Recklessly (Divergent Fanfic) #Completed

Chapter 10 - The Punisher

Corrine

Twelve times. That's how many times Eric has knocked me to the ground, flat against my back in training this morning. I hold my ribs and stand up again.

"I'm not going to have anything left for actual training, Eric." I say breathlessly. My hair is matted to my neck from sweat.

"Maybe you should of thought of that before you undermined me yesterday." He says between clenched teeth.

He's punishing me. And all I can think about is what Four had said yesterday. About how killing wasn't the way to the top here anymore, while he looked right at Eric.

I wipe my mouth, and weakly take my stance again. When he rushes at me this time, I lower my shoulder and shove it into his stomach as hard as I can, knocking the wind out of him, which gives me a one second open window. I use the small amount of strength I have left, jumping up and grabbing the back of his head and pulling it down onto my knee.

Eric stumbles backwards, but doesn't fall. He only stand there, wiping the small amount of blood from his nose.

"You're getting better. Thinking quicker." He says quietly. I don't answer him, I just hold my sides and try to catch my breath. "Good enough for today." He pushes passed me with his shoulder, bumping me so that I stumble.

"What is your problem?" I blurt out before I can bite my tongue.

"My problem? You're a moronic little girl with a smart mouth. That's my problem." He spits back.

"Then why are you helping me? Why did you say you wanted to be my friend?" I take a few steps closer to him.

"I have no idea. It was a mistake." He looks down at the ground and I freeze in my steps.

"Eric...I thought.."

"You thought wrong. You don't mean anything to me. I'm a Dauntless leader, I don't know what was going through my head." He wipes his face with a towel.

Maybe I meant nothing to him, but his friendship meant something to me. The small chance that someone cared about me have me hope. And now he's taken it away.

"Okay." Is all I can say and it barely comes out a whisper.

"Thats all you have to say? Any other time you would have more than enough words say." He scowls.

"No. You've made it clear. And I don't have anything else to say." I walk across the room and sit on a bench, tightening the laces of my boots. Other initiates start filing into the room now.

"We are starting the fights today." Eric yells, so we all gather around the mat.

"What's your deal with getting here so early? You have a thing for Eric?" Marie asks as she comes to stand next to me.

"What? No. I just can't sleep so I come in here." I reply in a monotone voice.

"Are you okay?" She asks, touching my shoulder.

"M'fine." I reply quickly.

"Finn and Ricky. You're up first." Four says, he stands on the other side of me.

My brother looks to me, and I nod at him. Mentally encouraging him. Ricky is a friend of both ours, but friendships don't matter here.

It doesn't take long for my brother to win. Finn was born for Dauntless, he's phenomenal. I'm proud, if nothing else. He smiles at me as he exits the ring, as someone else helps Ricky get to the infirmary.

"Drea and Corrine." Eric says. He looks right at me as he says it. I clench my jaw and try not to scream. He's punishing me again.

"Let's go, stiff." Drea cracks her knuckles and bounces around the circle on the balls of her feet.

I walk into the circle and stand across from her.

"You got it Corrine." My brother says behind me. I just ignore him.

"Today." Eric says with annoyance.

Drea steps forward and throws her first punch, I'm able to duck it and move behind her, kicking her hard in the back of her leg, making her stumble. As I make my move towards her she spins around, throwing a hard punch to my face, knocking me backwards to the floor.

She jumps on top of me, throwing more hard punches at my head, I put my hands over my head and swing them down at her gut, causing a load grown to leave her mouth, I kick her off of me and stand up again. This time, she stands up and runs at me, spearing me to the ground again. It knocks the wind out of me so hard that I can't breath. The last thing I see is her fist colliding with my temple.

I don't know how long I've been out. But I wake up in the infirmary with an ice pack against my forehead.

"You're awake." A voice I didn't expect to hear says.

"Why are you here?" I ask groggily.

"I can leave, if you'd like me to." Eric says.

"I just don't understand why you're here. You said.." I start to say.

"I know what I said, Corrine. But I..I didn't mean any of it."

"Then why did you say it?"

"Because I don't know how to be any other way. Do you understand? I don't know how to care." He says.

"What happened to you, Eric? What horrible thing happened to make you so heartless?" I almost tell it at him. Because I'm so confused and frustrated with this man.

"That's not any of your business." He yells back.

"Then leave me alone, Eric. I can't imagine why you're here wasting your time on me."

"Because I care about you. Okay? Just you. Never anyone else, just you." He comes and sits on the hospital bed next to me. I just stare at him before I'm able to speak again, completely shocked at what he's said.

"Wh..why?"

"Because you make me so damn angry. You're so stubborn and you don't quit. No ones ever challenged me or made me doubt myself. And you do, all the time." He says. And I can tell it's hard for him to say it.

"I care about you too, Eric." I whisper. He releases a long breath and takes he ice pack off of my head.

"Come with me." He says.

"Where are we going?"

"I want to show you something." He stands and helps me off of the bed. I stumble and he catches me, his arm wrapping around my waist. His hand touches the bare skin on my hip and it feels like fire. "Here. Get on." He turns his back to me and stoops down.

"What am I supposed to do?" I ask confused.

"Get on my back, Corrine." He states as if it's obvious. So I carefully wrap my arms around his neck, as he puts his hands under my thighs and lifts me onto his back. I can't help but laugh as he does.

"This is ridiculous." I laugh again. He turns his face towards me, a small smile on his lips.

"I'll show you ridiculous." He says mischievously.

"Eric.." I say with worry. But he takes off running out of the infirmary, passed the nurse who tries to stop us but he just keeps running.

I hold onto him tightly, wrapping my legs around him more and burying my face in his neck as I continue laughing loudly. And I swear, that I even heard him laugh too.

I don't know what this means. But in this moment, I'm happy. And no one can take that away from me.