Divergent Future

Chapter 23

Tris's POV

"Tris. Tris. Tris. Tris."

I open my eyes and see Christina relentlessly shaking me.

"What do you want?" I ask as I pull my covers up over my head, and she just pulls them completely off of me.

"You need to get up," she says.

"Why?"

"Because all of us are up, and we're hungry," she whines.

"Fine," I sigh. "Just give me a minute."

She finally walks out, and I slowly pull myself up and out of my bed. I throw my hair up in a messy bun, grab my phone off of my nightstand, and walk into the kitchen where the girls are impatiently waiting at the kitchen table.

"Is Toby awake yet?" I ask as I start gathering up all of the ingredients.

"No, not yet," Marlene says. "We checked on him like five minutes ago, and he was still fast asleep."

"So how long have you guys been up?"

"About an hour. And honestly, we're surprised that we were up before you," Shauna says.

"It's because she was with Four until midnight last night," Christina says, and I just give her a look.

"Oooh! You were with him that long?" Marlene teases.

"Yes, but there are two reasons for that. One, Toby fell asleep in Four's lap, and we didn't want to bother him. And two, we were talking about the whole co-parenting thing," I explain.

"Are you sure that's all you guys were talking about?"

"We talked about a few things involving our music, but it was mainly about co-parenting."

"But you've already been co-parenting for a few weeks. Haven't you guys already figured all of that out by now?" Shauna asks.

"You'd think," I reply. "But last night, we realized that we hadn't discussed holiday plans. Like who would he go with and when. So that's what we talked about."

"Okay. If you say so."

I just give them all a look.

We keep up small conversation while I finish cooking breakfast.

So it has been a few weeks since mine and Tobias's interviews and the surprise party, and they've been some pretty amazing weeks.

It's been wonderful being on break and not having to worry about deadlines or meetings or rehearsals. Even though I love my career, it's nice to be able to step back from it for a little while.

I've also already gotten to spend so much more time with everyone. I've spent a few days with my parents and Caleb while he was still in town. I've spent quite a lot of quality time with my best friends. And Toby has finally been able to have a small portion of a normal childhood.

He hasn't had to get up early for me to drag him to meetings he doesn't understand or to the airport to go somewhere new. He's been able to settle down. Go to the park or on walks on a regular basis. Spend time with my parents. Spend time with the gang. And also, spend time with his dad.

The two of them are almost inseparable. They see each other pretty much every day, and I'm definitely okay with that. It has allowed Tobias and I to get back on good terms, and we've actually been handling co-parenting pretty well. We haven't really had any mishaps yet. I've even let Tobias take Toby by himself, without me. He only took him to his dad's house since we're still afraid for the two of them to be alone in public together.