CHAPTER 25

TRIS POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I take Tobias's hand in mine and head upstairs to go change.

I walk into the bathroom and start to change into the bikini Chris gave me, but before I do I take a look in the mirror.

I see the red scar lines that travel everywhere on my back and the bruises are all black and gray. Truly disgusting.

To get Chris off my back, I put in the bathing suit and look at myself in the mirror.

She chose the most skimpiest one ever.

"This is truly ridiculous." I say.

I open the door and Tobias stares at me.

"Wow." He says.

"Like I said ridiculous."

"Well, there's no hiding your back now is there." He says.

"No." I sigh and Tobias wraps his arm around my waist and walks downstairs with me.

I walk out and all the guys wolf whistle while all the girls tell me I look amazing.

I blush and then I see Peter. My world just keeps on coming down.

I immediately stiffen. Tobias squeezes my hand and I look up at him.

"I'm here. He won't get to you. He can't get to you."

I nod and grab one of the chairs that are white and have the rubber, wide lines, somewhat. It is like at a pool where you can just take one.

Nobody has seen my back yet and I want to keep it that way, but I can't sit with my back against the chair. I just can't.

I straighten the chair out, so it is flat and lay down on it. I put it next to all the girls chairs who are gossiping about some new girl at school.

They all smile at me even Lynn which is surprising.

I lay down in my stomach and put my head towards them.

"Yeah, she is so pretty! I wish she would be on our group, but Lauren got to her first." Marlene says.

"Sounds like I missed a lot." I say.

"Yeah you did." Christina says looking at me.

"Oh-- oh my! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" She yells jumping up from her chair.

"What?" I yell back.

"You... Your back! It's terrible!" Christina says.

"Holy-" Marlene gets cut off by Shauna jumping up and screaming.

Lynn just looks and has her hand covering her mouth.

All of the boys are yelling now because all of the girls are screaming and jumping. They come running and asking what's the matter.

I just groan and put my head down.

I can her them whispering about it.

"I can hear you. I'm not deaf." I say.

"Tris. It's just so bad." Will says.

"Do you not think I don't realize that." I say through clenched teeth looking at them.

They look at me with that kicked puppy look, which I hate.

"You can stop staring at me." I say.

"But Tris! Did you have stitches?" Marlene asks.

"Yeah I got them out today like right before you came." I tell them.

"Yeah and right after Eric came." Uriah says.

As soon as he says that Zeke slaps his hand over Uriah's mouth.

"Eric came?" Shauna asks, worried etched all over her face.

"Yeah, he broke some stuff and just yelled at me that some stuff was going to happen." I say sitting up.

"What kind of stuff?" Lynn asks.

"It was...... I don't want to talk about it." I say tears filling my eyes.

"Okay, why don't we all go swimming." Peter suggests.

We all nod and I walk to the stairs with Tobias while everyone else jumps in.

"Wow this water is really warm." I say.

"Yeah it's heated." Tobias tells me.

"You're lucky."

I walk down and when the water touches my back.... Boy did it hurt.

I take a huge breath inward and jump backwards scrambling away from the water.

"What is it?" Tobias asks.

"The water burned. It must be the chlorine."

"Why don't you sit by the side of the pool where everyone else is and we can talk." Tobias suggests.

I nod and walk over to where Christina is standing and she starts blabbing about how we have to go shopping.

I just nod and say yeah and basically tune her out.

Everyone starts a game of pool volleyball and occasionally bounce it to me.

I was laughing at a joke Uriah said when I hear my name being called.

"Yeah?" I turn around and see mom motioning for me to come over to her.

I walk over and she pulls me inside.

"So, let me see." She says twirling me around.

I feel her cold hands just barely touch my back leaving chills.

"Well, I just got a phone call from the Candor House. They want to have a court session with you and Marcus next week."

I just stare in shock.

"Mom you can't let him take me! He'll hurt you. He'll hurt everyone." I cry motioning to everyone outside.

"I know, sweetie, but you can't refuse. We have to do it. We will protect you. He won't be able to hurt you when anyone is around."

I nod and look down, not wanting her to see the tears brimming in my eyes.

"Beatrice, honey. Just don't think about it. Focus on now. And now you have friends and family that love you. Now go out and have fun with your friends. But before you do, who is that boy with the brown hair? Who's close to Lynn." Mom says.

"That's Peter. He.... Well he was really nice in the orphanage..... Until Eric came." I say.

"He was there, too?" Mom asks.

"Yeah, but when Eric came well, he would always punch me and kick me and stuff like that. He was actually the reason Tobias found out. At school, he was jumping on my back and I screamed and Tobias found me. I passed out and then Tobias brought me here. So yeah. I don't trust Peter yet, but everyone else does." I tell her.

"Even Tobias?"

"No." I laugh and tell her that he almost always threatens that if he goes near me that he will get it.

"Go have fun." Mom says.

I smile and go back outside to the heat where I lay down in the pool chair and close my eyes.

I feel my limbs getting heavy with sleep and the sounds of splashing and laughing lulls me off into a dreamless slumber.....

TOBIAS POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I watch as Tris lays down and I can see her tense body slowly relax as she falls asleep.

I turn back to everyone and all at once they start asking me about what Tris didn't want to talk about.

"It isn't my place to tell you guys." I say.

"PANSYCAKE!" Uriah yells.

"Shhhhh!" The girls scream at him.

"If you don't tell them, I will." Zeke threatens.

"Fine." So I begin.

Christina grabs onto my arm.

"If Marcus wins then she'll have to go love with him?" She asks.

I nod.

"But he will definitely win!" Chris whisper yells.

"How do you know?" Shauna asks.

"Well, my parents are lawyers and one night they had Marcus over for dinner.
They were practicing for there debate the next day and I was watching them. He was so good at competing with people. He then said, 'let me play Devils advocate' and he beat my parents by a long shot. He was so fast on his feet. Afterwords he said that half of what he said was a lie. He is a super good liar. He looks straight in the persons eye. He doesn't fidget or anything. Nothing. And I am super good about detecting that." Christian tells us.

I rub my hands through my hair and just shake my head, speechless.

"Tris, oh my gosh, I feel so bad for her!" Marlene practically shouts.

I shush her as Tris stirs. I don't want her to know that we are worried about her.

"Do you think she even has a chance?" Lynn asks.

"No." Christina says simply.

"Let's forget about this." I say.

"Let's play some games!" Uriah screams at the top of his lungs.

This causes Tris to all at once jump up and fall out of the chair.

"Mmmmppppp" She moans.

"Tris!" I yell getting out of the pool.

"I'm fine. Who was the one who screamed?" Tris asks a devious look in her eyes now.

Everyone points at Uriah, even Uriah himself.

"Wait. Me, you, I...... It was Marlene!" He yells.

"WHAT!" She screams.

They both get out of the pool and start chasing each other.

I start laughing along with Tris who leans into me.

"Once they stop acting like two year olds, how about we play truth or dare?" Tris suggests.

"I was just going to say the same thing." I say with a smile.

TRIS POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I walk over to the edge of the pool and sit down just as Uriah and Marlene dive in.

"Truth or dare time!" I yell.

Everyone crowds around me and I declare that I go first.

"Uriah truth or dare?" I ask him.

"Dare! I am NOT a pansycake!" He yells at the top of his lungs.

"Fine then you won't be afraid to go ask my mom how to get on a bra." I say with a smirk. I know how Uriah is weird with that kind of stuff.

"Fine."

He walks in the kitchen and I see him start to talk to my mom motioning to himself as he does.

He comes out a minutes later wearing a bra with an angry expression in his face.

I look back and see mom wink at me through the door.

I smile and start laughing along with the rest of the gang.

"Okay, okay Marlene my dear friend truth or dare?" Uriah says.

"Truth." She says firmly.

"Pans--" he starts to yell, but Lynn slaps her hand over his mouth.

"Say it one more time pansycake and see what happens." She threatens.

"Okay. Lynn calm down."

"First mistake! Never tell a girl to calm down!" She tells and pushes him under the water.

Tobias chuckles next to me as I see Christina high-five Lynn.

"Marlene, as I was going to do, but someone tried to drown me, I was wondering if you wanted to go out on another date with me?"

"Yes, I would love too." Marlene says with a smile.

"Ummm..... Peter truth or dare."

"Dare." He says confidently.

Marlene thinks for a moment until her face lights up.

I dare you to let Tris make you a smoothie of anything she finds.

I smirk as Peter follows me into the kitchen. This is going to be fun.

I quickly find the blender and put in a banana, cream cheese, onion, peanut butter, saltine crackers, Nutella, milk, chocolate chips, and sprite.

His face turns into pure disgust as I mix it together and he begins to talk.

"Listen Tris, I am so sorry about everything. About the ad--"

I cut him off.

"I don't want to talk about it. Or think about anything right now, so please let's tall about something else."

"Okay, why did you move here?" He asks.

"Marcus wanted to." I say plainly.

He nods and goes to get a glass of water for when he is done.

I hear his footsteps approach me, but since I am still holding the button and pressing this down, I don't turn around.

Big mistake.

Suddenly, I feel light fingers in my back. I jerk to the side away from his touch.

"What do you think you're doing?" I  letting go of the buttons, making the blender stop.

"I just couldn't believe that someone would do that to another person. I wanted to feel it to make sure I was seeing right." He says.

"Well don't." I say harshly.

"I'm sorry. Again."

I nod and start to grab for the blender when Peter grabs my wrist.

"I just need to do this." He tells me.

I feel his lips press to my forehead and that is the last thing I remember before my hand presses against something and I crumple to the ground.

CLIFFHANGER! DUN- DUN-DUN!

Boom! How was that?

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