He pus his lips next to my ear and says, “You look good, Tris.

And I provide much- needed eye candy.

Tris," he says. "What did they do to you? You're acting like a lunatic." "That's not very nice of you to say," I say. "They put me in a good mood, that's all. And now I really want to kiss you, so if you could just relax-

I wonder how I seem to them. They must see someone I don't see. Someone capable and strong. Someone I can't be; someone I can be.

Caleb," I say, "I love you." His eyes gleam with tear as he says, "I love you, too, Beatrice.

But when I do feel all the strength go out of me, and I fall to my knees beside the table and I think I cry, then, or at least I want to, and everything inside me screams for just one more kiss, one more word, one more glance, one more.

It's strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.