Love, Lies, Secrets and Manipulation (Divergent/Eric OC)

17. I Can't Do This

(Eric's POV)

"So let me get this straight," Drea says, forking at the spaghetti on her tray. "She actually challenged you?"

I nod. "Pretty much. I think her exact words were 'I'd rather fight you.'"

Drea chuckles and shakes her head. "Damn, I can't believe I missed that! I should go up to the control room right now and have Zeke replay that whole fight for me. I need to see it for my own eyes."

"Why? I already told you, she blacked out after I put her in a chokehold. That's it. End of story."

"Uh, no, that's not it! She obviously got you good with that right hook!" She laughs as she pokes at the faint bruise on my left cheek.

The one that Natalie left me.

"I heard she kicked you good in the face too," she continues. "How the hell did you manage to let that happen?"

I turn to my left and shoot her a quick glare. "I didn't let anything happen. She took me by surprise, alright. I wasn't expecting her to fight like that."

Drea chuckles. "Well you clearly underestimated her."

Underestimated is indeed the word. I've got to hand it to the girl. She's clearly not as timid as I thought she'd be. She's anything but weak. If she were to have fought any other guy like that, I'd have given her a pat on the back. But the fact that she fought me - her leader - like that, only pisses me off every time I think about it. But then again, I did tell her 'no rules.' I just didn't know my words would benefit her, more than myself.

Every time I look over at another table here in the dining hall, I only find people already looking my way, as if they're gossiping about what happened between Natalie and I this morning. Fortunately, for me, all I need to do is send a deadly glare their way for them to get the message and look away.

"I gotta meet this chick," Drea adds.

"Why?"

"Any girl who can get in a clean hit to your face has my respect."

"She got lucky, alright." I retort.

"Ha! Okay! Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy."

My jaw tenses as I give her a cold look. "You weren't even there, Drea. So stop acting like you know what happened."

"You're right!" She violently forks at her spaghetti. "I wasn't there to watch the fight. Which is exactly why I need to see a replay of it up in the control room. Ooh, and I should probably bring a bag of popcorn!"

I shake my head as I swirl some spaghetti into my fork. "You sound stupid, you know that?" I grumble.

She smiles. "Yeah, whatever. Fuck you, too."

We continue eating our lunch in silence for a while, that is, until Brian approaches our table with his food tray and sits down across from us.

"Hey, tell me I heard wrong and you didn't get your ass kicked by a girl today," he says to me.

Drea laughs. "Nope! You heard right."

"She didn't kick my ass," I argue. "She got one good hit in. She got lucky."

"I heard she got a couple," Brian counters.

"Yeah, she kicked him in the face too," Drea adds quickly, then laughs.