Surviving Reality: Allegiant | ✓

Tris

Our table at lunch is surprisingly quiet.

It's been this way for a few weeks now. Usually everyone is talking and laughing and shouting to be heard over each other and trying to throw food into someone else's mouth or hitting someone for stealing their food, but not anymore. 

And it didn't start when Lauren left, either. It was somewhere around the time that Tommy started hitting on Marlene, maybe a little after that. It's been really bad since the concert. Was it something I did? If it was, what could I have possibly done? I don't recall doing anything, really.

Even Lynn and Shauna are quiet. Lynn and Shauna. You know, the Lynn that usually has something to smack Uriah for? And Shauna, who always has something to say. Maybe I should be worried. Or maybe not. If something was wrong, wouldn't they tell me?

Maybe they've just changed, I think. Pain does that to people.

But then something else occurs to me- people change, sure, but they don't change that quickly or that suddenly. Evolution- even when it comes to a person- takes a long time. Years. Personalities aren't like viruses- they don't mutate and change overnight.

While I sit thinking all of these things, the others pick at their lunches and push them around. Tobias looks exhausted. He's slouched over, running his finger around the top of his water bottle. Dark smudges make his eyes look both brighter and darker at the same time.

Marlene looks like she had a rough night last night, too. Along with the hunched over thing and the dark smudges under her eyes, there's a bruise forming on her cheekbone right below her left eye. Shauna and Lynn, who are sitting on either side of her, are practically asleep. Actually, I think Lynn is asleep. Zeke shakes Shauna every few seconds to keep her awake.

Uriah, on the other hand, is wide awake, working on homework in a notebook and looking like he's one step away from killing or seriously injuring someone. I think he's doing math. Based on the murderous look he has, I think it's math. It probably is.

"So, Tris, how was your night? What did you do?"

Marlene suddenly talking snaps me out of my thoughts. I probably jump at the sound of her voice. "Oh, um. Homework, and I ate dinner. And then I slept. What about you?"

Marlene shrugs. "Oh, you know. A little homework, wrote an essay, then I went for a walk. Nothing interesting." She shrugs again.

"Uriah, what are you doing?" I ask.

"Calculus." He grumbles.

Tobias winces. "What are you working on?" Uriah hands him his notebook, and Tobias makes a face. "We did that last week."

"How'd the test go?"

"I was one point away from getting an F."

"Well, I'm fucked."

Tobias opens his mouth to say something, and the bell rings. I let out a sigh and stand up, tugging my backpack onto my shoulder. Two more classes, I think. Two more classes and then I get the weekend.