Clove
Everything in life is finally on the right track. Nobody is fighting, nobody moving to places they shouldn't, Ryder is officially out of my life for good and Cato and I are going to be spending the rest of our lives together and I couldn't be happier. I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders and I can actually breath again.
All that's in front of us now is my birthday, prom, and graduation. I know we can do it.
I grab my sneakers out of my closet and head to the kitchen to get a water bottle.
"Morning Father!" I say, opening the refrigerator door.
"Daughter." My dad says wearily at my greeting, "Where are you off to this morning?"
"Just going for a run." I tell him
"Don't be too long. Finnick and his parents are coming over soon before we head to the airport." He reminds me.
"Got it!" I give him a thumbs up as I head for the deck.
I tie my sneakers, put my ear buds in and head down the beach taking in the crisp spring air. When I pass Cato's house I see Courtney in the window and wave. Cato is probably packing last minute for the airport, or sleeping… yeah probably sleeping.
I run down the beach about two miles before I turn around and make my way back home. When I see my deck growing larger as I get closer I just make out Finnick standing at the railing waving to me, I wave back and slow my pace down coming to a stop right at the edge of the water.
I wipe the sweat off my forehead and start to stretch when suddenly I feel two hands grab my shoulders.
"Clove!" Finnick yells.
I jump and yank my ear buds out, "What?"
"Come on!" He chuckles, motioning for me to follow him.
"Finnick," I grab his wrist, "What's wrong?"
He eyes me strangely, "Nothing, why?"
"You only call me Clove if there is an emergency." I say starting to follow him back to the house.
"I've been trying to get your attention for ten minutes. I figured Clove would do the get your attention." He chuckles wrapping an arm around my shoulder, "Our Dads want us inside. Apparently they have something for us."
We walk inside and see Finnick's parents and my dad strangely smiling at both of us.
"How was your run?" My dad asks.
"Great! What's going on?" I ask.
"Come on guys." Finn's dad says, motioning us into the living room.
Finnick and I sit next to each other of the couch and Finn's mom hands us a large wrapped box.
"As you both know your birthdays are coming up in a few weeks and since you both are going to be turning 18 we wanted to do something special for both of you." She smiles at both of us, "Open the box!"
We rip the wrapping paper off of the box revealing a flat shiny black box. I pull the top off of the box and see a picture of a yacht inside.
"A yacht?" Finnick asks curiously, pulling the picture out of the box.
"We rented out a yacht for the night for you both and all your friends for a trip around Manhattan on the Hudson river for the night." My dad says beaming from ear to ear.
"Holy Crap!" I say jumping up and giving my dad a hug.
"This is insane!" Finnick says, dumbfounded, "When do we go?"
"The day after Clove's birthday, so it's not on anyone's specific birthday. But, both of your birthdays would have just happened." Finnick's mom says smiling.
Finnick and I say our thank you's and I head upstairs to my bedroom to take a shower before we go to the airport.
My dad, Finn, Cato and Finn's Dad are headed out to USC for the week for a bunch of pre football stuff. Now that Cato officially has his scholarship the head coach wants he and Finn out at the school to work with the team before the officially season workouts start.
I get the unfortunate deal of staying home and still having to go to school while they are out in sunny California. It wont be so bad though, Jackie and I have the house to ourselves all week then we are heading into the city on Friday for prom dress shopping.
When I get out of the shower, I quickly blow-dry my hair and straighten it, then, I pull on a pair of skinny jeans and a dark purple sweatshirt jacket. I owe my revamped out look on fashion to Jackie, she's shown me it's not as terrifying and boring as it looks. She's given me simple steps to follow and it's been doing very well for me.
I open the bathroom door and find Finn laying on my bed watching TV.
"CC!" He flails his arms.
"What!?"
"Do you realize how huge this birthday gift is?" He says.
"I know. I can't wait to tell Cato." I say.
I walk over to my nightstand and open tiny box that keeps my promise ring nice and safe. I open it and slide the ring on my finger.
The only people that know about the ring are Jackie and Marvel. Jackie screamed so loud out of excitement I thought we were going to have the cops called on us. Everyone else just thinks it was an early birthday gift from Cato. We decided it was the best decision, to avoid all the controversy.
"Annie can't wait!" Finnick says beaming.
"Can't wait for what?" I hear from behind me.
I turn around and see Cato standing in the doorway of my room. He's wearing a red and green plaid shirt with jeans. It's a casual out, but that's him and I wouldn't want to see him any other way. He smiles and I run to him giving him a huge hug.
"Finn and my birthday gift. Our parents are renting a yacht for us and all of our friends for a cruise around Manhattan for the night after my birthday." I tell him.
"Seriously?" He says, raising his eyes in shock.
"Absolutely. It's going to be quite the party." Finnick says, walking over to Cato and giving him a hug.
"I'll let you two have a minute." Finnick whispers under his breath and gives Cato a hardy slap on the shoulder.
Cato reaches for my face and kisses me deeply, "I'm going to miss you."
"Do you have to go?" I whine playfully.
"You know I have to, Clove." He laughs, "If I could take you with me you know I would."
I sigh and lean in to hug Cato, we stand there together in silence in my bedroom. The last time we were apart for an extended amount of time, was when I moved back to Connecticut. That was the worst few months. I just hope this isn't as horrible. To say I'm nervous about us being separated is an understatement.
"Alright, you two we're leaving!" Finnick yells from down stairs.
Cato kisses me on my forehead and grabs my hand, I grab my bag off of the chair and we head down stairs. We all take a hand in bring the luggage out to SUV in the drive way.
"Geeze, Finn you're just going to be training for a week how much luggage do you actually need?" I joke lifting a suitcase into the trunk.
"Hey! not all of this is mine, CC. There are four of us going on this trip." He frowns.
Everyone chuckles, and I pat Finn on the shoulder before climbing to the back row of the SUV. Cato follows in after me, Finn and his mom get the middle row and our Dads sit in the front.
The ride to the airport is just about two hours. It's a nice ride, everyone is talking and laughing. Finn and Cato won't stop talking about how excited they are to see all of the facilities out at USC.
Cato grabs my hand with my promise ring on it and examines it with a sly smile on his face. He kisses the back of my hand, and leans down kissing the spot on my neck right under ear. Chills run up my spine and I have to try really hard from keeping myself to turn into putty. I'll never get tired of what happens when he kisses me.
"It looks beautiful on you, baby." He whispers.
I smile and slide over a bit closer to Cato. He wraps his arm around me and squeezes tightly. We pull up to the airport shortly after and take all of the luggage out of the trunk.
"Have a safe trip, Dad." I say giving him a hug, "Let me know when you land."
"I will, Sweetie. Try not to get in too much trouble." He chuckles, "Have fun in the city."
"I'm sure we will." I tell him reassuringly.
Suddenly, Finnick scoops me up and spins me around.
"I'll miss you, CC." He says, placing my feet on the ground.
"Miss you too, Finn. Don't do anything stupid while you're out there." I laugh.
"That's not guaranteed." He winks at me, "Don't worry, CC. We'll be fine out."
He looks over at Cato then, back at me.
I smile at him then hug him, "Thanks, Finn."
I walk over to Cato after he gives off the last of his luggage to an attendant.
"Watch out for Finnick while you're over there. I have a feeling he may get himself into trouble." I say jokingly.
"What about me?" He asks, pretending to be insulted.
I grab the collar of his shirt and bring his head down to kiss me.
"I trust you." I whisper between kisses, "You know Finn. When he get's excited he can get himself into some trouble."
Cato laughs, "You're right. I'm going to miss you so much, baby."
"I'll miss you, too. Be safe and have fun. Let me know when you land." I tell him.
"I love you."
"I love you, too." I tell him, and hug him one last time.
Later that week…
"Clove, are you ready?" Jackie yells from the other dressing room.
"I don't know Jackie. This dress is too big." I yell back.
"It doesn't matter Clove. Marco will make sure it's fit just for you. You like the dress, don't you?"
"Yes!"
"Then let's see it."
I'm still not sure how she did it, but Jackie got us an appointment with one of Hollywood's top stylists, Marco Callahan, to help us pick out prom dresses. The amount of designer dresses I've tried on today are unbelievable.
"Ready," Jackie yells, "1…2…3!"
We both pull back the curtains for our dressing rooms and step out in the middle of the floor.
"Wow!" We both say seeing each other for the first time.
"You look amazing!" I tell her excitedly.
Jackie appeared in a lavender, one shouldered, empire waist gown with rhinestones creating an intricate looking belt around her waist. Jackie spins around and the skirt flies in a circle around her like a cloud of lavender.
"You look like you grew five inches Clove! This dress in gorgeous." She says, clapping her hand excitedly.
Marco picked out a red strapless column dress, with sheer paneling on the sides. It really does look like I grew five inches. I step onto the platform to look at the three way mirror. I feel like a movie star.
"Cato is going to lose his mind when he sees you in this!" She says, stepping on the platform behind me.
"Wow you girls look beautiful!" Jackie's mom says.
Jackie and I spin around and strike a pose for her.
"So does that mean these are the dresses?" She asks.
"Of course these are the dresses, Marco doesn't mess around." Marco says appearing from another room holding a black garment back.
"What's in the bag?" I ask.
"We've got one more thing for you to try on Clove." Jackie says escorting me back to the dressing room.
"Uh oh."
I take off my dress and open the garment bag. Inside is a gorgeous cocktail dress, the top is a gold sequined halter top with a black tool skirt.
"Jackie what is this for?"
"Your birthday, Clove! Try it on." She says.
I slide it on and tie the straps around my neck.
"It's perfect." I gasp.
"You're not going to believe the prom dress your girlfriend got." Jackie says, squeezing her head in next to me to make sure Cato can see her on the FaceTime call.
"I'm sure she's going to look gorgeous." Cato says, winking.
"Not gorgeous, Cato. Hot! Capital H-O-T!" Jackie says.
"What's wrong with her?" Cato asks.
"She's had way too much coffee." I laugh, "How was your trip?"
"Amazing. You're going to love the campus, Babe. We-"
"USC better watch out!" Finnick chimes in, "They ain't ready for us!"
"Hi, Finn!" I say laughing.
"Hi, CC!" He says, leaning in close to Cato.
Cato pauses to listen to an announcement at the airport.
"That's us, Clove. Time for us to board the plane. I'll text you when we land. Love you." He tells me and blows a kiss.
"Love you too." I tell him.
Jackie, her mom and I take in New York for the rest of the night with a Broadway show and dinner before we headed back to the hotel.
We just got back into our room when Jackie's cellphone rang.
"Hello?" She says, "Woah, woah, woah! Marvel calm down! We were in a Broadway show, I had my phone off."
She spins around and looks at me, her complexion going paler then usual, she gasps and covers her mouth with her hand.
"Jackie, what's going on?" I ask wearily.
She holds her hand out to me signaling for me to 'hold on'.
"Okay, I got it. Be careful." She hands the phone off to me.
"Hello?" I ask.
"Clove, it's Marvel, you need to listen really carefully okay?"
"Yeah of course."
"There's been an accident. Cato, Finnick, your dad, and Mr. Odair got hit by a drunk driver on the way home from the airport. I do-"
"What?" I cut him off, feeling a sinking feeling in my stomach.
"Listen Clove, they are at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in the city. I'm on my way into the city with Courtney. Jackie is getting a car for you guys to go to the hospital."
"Marvel?" I croak, barely being able to say what I was hoping.
"All we know is Finnick is in surgery right now. But, Clove, it doesn't look good."
I feel like I'm going to be sick.
A/N: WOOHOO New Chapter! Hiya Everyone! :)
Thanks for sticking around and I hope you like the new chapter!
Thank you for all your feedback about the 'American Sniper' Clato one shot and it is a go! I will be writing it :) But, let me be absolutely clear about this, it is only an 'American Sniper' INSPIRED one shot. Meaning it's not going to be a retelling of the movie and Chris and Taya's story. Chris and Taya's story is very real and very intense and something that shouldn't be written as a fan fiction. It'll all make more sense once it's written, I promise! If you have any questions/comments about this feel free to leave it here or at my tumblr: strongtheshwarmavengers
xoxo,
centerstagex11