Loyal (Divergent - Eric Love Story)

The Beginning

The alarm clock on my bedside table woke me up from my calm sleep. Small rays of sunlight manage their way into the room through the window and I hesitated for some minutes before finally getting up. I walked into my bathroom and took a long hot shower, dried myself and got dressed in my blue clothes. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Black long hair down, surrounding my heart-shaped face. Blue eyes, dark eyebrows, small nose, high cheek-bones and full lips. Thin body with curves, but nothing special. I didn't know if I should be considered pretty or not. It wasn't extremely important to me but one always tends to think about stuff...

I decided to go downstairs and have breakfast with my family, since it probably was our last meeting for a very long time. They didn't know about my decision of changing of faction. I just couldn't tell them. I entered the kitchen and found them all sitting down, my father, Raphael, reading the newspaper and my mother, Rita, and my brother,Jason, having breakfast.

"Good morning, darling" My mother smiled. Her short blonde hair dancing around her shoulders as she got up to serve me some breakfast.

"About time you woke up" Jason said before smirking.

Ah, my dear brother Jason. If you found us standing right next to eachother and you didn't know us, you would never guess we are family. We were completely different. He had my mother's blonde hair and my father's big green eyes. He was taller than me, also thin but slightly built up. Finally, he was considered as sexy between the girls at school, while I was plain normal to everyone. And I was pretty sure we had different ideas, most commonly about factions. He was erudite all the way, while I looked everything but an erudite. I was intelligent, yes, i possessed some of the common traits of an erudite, but there was something more, something off, something different.

"Uh" My father groaned with disgust "Abnegation is causing trouble for us again"

I looked at him and found him almost completely covered by the newspaper, only getting a view of his brown hair greying with the age, eyes scanning the news and his glasses standing on the tip of his big nose. Normal routine of every day, reading the news, bad talk about other factions.

He suddenly layed the newspaper on the table and looked at my brother and I with a serious face.

"I swear, if one of you chooses to go there..." He threatened, but was stopped by my mother.

"Honey, let it go, our children have the right to go anywhere they like, but I'm quite sure they will prefer to stay in our honorable faction together as the happy family we are" she smile widely.

"Oh, so am I supposed to talk nicely of the other corrupt factions so they find an interest on translating there?"

"No, but just giving them a chance of considering their options"

"Are you seriously telling me that-"

"I think we should get going" Jason interrupted and I silently thanked him for it.

"Fine" my father grumbled.

***

The room is organized in circles, where everyone sits according to their faction. My parents sit with the people dressed in blue, the erudites, but my brother and I are seated by alphabetical order with all the other 16 year-olds which are choosing a faction today. I sit in between my brother and a boy dressed in black and white, Candor. He has tanned skin, brown hair and brown eyes. He just holds a bored expression and looks at everything as if wishing everything to be over as soon as possible. I can't help but agree.

Marcus Eaton, from abnegation, introduces the ceremony. He stands along with the bowls for each faction. When your name is called, you are supposed to head to the front, grab a knife, cut a bit into your hand and let your blood fall into the bowl with the corresponding thing that represents your faction. Stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, coal for Dauntless and crystal for Candor.

I stared at boys and girls leaving their families, or joining them again, their cries and shrieks or they cries and shouts of joy. Every minute that passed was torture and I just wanted to get it over with.

"Matthews, Jason" Marcus suddenly called. I looked at my brother and he smiled at me before squeezing my hand and getting to the front of the room.

I watched him and imagined his steps when he gets there, cutting his hand, dropping his blood on the water, my parents shouting happily at their perfect son who had joined them once again.

I looked at my brother again, he was cutting his hand and then dropping his blood on the wa...

I gasped loudly. And I wasn't the only one.

Jason had dropped his blood on the crystals. He had chosen Candor.

All my life I believed my brother as the perfect erudite boy. I believed he loved how he was. I believed he loved his faction. I guess I was wrong.

Before I knew it, I was next and my name had been called.

I stood up, shaking a bit and made my way forward. Marcus handed me the knife and I stared at each bowl in front of me as I cut my hand and drew blood. I placed my hand on top of the coal and let go.

"Dauntless!" Marcus shouted and the people dressed in black applauded loudly as I joined them.

I looked back at the erudites and saw my father shouting angrily, although I couldn't hear what he was screaming and my mother crying. My family had been destroyed.