With everyone in the Pit celebrating, the rest of the compound is eerily vacant. The only thing I can hear are the echoes of my bootsteps and a dull thud thud thud coming from…. coming the initiates’ training room. I stop at the door, tilting my head because I hadn’t thought that I was headed in this direction, but most of the tunnels still look the same to me. I place my hand on the frame and crack the door open.
Eric is on a mat, beating the hell out of a punching bag. He’s lost his shirt and shoes, and has wrapped thick bandages around his knuckles. He’s been moving long enough to work up a film of sweat, and well, I’m not blind. He may not be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, but he is one of the most attractive, and besides a general negative attitude, he hasn’t given me any reason not to like him. I watch him rear back and throw most of his body weight into the next punch, following through so that the bag swings backward. He catches it before it crashes back into him and calls out,
“Stop hiding.”
I startle and nearly drop the bottle in my hands, but manage to push open the door and step in relatively calmly. He’s not paying attention to who’s at the door, merely resituating the strips over his knuckles, but when he looks up, he doesn’t seem surprised that it’s me. My eyes meet his for the briefest moment before he turns his back and reinitiates his attack on the bag. I watch the muscles of his back pull and shift under his skin for a long moment before he says anything else.
“Done with the party already?”
“Not really my scene,” I say quietly.
He hums. I set my bottle on the floor and perch on the edge of the mat. The floor is cold when my fingers ghost across it, so I cross them and tuck my fingertips into my armpits. My hair floats down into my eyes and I reach up to brush it away. I close my eyes and listen to the steady rhythm of Eric’s workout, and I doze into a comfortable space.
***
“Olivia.”
“Olivia.”
“Olivia.”
I swat at the hands that continue to thump me with a pillow. The attack continues until I roll over and manage to kick Az in the knee. She giggles and jumps on me, rolling us both around until we tumble off of the bed and start laughing hysterically. When we’ve both settled down and have caught our breath, Az sits up and straddles my legs.
“I’m so hung over,” she says.
“I’m… I’m,” I laugh, then look around the room. “Where am I?”
“You’re in our room,” she laughs.
“But I didn’t…” I sit up and push her off of me. “I didn’t walk here.”
“No,” Az says, jumping to her feet and holding both of her hands out to me, “you didn’t.”
I take her hands and pull myself to my feet. The room around us is spacious for two people, and equipped with two beds, two dressers, and two closets. There’s a rug on the floor between the two beds printed with grey zig zags. There’s no sign of a private bathroom, but I guess we can’t get everything from the start.
“How did I get here?”
Az giggles and does this little dance that, if she were three, I would assume meant she had to pee.
“I’m not in the mood for mystery,” I whine as my pulse begins to pound behind my eyes. Maybe combining alcohol with a sim serum allergen wasn’t the best idea.
“I am a full blown member of Dauntless,” Az sings, “and so are you!”
“Azalea!” I snap.
YOU ARE READING
stand at the abyss, you fall to your knees (a Divergent fanfiction)
Fanfiction(Eric/OC) Tobias leaves more behind in Abnegation than just his father. When his little sister follows in his footsteps, he does what he can to keep her in Dauntless, and out of others' hands.
Chapter 11: everybody else means to fight
Start from the beginning
