Chapter 25

I begin to struggle, but my attacker then keeps my arms down with by pinning them down with their knees. Maybe I should kick them… I can kick that high. I definitely would have kicked them if they didn't whisper into my ear, "Please don't struggle, Lily. You'll wake the others."

My eyes widen. It's Grey. He's sitting on top of me, covering my mouth in the middle of the night like that is somehow normal. What is going on?

"I'm going to move my hand away now. Please don't scream." I nod, so he slowly removes his hand and he lets it hover, just in case I do begin to scream.

"Grey, what are you doing? It's the middle of the night!"

"Lily, before it's too late, I wanted you to know something."

"What might that be?"

"You can't trust anyone in these Games. All of the other Careers will stab you in the back the first chance you get. Alexander included."

"What?" I whisper furiously. Is he mad?

"I could treat you so much better than him if you just left him. I want to give you a choice, because I would never want to make you do something that you don't want to do."

"You bastard, thinking I would betray Alexander like that. Why would I betray him if I know he would never betray me?"

"Sorry…" He looks a bit disappointed. Kind of like a lot of those other guys back in my District when I rejected them. One boy who had broken into his father's liquor cabinet had tried to steal a kiss, so I broke his wrist. It's understandable that Grey would do this because he had an innocent crush on me. "I just thought he was like Seth…"

"He's nothing like Seth," Forgive and forget isn't my policy. Besides, he insulted Alexander. Seth is an extremely low comparison.

"I didn't know that. He never talked to me the entire time in training. He mostly talked to all of the girls in training, and he seemed like a jerk in the interviews. I'm sorry."

"Of course you didn't. And did you ever try to talk to him? They probably talked to him first. I know that every girl back home liked him. I also know that every guy wanted me. Have you ever heard of a publicity stunt? Familiarize yourself, because that's what he was doing at the interviews. And apology accepted."

He shrugs my words off and says, "Just, please admit it. You don't truly love him, do you?"

I'm caught off guard by his question. "I- I don't know what I feel…" I stutter.

"That's all I needed to know."

Then he kisses me, full on the lips. My heart races, and my sanity shakes.

"I just wanted to do that once…" He says, and then returns to his duty as night watch.

I didn't dislike it… I'm not sure if I liked it either… I'm not sure what I feel about that kiss. I guess it was okay. I'm not sure what I feel about anything right now…

My life is so confusing… Boys only make it even more confusing… Ugh.

As I am falling asleep, I can't help but think, Well, at least he wasn't that bad of a kisser… My sleep is uninterrupted from then on.

In the morning I tend to Alexander. He seems stronger, but I'm not sure if that's good or not. Some poisons work like that, make the infected person seem better, but kill them soon after. Then again, this isn't poison. Maybe he's just well rested.

"What happened?" I ask Alexander. He still hasn't said anything about how he broke his leg.

"The damn traps… One hit my leg, snapped the bone."

I am shocked. "What was powerful enough to snap your bone like a twig?"

"Giant clubs."

"Whoa. They had clubs in yours?"

"Yea. You mean, they didn't in yours?"

"None at all," I answer.

"Lucky."

"Not really. But I did have a huge mutt in mine while Percy was typing in his information to open the door."

He looks puzzled. "What do you mean, punching in his information?"

"He had to type in all this information about himself. It took forever."

"Victoria just had to say a password and get her hand scanned. It took 30 seconds tops." My face tells everything, so he tries to make me feel better by saying, "But a mutt? Damn, how did you guys deal with that?"

"I kind of pissed it off while Percy was unlocking the door."

Karina walks by and throws me a disapproving look, so I get annoyed. "Hey, make yourself useful and go make me a pile of wood and some first aid supplies."

"Pain killers wouldn't hurt right now too," Alexander says under his breath.

"I already mixed some into your food. They take half an hour to kick in," I whisper back to him with a smile. I had mashed up some peaches for his breakfast. He had loved them back when we were 7. I didn't know about now, but he ate them.

Karina just scowls at me, but eventually she goes off. With the wood she brings back I make a new splint and a crutch for Alexander. I take off his current bandaging, check to see how everything is going so far. No change. I guess the sleep he got helped with the energy difference. Besides, when I first saw him in the arena yesterday, he was exhausted from walking so far.

After everyone has breakfast the hunt begins. I scout ahead with Grey while I have Seth carry Alexander. Karina and Emerald are on either side of Seth.

"But he has a crutch! He can walk!" Seth had argued when I had wanted him to carry Alexander.

"Yea, I can walk Lily!" Alexander had agreed.

"But I want you to save your energy today. I don't want you to tire yourself out and collapse like yesterday."

He had just pouted and now he's strung on Seth's back. I do allow him to have short periods of walking, but I keep an eye on him and make sure he walks only 5 minutes out of 10. It seems strict, and he keeps complaining, but I know that he's grateful for not having to walk more.

"You can't tell me you didn't enjoy that kiss." Says Grey. This is going to be an awkward conversation.

"I can't say I disliked it either."

"Me neither," he admits guiltily.

"Look, Grey, I like you and everything but… Just not in that way. Can we be just friends?"

"Yea. I'd like that."

"I know we will always be a bit more than 'just friends.' We will always probably like each other but I…" I choke up, but I don't have to finish.

"It's okay, Lily. Like I said, I just wanted to do that once. Just that once…"

I smile and we stop talking as we enter a large round clearing. The water is shallow around here.

"YOU NEED A BREAK GUYS?" I shout back to the others.

"SURE! THERE'S NO GAME AROUND HERE ANYWAYS!" Karina shouts back. I hate how she refers to the other tributes as game.

I stand in the middle of the clearing, facing away from the path they are coming from. Grey is by my side the whole time as we watch the trees and water, waiting to see if someone will show themselves.

"GREY! GET OVER HERE!" Shouts Seth from behind us.

Grey walks over to them and a few minutes later I hear their footsteps again. But I don't notice what they are doing until it's too late. They've surrounded me.

Is the little kiss that Lily and Grey had just a sham? Is he just another jerk of a guy? Dun dun dunnnn. Maybe she'll die NOW. Who knows? Well, I do but you guys really don't…

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