Chapter Twenty-One: BITE
"Kiss me on the mouth and set me free
Sing me like a choir
I can be the subject of your dreams
Your sickening desire
Don't you wanna see a man up close
A phoenix in the fire
So kiss me on the mouth and set me free
But please, don't bite."
-The Night Before the Games-
"Could you be happy here with me?" Cato asked, wrapping his arms around her as they sat at the edge of the roof. Neither of them was 100% sure how they'd gotten there, just that one second they were in the big room getting interviewed, spotlights glaring in their eyes, and then they were on the roof and it was midnight and the people looked like ants and the lights were vivid like artificial stars or newly polished silver spoons. Their legs were pressed into the brick as they leaned dangerously over the edge, almost daring the ground to take them, but their will to live combined with the force field gleaming dangerously under them kept them from being too dauntless.
"What are we doing?" Clove asked, her heart racing dangerously under her leather jacket.
"Living," Cato said, a precarious edge to his drumbeat voice.
"Why?"
"Why not? We only have one more night. You should answer the question."
"Could I be happy with you here? Here at the edge of the roof?"
"Yeah. Could you? If we could stay here forever, would you do it? If no one were here to bother us?"
This was when Clove made her first true mistake. She dipped her head, closed her eyes, and imagined a world that was theirs. Not District Two's. Not even the Capitol's. Theirs.
"Yeah. I'd be happy." Too happy.
"Okay," he said. So they sat there in silence for a while, watching the lights blink and flicker and dance and eventually fade down. They never went completely dim, but when Clove could almost see the stars again, she knew they'd been out there too long.
"We should go in," she said.
"Probably," he replied. But they didn't. They sat there in their disjointed, hazy oblivion, hand-in-hand.
When Clove woke up in her bed the next morning, she couldn't really be sure if it had been a dream or not. It didn't matter. Forever was over now.
Hello to any readers I have left! Believe me when I say things have been crazy lately. I got a job, so now I'm going to school full time and working during most of my free time. I'm also very ill, and I have to have surgery in less than two weeks. I love and miss my fanfic friends, and I hope y'all are still interested in what I have to write. Also, if y'all have any questions either about the chapter or my crazy health situation, feel free to ask.
With Love, Sage.