This was actually the second thing I wrote of this book and I've been waiting for forever to actually post it. The momentt has come!
Enjoy!
Rae x
P.S. Dedicated to Soina because she's got flu. Get better soon!
*****
“Do we have to know who’s gay and who’s straight? Can’t we just love everybody and judge them by the car they drive?” ~ Fitz Maurice
*****
I’m almost shaking with relief. The tester doesn’t know me, he is impartial, and to be honest, he doesn’t look like he cares. He’s been asking all the right questions. I don’t mind talking about my family as must as I mind… well, never mind. It hasn’t come up. And it’s near the end of my time. One more minute to go.
But I’d forgotten. About the finale. And how they always happen.
The tester stands up to leave and I’m confused. I still have a minute left of the testing under the serum. Did I do something wrong? But no. It isn’t me. Someone else steps up to take his place for my final minute. It’s my worst nightmare. The Candor trainer. The one that raped me. The one that promised to make my life hell. And his eyes are as black and soulless of the person that always asks the questions in my dreams. My eyes are so wide I feel like they’re going to pop right out my head, mess of eyeliner and all. He grimaces. It distorts the scar I made across his face - it’s an ugly expression. We must look a pair.
“Sorry about that,” he says to the crowd, who don’t even look fazed. And he turns to me.
What’s he going to ask me? He knows me, he’s been watching me. He must have seen how I look at her. Under close scrutiny, it’s probably obvious. I wish it wasn’t.
“Are you in love, Amber Rose?” Where the hell is he going with this? Stop it. I bite my tongue so hard I can taste salty, coppery blood in my mouth.
“I am.” The truth serum forces the words out of my mouth. The lips of my assessor twitch into something in-between a smirk and a cold smile. He is enjoying this way too much.
“Who are you in love with?” A scream erupts inside my head - I only just manage to think of a loophole before the words pour out of my mouth.
“I’m in love with my best friend, here at the Candor compound.” The trainer’s smirk gets fractionally bigger, the scar stretching and I fight the urge to simultaneously throw up and turn my head away. The audience lean closer, an interested gleam in their watching, prying eyes. I sneak a glance over to where the other initiates are standing. Julian is smiling wildly at me, grinning like it’s his birthday, his wedding day and the birth of his first child all rolled into one. Of course - he’s thinks I mean him.
The assessor clears his throat loudly, trying to recapture my attention and pull my mind back from fantasy-thought-land. And I look back towards him, even though I never want to see his stupid, smirking face ever again; it’s better to look at his face and imagine repeatedly smashing it in than looking at… them. The person standing right next to Julian. Because, you see, I have more than one best friend.
My body and hands do their best to stay still and calm as I wait impatiently for the inevitable question.
“What is his name?” I wince at the ‘his’. The Candor trainer knows full well that I have never loved a ‘his’ and I never will - not my type. Not my gender. My head sinks low, but I try to hold it up higher. I will not let embarrassment, of all things, defeat me.
“Her name is Callie Pierson.” The crowd gasps dramatically, reacting as a whole. If it weren’t me here right now, I would laugh at their faces, but as it is, they just wound me and I bury mine in my hands. I grimace as they chant their favourite line.
“Thank you for you honesty.” I look up. Julian’s head is low, and hidden by his own hands, as mine just was a second ago. He looks so heartbroken and so shattered of any hope that I feel immediately one hundred times guiltier than before. But Callie is nowhere to be seen. Callie…
My embarrassment turns slowly into anger, which I use to fixate the evil Candor trainer with a petrifying glare..
That damn truth serum. This, being manipulated, is what I came here to avoid. Jumping ship was supposed to be a way to fix all my problems, to lead a simple, easy life.
And yet this has to be the worst manipulation of all.
YOU ARE READING
Truth (a Divergent Fanfic)
Romance"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Amber Rose is a Candor initiate, an Erudite transfer and a liar. Struggling to fit in in a place she doesn't belong, how can...
