Reawakening

Chapter Thirteen

Tris

"Marlene," I whisper, trying to shake her awake. I knew her bed was next to Uriah's, so it wasn't too hard to find her, even with it so dark. I whisper louder. "Mar!"

"Hmm?" she hums sleepily.

From the next bed over I hear Uriah: "Tris? Is that you?"

"Yes, Uri, it's me," I whisper. I turn back to Marlene. "Marlene, Edward got hurt. He wanted you to come." Marlene shoots upright. My eyes have adjusted to the dark now, so when I turn I can see Uriah, though not with much detail.

"Did Peter...?" Uriah questions.

I shake my head. "No. Well, yes... but just his arm." Uriah nods and lays back down as Marlene pulls on shoes and we make our way to the hallway.

"Okay," Marlene says, her voice thick with sleep, but a little shaky. "Tell me what happened."

I explain about Peter's sick and bizarre effort to eliminate the competition by attacking others with butter knives, and Marlene gasps when I tell her he almost got Edward's eye. "If he had been asleep..." Marlene says. I just nod.

I'm not sure whether it's better to call attention to the elephant that never leaves the room or to ignore it, but I hate that Uriah is hurting so much, so I decide to try and address what is constantly eating at me.

"Marlene," I say cautiously, "I hope we can consider each other friends." I see the hint of a frown flicker across her face, but she masks it quickly. "If I've done something to upset you, I hope you'd tell me so we can work it out. Uriah is my good friend, and I don't intend to intrude on your friendship with him; I really would like to be your friend." Marlene nods, but it's not convincing. I sigh. "Anyway... I'm not sure what's going on with you and Edward... but... don't forget about Uriah. He cares a lot about you, Mar."

Marlene snorts and glares at me. "What, so he can hook up with some transfer but I can't?"

So she definitely does think there is something between Uri and me. I run my hand through my tangled blonde hair as I try to sort out how much I can and can't say. "Uriah and I are only friends," I say carefully. "I-"

"Please," Marlene says and rolls her eyes. "I can see what is going on with you two. I'm not blind. But apparently you are well aware of my  feelings for him and moved in on him anyway. Don't pretend you want to be my friend."

I stand, stunned, outside the door to the infirmary for a moment as Marlene pushes her way in. After spending a minute trying to regain my composure, I enter the infirmary and sit down in one of the waiting room chairs. I want to see Tobias before I go, and I don't have to wait long; I've only been sitting for five or ten minutes when he sees me on his way out of the infirmary.

"Tris, I didn't know you were waiting out here." He holds out his hand to pull me up. We're in public, and I know that's why he drops it quickly, but I still miss his warmth.

"How is Edward?" I ask as we leave the infirmary and Tobias leads me, his hand on the small of my back, to a little alcove off of an abandoned hallway.

Tobias shrugs. "He's fine, just needed a few stitches. More shaken up at what could  have happened, than anything. He credits you with his still having two working eyes."

I shrug. Wouldn't anyone have done the same, had they known? Edward doesn't owe me anything.

"I should get back to the dormitory." I really want to just go back to Tobias's apartment with him, but I am not about to suggest it before he does, and I really should be careful not to give the other initiates reason to suspect anything. We still have nearly two weeks of initiation to go. Two torturous weeks of keeping our relationship under wraps.