More Than Divergent

17. Grilled Cheese

Eric lead me down an empty hallway. We walked for a while through another hallway, then finally up a staircase. This hallway was lined with numbers, this must be the apartments. He pulled keys from his pocket and unlocked the door 205. He turned the light on and held the door open for me.

"Is this your apartment?" I stood in the doorway.

"No it's Max's" He answered sarcastically.

"Then he must be an idiot to let a degenerate like you to have a key." Eric shook his head and laughed quietly. I walked inside. It was sparse but contained the necessities. The kitchen was to my left and a couch directly in front of me. On the right there was a raised platform with sliding doors that was open. I could see his bed was made which I think was the most surprising. He closed the door behind me.

"Have a seat" he motioned to the couch and walked into the kitchen. I sat on the dark grey couch and sunk. Oh this was comfortable. I slipped off my boots and laid down. This was way more comfortable than the bunks back at the dorm. "Make yourself comfortable" He returned with a dark glass bottles.

"Do you know how comfortable this couch is?" I winced as I sat up and took the bottle from him.

"Not as comfortable as the bed is" he winked and I rolled my eyes. He sat down on the couch and placed his arm on the back of the couch.

"Stop" I took a sipped and scrunched my face when I realized it was alcohol.

"It's beer." He laughed at my reaction. He walked over to the kitchen and started to pull things out of cupboards. I followed and sat in a barstool next to the counter.

"What are you doing?" I took another sip and decided it wasn't so bad.

"Making you food." He pulled out slices of bread and placed it in a pan. He layered cheese on top of the bread. I watched him curiously. "I forget you haven't experienced a lot of food." He chuckled and flipped the 2 pieces of bread together and slid it off the pan. "It's grilled cheese."

"Is this your sorry attempt at poisoning me?" I took another sip as the taste started to grow on me.

"You're gonna regret saying that when you taste it" He took a knife and slice it diagonally. "Here." he started to make another grilled cheese. I took one slice and blew on it. I bit into it and the crunch of the toasted bread complimented the gooey cheese. This had to be the best food combination that ever existed.

"Oh. My. God." I finished one slice.

"I told you" Eric grinned as he flipped the second sandwich.

"This is my new favorite food." I said through a mouth full of food.

"Well not everyone can make grilled cheese like I can, so at least your first time was with the best." He winked as he took a bite of his grilled cheese.

"Don't ruin the moment" I rolled my eyes and reached for the other half of his sandwich. We finished eating and sat back down on the couch.

"Why are you doing this Eric?" I put the bottle down on a coffee table that faced a huge open window. "Why me?"

"Is that the conversation we're having?" He finished his bottle and placed it on the coffee table.

"Yea I want to know why you're invested?"

"You're different. You don't seem to belong." He sat up. "You say you're not Abnegation anymore but I see you helping the other Stiff, you put your training aside and hers first. You're honest and outspoken like Candor. You're smarter than a few Erudites I know. You seem to make friends wherever you go. And now you have officially knocked someone unconscious like a true dauntless." Attributes of a divergent. "You intrigue me" Eric leaned forward. "And the fact that your brother is Four and can't stand me makes it even better."

"Tobias..." Guilt filled my chest. "I should've never said that to him."

"Well he did leave you?" Eric flexed his arm.

"Yes-"

"Then he deserves to feel what he's feeling" He leaned back.

"No he doesn't." I defended. "I told him to leave. I told him would follow him here. He wasn't going too, but I promised him I could handle it." I reflected back to the day of his ceremony. "I told him not to waste his opportunity of getting out on me."

"Why?"

"Because he's my brother. My entire life he had protected me as much as he could from Marcus. There was times he would antagonize Marcus so he would take his anger out on him because I couldn't control my mouth or attitude." I remember being in a locked closet upstairs hearing Marcus' belt hit against skin. I would cry like it was me being hit. "If it meant Tobias would get out and be free from Marcus, two years was the least I could've done." I reached over and took a sip from my bottle. Eric scooted closer to me and picked up my hand. His thumb brushed over my knuckles. I hadn't realized how raw and torn they were.

"You did some damage" He laughed.

"Is he ok?"

"Peter? You're asking if he's okay? Didn't you practically beg me to let you finish him?"

"I may have wanted to hurt him, but I'm not a monster"

"He's fine, he woke up a while ago"

"Good." I stood up. "I think I should go now"

"You sure you don't want to try out the bed first?" Eric stood up and followed me to the door.

"Not now. Not ever" I pushed my finger into his chest. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Depends." His arm rested on the door frame and the other pulled me closer to him. I placed my hands on his chest to keep some distance.

"Can you take me to Tobias?" Eric sighed and followed me out.