Waiting Four You

Chapter 13 (Tobias)

"Were you a transfer too?" Tris asks me pretending to not know me.

Her question amuses me because she knows exactly where I come from. I fake coldness. "I thought I would only have trouble with the Candor asking too many questions. Now I've got Stiffs, too."

There is a mischievous glint in her eye. "It must be because you're so approachable," she says flatly. "You know. Like a bed of nails."

I stare at her expecting that she won't stare back, but also hoping the opposite if only to look into her beautiful blue/grey eyes for a moment. She doesn't look away as if she was thinking the same thing as me.

"Careful, Tris," I simply say before Zeke calls out to me.

As I rise from the table to go meet up with my friends, I hear what Christina and Tris say.

"What?" Tris asks her for some reason.

"I'm developing a theory," Christina muses.

"And it is?"

"That you have a death wish." I can hear the grin in that statement.

If only Tris's new friend could know the truth, but we can't let any of the initates know about our relationship. Except Uriah that is since he already knows.

At Zeke's table, I can finally open the scrap of paper she had slipped me. It reads on one side, "Play along." On the other side, "Chasm midnight tonight."

A small smile graces my lips because now I won't have to sneak into the dorm to grab her for my plans. And the spot by the Chasm is the best place for a date.

"What's got a smile on your face?" Shauna asks me knowing full well that it has to do with a certain blonde initiate.

I simply pass the note over where she and Zeke can see it. They both smile when they see the side about meeting at the Chasm, but are confused by "Play along."

"No one can know about us," I whisper to them. "She knows that as well as I do, so that was a reminder to me that if she says anything rude, she doesn't mean it."

Both of them nod in understanding, and after dinner, I ask Zeke to escort the initates to the dorm so that I can prepare for my date with Tris.

Sitting this close to the rough waters of the Chasm is almost soothing as I wait passed the promised time for her appearance expecting that she may have to wait for the last few initiates to fall asleep, but what I don't expect is to see her wearing that dress again when she lightly steps across the rocks to get to me.

"Sorry," she apologizes. "I stopped by Shauna's to grab my dress."

"The wait was worth it," I breathe thinking of how beautiful she is.

Tris isn't beautiful in the normal sense of the word. To most her face would never be considered pretty, and her small form constantly makes me worry that I will break her, but I should know better by Uriah's accounts of his crushing defeats by her hands when he was training her to fight.

The eyes are what really draws me in, though. They hold so much strength and caring in them. And when she's excited, something I have only been permitted to see a few times as Abnegation practically forbids joy, they light up into the most amazing shade of sky blue.

Before I know it, her lips are attacking mine, claiming them. Our kiss is hungry, feeling out every part of each other's mouth as if we had forgotten the feeling of the other over the past year.

When we finally separate, we sit down on the rocks just basking in the other's presence. Tris tells me about the past year of spending time with her family knowing that after today, she would be leaving them. I tell her about my time with Zeke, Shauna, and James.

Over the course of our conversation, I realize that I'm doing nothing except procrastinating on what I want to do, so I decide that it's time to take action.

Turning myself so that I am entirely facing her, my heart starts racing.

"Beatrice," I begin hoping that I don't sound as nervous as I feel. " We have endured two years apart, and that time has only solidified my resolve to never leave your side again. I cannot bear another minute of separation because you make me feel stronger than anyone else could ever imagine feeling."

I pause for a moment to look again over the woman who is too good for a broken soul like me, and I wonder what I did to deserve someone like her.

"Initiation is going to be so hard knowing that we will still be separated in a different way, but I know that if our love can last through what has passed, then I know we can endure this."

I take a deep breath because I am out of things to say to prolong the time before asking the most important question of all.

"Beatrice, I love you more than life itself. Will you marry me?"

At the last line I pull out the box that I've had for over a week waiting for her to arrive today. The ring inside is a basic black band, but instead of any gems, it has a silver line running through the center.

"Tobias," she gasps looking at the ring.

Part of me was afraid that she wouldn't like it, but I felt the simplicity of it would continue to tie us to our birth faction in a way. It would help remind us who we are.

The surprised look on her face starts to worry me that maybe I rushed into this too soon with her. I mean we had been dating for two years before I transferred, and we've only gotten to see each other twice since due to the transfer, and I hoped that the time didn't change her love for me.