Will and Christina kiss, a little too sloppily for my taste. All around me is the pounding of Dauntless fists. Then I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to see Tobias standing behind me. I get up, beaming.

"You think giving you a hug would give away too much?" he says.

"You know," I say, "I really don't care." I stand on my tiptoes and press my lips to his. It is the best moment of my life. When I'm kissing Tobias, time seems to stand still. I swear I could remain here with his lips on mine forever.

Too soon, though, I feel a hand firmly grip my arm and pull me away from him. I turn and see Christina staring open-mouthed with a look of disappointment on her face. Disappointment? What could that be about?

"When? How? Why? Ugh! TRIS!" she stutters. "How long has this been going on? Why didn't you say anything to me … ME? I told you about Will." I knew when this secret came out she'd be less than pleased with me.

"Listen, Candor," Tobias starts to say in his intimidating Four voice but I look his way and shake my head slightly, stopping him.

"Christina, I'll tell you whatever you want to know but not here, not now." I was getting ready to say I'd tell her everything but some of the secrets I keep aren't mine to share. "I promise. Tomorrow after breakfast, okay?" This seems to pacify her somewhat.

All this time, Will has been sitting at the table staring open-mouthed at Tobias and me. He must gather his wits because he comes up behind Christina and puts his hands on her waist, steering her away from us.

"Congratulations, Tris," he says to me. Then he turns his attention to Christina. "I think we've taken up enough of Tris' time right now, don't you? There are tons of people wanting to talk to her."

"Yeah, congratulations, Tris," she says, tightly hugging me then she whispers in my ear, "Tomorrow." I silently acknowledge Will with a nod of my head and a smile, and he leads her away. I'm very thankful for him right now. Christina would have grilled me for hours about Tobias. What am I thinking, she is going to grill me for hours when she gets the chance.

I look around and realize Will was right. Surrounding me are dozens of expectant faces, both friend and stranger, waiting to congratulate me. I realize I'm not going to get my wish of kissing Tobias again for the rest of the night and I sigh.

"What's wrong?" he asks, his mouth up against my ear. I can't believe he heard me over the roar of the crowd.

"Nothing," I reply.

For the rest of the night I smile, laugh, and make small talk with hundreds of Dauntless members. I've seen so many new faces and learned so many new names that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. All I want to do right now is crawl into my uncomfortable bed back at the dorm and get some much-needed sleep. I had no idea that the fear landscape would act like a time-release sedative. I'm barely able to keep my eyes open. I feel Tobias' hands lightly resting on my hips, and I lean back against his hard chest. I can't believe we're actually alone right now. We haven't had more than two minutes to ourselves all night.

Just then, movement on stage catches my attention. Max, Eric, and the other three Dauntless leaders whose names I never bothered to learn are gathered tightly together. Max is talking very animatedly with his hands. By the way the others are listening and leaning closely toward him, I can tell their discussion is very important. Suddenly Eric's eyes meet mine, and he gives me a cold, ruthless smile. A shiver runs up my spine, and I drag my eyes away from his.

"Cold?" Tobias asks, his mouth by my ear.

"No, but I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open right now," I admit. Just then two girls with more piercings than I can count start toward us and abruptly turn and walk away. I frown. I wonder why they did that. I glance up over my shoulder at Tobias with an inquisitive look, and he's his wearing his fiercest Four mask. I can't help but giggle. "Was that absolutely necessary?"

"Of course. You just told me you can hardly keep your eyes open." He turns me around with his hands and wraps his arms around me, pulling me close to him, relaxing his hands on the small of my back. He looks down into my eyes and says, "Would you like to stay with me tonight? I feel like I haven't had enough time with you today." With his offer, fear bubbles up deep inside. I push it away as quickly as I can hoping he doesn't notice my hesitation.

"Yeah, I'd like that," I say, a shy smile crossing my lips. He unwraps me from his embrace, and we walk hand-in-hand toward his apartment. I'm getting more familiar with the path to his place, I probably could make it on my own now. We're about to turn down his hallway when a voice calls out to Tobias.

"Hey! Four! Got a minute?" A short, slight, brown-skinned man jogs up to us. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" he asks, inclining his head toward me.

"Zeke, this is Tris, my girlfriend," he says, motioning toward me with his hand. I beam when he calls me his girlfriend. "Tris, this is Zeke, one of my closest friends here at Dauntless."

"What do you mean one of? I'm his only friend," he guffaws, looking at me. I can't help but join in. His uproarious laugh is contagious.

Tobias rolls his eyes and adds, "He's also Uriah's older brother." At the mention of Uriah, I take a closer look at Zeke and remember him from zip lining.

"You were there the night Uriah took me zip lining," I say.

"I knew you looked familiar. You were fearless that night, didn't make a sound as I pushed you off the roof. I thought Uri was going to cry like a little girl."

"He did sound like a strangled cat!" I say with a laugh.

"Zeke, did you need something?" Tobias asks with what sounds like jealously in his irritated voice.

"Erudite put another unflattering piece out about Abnegation. I thought you should know," he says, serious now, taking a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket. It looks like a computer printout.

Tobias takes the paper and says, "Thanks, man." He glances at it, refolds it, and puts it in his jacket pocket.

"You two have a nice night. I'm off to the control room. Fun, fun!" he says with a silly grin. "Hey, when do you come back to work, Four?" Zeke must work in the control room with Tobias.

"Monday," he replies.

"Well, I'm sure I'll see you before then," he says and then he looks at me. "Congratulations, by the way, on ranking first this year. That's quite an accomplishment. Another thing you two have in common." He smiles brightly at me then turns and sprints off in the direction of the control room, I imagine.

"Another thing in common?" I ask Tobias as we head down the hallway to his apartment.

"We're both from Abnegation, we both ranked first," he says as he unlocks his door. He steps aside to let me step inside first.

"He knows you're from Abnegation?" I ask with a yawn. I don't know why this surprises me.

"Yeah," he says. "He's only one of a handful of people who knows where I transferred from. I'm sure some of my fellow initiates remember but I've made it quite clear over the past two years that it isn't a welcome subject. Most people have let it die." He smiles at me and locks the door behind us. I watch him go directly to his dresser and fish out an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt. He turns and hands them to me.

"You can wear these tonight," he says, "if you want to." That's right, he saw me in the dorm sleeping in my clothes. I also wore my clothes the first night I slept here.

"Okay," I say. "Thanks." I take the clothes and go into his small bathroom to change. I realize I don't have anything else to wear tomorrow so I neatly fold what I'm wearing and stack them on the wide shelf behind the toilet. I put his shorts on and roll the waistband a couple times to keep them from falling back off. I put the t-shirt on, and it comes to just below my knees. When I look at myself in the full-length mirror behind the bathroom door, I blush crimson from head to toe. I look like I don't have any pants on. I take a washcloth from the cabinet and wash my face and "brush" my teeth. I hang the wet washcloth over the frosted glass shower door and retrieve my clothes. I hug them to my chest like a protective shield as I walk out of the bathroom. I feel more exposed than I ever have in my entire life.

Tobias is moving across the room away from me wearing nothing but a pair of black sleep pants. I watch as he leans down and takes two waters out of his mini fridge. I see his tattoo for the second time and study it for a few seconds before turning and putting my pile of clothes on top of his dresser. As I'm about to turn back around, I notice a makeshift bed on the floor.

"You can take the bed," he throatily says. I've never heard him sound like that before. I look over at him. He's still across the room and has a cautious look on his face.

"Tobias, you can't keep giving me your bed," I try to scold but it comes out a little breathy. I wonder why. "That isn't fair to you." He slowly walks towards me and deposits one of the waters on the nightstand. He still has the other one in his hand. He looks in my eyes for a long moment and I shiver.

"I would never let you sleep on the floor, Tris." I can't come up with a response because the look in his eyes has me entirely tongue tied. I nod then I stand on my tiptoes and wrap my arms around his neck to kiss him goodnight. He wraps his arms around my waist and picks me straight up so he doesn't have to lean over. I feel the cold of the water bottle against my lower back. He moves his lips with mine for a few minutes and then sighs into my now open mouth. He takes a few steps, still carrying me and sits me down on the edge of the bed. I slide back and get between the sheets all while watching him. He sets the water down on the floor by the pillow and walks across the room and turns off the lights. Since my eyes haven't adjusted to the darkness yet, I only hear him come back toward the bed and lie down on the floor.

"Good night, Tris," he says. "Sleep well."

"Good night, Tobias."