Chapter 7!Can't sleep. WTWC (when two worlds collide)

{"its like forgetting the words to your favorite song.." eet by regina speckter}

Katniss POV:

After crazy cat, Christina hands me back the flashlight, carefully. she looks at me with her eye brows lowered as she narrowed her eyes, with a knowing smile,

"Your wrists don't hurt do they?" She says to me.

I just give her a small, mischievous smile, not saying anything, because she already knew the answer. She breaks out into a larger smile that I return.

"Thanks" she says and turns around to go back toward her bed.

The lights come and go, sometimes lighting bright and other times we have to squint because we can barely see each other.

But once everyone goes to bed it doesn't really matter. I turn again rustling the mattress as I shift, unable to sleep. My mom had token the top bunk, while Prim took the bottom, leaving me on the floor with the mattress, except I'm still wide awake. I breath in and out, relaxing my muscles, wrapping my arms over my body, if I don't I might fall apart, like trying to lift a puzzle by its edges. Even the most restless sleepers quiet down, finally falling into sleep. I want to go and find Finnick, but maybe he's asleep, I should just go… but after a tug of war of what to do, I finally decide against it.

Tris POV:

I close my eyes counting to 30, and then counting back down, but I end up even more frustrated, I can't sleep. It's not that the bunk isn't comfortable... Not that it is either, but I just can't stop thinking. I don't want to face sleep either, not when I see every person I've witness die, die over and over again when I dream. Its worse when I feel that they're blood somehow is on my hands, sneaking between the cracks of my nails. I'm going to go insane.

I let out a small sigh. Breathing in deeply I open my eyes again, I strain my eyes toward the other side of the room where a man sits under one of the safety lights that are set outside of each bunk. He sits absolutely still, it's not until another moment that I realize he's staring at his moving hands that seem to be wrapping and unwrapping something, but that's the only movement that comes from him. If I wasn't looking right at him, I probably wouldn't even notice him, like how the abnegation would be there, but you wouldn't really acknowledge them.

He looked a bit familiar. I watch him, waiting for him to get up and lay back into his bunk, after a long 10 minutes it seemed evident that he isn't going anywhere.

I hear Tobias's soft snoring and Christina's even breaths as I get up. He seems to be the only one still awake. That I can see. I extract myself from the bunk and tip toe quietly through the room. A little too soon I find myself about a meter away from him, I stop. What am I even doing? I can't just go up to a random person in the middle of the night and decide to talk to them! I wasn't even really thinking, I turn on my heal shaking my head slightly at my idiocy, but a hand soon gently is placed on my shoulder. I stiffen, but relax when the hand doesn't grab me or make any threatening movement, it just slowly turns me around. I already know who it is, but it still shocks me a bit when the guy who was sitting, is now in front of me, facing me with beautiful sea green eyes, with long lashes and perfectly formed lips. But his face remains expressionless. He then slides his hand down my arm, not in a provocative way, just in a friendly way. He grabs my wrist, pulling me down gently next to him under the safety light. He let go of my wrist and sat with his legs crisscrossed, taking out a piece of string just long enough for him to make knots, tying them and untying, he didn't even look back up to me, and I didn't know what to say. So no one said anything. We just sat there in silence. I felt that maybe I should just go back to my bunk, but I knew I would just get more restless, so we sat there in continued silence. But it wasn't awkward silence; the even breaths of the people around us, in a way calmed me down. I looked back up at this guy next to me, and before I could glance away he spoke up,

"I know I'm good looking, but at least try to hide your obvious staring" he said not looking up at me, just continuing the knots like he hadn't just said anything. I felt a small blush reach my cheeks, and he chuckled lightly.

"I wasn't staring at you." I lied.

He stopped moving his hands immediately, and looked over at me with a exaggerated shocked expression.

"So… the whole time you were staring at me from your bunk, you were just... staring at the safety lamp?" he said, gesturing toward the lamp above us. He smirked, and I let out a soft laugh,

"Obviously!" I said.

He just let out another chuckle.

"You couldn't possibly have seen me," I mumbled.

He raised his eyebrows, "is this a confession?" he asked.

"No, just an observation." I replied.

"Well, I didn't need to see you, I could feel someone staring at me, and when you came over, I just put two and two together" he said.

"But still-"

He lifted his hand stopping me, "when you've lived through what I have, you learn to always be aware of those kinds of things." He said.

I nod my head slowly, wondering what exactly he's been through. And I suddenly want to know his name.

"Umm, -"

"Finnick. My names Finnick" he said already knowing my question.

"Right. So Finnick why –"

"Why am I tying and untying knots?" he finished.

I nod my head, "yea. And stop doing that! I feel like you're in my head." I say narrowing my eyes.

He chuckled, "sorry it's just you're a bit predictable." I scrunched up my nose; lately I've been anything BUT predictable in my opinion.

He let out a small sigh.

"It keeps my mind off things." He says gesturing toward the string that's sitting on his lap.

I want to ask what things, but I think better of it. If he wanted me to know, he'd probably tell me.

"What's your name" he asks suddenly.

"Tris" I said.

"We'll miss Tris, you don't look like you're from district 13, or 12, and your defiantly not from the capital." He said looking me over.

"Yea, well, that's because I'm not." I pause, is it safe to tell him that I'm not even from Panem? He raises his eyebrows urging me to continue, I shrug, "I'm not from any of the districts. I got here after 2 days of walking through the woods. I'm from a different… community. A very different place." I said quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up.

I look down at my hands. He didn't say anything immediately, so I looked at him, he has his eyebrows furrowed in concentration staring at me like he's examining me. He catches my glance and immediately calms his face

"I'm sorry, I think my mental state is acting up, I thought you just said you're not from here at all, and that you came here after 2 days worth of travel" he says with a laugh, like I just said a joke.

"I did." I said slowly.

He just stared at me, and suddenly his hands were grasping my shoulders. I was about to react, but I stopped when I saw the desperate look in his eyes.

"Tell me right now. Do you have any mental issues?" he asked very seriously that I wasn't sure whether he was joking or not. I was crossed between saying no, and laughing.

I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, and just shook my head, "no, not that I'm aware of."

"I wouldn't judge" he said as he continued, "so, there's a somewhere else? Why are you here then? Where is it? How far is it? Are there a lot of people? Did they die? Is it better than here?" he paused to answer his own question "of course it's better than here, anywhere is better than here" he mumbled sadly, he had started talking really fast though, and it was hard to separate the questions. His grasp on my shoulders was tightening, and I let out a squeak when it started to hurt. He looked back at me his eye clearing up from the distant look they had, and let go of me immediately, apologizing.

"It's okay," I said simply. "And as much as I would love to tell you the answers to your questions…they don't have simple answers. And I'm kind of tired now." I said hesitantly,

But in reality I just didn't want to talk about it, he seemed to catch on to it though. I started to think about how screwed up this place was, and how screwed up my place was, and it's safe to say, were all just screwed. My eyes started to build up tears, thinking about my parents and of my ex-brother, and my dead friends. Not really thinking about the guy next to me, who might be looking at me, or might be playing knots into his string. I felt a pressure surround my hand and turned my head a bit, facing Finnick. I looked down trying to blink away the traitor tears. But he just lifted my chin,

"Look at me." And I did. He didn't even let a tear reach halfway done my cheek.

"Don't EVER give in to it." He said.

I'm about to ask what he means but he raises his other hand in a sign to silence. He continued "it takes10 times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall part" he said.

I wasn't sure what to say, so I said nothing. And he said nothing. He glanced back toward my bunk, and I did too, I should go back to my bunk I thought. And I unraveled my hand from his, and took a deep breath. he gave me a small encouraging smile, and I was about to wish him a good night but that seemed a bit ridiculous, so I didn't. I just thanked him, and walked back toward my bunk, my tears long dried, and as I snuggled into my blanket in my bunk I realized 2 things:

1) Finnick can only know about how hard it is to put yourself back together from experience, and my heart clenched in pity.

2) I hadn't heard Tobias's soft snoring sense I got back.


so thats chapter 7, drop me a comment on what you think so far(: