IX

  "I was a heavy heart to carry
My feet dragged across ground
And he took me to the river
Where he slowly let me drown"  

"Heavy In Your Arms" -Florence and the Machine

A tense and awkward feeling filled the space between Jenner and Harper. There was the quiet, distant sound of the rushing water, Harper focused on that to try and rid herself of the redness that had filled her cheeks from kissing Eric. Still unable to believe that she had even done that, she had enjoyed the elated feeling it gave her, and she felt quickly deflated as Jenner stared at her with a disappointed look in his eyes. Before Harper could get the chance to speak, the words a flurry in her head and despite having so much to say, nothing seemed to come out; Jenner got the first words in.

"Nothing in common, hey?" He tried to sound like he was going to laugh it off, but there was a serious undertone to his voice that was coming out.

"Opposites attract," Harper replied, even though the statement wasn't exactly true, and she began to wonder how similar to Eric she was. She remembered that she was supposed to hate him, but wondered how, at this point, she could find that inside of her anymore. It startled her how quickly it diminished, but she knew how a bias could be put up by prejudiced words of another, only to be torn down by the actual person.

"You know, I don't care," he started, and it sure sounded like he cared. "Next time you don't want to hang out with me, you don't need to lie."

"Jenner." She shook her head, wanting to flop down on her bed and sleep with a smile on her lips at the thought of her and Eric's kiss, but she would now rest uneasy thinking of the fact this might get out. "I was telling the truth at the time, it was afterwards, I bumped into Eric. He suggested we train."

"So he's helping you get ahead? You're cheating?"

"I'm resourceful." She sneered. "You're from Dauntless, you know how to do all of this. I'm not!"

"I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into," he said, his brown eyes trained on her, glimmering slightly in the glare of the light above.

"I'm perfectly capable of knowing what I'm doing," she said, though she wasn't sure how true it was, and began to wonder what Jenner knew. "I'm sorry I'm not interested in you, but that doesn't mean you can lash out at me."

Jenner looked hurt, but quickly masked it. "That is not what this is about. I asked you as a friend to come tonight."

"We both know that's not true." Harper shot back, then turned because she was done. 

Her brain was spinning and she needed rest; she had stayed up way too late and would be groggy in the morning when she had to get up and start throwing knives and firing guns. Eric hadn't been able to help her with that, as the noise would draw too much attention. The shooting range was not indoors and silent, it was atop buildings, and would startle too many people at that late hour. She left Jenner with a cold shoulder, and knew she had severed something between them. While most friendships could be easily healed after something like that, Harper wondered if his attraction to her had made things more difficult.

***

When the morning came, Harper did indeed feel groggy, but so did everyone from going out to the party. Those who stayed in looked slightly better, no black circles under their eyes. Harper quickly showered, threw her hair into the usual ponytail and dressed in her all-black garb. When she was lacing her boots, a brunette came up to her. She had been training alongside Harper and the other initiates, but Harper didn't know her name. The expression on her face gave it away, and the girl lightly laughed, nervously almost. "It's Eliza."

Harper nodded, and politely supplied her own name. "Harper."

She smiled knowingly. "I was wondering, could you help me out sometime? I see the way you fight, it is almost like you are Dauntless-born."

"I'm only sixth on the list." Harper tried to sound modest.

"Yeah, five Dauntless born above you."

Harper tilted her head to the side slightly and raised both eyebrows simultaneously as a quick gesture to show she was proud of where she was, but that it wasn't something to brag about. "What faction are you from?"

"Candor," she replied as Harper stood up from the bed, where she had been lacing up her shoes.

 Together, they walked down the halls to the training room; knives were today, guns were later this week. Harper learned quickly that Eliza liked to talk, and she quickly briefed over her family life and how she missed her two siblings and her parents. She chose Dauntless because she always felt like she needed more excitement in her life, and truth-telling wasn't cutting it. She had known for a year she wanted change, but only when the test told her Dauntless did she make the big leap. She had sharp eyes, a well chiseled jawline, and a figure that made her look as though she did belong in Dauntless. Harper was pleased that she had gained yet another friend, knowing that Jenner might not talk to her for a while.

***

Eric had so much more to do than he felt motivated to do. It was already eight in the morning, and all he had done was shower. In his vacant, vastly empty apartment-style home, he could be alone with his thoughts, and that was not something he liked doing. Sometimes they could seep into his head and drown him in the vastness of it all. Since he was a youth, he had one goal to reach, and so far he had done everything right, without question, and those involved in Jeanine's plan had never once frowned upon him. That would change, however, if he began losing his mind over some girl.

Both Eric and Harper had conflicting thoughts over the last few weeks, disliking one another and quickly realizing that there was not a whole lot to dislike. While it had not taken Eric long to realize he was attracted to Harper, he had not wanted to pursue anything so early. Things tended to fall into place and it all just happened; he was to blame for encouraging it, and Harper was to blame for agreeing to such encouragement. He battled these thoughts for a while, but it was the previous night that he realized just how much he liked her. He felt like a teenage boy again, and alone in his apartment, he chuckled, shaking his head.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered to himself, and then a knock at the door brought him to his senses; he had a meeting with Jeanine, and he forgot entirely about it. "Shit."

Yanking the door open, Eric stood face to face with the blonde, perfectly done up Jeanine Matthews. In a blue skirt-suit, she looked professional and as Erudite as she could. Being the leader of the faction, it made sense that she dressed top notch. Dauntless was a bit more fun, and Eric could wear whatever he pleased, and that happened to be black pants, leather boots and a form fitting, dark grey shirt the showed off everything from his navel up. Jeanine paid no mind to his looks, she personally thought that Dauntless was a bit too reckless, but they would serve her purpose.

"Is there a reason you weren't where you were supposed to be fifteen minutes ago?" she asked with her arms behind her back, clasped together tightly.

"Late start." Eric wasn't going to pretend he had an excuse worth giving. "Apologies."

"We can talk here," she said, basically ignoring his apology. "The initiates, how are they doing?"

"Better than last year," he told her, getting to the facts. "The Dauntless-born are accelerating as usual, and we even have a few transfers that are stepping up. One in particular is showing promise, I was wondering if she was one of yours."

"I sent none this year with knowledge of what we plan to do." She sometimes got inside the youthful minds and made them believe what she believed about Abnegation, like she had with Eric. "It was to dangerous, this batch didn't sit right with me."

"Any particular reason why?"

She cleared her throat. "I had to dispose of one of the transfers father. I suspected they would all chat in the unorthodox living quarters, and I couldn't have that."

"Who?" Eric needed to know.

"Judah Von Treese, he was on to my plans, and he did not agree with them. When he got too close to what we were doing, we had him taken care of," she said. "I believe his daughter transferred, though I do not know if he told her anything. We have to assume he did."

Eric realized what Jeanine was telling him.

"So, who is showing promise?" She changed the subject.

Eric was lost in his thoughts. "No one important, we'll see how they fare after the mental training. That's where they break."

Jeanine nodded, and then left a file upon the counter of Eric's kitchen. "Read through these, learn them front to back."

When she was gone, and Eric was one again alone with his thoughts, he felt lost. For the first time in a long time, he didn't know what to do. Harper was the daughter of Judah, a man Jeanine had killed for knowing too much. Had he told Harper? Was that why she transferred to Dauntless? Was that why she was so sharp tongued towards him at the beginning? He had no answers just yet, but he had to be skeptical so that he wouldn't let everything fall to pieces.

There was the big question if she had gotten close to him intentionally, or if that was not part of her plan at all. Assuming that she knew, and that she was following her deceased father's footsteps, Eric would have to be extra careful when around her, and might even have to cut off all contact with her. It wouldn't be until the mental tests that he discovered what was going on in her head, and those were a few weeks away still.

Was Harper playing him?