CHAPTER 67

TRIS POV

"Tris..... It's time to get up sweetie." Someone shakes my shoulder, lightly.

I ignore them and bury myself deeper into the warm mattress.

"You're going to miss your flight Tris. C'mon, you can't ignore me forever."

"But I can try," I mutter, blinking my eyes open to see mom leaning over me.

"Get excited! You're going to warm Miami!" She says jumping up and down.

I smile at the thought and she helps me up onto my feet. I'm still a bit weak from Eric and the whole hospital escape thing. I'm just glad I don't have to go to school.

I go into the bathroom and emerge thirty minutes later completely ready for the day. Luckily, mom had packed my suitcase for me otherwise I would be running behind.

I greet Tobias in the kitchen and he engulfs in a warm hug. I smile into his chest and he rubs my side.

We eat a small breakfast and soon we're on the road headed for the airport.

"Welcome to Chicago Airport and we thanks you for flying American Airlines!" The cheerful lady greets us at gate 14, the Miami gate.

We wait in the foam chairs, for what feels like hours waiting for the plane to board. Tobias goes on his phone and I watch over his shoulder. He goes through Instagram and Snapchat and I giggle as I see on Molly's story, that Lauren got drunk at some party and had completely fallen down the stairs in front of everybody.

Tobias erupts in laugher and we watch it again and again and again laughing just as hard as the last time.

Suddenly, Tobias abruptly stops as he turns to face me.

"What?" I ask confused.

"You can't.... You weren't supposed to be looking at technology because of your concussion," Tobias says serious

"Ughh. This definitely sucks." I moan.

"At least we're boarding now. Once we're in Miami, we'll have plenty of things to do," Tobias says, grabbing my hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes fly open and I take a deep breath and casually look around. Tobias is asleep in his seat, a book on his lap. Everyone else is generally on laptops, sleeping, or reading. I fell asleep about a half hour into the flight and of course, me being me, I had another dream. Of course it wasn't a good dream because that is apparently too much to ask for.

I glance at the screen on the plane and see that were about an hour away from landing. I sigh. I have nothing to do because I can't use technology and I can't read. There's no way I'm taking another nap because well... I know that something or someone will come out of the darkness.

Glancing at Tobias, I slip his phone out of his pocket and plug in my head phones. I quickly put on music and try to relax, closing my eyes.

I feel Tobias begin to stir next to me and I'm not sure how he will react about me listening to music, even though Colby never mentioned not listening to it, but I stay still just in case.

He gently takes the right headphone out of my ear and I assume he places it in his because I feel the string tighten on my left ear.

Hello by Adele is playing and Tobias turns the volume up a notch. I had the volume very very low.

I open my eyes and smile at him as he pulls me closer to him. I rest my head on the crook of his shoulder and before I know it were landing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Let's go to the beach! No the pool! No the arcade! No the water park! No the--" I cut him off.

"Calm down Tobias," I giggle. "Let's go the beach."

"Okay whatever you say Trissy!" Tobias says excitedly.

We walk down to the beach which takes less then a minute because our condo is right on the water.

Tobias and I spend the day there, tanning, swimming, building sand castles, and more swimming.

By the time it's 4 I'm drained.

"Wanna get going?" Tobias asks.

I nod and we trudge upstairs. We both shower and soon we're on our way to dinner at some Italian place.

We walk to the restaurant and I order the pasta with a spicy tomato sauce while Tobias orders a small pizza.

"So Miss. Prior, I formally invite you to go swimming with me later in the pool," Tobias says on his most manliest voice.

"Mr. Eaton, I formally accept your invitation to go swimming later," I laugh.

He smiles and fingers the bracelet I have on my wrist.

"You're wearing it," he simply says.

"Of course I'm wearing it."

The promise bracelet. The one Tobias gave me on Christmas. Instead of a promise ring, he gave me a promise bracelet with our names engraved on the charms.

"I love you Beatrice Prior."

"I love you Tobias Eaton," I whisper with a small smile plastered on my face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Don't you even think about it!" I scream in between fits of laughter.

"Too late. The thought already entered my mind!" Tobias yells and throws me into the pool.

I swim up to the surface and deviously smile at him. He's lucky it's a heated pool at night. Otherwise there would be a problem.

I jump up and chase Tobias around the outskirts of the pool, slipping on all the excess water.

It's a good thing there's no one here otherwise I would have to dodge them too.

I see Tobias sprint around the corner of the pool and completely slip and skid on the concrete until there isn't any concrete left... Just pool.

He falls right into it and I fall to my knees in laughter. Talk about clumsy.

He surfaces and glares at me.

"Not funny."

I just point at him and continue laughing going through the memory in my head.

Tobias jumps up and throws me up into his arms running into the shallow section of the pool.

He places me on my back in the like one foot section, so I can easily breathe.  I'm barely underwater so it doesn't even matter. Tobias lays down next to me and pushes the wet hair out of my face.

"That wasn't very funny," Tobias says trying to stifle a laugh.

I burst into laughter again at the thought of him skidding all the way into the pool.

"I wish... I wish I got that on video---- slow motion," I laugh again.

Tobias begins to laugh and I'm glad nobody's here to ruin the moment.

Eventually we both stop laughing and I stare up at the stars. I believe that-- well I used to believe that-- when mom and dad "died," I used to think that they were looking down upon me as stars and whenever I needed them, I would just look up at the stars and they would come to the rescue. I shouldn't say I used to believe because I only believed for a year or so. When Marcus started hurting me I always asked for their help, but to no avail. I guess I stopped believing in that when I was 12.

I glance over at Tobias and see he's staring at me intently with a goofy smile on his face.

"What?" I ask blushing.

"You're incredible Tris. Beautiful in every way," Is all he whispers.

Next thing I know, his hand on my cheek and he's lightly kissing me with passion.

I stiffen at first, still not used to anything like this, but relax into his gentle embrace within seconds.

Tobias pulls away after a moment, but I kiss him again and he responds happily. His hand travels down my face and lands eventually on my hip bone.

He hungrily kisses me harder and harder and my hand is entangled in his hair.

Realization strikes and I gently push him away and take a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," I say sitting up.

"No Tris, I'm sorry. I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable in any way," Tobias says awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

I shake my head. "You didn't."

I get up and Tobias and I make our way back up to our condo.

Tobias and I have our late night discussion on whatever comes up and by the time we run out of things to say, I can barely keep my eyes open. I think Tobias ended up carrying me to bed because I don't remember how I got there but that works for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Beatrice Elizabeth Prior. The girl who believes she still has a chance on the world. The girl who believes I am dead. The girl who is so stupid to think I would just give up."

I instantly shudder at his voice. I can't afford to think about him or anything about my past.

"You can't get rid of me Beatrice. No matter how hard you try," Marcus sneers coming into view, belt in hand.

"This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real," I murmur to myself trying to wake up.

"Oh but it is sweetheart," Marcus laughs and pushes me against the wall. I immediately stiffen at his touch. The belt hits me numerous times and I scream in agony, begging him to stop.

"This isn't real!" I cry, tears traveling down my face in buckets.

"It will be soon, Beatrice. Prepare yourself," Marcus says and everything disappears just like that.

I snap awake and climb out of bed. Tobias is still asleep which means I didn't scream or cry. Thank gosh. He has enough worries on his mind.

I step out onto the balcony and sit outside listening to the calming waves of the ocean.

Its around 5 in the morning so soon the sun will be up and everyone will get their day started.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, you okay?" Tobias asks, opening the sliding doors.

"What? Oh um yeah. I just-- I like how calm everything is in the morning," I say and put my head down on my knees again.

"What time did you get up?" He asks, sitting down.

"6ish," I lie.

Tobias nods and we both stay quiet looking out onto the ocean.

"Tobias...... I--- I have a question that might seem ridiculous..." I say unsure of myself looking at him.

He nods. "Okay."

"When Marcus was shot by the police.... Did they check his pulse or--" Tobias cuts me off.

"Are you asking me if Marcus is actually dead?" He asks, his eyes showing confusion.

I nod slowly.

"Tris.. I thought we went over this. He's dead. They checked his pulse and anything else they could have possibly done. He's gone and he not coming back. You do not need to worry about him anymore. Okay?" He tells me seriously.

I nod and look away quickly, feeling foolish.

"Hey. Look at me," Tobias gently pulls my head and I meet his eyes. "Marcus is gone and you are safe. You're not alone anymore Tris. You have me. You have the gang. You have your parents and Tori. There are so many people that are here for you. Stop worrying, alright? I hate it when you worry. It makes me worry. Just relax and let go of any bad thoughts." Tobias takes my hand and rubs circles into my palm.

I give a small smile and he kisses my forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We went to the beach today, mom," I say into the phone. It's around 8 and mom wanted to check up on how we were doing.

"Was it fun?" She asks.

"Yeah it was fun. We'll probably go tomorrow again," I say.

"Oh... Um... Here's the thing, sweetheart. Colby scheduled an appointment tomorrow for you. I mean it is for the best, since you are in Florida now. It will probably take up most of the day. Maybe you can get it in if you're quick," mom rambles.

"Wait what?" I ask raising my voice, causing Tobias to look at me weirdly.

"You have an appointment tomorrow," mom repeats.

"No, I heard you. I mean why," I angrily say.

"Oh... it's a special psychiatrist he wanted you to see and also a highly trained Doctor that Colby wanted you to be seen by," mom says sounding nervous.

"Are you kidding me?" I angrily spit. "I did not come to Florida for this!"

"Honey, Colby just wants the best for you. He wants to help you and make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine. Why does no one ever believe me! This is ridiculous. Unbelievable," I mutter and hang up.

The phone rings again not even a minute later and I let my anger get the best of me. I pick it up and chuck it against the wall as hard as I can.

Tears pool into my eyes and I run my fingers through my disheveled hair.

"Wanna talk about it?" Tobias asks, turning off the tv.

"Did you know?" I demand through clenched teeth.

"What, Tris what happened?" He asks.

"Don't. Did you know about my doctors appointments before we came down hear," I yell standing up.

"Doctors appointments?" He questions, looking confused.

"Mom just told me that tomorrow I have doctors appointments here that Colby wants me to go to. This isn't even meant for a vacation then." I say bitterly more to myself than Tobias.

"It's not that bad. If it's just one doctor appointment the entire week, it will only take about an hour and then it will be over," Tobias tells me calmly.

"It's not just a doctor appointment. It's one with a specialist who I don't know and will be examining my back and touching me," I say as the tears cascade down my cheeks.

"Trissy. If you don't feel comfortable, then you can just tell the doctor. He would stop. Okay?" Tobias asks, walking towards me.

"Mom also said that he scheduled a psychiatrist appointment. He wants me to get seen by a doctor who specializes in mental health and illnesses. They think something's wrong with me!" I yell and cover my face with my hands.

I feel arms wrap around me and I struggle against him.

"Tris. Stop. You know that I didn't know. If I did, I would've been the one to tell you," he whispers into my ear.

I stop struggling, but stay stiff. I feel him sigh and he rubs my arm.

"There is nothing wrong with you. You know that and I know that. Colby has his reasons and he is not only your doctor, but he's your brother too. He wouldn't be able to handle himself if something happened to you and he could have prevented it. Colby's playing it safe okay Tris. You are a beautiful, strong women and I know that you can handle yourself out there in the world. You are almost perfect, Tris," he whispers into my hair.

"Almost?" I ask in a small voice.

"Well, no one is ever perfect and you're pretty dang close Tris," Tobias says.

I relax all of my body muscles and let Tobias hold me. He will always believe in me. At least I know one person.

"You're cute when you trust me," Tobias says and I can see his goofy smile on his face.

He swings me up into his arms and carries me back to the chair he was sitting on.

I curl up into a little ball on his lap and place my head right over his heart. He is my rock. And for that I will always be love him.

HEY GUYS! I HOPED YOU ENJOYED!

I KNOW THIS IS LATE BUT HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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