Chapter 9: Decide

Somehow, the roof turned into a sanctuary for many-a-tribute throughout the years. Whether or not they knew about the lack of cameras and the wind's interference with the microphones, most tributes who thought to come up to the roof found themselves coming back again and again.

I sat on the ledge, knowing I was safe from falling to my death, and stared out at the Capitol. It was beautiful and full of life, but it was all a cover-up. The victors knew what most others did not—what most others only suspected. We knew just what kind of monster Snow could be. We saw more than we should've, and Snow punished us for having the very lives he had forced us into.

I heard footsteps behind me, and upon reaching the ledge, Cato sat next to me. This silence seemed to be a common theme lately, much like the smirking. But when I allowed my eyes to peek at the man beside me, no smirk was present.

I waited for him to speak first. He wasn't the one who was good with words (that was normally me), but I wouldn't admit that I acted irrationally. When the silence had gone on for too long, I simply stood and walked away. Cato grabbed me before I reached the door and slammed me into the wall beside it. We stared at each other, his eyes a storm and mine blank. I wouldn't reveal how I felt at the moment. I wanted to see what he was planning to say first.

His lips crashed down onto mine, and I allowed myself to kiss back for the briefest of moments before putting my hands on his chest and pushing him away.

"Cato, stop." He grabbed my wrists and held them to the wall, proceeding to attack my neck with his mouth. Then he stopped and gave me an intense look.

"I think we both know the look I gave to Twelve wasn't what you're acting like it was. You, on the other hand, need to get something straight."

"If this is about Finnick-"

"You're mine," he growled. Normally, him acting like this would bring out the animal in me. This time, however, it only made me angry. I pushed him away.

"Oh, so now I'm yours?" I snapped at him. "You need to just decide, Cato. One minute you want to be with me, and the next you're pushing me away. I'm not asking you to share your every thought and feeling with me. I'm not asking you to suddenly turn soft. I'm not even asking you to do anything that's not in your nature. All I'm asking is for you to commit—and not even necessarily to me. Just decide. I need to know if I'll be waiting forever for you, just taking what I can get when you decide you like me for the moment, or if you'll just accept that we're in this together. 'Cause if you're not even going to want this, then I'm not going to waste my time waiting for you to decide having me around isn't worth it. If you're just toying with me, then this has got to end now."

"And I suppose you'll go back to Odair?!" he growled harshly in my face.

"Stop being so immature," I scoffed. "He was just being like that because he knows there's something going on between us—although I'm not so sure anymore what it is exactly. You and I both know where I stand, but it seems neither of us knows where you stand."

There was silence again, but this time it was an angry silence.

When Cato didn't say anything, I shoved him away and stormed back to the elevator. He didn't follow me.