fearless

Chapter 24: Someone in my Apartment

cool collage of Divergent things and characters that I found on Tumblr.

Chapter 24:

Song Of The Chapter: You Know You like It- DJ Snake and AlunaGeorge
One Year later
** Before you read this chapter and everything after it, please read the bonus chapters for oneshots of Maddie and Ty dating. It will make the rest of the story better, I promise **
••••

"So, I guess I'll see you after work." I look up at Ty as I walk hand in hand with him to the tattoo parlor. He nods.

"This is going to be one of the best nights of your life, I can say that." He says, flashing a bright white smile at me. I grin as well, and then he stops us.

He smirks innocently as he places a hand on my cheek, caressing it. I place my arms around his neck, not knowing what else to do.

Ty and I haven't had a lot of these "moments" since we first started dating, so they just happen. Not necessarily awkwardly, but they happen, and sometimes we have no clue what we're doing, but hey, we're both kind of new to this.

Ty and I haven't gotten anywhere past kissing, but I'm happy with that. I want to wait. It's not that I'm afraid of sex, or being that intimate with him, it's just that I want to wait for the right moment, and that moment hasn't come upon us yet.

He places his other hand on my cheek, and then leans close to me. I tilt my head a small bit, not wanting our noses to touch awkwardly, and finally just press our lips together.

Ty's a tease. He always moves in slowly for a kiss, and it always makes my lips tingle.

I feel him smile, and I soon pull away, leaning our foreheads together. I close my eyes, and I realize- this is a perfect moment.

>>

I walk into the tattoo parlor, seeing Tori's metallic-looking hawk tattoo on her neck first thing.

The bamboo fiber wall gleams as the swirling lights of the tattoo parlor pass through the thin material, which is framed by a square of cherrywood.

Ty isn't here; he took the day off to plan a special date for me tonight. We've only been dating for a few months, but it seems like it's been years. Years of being with him, and I feel like he's the one- the perfect guy.

I feel empty without him by my side though, just knowing that he's not going to be at work today, well, that makes me feel even more sad.

But I'll get to see him tonight.

I look over to Tori's corner, seeing a grueling image of her, as she takes a razor and shaves a man's hairy back.

Hairy is an understatement. Hairy actually means... Atrociously hairy.

"Morning." Tori groans, sipping on her coffee as she puts the razor back into the cherrywood cabinet on the wall, now rubbing some antiseptic on the man's now freshly hairless back.

She stares at the paper of the tattoo that the man has asked for, and practically groans when she sees that he wants a full-back sized dragon.

That's breathing fire and terrorizing a city. What kind of a man is this?

He sits up for a moment, propping his head up on his hands.

His skin is pale, his fatty, but somewhat muscular arms have tattoos of barbed wire around them, and his face is covered in piercings.

He looks to be about sixty or sixty five. His face has wrinkles that his face piercings may get lost in.

He pushes some small, rectangular vision enhancing glasses higher up on his nose, and that's when I see his chest.

His chest has two rolls of fat; one under his chest, and one that is his stomach. I thought his back was hairy, but I hadn't even seen this.

His chest is even worse. He wears a gold chain necklace with his name on it. It reads "Richard" in golden script letters.

"Don't you think you're a little old for this, Richard?" Tori purses her lips together, eyeing Richard suspiciously.

"Hell, I'm about to die anyway. I'll be Factionless before you know it, so I might as well get something that shows who I am." Richard argues to state his point; lighting a cigar and sticking it between his lips.

"Alright then," Tori says, "No regrets." She says. Richard nods. "I'll be a while with this one, Maddie, so why don't you run the cash register, and do some tattoos?" She asks me, her eyes pleading.

"Okay," I say. "Wait, where's Bud?" I ask. The man is in his forties and he still runs around the compound every morning.

He's usually back by now, anyways.

"Oh, he's sick. He has a real bad head cold." Tori shakes her head.

"Didn't need him coughing and sneezing on customers anyway," she says. I nod, wishing that he was here, because then I wouldn't have to be here today. All I want to do is go and spend the day with Ty.

>>

It's been three hours and we still haven't had any business. Tori just finished up Richard's tattoo, and now she just wants to close early.

"What do you say about closing up?" Tori inquires, her eyes directed at me. I shrug.

"It's up to you, Tori. I'm not in charge," I say as I flip through one of these old fashion magazines that I found. I let a small yawn slip past my lips, and she laughs.

"I say we close," she winks, "and get payed as if we stayed here the entire time." She laughs.

"Yes! I'm always in for that!" I say, giving her a high five, and she grins, then sighs.

"We are so badass." She says, and I nod. "Really badass." I say, and we both giggle.

I walk out, and she pulls down a metal gate over the doorway, locking it at the bottom. "You have no clue how great it feels to walk out of that place, ending another day," I say. She laughs.

"Exactly, and you go have some fun with Ty, Maddie. I know that you two are definitely a thing by now, so have fun, but not too much fun." She raises her eyebrows, and I feel my cheeks heating up. "But let's be real though. That one day that you two both walked in an hour late together kind of gave it away."

"Yeah, true." I laugh. "I'm a little scared though because he's like this will be the best night of your life and I'm just like Hmm, okay," I say quietly, "See you tomorrow." I smile.

"See ya, and I'm pretty sure I know exactly what he means." She winks as she grins, turning, and walking into, wait... Badass Baby?

Why would Tori go into badass baby? She doesn't have any kids, and no one in her family has any kids.

Hmmm.

I continue to walk back to my apartment, shrugging the gesture off my shoulder, as if it's nothing. I occasionally look back behind me, searching for anything suspicious.

I make it to my door, and see that it's open. I step closer towards the door, and hear whispers. Then I hear a whisper shout coming from a spot close to the door. "She's coming!" The voice whisper shouts. It sounds vaguely like Ashton, but why would Ashton be in my apartment?

Exactly, he wouldn't.

I lean into the door, about to push it open, and I finally do. What I see inside makes a smile spread across my face, and my heart leap.