Rampant: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Two) ©

Chapter 24

                “I have to find her,” I began to say before I backtracked. “Err -I mean- them, we have to find them.”

                “Find who?” A voice asked behind me.

                I turned and found myself face to face with Jade; she didn’t look pleased. Behind her, Vera and Mel also seemed confused, though I suspected Mel probably just couldn’t hear what we were saying. Though Jade had directed the question at me, I was a little surprised to see she was giving Iris a slightly threatening look; it almost seemed like a challenge.

                “Ally and Zane,” Dan answered. “Zane is drunk, and we don’t think it’s a good idea for him to be left alone with her.”

                “Oh, them,” Jade said; the side of her mouth lifting into a smirk. “Trust me, they’re more than fine.”

                “And how would you know that?” Iris snapped; not sounding aggressive, just worried.

                “Yeah, I thought you guys went to the bathroom,” I added.

                “We did,” Vera interjected. “But when we were heading back we decided to go and explore some of the areas around the Pit. We were about to check out the chasm, but umm…” she trailed off.

                “It was otherwise occupied,” Jade’s smirk grew into a devilishly wide smile, “they were in there, busy if you know what I mean.”

                For the past few days I’d attempted, and foolishly thought I’d succeeded, in pushing my worries over Ally to the farthest recesses of my mind. I’d thought I had learned to ignore those odd emotions, but as soon as I understood what Jade meant, I felt as if I’d been punched in the stomach.

                I looked at Jade, trying desperately to see even the slightest hint of a lie in her words, but there was none. She was bluntly honest, as someone fresh from candor would be. She was telling the truth, and even if she had tried to deceive me, I knew Vera -my childhood friend- wouldn’t have stood by and let her trick me.

                “Are you sure?” Dan asked, interrupting my thoughts. “I mean, the chasm is pretty dark. What if it was someone else?”

                “We heard them too,” Vera said. She scratched her head, looking embarrassed. “They were talking and their voices echoed back to where we were. Then they started kissing, so we left.”

                I swallowed, pinching my eyes shut for a second. Get over it; I had to get over it. Obviously if they were a couple, it was only normal for them to behave that way. It wasn’t any of my business, I shouldn’t even be worrying about her when I had bigger things on my shoulders.

               “Oh, well, then I guess we shouldn’t interrupt,” I tried to say breezily; hoping to appear nonchalant.

               Jade smiled up at me, and then skipped over and hooked her arm around mine.

               “Good, then let’s get back out there and pick up where we left off,” she said as she began to pull be towards the dance floor.

               “Wait,” Iris said, and to my surprise, she didn’t hesitate to plant herself in between Jade and me. “Sage, I don’t have a good feeling about this. Please, they might have moved to a different place, just do me a favor and help me look for them.”