Hate To Love You
Chapter 2
Katniss POV:
There was never an alliance…
I've been played….
As soon as I realize that Cato had just been trying to get under my skin, I ran.
Never looking back; the orange bag was over my shoulders, and I knew I needed to put as much distance between myself and the other tributes as possible.
Going deeper into the forest, I figured it would be best to stop running soon. I didn't want to dehydrate myself even more.
I felt my chest growing tighter and it began to get harder to breathe so I slowed my running down to a jog. I couldn't stop running until I was sure I was safe, that I was far enough from Cato and his allies.
I'm starting to lose my breath, and my jog slows down to a fast walk, the pain in my chest is getting almost unbearable.
The sad thing is: I wasn't sure if the pain in my chest had been from the running or from Cato's betrayal…
I decided it was best to push that thought out of my head and focus on running and keeping my breathing as even as possible.
About two minutes later, I decided that I had put enough distance between myself the other tributes, and I stopped to take a rest, I sat behind a tree and began to unzip the orange bag I grabbed at the cornucopia…hoping that the capitol was generous enough to put at least some form of a weapon in here.
Ha, who am I kidding? The capitol is never generous…
The Cornucopia
Cato POV:
I was getting angrier by the minute! She freaking ditched me! Damn, now I have to snap her pretty little neck…
I had already checked all the dead bodies plenty of times to make sure she hadn't died. But there was no sign of Katniss, and it's killing me!
I'm on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum right here in the arena.
I barely see Clove smirking at me as I check the dead bodies a fourth time.
"Cato? What are you doing? This is like the third time you checked the bodies."
"Fourth, it's the fourth time," I say and her eyes narrow suspiciously.
"Just what are you looking for…?" She says looking at me intensely.
"Katniss," I murmured, but I don't think she heard me.
"I'm sorry who?" She says clearly getting irritated at my strange behavior.
"FIREGIRL!" I yell this time and my outburst makes Marvel, Glimmer, and the district 4 female tribute to look at me like I'm crazy.
I glare at them.
"What?" I taunt them, and they quickly look away.
I don't know why I screamed, some part of me was hoping that she'd hear me and know I was coming after her, but then the other part, the more dominate side, was hoping that she'd hear me and come running back to us…to me.
"Oh, her, Cato…I scared her off for you," Clove said looking at me.
What the hell? I thought.
"What the hell Clove? You knew I wanted her in the alliance! I freaking told you from the beginning you dipshit!" I was getting ready to charge at Clove, I'm completely throwing my temper tantrum now.
But luckily Marvel stopped me, thank god. I didn't want to do anything stupid, yet.
I was trying to fight my way out of his grasp, but decided to just calm down…I'd figure this out somehow.
"I'm fine now, Marvel. Thanks man." I give him a nod as he finally lets me go.
"Cato—" Clove starts.
"Shut it, I don't want to hear from you yet." I say rather harshly.
I walk away, headed towards the lake, my fists baled up.
"We're going hunting tonight…" I say to them, my back still facing them.
I could just imagine the looks on their faces…they already think I'm crazy and this just put the icing on the cake.
I went down to the lake and dipped my head in…the waters cool, refreshing…
I decide that I should spend a few minutes here…just to calm myself down.
My alone time is interrupted by the careers coming to join me.
But this time we have one extra tribute, lover boy...
"He wants in." Clove says looking me directly in the eyes.
I laugh…
"You, in the careers? Two words…Hell no." I say slowly.
I turned around and was about to tell someone to kill him when, he said something that made my face light up.
"I want to help you look for Katniss. After you find her, you're free to kill me." Lover boy says and it's hard for me to say no.
"How'd you know we're after her?" I asked folding my arms.
"Heard you screaming her name, bet she did too."
I stare at him for a moment, trying to detect a lie, but found none.
"Alright, he's in. Any messing around though and I'll kill you on the spot." I say dangerously to him.
Later that night…
Glimmer had gotten dangerously close to me over the past few hours. She said she liked a man with a fiery temper.
Now nightfall, we had already started our hunting. Glimmer and I were holding hands. She waited until the others were ahead of us to kiss me.
I kissed her back hungrily, without hesitation.
She moaned in my mouth and I groaned in response. Damn, she may not be as hot as fire girl, but she's still hot. I mentally slap myself for that last thought.
Breaking the kiss she asks, "Why don't we just kill him now?"
I kiss her once again.
"No, he's our best chance at finding her."
I know she's close, I can almost feel her beautiful gray eyes on me as we speak. I grin at the thought, yes…make her hate me.
Maybe she'll be easier to kill then, I thought bitterly.
Katniss POV: (short)
I'm sitting in a tree, on the verge of falling asleep. Then I see smoke, I peer around the tree and see a fire lit. That's a good way to get killed. I thought bitterly.
Sure enough, I hear screaming coming from that direction.
Then I hear…laughter?
I make sure I'm not breathing too heavily when I hear footsteps quickly approaching. There are at least five people headed this way.
I look down and of course, it's the career pack.
But wait…Peeta? There goes that pain in my chest that I felt earlier. Peeta betrayed me, just like Cato. Had they been together all along?
Glimmer is clinging on to Cato like he's her man. I feel jealousy rising and I fight the urge to jump down and punch her right there.
But wait, Cato was never mine…and neither was Peeta so I shouldn't care that she's down there holding hands with him.
Glimmer is beautiful, and I'm just me. Cato and Glimmer can hold hands all they want, it doesn't bother me.
For some strange reason I felt like I was trying to convince myself that.
Then she kissed him!
Disgusting. How could they? Any respect I had for Glimmer flew right out the window with that one. Not that it was much.
"Why don't we just kill him now?" Glimmer asked.
Another kiss.
"No, he's our best chance at finding her."
For some reason I knew they weren't talking about the any other girl tributes, they meant me…
Cato POV: (again)
Daylight, next day…
I'm getting really sick of lover boy. I'm tired of his moral views and goodness…
We're all walking around near a pond. Glimmer and Clove are behind Marvel, lover boy, and me. The smell of burnt firewood is getting stronger.
I seem to be the only one to notice it though.
Marvel keeps talking about some of the hot girls they have in district 1, including Glimmer.
Lover boy's completely quiet. I'm starting to think that the whole star-crossed lovers was a joke for him…I think he's gay.
Not that I have a problem with gay people, I just need to be extra cautious…any man as hot as me needs to be. I smirk at myself.
I decide to test my theory.
"So lover boy, I know you have hot girls back at 12, right?"
I say smirking.
"Umm…yeah, we…uh, do." He answers hesitantly.
I smirk even harder.
"Not one as hot as the girl on fire, of course." I say.
Marvel lets out a whistle.
"Yeah, that fire girl is HOT" Marvel says.
"I'd do so many things to her…god, no one in district 1 is as hot as her." He continues.
"Hell yeah," I agree laughing.
Lover boy tightens his jaw and he looks angry. He looks ready to snap.
Hmm…maybe I'm wrong; he's definitely got a thing for her…
"Hey look, there she is!" Marvel says to the group and I find myself running after her.
She looks startled for a moment but then quickly gets out the water and runs into a tree. The whole career pack is following quickly on her tail.
We crowd the tree she's in.
"How's it going with you?" she called from the tree calmly. I smirked, that girl has guts.
"Good, what about you fire girl?" something flashed in her eyes when I called her fire girl, and I remember she hates that name.
"Bit warm for my taste, but the air's better up here, Why don't you come on up?"
"Think I will…" My gaze never leaves her face. When our eye's met it was like a conversation.
I told you to stay…I think hoping she'll somehow understand.
She does, is it me or does the fact that we can have silent conversations a bit weird?
I did, your partner attracted me! I was hoping that I wasn't just imagining this.
I took care of her…just come back to us to me…
Her eyes widened for a moment…yup, she understood me just fine.
Go away! You have Glimmer… now it's my turn to look shocked.
You saw…
Damn right, I trusted you. The look in her eyes was one of hurt in betrayal.
She really trusted me.
I hadn't even realized I had been climbing the tree until I hit the ground hard.
Glimmer got pissed and tried to shoot her bow and missed miserably.
I was pissed too. Fire girl showed me up, again!
"Give me that!" I didn't know what I was doing could I really kill her?
The answer came when I shot the bow terribly.
"Throw a knife Clove!" Marvel shouted.
"And miss terribly? Not a chance."
"We should just wait, I mean she's got to come down some time, either that or starve to death." Lover boy said.
"He's right. Somebody make a damn fire."
HOURS LATER NIGHTFALL:
Everyone had fallen asleep, even Glimmer who was supposed to be keeping watch.
Katniss was still in the tree. I could tell she wasn't asleep.
I unzipped my sleeping bag carefully and tip toed to the tree.
"Katniss?" I whispered.
I saw movement and then I was looking at her beautiful gray eyes again.
"I'm coming up." I said to her.
I started to climb again, careful this time, until I reached the branch that Katniss was on.
"Hi." I said lamely.
She stared at me before mumbling a 'hey' back.
"What is it Cato?" She asked quickly getting to the point.
"You left. I told you to stay at the cornucopia." I replied simply.
"Only because that girl with the knives attacked me!" Her voice was upset and she was doing her best to keep quiet.
"I know, but you could've found me."
"I tried, Cato, you were no where in sight."
I was silent for a second before I decided what to say.
"When you left…I was a nervous wreck…I checked all the dead bodies four times trying to see if you died. Then when Clove said she scared you away, I threw a temper tantrum."
Katniss chuckled.
"You're kind of too big to be doing that, Cato." She said to me looking me in the eyes. I'm just now noticing that her eyes aren't just gray…if you look very closely it looks like a spec of green and blue too.
Her eyes are truly beautiful. I shake away the thought…
"Hey, what can I say big Cato is used to getting what he wants…" I say smirking.
She stops for a moment as if she's trying to decide what to say next.
"And what is it that you want?" she asks as if she's afraid to say the answer.
I stare at her for a moment; her eyes were staring at me intensively almost as if she could read me. I met her gaze and I found myself lost in the stormy pool of her eyes…
Her eyes were a beautiful mystery to me…like something just barely out reach, somewhere I knew that deep down I wanted to solve that mystery and hold on to her secrets forever…never letting go. I knew that if I lied she would be able to tell and I would feel guilty looking up into her eyes...since we seem to be able to have silent conversations…I knew it would be best if I told the truth…I decided I wanted to solve that stormy mystery and hold all it's secrets with me…
"You…" I say andher eyes widened in shock as I lean in and press my lips to hers….
First off I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, it really keeps you going. I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF MY READERS! BUT I LOVE MY REVIEWERS MORE!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER! IT'S A BIT LONGER THAN THE LAST. SORRY I'M SO HYPER AND I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN TO SLEEP YET! IT'S 5:09pm HERE! I'VE BEEN UP ALL NIGHT, LOL!
NEXT CHAPTER IS THE TRACKER JACKER SCENE. IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS I'D LOVE TO HEAR THEM!
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UNTIL NEXT TIME!