CHAPTER ONE

TRIS

I lie in bed with Tobias. My eyes stare up at the blank ceiling. His arm lies across my chest and his face is turned towards me. He looks so young when he's sleeping. Slowly moving his arm from my body and placing it beside him, I slip my bare legs from under the covers and step out of bed. I wear the underwear Christina gave us for Lover's day, a holiday only Candor and Dauntless celebrate. Will was just us thumped as I was by it, but was also fascinated in his Erudite way. He kept talking about Valentine's Day and dove into a speech about history. I was focused on how abrupt the gift was. Black, lacy under garments that pushed my breasts up and kept my butt in place. Tobias had laughed, and later revealed how much he appreciated it. That was yesterday. Today, is the Choosing Ceremony.

I step into the shower and remove the underwear. The hot beads of water falls onto my back, creating a blanket of warmth.

I'm just about to grab the soap when a hand touches my shoulder. I gasp as electricity replaces my blood, and my heart pounds faster than the electricity pulses in my veins.

"You might want to clean yourself later, cause something dirty calls for right now." He whispers. His lips press softly to my neck as he kisses it, going lower each time. I roll my head back and close my eyes, sliding my hands over his hips behind me. I pull him towards me. His hard manhood presses upwards against my thighs. He moves his fingers between my legs and reaches to the front.

God those fingers are long.

I moan as he works wonders, sending electric vibes where I thought they would never go. My god seriously though, those fingers. I pull them out and grab his thick cock and pull it towards my pussy.

He breathes on my neck as he enters me, nice and slowly. A long gasp slides out my mouth as he pulls back and then pushes forward once more.

I turn around to face him, smiling. He takes my face in his hands and slowly kisses me, bringing warmth to my face.

He enters me again, from the front and I sigh as I'm indulged in pleasure. I grab onto his muscular shoulders and pull myself onto him, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.

His dick presses up into me, and I moan as he picks up the pace, thrusting back up into me again and again. I take one hand down from his neck and press against my clit, rubbing it again and again. The pleasure explodes all over me as we fuck, faster and harder.

The bathroom is filled with our moaning and heavy breathing.

How long we stay in the shower? I don't know. But when we're finally done and I'm drying myself with a towel, white wrinkles are all over my fingers.

"Well someone's hydrated." Remarks Christina as I sit down in the Dining Hall.

"What?" I say. She takes a bite of her muffin and swallows before replying.

"Your fingers, all gross and watery. Did you fall asleep in the bath tub or something?" I laugh pretending the reason behind it isn't what it is. We both eat in silence for a small while before Will joins us.

"Hey honey." Christina says as he slides his legs over the bench. He plants a light kiss on her cheek. She grabs the toast in his hands and takes a bight. He snatches it back.

"Oh, so that's what you meant by honey."

"Yep" Christina beams as she wipes honey from her lips. I smile while watching them, slightly envious. Where is Tobias during moments like these? Why isn't he ever around me when I'm with friends? When I'm in public?

Christina interrupts my daze as she starts to complain about Peter.

"I can't believe I actually have to train with him." She whines "He is pure evil. You're so lucky you get to be with Four, he's your boyfriend, and he's experienced in the field, and knows the curriculum. Me and Peter are going to be fighting over how we're gonna teach everything I bet.

I think about how it's probably no coincidence that they put Peter and Christina with the Dauntless born initiates. They'll already know everything, so their teaching won't matter as much. Will has his arm around her.

"Peter does anything to you? Anything? You tell me, I'll beat him to a pulp." He says. Christina smiles and wraps her arms around his neck, kissing him. Then Peter walks by.

"Speak of the devil" I mutter. He punches Will hard in the shoulder as she shuffles past.

"Watch it!" Christina says.

"Ugh, get a room" he snorts. Christina throws Will's honey toast at him.

"And you're the one calling people stiff?" she calls out. He half turns, examining the honey dribbling down his leg. He scolds her and walks away defiantly. He reaches the door to the dining hall when Uriah walks out too, shoving him in the shoulder as he walks past.

We all laugh, knowing Uriah meant to do that for our benefit.

The wind whistles against my face and whips at my heels as I bounce on the balls of my feet, getting ready to jump. Peter does the same thing a few feet away from me. The front of the train whips past me, but by the time the middle car squeals around it's slowed enough for me to jump. I do a run, catching up with the car door. I bend my knees and jump, shoving my shoulder into the door, and quickly grabbing the handle, using it to pull myself into the car.

I forget to look back and see if Peter decides to catch the same car.

Too late.

He swiftly walks in, like he didn't just jump onto a moving train, like he just opened a door and placidly entered. I scold him from the car floor, where I lean against the wall. He snickers back and leans against the wall adjacent to mine.

For a while we sit in silence, listening to the clacking of the rails and the screeching of the wheels. I turn my head to look out the window, and out of my peripheral vision I see Peter's eyes on me. It's been a long time since I've been this close to him. And that was when I was surrounded by friends, by Tobias, who so willingly protected me. Now, I'm alone.

I never really revealed to anyone how I actually felt about his fingers around my neck, holding me over the chasm, my life literally in his hands. Tobias wanted to hurt him so much. Hurting me, meant that he hit Toby in a deep, deep spot. I told him not to, because I didn't want any more hassle or trouble, I was finally accepted into Dauntless, couldn't everything just be over? But now, now that I've finally revealed how I felt to myself, I think it was because I was scared.

The train takes a jolt and speeds through a tunnel that surrounds me in darkness. I can't see anything. Where I am, where Peter is. A scream escapes me and before I know it light floods the car doors and I see Peter standing by one of them, preparing to jump.

Did he hear me scream? Wait, why did I scream?

Because you're still scared.

I don't want to answer these questions now, I can't answer them. I shake them off and get up. The hub stops being a blur and I take it's view in. Outside the steps that lead up, the concrete is divided up into five sectors. In each sector, grass outlines the symbol of each faction. Soon, all the new initiates will run across these, towards the train, where I jump from now. I hurl myself out, and throw my shoulder to the ground, ducking my head in. I hit the grass lightly, and swiftly roll forward. Nothing hurts, I don't stumble. I silently praise myself for finally jumping out of a train perfectly.

Peter and I walk up the white marble steps that lie before the hub. He doesn't give me a singles glance as we climb them. At the top, two Abnegation men open the doors for us, smiling.

"Thank you." I say, returning their smile. Peter doesn't say anything and pushes forward.

We walk through the opening hall, our footsteps echoing loudly. At the end of the hall a desk clerk with short, dark red hair and square glasses stands up to greet us. She wears a dark blue blazer with a matching skirt.

"Hi, I'm Veronica. You must be Tris and Peter." She holds out her hand to shake, but neither of us do. Her smile fades awkwardly and she points left "That's where the ceremony will be held, so go make yourselves comfortable.

We wait for an hour before people finally start to file in. My nails are completely perfect. I used to bite them to their beds back during initiation, but while waiting, I bit them into perfect shape.

What else could I do while sitting next to Peter alone for an hour?

Clusters of grey file in one by one, a few members holding doors open. Small groups of blue enter from the other side of the room, staying far from Abnegation. The red and yellow Amity enter from the same door the Erudite did, and the Candor enter from the same door the Abnegation did. Dauntless come in from a door somewhere behind me, because I don't notice any of them sit down, and I'm shocked to see the Dauntless sector full when I turn around.

After this small assembly of all of the factions' sixteen year olds and their families, Jeanine Mathews walks in from the side of the stage. She takes five even strides up to the podium to introduce the ceremony.

Her voice is clear, and loud, so that everyone can hear her and understand her. I swallow before she begins.

"The only way, for our society to survive, is for each of you, to claim your rightful place." She speaks with perfect articulacy. I remember just a year ago, sitting in this room, on the far left side, wearing my grey abnegation uniform, worried sick, my palms wet with sweat. I wipe them on my pants now, just as I did then.

"Today, you will choose, a decision that will allow you to discover, who you really are. The future, belongs to the people who know, where they belong." She dives into a dull and boring speech about the formation of the factions, and then with a quick conclusion, draws it to an end.

A man with dark brown skin holding a pane of glass that glows, walks up to the podium and begins to read out names. I notice a few Abnegation, neighbours and friends of my parents. They all choose Abnegation though. I realise a lot of people transfer from Candor and Erudite, a handful transfer from Amity, only two transfer from Abnegation and two transfer from Dauntless. Dauntless has the smallest amount of transfer initiates. I count four Erudite, three Candor, an Amity and an Abnegation, making nine altogether. Suddenly I'm reminded of last year. We had nine. We had one Abnegation. Me. This one is a boy, and looks vaguely familiar, but I'm confident I don't know him.

Peter snorts and shakes his head when an Erudite boy with similar dark brown hair chooses Amity. I wonder if it's his brother. I don't bother asking, though.

Once all the hands have been cut, all the blood has been spilt and all the gasps of shock and applauds of relief have ceased, everyone begins to clear out. Peter and I push through the crowd of initiates and make our way to the train. I love how the fresh air feels against my face as I'm running, the sting in my lungs…

Again, I'm reminded of last year, this is exactly what I did, exactly how I felt.

I turn to see Peter gone, he must've ditched me for the train. The crowd of black run straight past me tapping me on the shoulder and high-fiving me.

"Tris! Tris!" Uriah's smaller brother Thom high fives me as he sprints under my shoulder. He's even smaller than me, his voice higher, and I laugh at how cute he sounds. He might as well be nine.

Then the group of transfers arrive, some panting, and wiping their sweat, some grinning with pumped energy. I beckon them to the train and they all follow me. When the train squeals past us, I point to the train and don't say a word before jumping in. There's no use trying to yell at them. They all stumble in, some of them nearly missing it and slipping under the train. But they all get in fine, and I'm glad. Peter is nowhere to be seen, but I understand he's probably with the Dauntless borns, seeing as he is their instructor.

The marsh flickers past us as we leave the hub and scream past the Erudite sector of the city. Once I see the Dauntless buildings on the horizon I get up and lean against the door frame. My hair blows out freely around my face. The top of the building emerges just next to the train and a large, but manageable gap stands between us.

"I am not jumping that says a Candor girl by my left ear. I laugh as she reminds me of Christina. Except she has a pale complexion and long brunette hair.

"You are if you want to be Dauntless." I yell over the wind. Then I step off the train as if I'm sidestepping into another room, not out of a moving train. My feet find the ground all right and I take a few extra steps to gain my balance.

"Nice lil' dance their Tris!" says Thom. I smile and push my hair behind my ears, waiting for the transfers. They all manage to make it, The Candor girl being the last one, with surprisingly the best landing. The Abnegation boy is the first to stand before me and I give him a moment's glance.

Definitely don't know this kid.

He catches my eye and his eyes flicker away instantaneously. I give him another glance and awkwardly smile. The group has surrounded me, and soon the dauntless borns have dawdled their way over too.

"Transfers First!" announces Peter. He beckons them towards the edge of the building with a welcoming grin that scares the absolute crap out of me. The Candor girl steps forward.

"Mmkay." She shrugs her shoulders and takes a few steps forward. Behind me a Candor boy says "I thought Dakota is not jumping from there." Everyone falls back in laughter and she turns around to tell him exactly what she thinks.

She extends out her arm, and then her middle finger. The laughter stops and the boy shoots her a look.

Then she turns around, take a leap, like a synchronised diver from Erudite, and she flips and twirls as she falls. I know that when she lands, Toby will be there to welcome her. The rest of the transfers jump off, with the Abnegation boy being second. When the Dauntless go forward I have to organise them into single file line. They all want to jump off together.

"There's a fine line between bravery, and idiocy" I tell them, remembering what Toby told us when we were standing over the chasm last year. I glance at Peter, who should know there's a fine line between bravery and idiocy, but also cowardice. What he did to me was cowardly. He looks at the ground, and appears to not be listening. I jump off before him and laugh, giddy with excitement as the air rushes all around me, cooling me. When I land, I roll over to the side of the net where Christina pretends to cheer and whoop for me. Toby takes my hand and pulls me up. This time, instead of welcoming me, he just kisses me. His lips, so soft against mine, somehow make the insides of me explode. I pull back smiling.

"Welcome back to Dauntless, Tris." He pulls me in for an embrace.

"Yeah, get in there Four!" shouts Thom. We release as Peter pulls himself out of the net.

After touring all the initiates together with Christina, we walk the halls of the Dauntless compound. Laughing and gossiping, Christina tells me about her and Will's Lover's Day night.

Apparently they didn't sleep.

"Oh, gross, come on, Christina that's just nasty." I joke. She laughs, knowing that Tobias and I have probably done worse. I know she thinks that, but she never says it, because she knows we like to keep out sex life to ourselves.

"So Abnegation of you two…" she'd say.

Christina and Will got their own apartment together, where they got a cat (NOT. A. DOG. A. CAT.). I of course moved in with Tobias.

"Will's been working at the fence all day, I should probably go home, make him happy, if you know what I mean…" I roll my eyes at her and head off towards Toby's apartment – our apartment – as he said.

"Well that was an eventful day." I call out when I open the door. I throw my things onto the chair by the Television when suddenly I'm swept off my legs. His guns are under my knees and the middle of my back. I laugh loudly as he tosses me onto the bed. He's wearing nothing but golden boxers. I moan as he removes my clothes, feeling me, and kissing me.

Before I know it, I'm naked, and he's squeezing at my breasts, shoving his face in-between them, making me laugh when he licks them. I sweat into the sheets as he puts his mouth on me.

Down there.

I scream as wetness floods the sheets below the equator and the orgasm ripples through my whole body, making me shiver. He smiles and kisses my clitoris.

"Oh my god, Tobias. Stop." I say as the pleasure turns so intense it's painful. I sigh and catch my breath as he lies next to me.

"I love you, you know that." He says.

"I love you too. And yes I know that." I reply.

I take his face in mine and we kiss before he turns all the lights out and we fall asleep together.