Momma's Little Soldier

Chapter 15

Beep... Beep... Beep

Oh my god, can someone turn whatever the hell that thing is off? It is making my headache worse and I'm about to scream. I slowly opened my eyes to see the concrete ceiling that was the infirmary, "Can someone shut that thing off before I scream." I mumbled to myself, but I heard a deep chuckle coming from somewhere in the room. "Well aren't you a happy person in the morning." Eric? What the hell was he doing here? Slowly I tried to sit up in my bed, but a hand was placed on my shoulder, signaling I should keep laying down, "Nurse says you need to keep laying down. You took a nasty beating." I wanted to roll my eyes, but I didn't want to make myself dizzy so I just laid my head on the pillow and looked up at Eric. I never noticed how physically strong he was, from this angle and the fact that the light was hitting him just perfectly, he looked like a god. A stone-cold god, but a god nonetheless.

I caught myself staring for longer than I should so I chose to speak up, "How long have I been out?" Hopefully not too long, considering I still need to keep training. "About a day." Straight and to the point, classic Eric. I watched as he was about to walk away when I stopped him, "You were right." He turned around, flashing his signature smirk. "Repeat that again." I groaned not wanting to even say it the first time. "You were right. I should've been getting more sleep, it's just morning training has been killing me and then I have less than an hour to get ready for regular training that it just messes me up. I'll try to take better care of myself."

I feel like such an idiot, apologizing for something as stupid as exhaustion, but unfortunately, it's true. If I keep doing what I'm doing, I am not going to live to see the second stage of initiation, "I'll move our training sessions to night time instead of the morning." I sat up a bit so I could look at him. Shock took over my face as I stared at him, he, however, had no emotion which doesn't surprise me anymore, "It will start tomorrow after dinner and don't worry about what your mom might say, I'll deal with her myself. Don't say I don't do anything for anyone." With that, he just left.

Am I still asleep because I know that shouldn't have happened? He was supposed to just tell me to deal with it and leave me alone, not give me a solution to my sleep problems. This man continues to confuse me every second, one second he is a stone-cold ass, and then the next you see that he actually has a decent heart. Damn, he is bipolar to the max. The sound of boots came walking towards me and I looked over to see Tom, Tucker, Sonja, Jordan, and Four surprisingly enough, walk over to me. "They finished training early so I brought them over to see you." Four said and I smiled small. "Thanks, Four," he was about to walk away when I spoke up, "where did I fall on the leaderboard after that fight?" I asked, curious about how many fights I need to win in order to catch up again. He shook his head at me, "Eric didn't count that fight."

"What?" I asked, completely confused by the words I just heard.

"Technically I was going to tell him not to count it because of the rule he just magically put onto that fight, but he beat me to it. You are still at the top of the leaderboard."

"I'm assuming Bryce got extremely pissed when Eric said that?"

"He can learn to deal with the fact that not every fight is going to get scored, he also didn't win the fight fairly. You haven't been sleeping and lost from exhaustion. I don't care if he gets pissed."

"Well thank you Four, that means a lot." I sent him a small smile.

"Start taking care of yourself okay? I know that initiation can be stressful, but you shouldn't lose sleep over it." Surprisingly enough, he slightly smiled back which shocked me and he left. Did the big tough guys drink a serum to make them semi-decent people? I am very confused. So for the rest of the day, Sonja, Tucker, Tom, and Jordan stayed with me in the infirmary until I was free to leave once the nurses checked to see if I was better. I was also cleared to go back to training the next day and I also have training with Eric after dinner, which does make me upset since now I can't hang out with everyone, but at least I will get tired and have some actual sleep. The group and I made our way to the dining hall for dinner, good thing too, because I was starving, being asleep for a full day has a hand in the fact I was so hungry. When we sat down at one of the tables, I grabbed one of everything from the center, feeling not a single ounce of regret whatsoever, "You have enough food on your plate to feed the factionless." Tucker joked as he watched me start to eat my food.

"Actually that's only enough food to feed one-"

"Take the sarcastic comment Jordan, not all of my sarcastic comments need facts after they are said."

"I am trying to get over that." Jordan sheepishly said.

"And you are doing a horrible job at doing it," Tucker said that he would stop being so blatantly honest a few days ago, see how it isn't working for him either. Sonja slapped Tucker upside the head at his response, "Don't be mean to him." Sonja is really great at balancing her old Amity side to her new Dauntless side. As we were eating and talking, I noticed that everyone else that was in the dining hall turned a little quiet, I turned my head to the left and saw Eric and Max walk in, looking all high and mighty. Max has every reason to look that way, he isn't a dick and everyone respects him, Eric however has a giant ego that everyone needs to take notice in. "You know, Eric was an Erudite transfer just a few years ago," Jordan spoke up as I continued to stare at the two. "How do you know that?" I asked, not really caring about the answer. "I read up on the leaders before the Choosing Ceremony, apparently Eric is the youngest leader Dauntless has ever had and he wasn't offered leadership at first. Four was." The four of us all looked at Jordan after he spoke. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Eric didn't rank first, Four did, and since Four didn't accept the offer they gave it to the second-ranked person, Eric." Jordan ate his Dauntless cake like it was no big deal like everyone should've known this information. Max and my mother never mentioned to me once about a new leader, let alone a new leader so young.

This man continues to intrigue me every second and I couldn't understand why he does, part of me wants to ignore everything he does, but the other part of me wants to know everything about him. I know, the whole cliche bad boy phrase all girls say, but it's true, I want to know what drives him wild, makes him tick, what hurts him, I want to know what hides behind that soldier mask because I am convinced that no one can be that heartless and cruel... Could there be?