Starting Over

Chapter 26

The next morning I wake up about 15 minutes early and Tobias is still asleep. I stare down at him. He looks so peaceful when he's sleeping. Before I can stop myself I run my fingers over his forehead and into his hair. I do this a few times before I feel him shift and wake up. When I know he's up I stop.

"You can keep doing that," he whispers, his voice still shaky from sleep.

I start again and he lays there with his eyes closed. After a minute I decide I'm tired of that. While his eyes are still closed I slowly start kissing him. He kisses back for a second before we finally realize that we have to be in the training room in 15 minutes. We both start hurrying around, trying to get ready as quickly as possible.

On our way out the door Tobias hands me a muffin and we eat them as we walk to the simulation room. When we get there he pulls out the board with all the names on it before he goes to set up the simulations.

"Why am I always last?" I ask him before the others show up.

"Because you're the fastest, and I don't want you to become a target."

I smile and shrug. "I can take care of myself."

"I know, but I like to save you the trouble."

We kiss for I don't know how long until we hear somebody behind us clear their throat. I realize I'm sitting in Tobias' lap as I slowly turn to see who it is.

"You were scared you little Pansycake!" Uriah exclaims. I roll my eyes as I get up off Tobias. I will never hear the end of this. I have no comeback.

"Initiates should be here any second, so unless you want to have to explain everything to them then I would suggest that you leave, Tris."

I blush slightly and go to wait in the hall. A few seconds after I've sat down Thomas shows up with Grayson and Weston. They're up at the top of the board today so they go sit closer to the door. Soon everyone's there and Pierce is sitting next to me. I haven't talked to him yet and I really don't want to right now. Right now I want to try to figure out which fear I'm going to face today. It seems he's thinking too so we sit there in silence before Thomas decides to try to start something.

"Hey Stiff! You must really suck if you're stuck at the bottom every day! How long does it take you? An hour? Two?" I sit there trying not to react. It's getting harder and harder. "Hey! We finally found something your little Dauntless friends can't help you with! See, you can pay them to help you learn how to fight or throw a knife or shoot a gun, but you can't pay them to cheat your way out of a simulation!"

"Shut up!" Malachi yells at the same time I yell "if you want a fight let's go! Right now!" and quickly shove myself up off the ground. Thomas gets up too and Malachi quickly gets up and jumps between us. Right at that moment Uriah walks back in.

"What have we got here?"

"Nothing!" I mumble as I slam my back  into the wall and slide down so I'm sitting on the ground with my arms crossed.

"It's clearly not nothing! If you were about to fight over something then maybe we should settle it," Uriah suggests. "Go ahead and get it over!"
Neither one of us moves but you can still feel the tension in the air.

"Ugh, fine. I was really wanting to see B beat someone up today! I've heard that it's fun, but I guess you two aren't going to go ahead and fight!" Uriah says. He sounds exasperated. I bet he really did want to see me kick Thomas' butt.

Tobias calls the next person who just happens to be Thomas and eventually all the tension fades from the room. I sit there, still fuming over what Thomas said. I was ready for a fight but now the adrenaline is wearing off and I'm starting to crash. I close my eyes and lean back against the wall, waiting for Tobias to call me.