Divergent Future

Chapter 21

Tris's POV

I feel tiny hands shake my shoulder, and I open my eyes to find Toby standing beside my bed.

"Hey, buddy. Is something wrong?" I ask him, and he nods his head. "Did you have a nightmare?"

He nods his head again, and I pull back my covers.

"Come up here with Mommy."

He crawls in bed next to me and snuggles up against me when I wrap my arms around him.

"Do you remember what it was about?" I ask, and he shakes his head no. "You just remember that it was scary?"

He once again nods his head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I just wanted to be in here with you. I hope that's okay," he says, and I start rubbing his back.

"Of course it's okay, sweetie. Mommy's always here for you," I tell him and kiss the top of his head.

Soon enough, he's fallen back asleep in my arms, but now I'm wide awake. So I just lay there, letting him sleep and letting my thoughts wonder.

Yesterday was quite a day. I did my interview. Announced my new album and my break. Saw Tori for the first time in four years. Performed with Tobias for the first time in four years. Had a horrible flashback which Tobias comforted me through. Spent time with two friends who I wish could be around more often. And got to experience an adorable father-son moment when Toby asked for Tobias to tuck him in since he hadn't seen him all day.

And now, today is Tobias's interview. I told the world yesterday that we were friends, so there is no doubt in my mind that he will be questioned about it. And even though this will probably put more eyes on us when we're out in public, at least we can be out in public with Toby without people creating dating rumors.

I love my job. I love getting to write and perform my own music as a living. And I love getting to meet all of my fans. But one of the cons of being famous is that almost every aspect of your life is displayed for the whole world to see. When you're famous, you're lucky if you can go out in public and not be recognized once.

Luckily, I've been able to keep certain parts of my life away from the media, but how much longer will I be able to do it?

I've hidden anything and everything that has to do with Toby's father, and I've also hidden everything involving my horrible past.

But now that I'm here with Tobias, and Toby knows about him, it's going to get a lot harder to keep that a secret. And my flashbacks have been more frequent recently because I moved back to Chicago, and all of the old memories are resurfacing. Eventually, word about my past is going to be released as well.

Then what will happen?

I shake my head a little to try and clear those thoughts.

I need to stop worrying about it because for now, both of those things are still secret. So I need to save the worrying for when there's actually something to worry about.

After around 30 minutes of Toby being asleep, I gently move one of my arms out from under Toby to grab my phone off of the nightstand. I scroll through my notifications and stop when I see a message from Tobias.

Tobias ❤️: Heyy! Just wanted to let you know that my interview is in like 30 minutes, so wish me luck with it! Also, once my interview is done, I was planning on coming over to see Toby since I didn't get to see him yesterday. If that's okay with you

Me: Of course it's okay with me, Tobias. Toby missed you too, so he'll be thrilled when I tell him that you're coming over. And good luck on the interview! Not that you need it because you'll do great!