Disclaimer: Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.
Hey :) This really is a short chapter but there´s a lot of drama going on so I hope you like it anyway... Well as alway I beg you to review because it´s pretty hard to put so much efford into a story and not get any feedback...
Chapter 3:
He lead me all the way through the city centre still laughing at Riley´s terrified face and also laughing at me for having been his girlfriend – he stopped that after I hit him in his ribcase pretty hard. I kept asking him where we were heading but he wouldn´t answer so I walked next to him sulking and not listening to anything he´d say. After half an hour of walking - somewhere in the outskirts of town - I had enough: "This is it. I won´t go any further if you don´t tell me where we´re going." "Believe me it´s worth it. You wouldn´t want to miss what I´m about to show you." He suddenly took a sharp left, entering the forest, and I nearly stumbled into him. "What the hell...". "This way Clove."
After about 10 minutes walking through the woods we suddenly came across a clearing. I gasped – The whole floor was covered with a mixture of wild-growing grass and the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. In the middle of the meadow was a lake with ducks and swans swimming around and water roses covering the surface. It seemed like a place taken straight from a fairytale, so different from the harsh surrounding forest and even more so from the industrialized city centre where you could hardly find a tree let alone a lake or a park.
Cato seemed satisfied by my reaction and said in a mocking tone: " So was the walk worth it?" I was too taken aback by the beauty of this place. I had never thought Cato to be a romantic person, neither had I counted myself one... I hated all this girly stuff. But this place... It was pure magic.
So instead of answering I slung my hands around Cato and began kissing him roughly. He smiled against my lips. "I´m glad you like it little one." We ended up in huddled mass lying on the forest floor, my head on Cato´s breast and his hand stroking carefully through my hair. I wished I could lie there forever, with him at my side. When I was with Cato, all my anger seemed to disappear. He was the only one who´s presence comforted me, the only one that made me feel safe.
Suddenly he gently pushed my head of his chest and stood up. I looked at him panicking. What was this supposed to mean? He went over to his bag and took a little box out of it. My heart skipped a beat. He wasn´t going to propose to me was he? I could feel the blood pumping through my veins making sure my face was as red as a tomato. He came back to me and gave me the box in silence, his beautiful sky-blue eyes always on me. I took the box with a trembling hand unable to unlock my eyes out of his gaze. Oh how I loved his eyes. These eyes that were so full of love, full of care. These eyes that looked at me in a way no one else ever would. I had no one in this world who loved me as Cato did and as I loved him. Sure my parents did love me in a certain way but they were too stiff and too unemotional to ever really care for me. I knew that he was my one and only, my soulmate, my significant other, as much as I hated these words on normal days.
Finally I managed to open the box and glance into it. It wasn´t a diamond ring. It was a bracelet. A bracelet with the most beautiful heart-shaped pendant, made from silver and having a huge ornamented C imprinted on both sides. I thought I was going to cry. I never cried – Not when my Grandmother died, not when this one stupid boy from my school punched me on the forehead – three stitches, I´m not sure whether he´s recovered yet – so why cry now? "Open it.", Cato whispered. Inside were two photographs. One was taken when we tried to bake a cake for his mother´s birthday, which ended with us throwing eggs, flower and anything else we could find at each other – what also explains our terrible looks but brightly smiling faces – and buying a cake from the local bakery. The second one showed me sleeping peacefully in his arms, a happy expression on my face and him kissing me on the forehead. "I love you and I always will.", Cato said softly though his eyes seemed cofusingly sad .
A single tear ran down my cheek.
When I trusted myself enough to dare speaking again I asked a bit hoarsely: "So what is all that for?" Cato´s eyes locked into mine, his grin fading a little. "Clove the reaping is in two weeks and I just want to spent as much time with you as possible and..." "Wait wait wait a second... The reaping? You don´t mean you´re still going to..." I mouthed the word volunteer. How could I have forgotten? Of course I knew. I always had known. He was the best student our academy had ever had. I was crazy if I thought they would spare his life just because he´s... emotionally involved with someone. Cato´s brow furrowed at my horrified expression "But you must have known..." "Of course I knew you damn idiot. But hope dies last that´s what you always say right? How can they.. How can you? Leave me here praying for your live every second of your absence? Broken beyond repair if you die? And what if you win? Do you expect me to be all oozy-coozy and happy about your victory, after you had risked everything including my mental health to win these stupid games? There must be a way to prevent this! You could just... I don´t know... run away. WE could run away. I know we could do it. We are the best trainees ever. We could survive. If we only stuck together." I had started punching him in my rage as if that would make him listen to me. His face had turned into a hard masquerade.
"Listen. I want to go. I have trained my entire life for these games. I´ve been throwing spears since I´m seven. I can´t just give it all up for a goddamn girl..." "That´s what your father told you, right? Please tell me you don´t mean it." I looked at him begging but his gaze was hard as steel and cold as ice. "I don´t need my father to tell me anything. And I don´t need you telling me what to do either. I´m going and that´s it."
All the happiness that I had felt mere minutes ago had vanished and left a huge pit of rage. Out of instinct I took one of my knives and threw it at a duck waggling around near the lake. "So that´s it Cato? You´re going to volunteer and I´ll never see you again." He just gazed at me harshly and said: "I have wasted too much time on this romance anyway. Everybody knows Careers don´t love. And neither do I. Not you and nobody else." That was enough. One other word and I would have broken into tears. I looked into his face one last time but I couldn´t find any hint of regret in there. There was a determination in his eyes that I had never seen before, not even during training. He looked at me as if I was his worst enemy, completely emotionless, and I think it was this indifference, the fact that he had just wiped away all the happy moments we had shared, that shattered my heart into pieces.
I had never thought a broken heart would hurt like this. I felt as if a part of me, that was so full of emotions before that I had felt I could float like a balloon in the sky had suddenly shrunken to the size of a pea. I slapped him hard across the face – apparently violence was my preferred answer to emotional humiliation - spun around and ran. Ran as fast as my feet would carry me. Just away from him and all the terrible things he had said.
Sooo I hope you liked it... And just another reminder pleeeaaaaseee review :) special thanks to oxmadxo and the two guests for encouraging me! Thanks a lot
