Tris.
I sigh as I scroll through the medical cabinet trying to find a first aid kit. I can hear the grunts and groans coming out of Thomas, Connor and Beatrice, who I can officially call idiots for listening to Tobias.
"Guys, I'm sorry but here aren't any bandages," I say while closing the cabinet and slumping against the small wooden countertop.
"But Tris," Thomas groans while rubbing his knee, the khaki shorts revealing the red blood slowly oozing it's way out. "my knee!"
"And my arm!" Connor groans.
"Hello you two dimwits, my face has a huge gash on it!" Beatrice scowls while gesturing to the bloody bruise on her forehead.
The fact that Tobias made me take these three to the medical cabin where all the supplies are held. And the fucking nurse isn't even here, which sucks because that means I have to fix their bleeding bones.
My hair which is now tied up in a ponytail, which helps when I run my hands across the back of my neck, feeling the sweat that had built up there. The kids have been here for two weeks, which means that it's now my third week at camp--sadly. I dunno how I survived three weeks of being surrounded by loud kids and an annoying blue eyes guy.
"You're all idiots," I mutter quietly while throwing the sweater over my body, letting it hug my tiny curves as I place it over my tank top. Today we were trying out their skills at climbing over the wooden wall thing, like I did--or at least tried to do--the very first day I arrived here. Yeah, that was also the day that Tobias realized how short I was.
I'm not even gonna mention what else happened on that day that involved him.
Connor, Thomas and Beatrice were on one team and Dasuni, Caroline and Delila were on the other. Tobias chose the teams despite how we were arguing over who should get to choose teams. Thomas got over the wall first, and then Connor. But since Beatrice is relatively shorter than both of the guys, she couldn't get over the wall.
And Tobias, being the genius he is, decides that instead of helping them get her over the wall, tells Connor to climb on Thomas's back to help pull Beatrice over.
And what happened then? Yeah, Thomas fell. Connor fell on top. Beatrice fell onto a rock.
Hopefully they don't tell their parents.
My blue jeans are now having small rips in my knees from all the falling that has taken place. Not even from my own body by because I keep running into Tobias. . .literallty.
Speaking of Tobias, our friendship isn't necessarily the best yet. We still hate each other--but in a playful way. I mean everyday we annoy the living crap out of each other, but he's actually not as annoying as I thought he was when I first met him. And I can clearly say that I think that I might be falling for a guy with a number as a name.
"Here," I say while biting down on my lip, rushing over to the sink and grabbing a stack of brown paper towels from the disposer beside it. Throwing the tap open and letting water seap through the paper, I hand the three of them their own wet paper and watch as they simultaneously place it on whatever body part is bleeding.
Next thing I know is, Beatrice bursts into tears.
Damn it, damn it, damn it, what do I do? When it comes to people crying I'm shally the worst at handling the situation maturely. Either I end up feeling really uncomfortable and sick like I need to leave the room, or I start making fun of them.
But I can't do that here, I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble.
Connor and Thomas awkwardly scoot small steps away from her, leaving me enough room on the bench to sit beside her. Biting on the inside of my sore cheek, I slip into the bench and wrap an arm around Beatrice's shoulder.
"I didn't know your face hurt this badly," I murmur while taking the blood soaked paper towel from her hands and tossing it into the garbage bin across from us. I try to throw it in at least but it doesn't make it into the bin, making a soft laugh escape Beatrice's lips. I'm too lazy to go pick it up anyways.
Grabbing her face slowly, I inspect the hit on her forehead. "Do you need ice?" I ask slowly while trying to sound as caring as I can.
I'm not usually a nice person so the fact that I'm actually being caring is surprising. Beatrice nods, wiping her tears away with her forearm instead of her hands because her hands are sticky from the blood.
Standing up, I awkwardly rub my hands against my jeans before walking to the small fridge in the corner of the room and throwing the freezer open. The cold air hits me hard and sends chills down my body as I place my hand inside and snatch the cool ice pack from the cubby.
"Here," I say while watching Beatrice take the ice pack and place it on her forehead. Suddenly I hear the sound of the door open, and Delila and Caroline walk into the same cabin with bleeding arms.
This is gonna be a long day.
•°•°•°—–—-•°•°•°•
"Hi," I murmur while tucking a piece of hair behind my ear, crossing my arms afterwards. I glare at Tobias as hard as I can just as the lights in the kids' cabin turns off. Pushing the door open with his shoulder, Tobias opens the door and we walk out and I feel the cool breeze hit the back of my neck.
Walking down the narrow steps, Tobias leaps down the last three steps and begins walking across the freshly mowed lawn. A scoff escapes me and I hurry along to fall into pace with him, only to be slapping his shoulder afterwards.
"You gave me all the bleeding kids and you got to hang out with Dasuni! That's so not fair!" I protest while huffing, just as the lights in many of the other cabins go out.
Tobias rolls his eyes, glancing at me before continuing to look forward. "You're lucky, I had to spend all day talking to Miss. Twilight enthusiast," He grumbles while running a hand through his hair.
As we approach our cabin, I stretch my arms out in front of my and let out a soft yawn. I'm not use to waking up so early to get prepared for the activities, being a night owl isn't helpful when all the councillors are supposed to be at bed by ten o'clock.
My hand rests on the doorknob, but then a gasp escapes me as Tobias jumps right in front of me. "Wait," He calls out, like I'm ten feet away from him, when really I'm like ten centimetres away. "can I ask you something?"
Sighing, I nod. "What happened this time?"
Clearing his throat, Tobias scratches the back of his neck. "We're going to Dairy Queen come on," He mutters while grabbing my wrist and pulling me off the deck and onto the lawn.
"Wait what?" I reply, confusion coursing through me. Dairy Queen. Nine o'clock. Ice cream. "are all the other councillors coming?"
The last event that we had all together as councillors was the bonfire, we've all been so busy that besides the occasional hello everytime we pass by each other, the nine of us haven't really said anything much.
"No, you and me."
Without giving me another glance, he begins to pull me away. "Tobias, we're gonna get in a lot of trouble," I stammer with a laugh. He can't be serious. It's dark outside and we're going to Dairy Queen, just the two of us, nobody kno--this is not a date.
"Please?" He asks while stopping, and even though we're in darkness I can feel his fingers trembling around my wrist. "I'll pay."
What the hell, why not. "Tobias. . ." My voice trails off with uncertainty. I'm usually the one who's rebellious; not giving a damn what other people think or say and all that shit. But I've already been dropped on Mitch's bad side and I know that if we get caught going to get ice cream at nine o clock at night, then I'm going to get fired. And sure, maybe I said that I hated it here a month ago, but I've actually come to like it. A lot.
"You need to relax, you've clearly been stressed out and ice cream--" He stops halfway, as if coming up with a grand philosophy. "--lowers your blood pressure and helps you get rid of stress."
I laugh, rolling my eyes. "Actually ice cream would likely give you higher blood pressure and a sugar high, which I don't want. So--"
"Tris, please!" He pleads, like a desperate child asking his mother for candy. The moon shifts above us, and my eyes watch as the grey clouds swish around the deep purple sky, white dazzles flashing in odd places.
The abrupt sound of creaking fills me ears, and a shriek escapes me as Tobias grabs my waist and pulls me down so that I'm underneath the small patio to the cabin. "What the hell?" I whisper, shifting so my arms are above my head so that I'm not crammed two centimetres away from banging my head against the wood.
"Shut up for a second," Tobias murmurs while digging his fingers into my hips, making me suck in sharply. What is going on? In front of us, footsteps approach our cabin, towards us, about to reveal our hiding spot.
My mouth is about to open wide to tell Tobias to let go of me so that I can run, but a finger is placed on my lips, indicating for me not to talk. The footsteps grow louder and I jump back as I hear them about to climb up the steps.
My legs are crossed underneath me, sitting on Tobias's knee. A faint curl appears on my lips as I realize how close we are to each other, before I quickly snap myself out of it. Suddenly the creeping begins climbing up the stairs leading to our cabin door, and I bite down on my lip, hoping that whoever it is doesn't notice that we're gone.
Tobias pulls me closer, making it so like we're basically curled up into a ball. The small the space is, the least likely it is that whoever it is on the cabin patio will see us. My back is against his chest, and the pounding of my heart against my ribs isn't helping. It takes me a minute to realize that Tobias is trying to avoid us getting in trouble, otherwise my mind begins to wander on to other things but I manage to grasp back to reality before I do something stupid.
"Okay, they're asleep," The voice calls out, and I immediately recognize it as Isabel's. Her heavy footsteps begin descending down the patio stairs once again and I cling my hands onto the bottom of Tobias's shirt so that I don't fall and blow our cover. For a second my finger skins the bottom of his stomach and his abs run over my fingers before I quickly grab back to his shirt. Oh my. . .
I'm glad that it's pitch black underneath be patio, so that Tobias can't see the red filling up my naturally pink cheeks.
As the sound of the footsteps disappear, I wait before the sound disappears completely before beginning to slowly unravel myself from Tobias. Our jumble of limbs isn't helping the feeling that fills my body as I slowly slip out of the bottom of the patio, shaking my hands free out of the cardigan.
The handprints of Tobias's first grip around me undoubtedly left marks on my waist. Standing up, I extend my hand to Tobias before helping him stand up as well.
A sudden warmth fills my legs and I have to rub my hands against my jean covered legs to get the sweat off my hands--or at least that's what I tell myself.
"You okay?" Tobias asks quietly, peering his head above mine to see if Isabel is in the clear. She isn't.
"Y-Yeah I'm fine. . ." I whisper, surely emphasizing the point that I'm not fine. Coughing nervously, Tobias dusts his hands on his red hoodie before turning back to me.
"Ready to go now?" He asks, a tint of a smile appearing on his face.
{-–—-–—-–—-}
The vanilla blizzard melts in my mouth as I place the green spoon on my tongue, licking the ice cream off the spoon. I can't keep the small smile from appearing on my face as Tobias stares at my blue blizzard cup in disgust.
"How do you like vanilla ice cream?" He asks shocked, shaking his head before placing his Oreo ice cream into his mouth. I roll my eyes, clearly not understanding how he has such little common knowledge.
"I hope you know that Oreo ice cream has vanilla in it," I reply, laughing. The coolness of my cup against my fingertips is so cold that it burns. After trying to find Tobias's car in the staff parking lot, which was a hard because I have never seen it before, we drove off in direction towards the nearest plaza.
Half an hour away. That's how long it took to find a freaking Dairy Queen, or any other place that sends ice cream. But now we're here, in an almost empty Dairy Queen in the very corner of a very small plaza, debating on vanilla ice cream.
"Cause vanilla is so boring, at least Oreos have some flavour to them," He says. I laugh once more before bringing the cup to my mouth again. I can't help but notice the way that he keeps looking at me, and how his face looks like it's been kept beside the sun for too long.
"Okay, I've had it," I murmur while pushing the ice cream away from me. "why did we come here? It's obviously not because you're hungry." Some part of me wishes that it's because he wanted to ask me out on a date but didn't know how—but I know better than to think that. My hopes can never be raised too high.
His eyes widen and he pulls the ends of his red hoodie over his fingers before cupping his ice cream bowl. "No reason, I just-just we've been working together for almost a whole month–" Tobias stops for a second, almost choking on whatever is in his mouth. "–and I know nothing about you."
"Really?" I ask sheepishly, a grin threatening to explode over me. "I was thinking something more along the lines of a date." I immediately wish my non-filtered mouth could've kept its damn self shut. Suddenly I feel myself becoming conscious of everything; what if there's something in my teeth? What if my hair is messy? What if my clothes aren't matching my eyes? What am I saying? Since when did I care about any of that?
Tobias bursts into a coughing fit, wincing before grabbing a napkin off the tray and bringing it to his mouth. "I-I never said that it was a date. . ." He laughs nervously before reaching to scratch the back of his neck. I never understood why guys always scratched the back of their necks, it always seemed so cliché. But then you're in the moment and it just feels like it isn't. "but it could be if you want it to be."
What'd he just say? My heart begins pounding inside my body, an unfamiliar feeling of vulnerability. "I was thinking more of a trial date," I blurt out, not able to contain a smirk from spreading on my face.
"Trial date it is," He replies smiling. A warm buzzing erupts inside me, something that I haven't experienced in a long time; almost two years. I force myself to take another bite of ice cream, otherwise I may burst into a bubble from the heat rising to my cheeks. Tobias clearly notices because he chuckles quietly before bringing a spoonful of ice cream to his mouth again.
"Well," I mutter while wiping my mouth with a napkin. "you said that you wanted to know more about me, so shoot." Common logic isn't coursing through either of our minds; we're breaking a shit load of rules. I signed a damn contract that stated that I agree to never leave camp grounds. . .yet here I am. We're supposed to be asleep by nine o'clock, yet it's ten o'clock and we're eating ice cream. It surprises me how Tobias managed to find a Dairy Queen that is open 24 hours.
Tobias laughs. "Um okay, are you going to college in September?" He asks with a shrug. I forgot about college. I nod, stuffing my face with a spoonful of ice cream. I probably look like a snob, attacking the ice cream in front of me like it's the last thing I'll ever eat—but Tobias knows I love ice cream so I don't think it matters how I'm eating.
"Yeah, I'm heading off to UOI," I reply confidently. I got into the University of Indianapolis a week before I found out that I was being sent to this camp, out of all my friends back home, I'm the only one who got in. Which although makes me a little proud that I managed to get in but at the same time I know I'm going to miss them when I leave.
Tobias nods. "Cool, I'm going to ACOE," He says while shrugging. "American College of Education. I—"
"Why would you want to go to college to learn about school? Seventeen years of your life has been spent in a classroom, and you want to go back into a classroom?" The thought is so disgusting to me; teaching kids. Tobias rolls his eyes, leaning his forearms onto the table, making the wobbly legs shift slightly.
He laughs again, this time deeper. "Well I was homeschooled for about eight years of my life, until my parents died." I feel bad for making that joke now, realizing a serious topic that isn't easy to talk about just popped up. I completely forgot that his parents died, leaving him and Clarissa to live with Isabel and Mitch. I'm about to open my mouth to. . .apologize? Right, apologizes.
I don't like apologizes.
But Tobias continues talking, despite the topic of his parents. "And then when we were given to Isabel and Mitch–Isabel was my mom's sister–they decided to send me and Clarissa to a real school. Honestly I thought that I would hate it there, I mean I was eight years old, you couldn't blame me. But I remember—" Tobias stops, meeting his dark eyes to meet mine.
My heart is pounding against my ribs, that unfamiliar vulnerability feeling about to consume my body. "—that I loved it. I just, I don't know, felt like I was an undercover you know? Like in those spy movies? Nobody knew our past, what had happened. To me school was the one place where I felt like I never thought about my parents. Like everything was numbed until I got back home, where I just felt alone again."
We're siting in a booth that's beside the window, so I slowly lean my head against the cool window, shutting my eyes. I might be the one who ends up crying rather than him; he looks stable right now. "Mitch and Isabel didn't have any children, just one extra room that me and Clarissa had to share until we were about eleven years old. Eventually I decided to sleep on the floor; Clare rolled on the bed a lot. Anyways, I would come home crying for months after that. The smallest things set me off; seeing my friends' parents pick them up, birthday parties, even seeing Isabel-she looked a lot like my mom.
"So school was the one place where I forgot about what went on at home; the violence, the tears, the screaming. Apparently Isabel had a fertility problem, which is why they never had kids. I'm glad about that because otherwise they would have sent me and Clare off. But whenever I see young people now, I'm always wondering what their story is. . .am I sounding like a idiot?"
The haze I'm in always seems to cause me things that I would always overthink about in reality; like how my mind triggers me to place my soft hand on top of Tobias's. My finger runs along the bones of his fingers, the tendons in his hand. "I'm sorry that had to happen to you," I mutter sincerely. "and no, you don't sound like an idiot. That's actually really inspiring." These words came out of nowhere.
Something about him, something about the way that makes me feel. . . I don't know what that something it. But that is the reason why I know that I like him, the reason that I can't get him out my head, no matter how hard I try.
There's something about him that makes me fall harder by the second.
I smile.
•^•<•>•^•<•>•^•
As we arrive inside our cabin, our breath heavy from sprinting from the parking lot to pass the gate into our cabin, I'm tired. We must have lost time at Dairy Queen, it's way past ten o'clock now. Maybe even eleven thirty.
The smile isn't able to wash off my face as I quickly excuse myself and grab shorts and a tank top before heading to the washroom. I clench the sides of the small ceramic sink, shutting my eyes and breathing in deeply. I need to get my shit together.
It was just ice cream. Nothing more. Nothing less. Friends.
I force myself to think that, I don't necessarily want that to be true though. I want. . . I don't even know what I want. All I want is for there to be a guy out there who understands me, who knows my flaws and what I like, who knows how to make me cry. Is that too much to as for?
I've never been on a trial date before, this was my first one. But because this was my first trial date, I want it to be my only trial date. . . with Tobias at least. Because the trial is over, I want to go on a real date with Tobias.
a/n
hellloooo
im sorry for not updating in a while. 2016 is almost over and i still haven't completed Because of You, so im really focusing on completing that.
on january 1 i will be publishing me new story White Walls, and im happy to say that my co-writer will be uncivilized_fangirlx a big thank you to everyone who private messaged me asking to be co-writers with me, ill definitely promise that i will come to you when i need some help with writing :)))
this will be the last update for this story in 2015, the next will be in the new year :( this year honestly went by so quickly and it has been by far the hardest year for me, but it's also been the greatest. so many amazing things have happened me this year and im so blessed to have been given the opportunity to take part in those activities.
ive been on wattpad for only ten months, and i know that it's nothing compared to those of you who have had wattpad for years. but i absolutely thank all of you for the kind comments and votes, and for all my internet friends ive made because you've helped me get through a lot of hard times this year.
and i cannot wait to have an amazing 2016 with you, i can get some positive vibes telling me it'll be a rad year.
love you lots
christina xoxoxoxoxox
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