Hello! Here's the next chapter. I think that it's a bit of a filler but I hope you still enjoy it. Please let me know what you think.

The next day, I still had the leftovers of the grin stuck on my face. Not even my parents’ glares that morning at breakfast could dampen my mood. I was actually humming to myself as I left the house for the truck to work. I never hum.

I was still humming when Rosie and Ben found me, a few minutes later.

“Somebody’s in a good mood this morning.” Rosie said with a grin as she hopped into the truck I was already sitting in.

“Yeah, I am.” I replied, my grin getting even wider. I decided not to elaborate on why I was so happy, I didn’t want to sound too pathetic and I knew that the truth made me look that way.

“What is it that’s made you so happy then?” Rosie asked curiously.

“I don’t know. I’m just happy today.” I said casually, with a shrug. The lie came easily.

What was I meant to say? Oh, nothing really. It’s just that a dauntless boy walked me home yesterday and now I can’t stop grinning like a freak. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

I glanced over at Ben, noticing the frown on his face as he looked at me. I think he knew I was lying and I think he knew why as well.

I quickly ducked my head, not wanting to give any more away and also not wanting to fight with Ben again. He was my best friend and I hated arguing with him, but I would defend Dean if he tried having a go at him again. He didn’t even know him and he already decided that he didn’t like him.

Maybe I should get them to meet? Perhaps if Ben met Dean he’d understand that he really didn’t have to worry about him hurting me.

I was shaken from running through possible meeting scenarios between Dean and Ben by the truck roaring to life and starting the long journey to the hospital.

We were about half way through the journey when I spotted them.

The dauntless vehicles.

We often passed them as they drove out to guard the city perimeter, but I’d never really cared or even noticed before. Now I definitely noticed them.

As they approached I found myself sitting up straighter in order to get a better view.

Maybe he was in one of those trucks.

I was practically hanging out of the truck by the time they drove past.

Both our vehicles and theirs slowed down to pass one another, giving me more time to scan the passengers for Dean.

The first truck passed with no sign of him, just the usual rowdy dauntless members. But movement from the second one caught my eye and within seconds I had spotted him. He was mid conversation with two tough looking dauntless guys, but then all of dauntless looked tough. They just had this air about them that screamed ‘don’t mess with me’. Maybe I thought that way because at school I had once heard a rumour that all dauntless children were taught to wield a knife before they were taught to walk. I had never found out if that one was true or not and, in all honesty, I was kind of afraid to ask.

As if he could feel my gaze on him, Dean’s eyes snapped up to meet mine, and a wide grin broke out on his face. And I couldn’t stop an answering smile spreading on mine. I gave a small wave and he waved back.

If we had been closer or had more time I would have liked to have said something, but before I was really ready for it, the trucks had passed and he was disappearing into the distance. As much as I didn’t want to admit it there was a small part of me what just wanted to ditch Ben and Rosie and jump onto their truck. I wanted to be on the dauntless truck, with Dean, going off to protect the city, but I knew that that was never going to happen. Instead I was stuck in the amity truck with a group of really nice people, off to do a job that I enjoy.

Wow, I was ungrateful.

So many people would love to have what I have and yet all I could think about was a stupid daydream that was never going to come true.

Kind of pathetic really.

I watched the truck get smaller and smaller until I couldn’t even see it anymore and only then did I turn back to my friends. They were both staring at me intently, but with very different emotions on their faces. Rosie was looking at me with excitement and expectantly waiting on an explanation of that little exchange. Whilst Ben was back to glaring at me, like he did last night.

“What was that?” Rosie practically squealed in my ear. She had been trying to get me to find a boyfriend for three years now, with very limited success. I had dated a couple of amity boys before, but nothing serious. I always felt as though I was leading them on and lying to them because I didn’t really fit-in in my faction. I was pretending the whole time and it just didn’t seem fair on them to really start anything. Also the boys I had previously dated were all nice but that was it really. They were funny and easygoing and basically just amity through and through, which is great and everything but it’s hard to find those traits attractive when I’m forced to mimic them every day. I guess I just wanted something more. Something a bit more dangerous perhaps.

An image of Dean floated into my head, but I quickly brushed it aside.

Like that was ever going to happen. I thought sarcastically to myself. We were completely different people, it would never work.

I quickly pushed all those thoughts from my head and focused back on Rosie’s question.

“He’s a friend.” I shrugged, not really sure what to say about the odd friendship which had grown between us out of blood, trains, adrenaline and mutual dissatisfaction with our factions.

“How come I’ve never heard about this ‘friend’?” She asked challengingly, as though she expected me to crack and admit that Dean had been my lover for two years now. She had a bit of a wild imagination.

The darker side of me wanted to say that I hadn’t told her about Dean for the same reason I hadn’t told her about the multitude of other secrets I was keeping, because we weren’t as close as she thought we were.

But I didn’t. That wasn’t the amity way. And it wouldn’t be completely true either. I may not tell her a lot about what goes on in my life, but I still considered her one of the closest friends I had, even if I did keep secrets from her and lie to her.

And she wasn’t the reason I kept half of those secrets. I kept them because if I told her the truth I was scared she wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore. How could she want to be my friend if she learned that not only did I not want to be here in amity but that I had lied to her for years? How could she understand the reasons I had kept her in the dark? Why would she even pretend to be nice to me after that? My parents didn’t. Why would she?

“Because I haven’t known him all that long.” I sighed. “He came into the hospital the other day, bleeding badly and I stitched him up and then we ran into each other yesterday so he walked me home.” I explained.

“And he’s just a friend?” Rosie asked suspiciously. She was a romantic at heart and I think the idea of a secret forbidden romance excited her.

“Yes, Rosie. He’s just a friend.” I assured her, ignoring the small uncomfortable feeling in my gut as I said this.

What was that? Maybe my breakfast was disagreeing with me.

“For now.” She grinned, with a cheeky know-it-all smile. I chuckled at her and gave her a playful shove.

“Dean and I aren’t going to be a couple. We’re barely even friends.” I said honestly, rolling my eyes as she wiggled her eyebrows at me suggestively.

“Give it time.” She chuckled.

“Why are you encouraging her?” Ben snapped. He had been very quiet throughout our conversation and had been frowning at us disapprovingly.

“Because I want to see our friend happy and that smile that was just on her face was the biggest I’ve seen there in a long time.” Rosie stated simply.

She had said it as though it was the most obvious thing in the world but I had to try really hard to stop my jaw from dropping. She noticed? I thought that I was doing a good job at always smiling and pretending to be happy in front of them. Apparently I wasn’t.

What else had she noticed?

“But he’s dauntless. He’s dangerous.” Ben protested. He had obviously thought Rosie would side with him on ‘the Dean issue’, but Rosie was surprising both of us today.

“Sophie is a big girl. She can handle herself.” Rosie said calmly.

“But she could get hurt!” Ben cried, gesturing wildly with his arms.

I had been getting increasingly annoyed at Ben throughout this conversation, with his judgemental comments and dismissive attitude to my ability to look after myself but that last comment made some of my anger fade away. He may be being unfairly harsh on Dean but he was only doing it because he cared about me. He was genuinely worried for me. And as someone who grew up with very unaffectionate parents, I really appreciated when somebody showed they cared for me. I couldn’t stay angry at Ben when he was only acting the way he was because he was trying to protect me. I may be more distant from Ben and Rosie than they realised but I valued what I had with them.

“But what if I don’t?” I asked, feeling the need to step in. I didn’t want to cause Ben and Rosie to argue. They never argued. They were proper members of our faction, they were always calm. But now they were actually arguing, and it was because of me. I didn’t like it.

Also we were starting to attract disapproving stares from other people on the truck.

“But ... it’s just ...” Ben tried to get a sentence out but he was obviously having difficulty putting his thoughts into words. “I can’t take that risk. It’s not possible for me. I can’t let you get hurt.” He said, a desperate look in his eyes. They were pleading with me to understand, begging me to listen to him.

If he was asking me to do anything else I would have caved by now. He looked like he was almost in pain. But I knew that I couldn’t honestly tell him that I would stay away from Dean, because if the opportunity to see him again arose I would take it. So instead I settled with trying to make him feel better.

“I’m sorry.” I said honestly. I didn’t want to make him feel like that. “I don’t want to hurt you. But I’m not going to avoid him. I like spending time with him and I know he won’t hurt me. Please try to understand.” I all but begged. It would kill me to know that whenever I was with Dean I was disappointing Ben. I already felt like I was always disappointing my parents but if I had to add Ben to that list I’m not sure I could take it.

Ben closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in deep breaths.

“Fine.” Ben huffed out, not happy. “But I still don’t like him. And I’m still going to be keeping my eye on him.”

I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading on my face as I lunged forward and hugged him. He was going to try. He may not trust Dean yet, but he was going to try and let it go.

“Thank you!” I chirped, with my head still buried in his chest.

Ben let out a strained chuckled and wrapped his arms around me too, muttering under his breath.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Sophie.”