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Cato's POV
I didn't sleep well. I finally slept at midnight, but then I woke up at 1:30. I slept again by 2:15, and woke up, again, at 3:50. I was done trying by then. I just lay in my bed and that's pretty much my activity until now. I'm rubbing my head again and again, because of the headache I'm feeling just won't go away. Suddenly, I hear a slow turn on the door knob, and my mother's head poops out. I sit down and look at her, simply waiting for her to say anything. But she is just standing there, in silence. Her eyebrows are raised, as if she is confused. She closes the door and looks at me, examining me.
"What is going on? It's 6 in the morning and you're awake already? I mean... I know Clove means a lot but not even a hurricane will wake you up at 6." obviously, my mother wants an explanation of my strange behaviour, so early in the morning.
"We got in to a fight, I'm not sure why, but I know I must have done something terribly wrong that she won't even let me pick her up today. I stayed up almost all night long trying to figure out what I did, but nothing comes in my head. Nothing. But I just couldn't bare the thought of not being her friend anymore." What? Yes, I'm close to my mother. I tell her pretty much everything she needs to know, and she knows all about Clove. My father on the other side, is a very careless man, but in a good way, he doesn't go around doing a background check on my friends, or follows me to parties, etc. As if he really believes in me and my decisions, maybe because being with Clove is one of my decision, and he likes, or should I say, loves Clove.
"Really? Avoiding pick ups? If she really is, then I bet you're in a big trouble, maybe even bigger than big. These pick-ups thing have been a routine, Cato. But you're still going anyway, right?"
"Of course I am. I can't just surrender like that. I'm picking her up and that's period. It's a routine, as you said." I sigh.
"Well then, you don't want to be late, do you? Come down, I've made some porridge for breakfast."
"With chicken?" I say hopefully.
"With chicken, of course. How could I forget your favorite part?" she says, while closing the door and dissapear.
I finished up my breakfast in no time, so as my shower. I grab my bag and a box of orange juice, kissing my mom on the check, simply yell at my dad, who is still eating up his breakfast, and returns my yell with a glare, and I leave.
Clove's house is only 2 blocks away, but today the journey to her house seems to be taking forever. I walk fast at some point, but afraid of what she might be wanting to say, I slow down. I've been doing it for 3 times before I reach my anger and kick a garbage can near a road-lamp. The banging sound scares an ugly cat. Go away, I think. When I finally reach Clove's house, I almost think about just passing it by, without knocking at the door, but last night, I said I'm going to pick her up, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.
So I gather up my courage, and give a simple knock at the door.
Clove's POV
Knock. Damn.. it's Cato. I look at Diane, who does nothing but give me a look back. I whisper a bye to Diane, and get ready for whatever is coming up next. So I walk to the door, and open it.
"Spill it out." He says. God, Cato can't even wait another second, or give me a break.
"I have a prom date." GOD, CLOVE! You've made a beautiful speech about this, how to tell him without making him mad, which made you stayed all night making it, and that's the best you came up with? Gosh.
"His name, may I ask?"
"Tony. He's from history class."
"You mean from your history class." from his tone, I know Cato is pissed about History class, again.
"Please." I plead.
"It's not a big deal, Clo. You can just tell me yesterday, I'm not mad or anything about that. I have no right telling you what to do anyway. But please, just don't run away from me again like you did yesterday. It's just a prom date, not like you're actually dating that guy and you have to go as far as possible from me. You made me think I did something wrong. You're my friend, I can't stand the thought of my friend ignoring me." there he go again, his tone changes, now he sounds like a child who just fall down his bike. Hurt. But again, I'm the one who's hurt. He uses the word 'friend', there's nothing wrong with that, but I know, it is how he describes us. Friends. Nothing more.
"Well now you know, it's just that. Nothing else." I lie. Of course it's more than that. But I can't let him know about my feelings. I don't know, maybe I'm expecting Cato to be jealous, that I'm going out with someone else, but it turns out he's not. He's taking me as a friend, so I should too. But how can I, after these years?
I realize that Cato's already ahead of me, so I walk again, catching up with him, not knowing how long I will be able to walk with him like this again.
I tell Johanna everything that happened in second break, since she was staring at me the whole lunch time, her dark brown eyes are looking for an explanation, a story behind my usual activities.
"So you told him? And he's fine with it?" Johanna seems like she doesn't want to believe everything I just said to her.
"What's with the disbelief reaction?" I ask, eventhough I myself, can't believe how smooth that conversation with Cato went. He acted like nothing happened today, he laughed at my jokes, he punched Peeta playfully after he apologized to me for whatever he did yesterday, it's just.. too smooth. The real Cato would got up on his temper. But not today.
"Well, you know why. Cato is not like that. He should be mad for a short term first, before getting back to normal. If he skipped that short term, then something is up. Maybe he's not mad, what if he's hurt?" I know she's predicting, and I was thinking about it too, but then, if he was really hurt, he should've been at least a little bit angry. Cato is a man with no anger control, I must say.
"No he's not. He couldn't be. He..." I couldn't finish my sentence, because I feel a signature pat on my shoulder, Cato's of course.
"What are you guys talking about?" He asks. Before I can answer, he continues, "Oh wait! There she is, I've been looking for her everywhere today. Wait, Clo." and he walks away, towarding.. the one and only, Sarah Jones. I knew this would come.
Even from distance, I can hear what Cato is saying to Sarah, and so as Johanna, because she's grabbing my wrist tight enough.
"Hey, Sarah! Do you happen to have a prom date already?" Sarah frowns, but her friends giggle.
"Um, what?"
"What I mean by that is I'm taking you to prom, if you let me." At this moment, I want to jump out of my chair and leave as soon as I can, but Johanna's grip won't let me. I can hear Sarah's friends saying 'yes! say yes!'. Sarah looks at me, like she's asking for my permission, because she knows she needs it. And I give her a simple nod. Sarah frowns again, maybe wondering why am I letting her, or why is Cato even asking her to go with him.
"Oke, sure." she says after a quick silence.
"Cool!" As Cato walks to Johanna and me, I can hear Sarah's friends saying how lucky she is, how they wanted Cato to ask them out instead, and bla-bla-bla. But Sarah keeps her glance at me, even she knows something is not quite right.
Cato's POV
What on earth did you just do, Cato? Oh, I know. You just asked Sarah out on a prom date, in front of Clove. Fine, she did broke your heart earlier this morning and you have to work your ass off covering those anger, but she didn't deserve anything you just did, didn't she? Didn't she, Cato? Urgh. I wipe the regret look off my face as I walk towards Clove.
"So, what are you guys talking about earlier? Sorry I left, I just need to get some things done first." Things done? Really? I can't think for any better words. I rub my hands, one to another, as if I'm feeling cold.
"Nothing, we were just discussing about where to shop for our prom dress, Clo is really looking forward to her date!" Johanna says with a very happy tone.
I almost shrug. Almost. But I keep myself together and give Johanna a smile.
"Who are you with anyway, Jo?" I tease.
"None of your business! But, Jaden. I'm going with Jaden." she smiles, with all of her pride. Jaden is a quarterback player, and I guess she is allowed to smile like that, remembering she's taking a quarterback to prom.
"Show off!" I say.
"At least I have something to show." she says. She looks at Clove, who haven't say a word since I got back to this table. I was about to ask her what's wrong, but when the school bell rang, she gets up and leave, just like that. A little piece of me dies seeing her like that.
What's wrong, Cato? Being a softy? I bet all you want now is to go get her. Ugh. What's wrong with me? My head is having a war of their own. She's acting like her heart is broken, just like mine. She broke my heart today. But I guess that's a part of my fault, too. I didn't ask her to go with me, she didn't do anything except for saying yes to that boy. But, I just thought that she's mine, forever. What a silly thought, Cato.
What a silly thought.
Days after days just pass, easily. Prom is coming. Tomorrow. Nothing is up between me and Clove, that is for sure. We acted like usual during the last couple of weeks. I picked her up everyday, and walked her home, too. We sat together in classes, we sat beside eachother in lunch table. But something seemed off, I don't know what. I couldn't find out. But one thing I know for sure, we are growing apart. We're not the same Cato and Clove anymore. There's a thin, invisible wall between us. The one keeping us from being who we were. And I knew it, from the moment I called her that time.
God, I was so bored. What should I do now? Oh, I know. I haven't called Clove today. So I reached my phone and dial her number, which I have memorized, too well.
"-dialing: Clove-" after a few beeps, she picked up.
"Oh hi, Cato! What a coincidence that you're calling me! I'm with Sarah now, I'm helping her to find a hell of a dress for you. We found one, you're going to like it! Uhm, love it, possibly! It's so good you have to see it for yourself." she sounded really happy, but, what is she doing with Sarah?
"What are you doing with her?" I said.
"Ergh, I've told you before. I'm helping her with her prom dress. She thought it was a good idea, because I'm like, close to you, and she needed an opinion from someone who knows what you like. It's simple, Cato."
"I'm gonna hang up now." I said, there's a slight of disgust in my voice.
"Cato, please. Whatever she happens to wear, just, respect her, and do your best in pretending you actually like her, because she's trying hard to impress you here. I'm not hoping you get that, but, just try." She pleaded. And with no other word, she ended the conversation.
Once again, I throw my cellphone across the room.
That girl really drives me insane. But I really love her. I'm going to fix things up, as soon as I can. I still have to wait until prom is over, anyway. There's no point apologizing now if I still have to go out with Sarah. And I just can't dump Sarah like that. She'll be hurt. I don't think Clove want that to happen, either.
Yeah. I'm going to wait.
Clove's POV
Johanna, Annie and Katniss are going to come over in less than an hour, but I haven't pretty much do anything. I haven't eat, and I have not take a shower. I'm still hiding under my blanket. Johanna insisted on coming, as if she knew I'm going to need a power-booster for tomorrow night. Even Katniss agreed to come, when she usually steps out of these girly, lovesick thing and prefer to keep quiet. I think she knows that I need all of the strength I can get before seeing Cato and Sarah, dancing together. Cato will have a great chance of being the Prom King anyway, which means they are going to dance in front of the whole school. And who knows? Maybe they're going to kiss. Sarah is a really nice girl with a perfect light brown curly hair and a pair of bronze eyes. Gosh, I hate her for that. I hate her for what happened between us earlier today.
My phone rang, and I went over to get it, an unknown number, but I decided to pick it up.
"Hello, is this Clove?" a girl's voice, good, it's not Cato. She sounded friendly anyway.
"Yeppp, who is this?" I don't really get a lot of anonymous phone-calls from girls.
"It's Sarah, I hope you don't mind that I get your number from Annie. Listen, can you see me in the mall an hour from now? I really need your help." she did sounded like she need my help, so I agreed.
"Sure, I'll be there." she said a quick ok, and hung up.
I went to the mall, of course, and Sarah asked me if I could help her pick her dress for prom. Since I knew Cato well, she thought I could give her some clues about which dress Cato's going to like. Dang, this girl is trying to impress him. I, on the other side, never did. I guess Cato just liked me the way I am. I asked Sarah what if I'm being a bitch and helped her buy the dress Cato's going to hate instead?
"Oh, I don't think you're that bad, Clove. And plus, I already have a dress for prom. I mean, you don't really think I'm buying my dress the night before prom, right?" and then she laughed. God, that girl was too nice. I nodded as a return, and she asked me to sit in a cafe. She ordered a cappucinno and offered me, if I wanted anything, and I simply said no.
"Look, Clove," she said. "The one thing I'm really trying to do here is to get a clearance from you about your relationship with Cato. I know something was wrong when he asked me out instead of you. So tell me now, do you love him? If you do, then I will not ruin or interrupt anything that's going on with you guys. But if you don't, and if you consider him as your friend, and your friend only, I'm going after him, Clove. Believe it or not, I want him. A lot of girl want him. But we know from the way he used to look at you, we knew we didn't stand any chance compared to you. Recently, you've lost that look. So, with your permission, I'm going for him, I'm going to try my absolute best in making him happy, eventhough I know I can't do it the way you always did. He's not gonna smile for me like he smiled for you, or embraces me like he embraced you. But if you don't want him anymore, Clove, please let someone else have him. Now, give me a reason to, or not to go after him. Please." as soon as she finished her sentence, I felt a pain in my heart, like what she said just left a whole in it.
One way or another, she was right. I've lost that look. Cato can't even look at me more than 10 seconds now, when he used to look at me all the time, like he was afraid he's not going to have another time for that. I've lost it. I've lost him. Because of my silly approval to the boy from history class.
"Nope." Clove? You lied again. "I don't love him. He's no more than a friend to me. Never. You are a really nice girl, Sarah. I hope he gives you what you deserve, which is the best of him. So, Sarah, please, be my guess. Go after him, make him happy, if there's anyone who can do it, it's you. I have to go now, Johanna will be coming over to my house tonight, I have to get ready. You know, girl stuff." I made my voice sounded like I was happy, while I was actually falling apart. I didn't wait for Sarah's reply, I turned around and walked away, with tears streaming.
I went straight home after that, and cried under my blanket. I haven't got out until now. I check my phone for Johanna's text, and I see one, received about 3 minutes ago, saying she will be here in 15 minutes. Good, she'll be here and see how messed up I am. I pick up my lazy ass to shower, and take a hot one. I'm still covered up in soap when Johanna and Annie burst in to my bathroom.
"Hey! What's wrong with privacy?!" Katniss yells, obviously she didn't get the idea of breaking into my bathroom for fun. Johanna and Annie laugh, but it's before Annie realize my swollen eyes. She takes a grip on me and ask what's going on. I dress myself up, sit on my bed, and take a deep breath. I tell the three of them about my meeting with Sarah today, and that doesn't make my swollen eyes any better.
"Jeez, I wonder why this happens." Annie says, with no wondering tone, at all.
"Don't mock her, Annie." Katniss replies, she stands for me, like she always does. She's the calmest person during my story telling, so I ask her.
"What do you think I should've done, Kat?"
"Simple. You should stop lying, because to me, you're even lying to yourself, and dear, what good does lying brings you?" she raises her eyebrows, and I know I don't have any answer to that.
"Yea, right! Why are you saying and acting like you don't love him anyway?" Annie says again, now, with a wondering tone.
"Because he doesn't love me, and I don't want to ruin what we have." I reply.
"You mean, what you had." Johanna bursts in.
"That's mean! You should be giving me mood-boost! Not the other way." I almost cry again if it wasn't for Katniss.
"She's right, Jo. Come on, let's do this." She pulls out some chocolate bars and homemade popcorn out of her bag, along with so many DVDs, she smiles and said, "What are we going to watch?"
Cato's POV
Prom-night. I've dressed up well, since there's pretty much nothing I can do to make myself look better, not to be rude or anything. I'm not looking forward for tonight, I have to say. I mean, I'm going to see Clove being happy with someone else. I was about to skip prom if it wasn't for Peeta.
"Dude, Prom King never skip prom! You have got to be kidding me."
Right, skipping prom was not a choice. And I have a date. I can't let her be devastated anyway. I go downstairs and call out for Mr. Luke, my house maid, to set up a car for me.
"Which one?" he says.
"Red one, please." he gives me a smile, a smile full of meaning. I raise my eyebrows, asking for an answer.
"I bet you're picking up a lovely young girl, right? Miss Clove, isn't it?"
"No. This time it's not." my heart hurts a little, again.
"Hard to believe you, Sir." he says as he walks away, leaving me speechless, even he knows that I'm supposed to go with Clove, but why can't I see it before it's too late? I walk to the front door, and go to pick Sarah up.
I have to say Sarah looks stunning in that red dress, and her father isn't really an obstacle for boys.
"Nice dress." I say as she gets into my car.
"Nice outfit to you, too." Sarah leans in, I think she's trying to kiss me, but I pull back. My lips are Clove's, and will always belong to her. I drive and we stay in silence.
"We're here." I get out of my car and throw my keys to the valet-service guy, I open the door for Sarah and say, "After you."
As soon as I enter the gym, I know that night will be the longest night I'm ever going to go through. Tony is pouring some fruit juice for Clove, who's smiling like an idiot at him. Clove should not smile like an idiot for anyone but me. I realize her green dress matches perfectly with her eyes, and with her smile, Clove is the prettiest girl in the entire world... I almost forget about Sarah, if she doesn't grab my arm. She asks me to dance with her, and I follow her lead to the dance floor.
I'm dancing with Sarah, but in the tail of my eyes, I can see Clove holding tight with Tony, and that hurts. Luckily, it's time for the Prom King and Queen announcement, and finally, Clove and Tony have to break apart.
Clove's POV
This is the time.. Now is the time. They are going to announce the Prom King and Queen, and I swear Johanna looks more nervous than I do.
"Are you ok, Clove?" Tony voice brings me back to reality.
"Yeah, yea, sure."
"Attention everyone!" Marvel voice's echoing throughout the gym. "We will now be announcing our Prom King and Queen.. Ladies first.. Our Prom Queen is a beautiful one, I must say. She's the volley team captain, and one of Rushton's top student! Please welcome, the one and only, Sarah Jones!" I die a little. I knew it, I knew it. It has to be her. Sarah goes on stage and I can see that she's wearing the dress she bought when she was with me yesterday, she did trusted me for that, and it sucks.
"And for our Prom King.. who else? Of course Cato David!" I hear some applause, and Cato starts dancing with Sarah, alone, just the two of them.
Suddenly, I hear something else. People's shouting "kiss! kiss!", but that, my friend, was the last thing I hear. What I'm about to do next, is way out of my control.
Cato's POV
Sarah leans toward me, tiptoe-ing a bit. I am about to pull back, when someone has already pull my back for me, like they know I don't want to kiss Sarah. I turn around and see Clove, pulling the back of my suit. The moment my eyes met hers, she turns around and walks out of the gym. I have no option but to leave Sarah, alone and speechless, and go after Clove. Johanna tries her best to stop me, but this is what I need to do.
"Clo! Stop!" I grab her shoulder and turn her around, only to see tears in her cheek.
"Why are you crying?" I gently wipe her tears off, but she slaps my hand.
"Don't touch me. Just don't." She says. She backs off.
"Why?"
"You're letting her! You're letting her kiss you, it's your first kiss, Cato! I don't expect you to have it with Sarah Jones at prom!"
"Shit, Clo. Calm down. I was about to pull back, but you did it for me first! And it's not my first kiss, incase you forgot!" Gosh, she even forgets that my first kiss was with her, on her 7th birthday, I remember it well, I will always do. She was wearing a pink dress and strapped her hair into a ponytail. But I guess it doesn't even matter anymore.
"Oh, now what? I'm suppose to remember every kiss you had? With every girl? Who do you think you are, Cato?" I frown, and she cries even louder.
"Why do you even care? The moment you realize that I'm a guy who probably has kissed many girls before, is the moment I start to give up on you, what's your problem, Clo? Atleast let me explain! I lo.." ve you.. I thought. But she won't let me finish.
"Shut up! I don't want to hear you out anymore! Wanna know what's my problem? My problem is you're a douchebag, Cato. You're a jerk and you're nothing more than crap. You act like you're the best human being on earth and no one can compare to you! Guess what? You're wrong! Now go back to Sarah and kiss her, kiss her hard like you probably will if I didn't stop you!" I slap her. God, I just slap the girl I love. She looks at the ground, I can tell that she's hurt. But I just couldn't take it anymore. I love her so much, and she said all of those things to me, I didn't do anything to deserve that.
"Don't you talk to me again. Ever." I say. I leave, and not even a second after that, I think about turning back.
Clove's POV
My cheek stings, it hurts real bad. I just don't get Cato. One moment he's wiping tears of my cheek, the next moment he's slapping my cheek. I guess I deserve it. I was out of line. I am now devastated. I keep crying and crying, until Johanna finds me, and she decides to take me home. Diane opens the door, which is a relieve to me. At least I don't have to explain to my parents why am I crying, or why there's a huge hand mark on my left cheek.
Johanna sits down beside me on my bed, and Diane comes in with a cup of hot chocolate. I drink it like a little kid. I still sob a little bit, but I start to talk to Johanna and Diane. In 30 minutes, Katniss comes, and she picks the right time to come. Johanna is about to go mad and go over to Cato's house, but when Katniss lay her hand on Johanna's shoulder, she becomes sane again. Not to mention, 5 minutes after that, Jaden calls out to check on Johanna, shyly greets me when he realizes that Johanna's not alone, and quickly hang up after saying I'll see you tomorrow to Johanna, who's blushing all over.
Annie calls me, saying Finnick won't let her go catch up with Katniss, because he thinks I need a moment alone. He's right. And I thank him through Annie's phone for that. Annie says that Finnick nods, and he hopes everything will turns out to be alright, between me and Cato. I say I'm hoping for the same thing, too, and I hang up.
No one can make me feel better today, I've did a lot of things, wrong ones, mostly. Johanna and Katniss decide to stay with me for the rest of the night, and I let them borrow my clothes, but Katniss prefers Diane's clothes, and she happily let her borrow it.
I ask Katniss if I should call Sarah, and she says if that's the right thing, I look to Johanna for an agreement, and she says yes.
"Sarah?" I say as I put her on speakerphone.
"Yes, Clove? About today? It's fine."
"How fine?" I ask, confusedly.
"I'm glad you have fix things up with Cato. He came back and said you only needed to fix things up before letting him go with me, he said whatever was between you guys before was done, and then he kissed me. Thankyou, Clove, for whatever you said to him earlier."
"And you are very welcome. Glad to know it's good between you and Cato, gotta go. Bye." I hang up, and once again, I fall apart. I'm broken. Johanna hugs me. So does Katniss. And that's all I can remember about my prom night.
Do you know what a broken heart is? I don't know why they called it a broken heart, because not just my heart, and every inch of my body is broken, too. I have to go to school that day, so I push myself to wake up, and do my routines. I look at myself in the mirror, the handmark Cato gave to me now turns into a bruise. I use some foundation to hide it up.
I meet Diane downstair. She stops from eating her breakfast, and looks at me. We're just staring at eachother for a while when she finally says, "You don't have to go if you don't want to. Don't push it." But I have to, sooner and later, I have to.
Suddenly, there's a knock on the door. I look to Diane, who looks back at me. I can't believe it. Cato's coming? If he's going to say sorry, I'm going to shut his mouth because I'm the one who should be sorry. What if it's not Cato? I don't know.
I walk slowly to the door, and open it..
cliffhangersss!
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