Waiting Four You

Chapter 18 (Beatrice)

"Tobias," I call out trying to shake him awake.

After what seems like forever, he cracks open one eye.

"We have to get up and get to the training room or we're going to be late."

He sighs and sits up. His face looks haggard and pale as if the news from last night affected his sleep.

"Let's just cancel training for today and stay here."

A knock at the door gets him moving as he goes to find out who could be here this early.

"Zeke," I hear him say from my place on the other side of the door.

"James thought you might want a break today," Zeke explains. "I already told the initates they have an extra hour before they have to be in the training room, and I can handle them if you want."

Tobias's sigh is extremely audible, "I can't ask you to do that. I'm judging their skill myself by fighting one each day so that no one sits out."

"Are you sure?" Zeke asks him concern evident in his voice.

"I'll be fine in an hour. Thank you."

"Four, I know you weren't exactly close with him, but if you need anything..." Zeke trails off. "Someone to talk to..."

I can tell it's hard for Zeke to finish his statement because he lost his own father too.

"I'll keep it in mind," Tobias responds quietly as I walk into the room.

Zeke leaves us to get ready and I ask who my fight is supposed to be against today. He tells me that it's Christina.

I grin, "Do you have any blindfolds?"

"What?" Tobias asks in surprise.

"Uri was telling Christina about how he used to blindfold me in hopes of getting a chance to win a fight, but it never worked. Christina was curious about it, so I figure to show her what I can do."

He looks at me with a strange expression before walking to his dresser. When he returns, there is what looks to be an old grey shirt sleeve in his hand. It must be from his old Abnegation clothes.

The scrap of fabric is just barely long enough for what I need, so we head off separately towards the training room. As promised, my fight was against Christina, and we were set for the last fight of the day.

Most of the fights go quickly with the exception being Tobias against Edward due to how long Edward has been studying combat, but Tobias still comes out on top having more practical experience than Edward. Finally, my turn arrives, and I'm ready to show everyone what I can do.

Christina and I step to the center of the room and square up, and I signal Christina to hold on while I put on my blindfold. The whispering of the other initiates is distracting as they try to figure out what I'm doing, but I push their noises to the back of my mind focusing only on the sounds of Christina's breath in front of me.