and says "He told the initiates that they shouldn't be scared of being beat, because then they had the privilege of meeting the beautiful nurse in the infirmary". He seems to thoroughly enjoy telling me all of this, probably due to the amount of alcohol in his bloodstream right now. I can't seem to wrap my brain around this information and decide to drop the subject for now, picking up Four's hand again and leading him to his front door, not saying another word.

"Are you angry Flo?" Four asks when I take his keys and open up his front door, leading him to his bed and helping him in. "No, ofcourse not Four, just you go to sleep, I'll talk to you tomorrow." I whisper as I see him falling asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

I decide to ask him about it tomorrow and try to push the questions raised by this conversation out of my head.

I pull a blanket over Four and walk back towards the hallway, still deep in thought.
I'm not paying attention to where I'm going when I bump into what seems like a rock, two arms grab me and keep me from falling over, they steady me and then let me go.
I don't need to look up to know who this is.

"Florence..." he says, softly. And I look up to see the version of Eric I saw this morning.
Soft and human. The words Four just uttered come rushing back towards me and leave me speechless for a few seconds, I'm just looking into his eyes, unable to find words that are coherent enough to pronounce. I end up repeating the same question in my head over and over until I can't stop myself from asking it:

"Eric, what is it you want from me?"