Surviving Reality: Divergent | ✓

Marlene

Original chapter title: Past Death's Door

Halfway throught winter break, Al is reported missing by his parents. This is after he, Drew, and Peter had been caught...um..."sexually assaulting" and "harrassing" Tris, when in reality it was both of those things, as well as attempted murder and something like disorderly or misorderly conduct. I never really listened to what Four said it was. He's kind of an expert on all of those police terms. I only ever half-listen to him when he starts up on that.

Two days ago, the day before we came back to school, Al was found dead in the river up near Main Street. It was ruled immediately as a suicide, since no one could've pushed him in that far, from the bridge or from anywhere else. Yesterday they cancelled school, and they suggested that everyone that knew him should attend his funeral.

I cried. A lot. Uriah held me so tightly, I thought he would crush me. He thought I just felt bad because we'd been friends, but I can't tell him the truth. I just can't. Tris looked guilty, like the entire thing had been her fault. I noticed how she didn't shed a single tear.

Today, Tuesday, school is normal. Except at our lunch table. All of us are silent, either picking at our food or-like me- not eating at all. I notice how close Tris and Four sit, as if they're glued together. I wonder if he's been comforting her, checking to make sure that nothing's wrong with her. The thought, like everything else, floats from my mind a few seconds after it enters.

The whole day passes by in a gray haze. What if it was Uriah? What would you have done then? I think again and again. It takes all of my strength to blink, not to mention move. When Uriah drops me off at my house, and I go straight upstairs to my room and pass out on my bed, too overcome with grief and fatigue to even care that I have homework and responsibilities and asshole parents that are probably going to be home soon.

But after what I've seen, that doesn't really matter...does it?