Beyond Trust

Part 16

A/N: Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joslyn's POV

Tristan Alvarez..
Brooklyn was telling me about him but I would have never guessed that..

"You're Tristan Alvar-" I begin.

He runs towards me and covers my mouth with his hand but I immediately remove it.
"Don't you run up on me like that!"
"Sorry. Let's go."
"Go? Go where?"
"Class, unless you plan to miss out on today's lecture because of this new astonishing revelation." he answers sarcastically.
"Are you going to-"
"We're going to be late."
"Okay, hold on." I tell him. I go to the counter and quickly pay for the magazine. He doesn't say anything about it, just nods and gestures to the door.

"By the way, your boyfriend has been listening to us the whole time."
"What?"

Mason is here and he had the audacity to listen in on my whole conversation?!

"You can chastise him later, come on."
As we walk towards the 8th building he explains himself.

"Yes, I'm Tristan Alvarez. The fact that you haven't noticed until now is quite surprising and..refreshing. I didn't want you to know and I wish you never found out. However you were going to find out one day since you constantly hang out with my sister. You could say I trusted you-"
     "Trusted? Why past tense?" I ask.
"Because now you know."
      "Tris I don't know anything. The only thing I found out was your name."
"You bought the magazine."
       "I.. I don't know why. Curiosity maybe? Fuck, why did I buy this?" I say this more to myself than him.
  Why did I buy this? What was the purpose? Am I.. interested in him? No. How could I be interested in someone I don't know?

   "What are you thinking of, piccola?" he mumbles.
"Piccola?"
    "Yes."
"Hm, whats that mean?"
    "You didn't answer my question."
"Will you answer mine?"
     "Yes."
"Okay. I was trying to figure out why I bought this magazine of you two. The real reason."
     "Any luck?"
"No. We're here."

We step inside the room and it's the same as usual. We don't speak to each other nor do we sit next to each other. But once it's over I do something out the ordinary and go up to him.

"You never told me what that word meant."
    "And I will."
"Well..."
    "Never said when." he continues walking out the class and into the parking lot. "Are you going to keep following me?"
      "My car is in this direction." I lie.
"No, it's over there." he points to the exact location of where my car is.
      "How'd you know?"
"I'm very vigilant Joslyn."
      "Clearly. So is Ava still going to be on your ass?"
"Most likely but I am sorry you had to see that."
      "Wait what?"
"I'm not going to repeat that. Goodbye Joslyn."
      "Bye Tris."

"You know my name now, you're not going to use it?"
"Thought you said you understood me? I still want you to tell me your name. Until you tell me, you're still Tris to me."

He stares at me from the inside of his car. For a long moment he doesn't say anything, just stares. Finally, he smiles and I smile back at him. Suddenly we both stop smiling simultaneously. I back away from his car and he quickly shuts his door and drives off.

I know why I bought the magazine now.
Its true, I am interested in him however I don't know in what way.

Friendship wise? Maybe.
Romantically? I hope not. Impossible.
Sexually? ...
Do I-
No. I have other important things to think about other than that. I go to my car and drive to the dorm room but the only think I could think of is the one thing I shouldn't.
Him.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Brooklyn is still mad at me. She refuses to talk to me or even acknowledge my presence and I can't take it anymore.

  "Brooke, I'm sorry okay? There I said it."
"You don't get it, do you? Jos, partying is our thing! Remember the first couple weeks of living here? You barely left the dorm room, you always kept to yourself, and you had this great sadness to you. Do you remember?"
   "Yes."
"It wasn't until I invited you out that you began breaking out of that shell. Sure you rejected me a lot but when you finally agreed.. oh man.. it was the best time of my entire life! Ever since then I never went to a party without you. I saw you break out of your sad, sad shell and at the same time.. I was breaking out of mines. You see when I was younger I never really got to enjoy life how I wanted to, ya know?"

"Since I was born it's like my parents had my whole life planned out for me. Everything from my teachers to my friends were all pre approved by them. Once I hit middle school I became.. problematic." she gives me a smile and then continues. "I abandoned the friends they chose for me and picked up new ones. Got a boyfriend, uh, couple of boyfriends, dressed revealingly. Oh I was a mess!"
We both laugh at this. I can imagine a pre-teen version Brooklyn doing just that.

"What happened next?" I asked her.
"They were mad of course. They made me get rid of all my friends and boyfriends, my new clothes, and change schools. In order to better manage my life they sent me to a magnet school that focuses on science and medicine. I hated it. Especially the uniform. Ugh! I did manage to get good grades there so my parents sent me to a private high school as well. It was even worse. They wanted me to become a surgeon, that was their dream for me. I had no freedom to pick my path or have any fun. In the mornings I go to school, in the afternoons I study, and in the evenings I rest. That was my schedule for more than six years straight. I was accepted to a ton of colleges but at that point I was 18. I made my own choice and something deep down told me to come here to Rhode Island so I did."

"Then I met you Joslyn. You were sad and I was lost. Together we found something that made us happy! Friendship. I love being friends with you.. you could say you're my first real friend. So when you said you were done partying you hurt me Joslyn. So fucking badly. That's what brought us closer together.. do you not wanna be friends anymore?"

"I'll always want to be your friend Brooklyn." I reassure her. "We're best friends and nothing will change that, okay?"
A tear goes down her cheek as she nods.
She believes me.
I pull her close in a tight hug until her cries silence and her tears stop.