I woke up all too early to the sound of an alarm going off. I frowned and rolled over and suddenly remembered I wasn't in the dormitory; I was in Eric's apartment. With a punch to the gut, I suddenly remembered what had happened last night. What made it worse was that I knew I would have to explain where I was last night to Sage, Jasper, and Chase, and that would mean explaining what happened.
"Morning initiate," Eric said from the sofa. I rolled my eyes and sat up.
"What's the time?"
"6 o'clock. Don't look so shocked, I need to get up early to wake the rest of you up in time."
I nodded as I realised this. I sighed and sat on the edge of his bed, running my hand through my hair.
"I'm going down to the Pit to grab some food for the both of us as I assume you want to avoid the other initiates for as long as possible. Feel free to shower whilst I'm gone," he said pulling on some boots and lacing them up.
"Thank you," I replied, giving him a small smile. He nodded in response and walked out of the door leaving me alone in his apartment.
I threw the duvet off of me and rolled out of bed walking out of the bedroom and into the bathroom.
I stripped off my clothes and stood and looked at myself in the mirror. I had a bruise on my chin from where I had hit it when I fell, however it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The punch I had received to my gut had been hard and had left a slight mark, but it would fade after a couple of days. I turned around and looked at my back and could see a slight bruise, but it didn't look too serious either. What was really affecting me was the way this had caused me to suffer mentally. I was experiencing the biggest confidence drop since I got here. If I couldn't fight back last night, how was I supposed to succeed? I had been doing so well, scarily well, but maybe it was just beginners luck?
I shook myself and turned on the shower, walking in and relishing the warm sprays that were hitting me. It felt as though I was washing off Lee's touch and it instantly made me feel a little bit better. I washed my hair and got out, grabbing a towel.
I dried myself and got dressed, tying my hair up into a high ponytail. I realised I didn't have any makeup as I was at Eric's and sighed as I realised I was going to have to go the day without it. I didn't like the thought of this as I thought it would make me appear beaten and weak, but there was nothing to do about it so I would just have to deal with it.
I walked back into the living room and sat cross-legged on the sofa waiting for Eric to come back. I made the mistake of wondering what was going to happen to Lee and flashbacks of last night flooded my mind.
I looked up as the door slammed shut and saw Eric in the kitchen, the food on the table and him stood there, his hands clenching the sides of the table, a look of fury on his face.
I slowly got up and walked over to him, hovering cautiously on the other side of the table.
"What's wrong?" I asked, still being careful as I wasn't sure I wanted to be on the receiving end of Eric's current anger.
He slowly looked up at me and took a deep breath, "They've let Lee off. He's got off scot-free."
"No... No that's not... I don't..." I said, shaking my head and sinking down onto one of his kitchen chairs.
"I'm so sorry Iris, I don't know how this happened."
"No it's okay," I said and took a deep breath, "I had a feeling he would somehow get out of it, they always do."
"Well they shouldn't! I don't understand what Max is playing at."
"It could have something to do with Lee being related to Jeanine Matthews" I suggested, suddenly remembering this information.
"Wait... How is that possible?"
"Jeanine Matthews had a sister called Annabelle who transferred to Candor. She married a man called Richard and they had Lee together. I know that it's always faction before blood but it could have something to do with it? I don't know, I'm probably wrong, it was just a thought..." I trailed off, unsure if I should have mentioned it.
"You might have a point there, after all, Dauntless and Erudite have always worked closely together, I'll look into it. Now eat, we need to be down in the training room soon," he said, gesturing to the food on the table. I grabbed a blueberry muffin and sat nibbling on it, not feeling particularly hungry after this news and the thought of having to see Lee soon.
"You not hungry?" Eric asked after a little while of silence, tucking into his third piece of toast.
"Not particularly, sorry."
"Don't apologise, it's understandable," he said, glancing up at me whilst swallowing the last of his toast and grabbing an apple, "now I'll need to leave in a few minutes as I need to go and set up, but when you come down and your friends ask where you were last night just tell them the infirmary. I've already got the girl who was on the night shift last night to agree to the story in case anyone asks."
I nodded slowly, somehow a bit disappointed by what he was saying. Was he embarrassed that he had helped me? The way he reacted about Lee getting off had made me think he might care a little bit about me, but what if all this was just him fulfilling his duties of being a leader and a trainer?
I looked up as I heard Eric's chair scraping against the floor. "I'll see you in 10," he said as he left the apartment and shut the door behind him.
I sighed, running a hand over my head and tightening my ponytail. I decided I couldn't go to training without my make up as I really couldn't face appearing weak, so I left Eric's apartment and walked down to the shop.
As I walked in I saw that it was the same woman who was there a few days ago when I came in for a little retail therapy.
"Ah, first jumper Iris!" she exclaimed as I walked towards the till.
"Hey Maggie," I replied, chuckling slightly.
"Surely you're not back for more clothes already?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
I shook my head, "no, no, just here to ask for a cheeky favour?"
"And what might that be?" she asked, her eyebrow still raised.
"Well I didn't really have access to my make up this morning, so I was wondering if I could just use one of your eyeliner and mascara testers?" I asked her, a hopeful look on my face.
"Ooh, and why didn't you have access? Were you not in your dormitory this morning?" she replied, a knowing smile on her face.
"Well no, but it's not-"
"No, stop, I'm not going to embarrass you any further! Go ahead and use the testers," she said, giggling slightly. I rolled my eyes at her, letting out a quiet laugh too as I walked towards the makeup. I quickly applied my make up and looked up at the clock realising I only a had a couple of minutes until I had to be in the training room and cursed under my breath.
"Thanks Maggie, you're an absolute star!" I said as I walked towards the exist.
"That's me! See you around Iris!"
I started running towards the training room and managed to get there just in time. Sage, Chase, and Jasper all looked up at me with faces full of questions but didn't have the chance to ask any as Four had just started speaking.
"You'll be fighting each other again today, so I hope you're all ready. Here's the first list of pairs," Four said as he pulled a sheet off the chalkboard.
Iris vs. Jason
Layla vs. Chase
Toby vs. Lee
Sage vs. Jasper
I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw I wasn't fighting Lee; I didn't think they would have been stupid enough to do that, but this is Dauntless and you can never be too sure. I'd spotted Jason's weak spot when he was fighting Chase yesterday, so I was feeling slightly reassured, however, I still wasn't too sure how I'd react when I actually had to step into the ring.
"Iris, Jason, you're up," Four said, nodding his head towards the ring. I took a deep breath and wiped my clammy hands on my thighs. I felt Sage, Chase, and Jasper watching me; I'd never been this nervous before a fight before.
I stepped into the ring taking deep breaths, my fists raised in front of me. Jason threw the first punched which I dodged, causing him to lose his balance slightly. Taking advantage of this, I aimed a kick at his ribs, which he had been leaving uncovered during most of his fights, and managed to knock him over. I climbed on top of him and went to throw a punch, however, something in me made me hesitate. Spotting this, Jason flipped me over and punched me in the face and then the stomach. I finally managed to focus myself again and aimed a punch at his throat, causing him to lose his breath for a second. Taking advantage of this, I managed to get back up and prepare for his next attack. He aimed a kick at my ribs which I attempted to dodge, however, I didn't completely and he managed to kick my hip instead. This made me stumble slightly and seeing this Jason punched me in the mouth which started bleeding.
"Stop."
I turned around expecting Four to have stopped the fight, however, it was Eric that had spoken up.
Jason nodded and shot me an apologetic look as he walked away. I held my hand up to my lip, touching it and had a feeling I had split it slightly. I looked up at Eric to see if he would say anything or if I should just sit back down. He mumbled something to Four who nodded in response.
"Sage, take Iris up to the infirmary and then come back down for your fight once she's there."
Sage nodded, getting up and walking over to me. We walked out of the training room in silence, and as soon as we were out the questions began.
"So, where were you last night?" She asked curiously.
"It's a long story," I said quietly.
"And the infirmary is a long walk," she said, raising her eyebrows at me. I smiled despite the tough topic at hand.
"Well after the little scene in the dining hall, Eric found me sat in a corridor and as I was still pissed off he said that I couldn't be left alone unsupervised, so he dragged me to his. Before you ask, no nothing happened, he just gave me a drink to help me calm down and I walked back to the dormitory."
I looked up at Sage who was nodding, urging me to continue.
"I showered and went to bed, but Lee came in, drunk, and he tried to hurt me. He attacked me and tried to get my clothes off and, well, you know... I really thought he was going to, but Eric and Ricky came in just in time and pulled him off me."
"Oh my God, Iris I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I should have been there for you, I'm so, so sorry. I can't believe you went through that," Sage said, looking genuinely upset.
"It's okay, don't worry about," I said, shaking my head.
Sage hesitated, "what happened next?"
"Well, I had to go and explain everything to Max and then after that Eric took me to the infirmary where I stayed until this morning."
"So what's going to happen to Lee?" Sage asked.
"Eric came to see me in the infirmary this morning and... Nothing. Lee isn't going to be punished." I said, taking deep breaths so I wouldn't get too emotional.
"Are you fucking serious? You mean nothing is going to happen? That son of a bitch is going to get away with it? Oh I swear to God, I wish I was fighting him today, I would kill him!" Sage exclaimed, seething with anger.
"Sage, calm down, it's alright. Eric's going to look into it for me, he doesn't agree with the outcome either."
"That doesn't change the fact that Max thinks he can get away with it! I mean how can Max be a leader and yet he lets shit like this happen? I'm sorry, no, that's not acceptable."
I stared at Sage in slight shock, never having seen her this angry before.
"What?" She asked, confused as to why I was staring.
"Sorry it's just you've always seemed like such a calm person, I've never seen you like this," I said, a small smile on my face.
"Because you haven't seen me angry before! I just can't wrap my head around it."
"Yeah I know, but don't get too worked up about it. It's my issue, not yours." I said, coming to a halt as we reached the infirmary.
"Are you sure you want me to leave?" She asked, giving me a concerned look.
"It's fine Sage, honestly don't worry. If you could do me a favour and tell Chase and Jasper what happened though, that would be great. I don't want to have to explain it all again."
"Yeah of course! Anything you want. I better get back to training, I'll come and see you as soon as we're done though!" She said, waving as she left.
The nurse examined my lip and I sighed as she said I needed a couple of stitches. I sat there, wincing every so often, thinking about my fight with Jason. I was so much weaker during that fight, so much more vulnerable than I had ever been before. It worried me, I was scared that after Lee's attack I would feel like this during every fight and would ultimately fail. I couldn't let that happen to myself, I couldn't become factionless. I needed to stay at Dauntless.
After the nurse said I could go, I went into the dining hall which was fairly empty as lunch hadn't started for most people yet. I grabbed myself a burger and an apple, quite hungry as I hadn't eaten much for breakfast.
I was digging into my burger when someone came and sat down in front of me.
"Hey," Elliot said quietly.
I looked up in surprise, "hi," I murmured.
"Listen, I'm really sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to take my anger out on you, and I really regret doing so. I heard what happened to you last night, and I'm so sorry. I feel like it's almost my fault, if I hadn't upset you then you wouldn't have-"
"Elliot. Stop. It's not your fault at all, no one could have known this would happen," I said, interrupting him.
"I just feel responsible."
"Well you shouldn't, it's not anyone's fault but Lee's. How did you know anyway?" I asked, curious as to how he found out.
"Jackson heard from Four and told Trae who told Deon," he explained, leaving me with a little bit a dread. I didn't want the whole of Dauntless to know what happened, and if so many people knew already it probably wouldn't take long before everyone else knew.
"Don't worry, Deon, Matt and I are the only Dauntless-born initiates that know what happened and we're not planning on telling anyone else," Elliot said, clearly clocking my look.
"Thank you," I replied, still feeling slightly uneasy.
"Honestly though Iris, I am so sorry about everything," Elliot repeated, clearly feeling like he was responsible for what had happened.
"Elliot, it's okay, honestly. Even if it hadn't happened last night, it was bound to happen sometime soon. Please, let's just talk about something else, for example, why have you been let out of training early?"
"Well I explained to Cassia what happened and she let me go, she's always had a soft spot for me," he said, winking at me.
I chuckled, rolling my eyes and digging into my burger. I looked across the dining hall and saw Sage, Chase, and Jasper coming towards our table.
"Ah, so I see we've made up?" Chase asked, gesturing towards Elliot and I.
"Yeah we have, she couldn't stay mad at this beautiful face for too long," Elliot said, giving a toothy smile.
"Oh, and whose beautiful face is that exactly?" Deon asked as he sat down at our table, clearly having overheard the conversation as he was walking towards it.
Elliot rolled his eyes at that comment, throwing a chip at Deon. Looking around at my friends I realised, as long as I had them, I could get through what happened with Lee. As long as I had them, I knew I would be safe.
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A/N
Sorry for the slow update everyone, life has been pretty hectic. Enjoy this chapter x