Staring at the blank screen of the empty chat window, the cursor blinks eagerly awaiting words to come. But its anticipation is in vain. The icon beside his name remains a little orange clock; he should be home from Clove's by now seeing how it's 10 o'clock on a school night alas he's not. Closing the tantalizingly white window, she illuminates the screen on her cellphone that lays rest beside her; again, nothing.

She falls back against the back of her chair and swivels around catching glimpses of her books, posters and bulletin board of pictures of her and her friends. Rosy's pale blue eyes rest on the one directly in the center that was taken at their grade eight graduation. When Noah slung his arm around her shoulder, flashing his diploma Rosy expected those white teeth of his to shine in his classically beautiful smile but they didn't. His lips were far more preoccupied with the patch of skin on her flushing cheeks. Three years later and Rosy can still feel the heat along her cheekbones upon remembering the kiss. It had been the first and last time he has pressed his lips to hers.

The ringing of an old fashion telephone blares through her laptop speakers spooks Rosy almost right out of her chair. Snapping her eyes down to computer screen, it isn't the Noah's Gchat window that demands her attention but a Skype window flashing Marvel Snow.

"So close yet so far," Rosy mumbles beneath her breath as she accepts the video call. Marvel's royal blue eyes shine with unadulterated delight as he runs a hand through his blonde hair that drips onto his bare chest while giving her a suave grin. She fights the instinct to roll her eyes at his attempt at seduction. Not that Marvel really needed to make himself look any more attractive, the boy has the genes of a supermodel coursing through him. He is plenty handsome as it is.

"Hello Charlotte," Marvel flashes her with a smile of fully of metal. It almost makes her laugh. All that suave for nothing. Though, the fact that he is still the only one that calls her by her first name does make her heart flutter.

"Hey Marven," she says through a smile. "Saving a snack for later? "

His eyes flicker down to the window that reflects his face back at him. Right away he sees the tiny green piece of vegetable stuck between the wire and bright blue elastic. A blush paints his cheeks an uncharacteristic pink as Marvel tries to jimmy out the piece of food. Once he finally does, not only is he crumpling up a whole tissue for one piece of food but then leaves the room to go washes his hands.

"I'm so sorry about that. Ordered gnocchi from this quaint little hole in the wall Italian place, there was some spinach mixed in." His nose wrinkles in disgust.

"Was it good?"

"Best gnocchi I've ever had, it's like if you were to stick your head under a fountain that only flowed with asiago cream sauce while at the bottom, instead of pennies, you have delicious potato dumplings waiting to be scooped up by the handful and devoured one by one," Rosy can hear him drool. "I'll have to take you the next time you come up to visit."

"Which will probably be never happen," she sighs. Her parents keep her on a tight five kilometer leash. Even though they did let her go to L.A. that one time, and Rosy had traveled with Noah and his family, she doubts they'd let her go with them again. "Anyways, what's up?"

Those almost albino shoulders of his shrug, "Not much. Saw you online, was wondering why you are doing up so late on a school night. Shouldn't you be in bed young lady?"

This time, Rosy bursts into laughter. "Oh my god, stop acting like you're thirty-five, it's weird. Can't you be, like, fourteen for like ten minutes of your life?"

Marvel's lip juts out in a pout. "I only get to talk to you for ten minutes, well that's a bummer. I was so hoping you'd hang out with me until my bed time."

"I'd probably have to be at school by the time you go to bed," Rosy replies, plenty aware that Marvel lives in a time zone three hours behind hers.

"That...is very true! Alright, so maybe a Skype date until 4 a.m. my time wouldn't be such a good idea today. Rain check?" A sandy blonde eyebrow lifts into his hairline.

"Rain check," Rosy says with a self-assured smile.

"So, why is my favourite young lady not getting her beauty rest then?" Marvel persists as he reaches behind him to grab the lime green Lacoste polo hanging off the back of his desk chair. For a brief moment, he made her forget all about his half-brother and the fact that his gchat window remains blank.

"Just doing some homework," she lies flawlessly, a trait she inherited from her father. Despite her ability, Marvel doesn't believe her. Not that that's a surprise; having shared the womb with his twin sister Glimmer, Marvel was born with a bullshit meter.

"Either you were online shopping or you're wasting a perfectly good night waiting for my brother to call," Rosy can hear the sneer in his grainy voice without looking up at the scowl prominent on his lips. "You're too good for him, y'know."

Rosy gives him the best smile she can muster while glancing down at the screen of her phone. Still black.

"I'm serious! You're smart, beautiful, one hell of an athlete...guys probably fall head over heels for you!"

"I don't know. If they did, then...well…"she twirls a strand of her corkscrew curls around her finger, feeling the familiar heat rise into her cheek. "Wouldn't Noah be all over me too?"

"Please," Marvel huffs, rolling those gorgeous blue eyes of his. Rosy can't help but notice the way his long, blonde lashes flutter along with the motion. "Noah's a seventeen year old boy who's dating a girl that clearly is way more interested in that Cato guy than him."

"You're sounding thirty-five again, Marven…"

"Not sorry." his lips pull up in a smirk. "But seriously, as much as I love Noah - and that's a lot mind you- you need to stop putting up with his shit and letting yourself be dragged in the mud."

"I'm not being dragged in the mud! What Noah and I have works; we still walk to school together every morning, we have lunch together underneath the stairwell, we go to each other's practices and walk home together - well on days he's not with Clove…" Rosy relinquishes in one breath, frustration welling in her chest.

Since Noah started seriously dating Clove, she's had to compromise the time spent with her best friend. The walks to school have been less frequent, Rosy spends more lunches alone now than with Noah and those walks home after Ringette practice are with her ten-year old brother, Aidyn. Maybe Marvel is right.

The ping of her gchat along with the vibrations of her phone break Rosy from her thoughts. Her eyes shift to the no longer blank screen and see that the little orange clock is now a green bubble next to Noah Odair.

Noah: Still up? I really need to talk to someone.

Rosy doesn't hesitate to reply, her fingers flying across her keyboard in replying 'Yes, I'm here'. It's a second later that she hears a tap on her bedroom window; Noah's green eyes staring at her as he points for her to open up the window.

"He finally free?" Marvel says, sounding sour as he inspects his nails.

"Um...yeah. He's kinda outside my window so I'mma go, I'll talk to you la-"

"Wait, leave the conversation open. Just minimize the window and cover the webcam light with a sticky or something," Marvel requests. Not one bit does she trust him, especially when a cheshire grin dripping with mischief stretches across his face.

"Why?" Rosy narrows her eyes at him, ignoring the tapping on her window. She's waited this long for him, the least he could do for her is wait too.

"Because if Odair is at your window that must mean: a) he's being secretive b) it's probably a juicy secret if you're the only one he'd willing to tell."

"How do you know he hasn't told Finnick?"

It's Marvel's turn to roll his eyes. "Like I said, he wouldn't be at your window if he were at home, on the couch having one of those father-son talks of theirs."

"Fine," Rosy huffs as she minimizes the window and covers the blue light beside the webcam with a piece of masking tape. In addition to all that, she lowers the volume on the computer; just in case Marvel decides he wants to voice an opinion, this way he'll be practically mute.

Toeing across her room, Rosy props up the window and Noah swings one foot in, ducks under the pane of glass and pulls himself through like he's done this a hundred times before. And he has, he used to sneak out of her room all the time before his curfew, not wanting to disturb her parents. That all seems so long ago now.

"God, I can't believe you're still awake. I got seriously lucky, didn't I?" Noah grins that perfect grin of his as the little ruffle of his dense, wavy locks makes her melt faster than chocolate wafers. Damn him, how did she get so lucky?

"Rosy? Y'okay?" He asks, head cocked to the side with the tiniest pout jutting out. She was going to explode! How did people watch their crush be completely adorable and survive to see the next day? If only she could wrap her arms around his neck, pull that bottom lip between her teeth and kiss those full lips of his.

"F-fine," she croaks, forcing herself to look away from him in order to collect herself. "What'cha wanna talk about?"

The bounce of the bed-springs has her whipping around to stare at Noah in all his length stretch out along her bed like a starfish. With his eyes cast to the ceiling and a gentle sigh parting from his lips, she sits down at the end of her bed. Stroking his leg, Rosy feels him squirm and watches as that thoughtful look on his face disappears.

"Everything alright?"

He shrugs. "It was…but I'm a big, fat chicken Rosy. We were so close and I just…I bailed!"

"So close to what?" She inquires, slowly. Her heart thrashing wildly against her ribcage as her mind has filled in the blank to his answer; she just hopes she's wrong.

"Sex," he says, not batting an eyelash as her heart jumps into her throat. Sex, on a school night?! Wasn't that a Friday or Saturday night thing? Especially that comes after a date not dinner with her parents?

"So, after dinner we go up to her room to finish up marathoning Game of Thrones. She's not really that interested in the whole fantasy thing so we ending up making out instead. Clove is such a fucking good kisser, Rosy. It's like…it's like she actually wants to kiss me y'know? It's as if I were a bomb feeling myself be defused."

She didn't.

"Anyways, it felt so good I wanted more. That's when I realized my body started to move on its own; my hips are rocking into hers, she's moaning and pawing at my shirt and stuff. So I take it off and we keep going. Clove's got her lips all over my chest now and her arms around my waist; her fingers playing with the band on my sweats. And I swear, I thought she was gonna stick her hand down them. Imagine how good that would've felt, to have her tiny warm hand wrapped around my cock like that…" Noah sighs.

Rosy could definitely imagine how nice it would feel to wrap her hand around him, the feel of his entire length slide along her palm. Sporting that gorgeous euphoric smile on his face and those grunts she's seen him with after he's pleasured himself. But instead of being for Clove, it'd be for her. She'd make him feel that good.

"Instead starts palming me through my pants. I swear, once she got a rhythm going I thought I was gonna lose control. But I didn't, and that's where things went south. Because I was laying there, trying to distract myself I couldn't help but think if this is what my Mom and Dad were like. If it was during a rendezvous like this that they well…yeah…" Noah trails off, eyes growing distant.

Scooting up the bed, she rests her head on his broad chest. The best thing about the boy laying in her bed is that he is her best friend and she knows how to get the dark storm clouds to blow away. But twirling the tousle of curls at the nape of his neck and running her fingers along his side doesn't cease clouds. It only brings the tears on faster.

"I couldn't look at her after that, Char. I kept thinking what if I get her pregnant too? I love my Dad and I love everything he's done for me but I don't want to fill his shoes as a single parent. I want to make him proud by being the athlete he couldn't be; show that his sacrifice was worth it," Noah mumbles as he holds onto Rosy tightly as the tears roll down his cheeks and onto her.

"Noah…" Rosy's voice wavers.

"So, I left," she can hear the synthetic smile pushing its way through. "I bet she hates me now."

"If I were in her place, I wouldn't hate you!"

"But you're different, Charlotte." This time she can definitely hear his smile and her name sounds so sweet when he says it. More so than when he first climbed through the window does Rosy have the urge to kiss his lips and jump his bones. "You don't push nor are you itching to pop your cherry like she is. And I'm doing the best I can to accommodate her needs but…I just can't. I'm not ready."

"So, you're not ready. Whatever, Clove's a twat for not understanding that." It's Marvel's voice that offers its two cents; making both Noah and Rosy jump. Scrambling to the computer, Rosy pulls up the Skype window and peels off the sticky note to see Marvel and Gwen sitting huddled around the webcam.

"What the fuck?" Noah says, anger bubbling. "How long have they been there?"

"Look, bro, don't blame Charlotte. It's not her fault, I asked her to-" Marvel tries to defuse his brother with a wave of his hands in surrender.

"Ugh, seriously?" The bed-springs creak as he slides off the mattress. "Marv, do you not understand what private means?"

"Technically, you didn't ask for priv-"

"Fucker shut your face, you're just digging yourself into a deeper hole" Gwen berates her twin as she shoves him out of the webcam's frame. "Look, Noah, your girlfriend isn't mad at you. She's just confused and a little hurt, but you can patch it up. You're your father's son, I don't know how you Odairs' do it but all you guys need to do is say same magic words and make everything better. It's fucking annoying."

Jealous tangles itself around every available inch of Rosy as she realizes Gwen is the one to make her brother laugh. She could have been funny, why couldn't she have been funny?

"Why do you sound like you're thirty-five?" Noah's says, still laughing, as he sits down in Rosy's open lap. He's a little heavy but she doesn't mind, his sweats are soft.

Gwen rolls her eyes and flips him off. "Just don't worry, okay? Mom kinda told me her story with your Dad...you and I, we aren't impulsive like they were. Marvel on the other hand…"

"Fuck off," he shoves his elbow into his sister's ribs sending her off the chair and to the ground. The crackling from the laptop screen as Gwen screams mixed with Noah's boisterous laughter brings a loud rapping to Rosy's door. With a quick tap of her fingers the speakers mute and the screen shrinks just as Katniss peers her head in.

Gray eyes narrow at the pair sitting at the desk. "Charlotte Primrose Mellark your father and brother are already asleep and you are being far too loud. Also, Noah, your father is in the kitchen waiting to take you home."

"How did he know I was here?"

"When are you not here?" Katniss raises an eyebrow, nonchalantly. "Now go, before Peeta wakes up and has choice words for you."

Noah disregards being quiet as he trails through the hallway and bounds down the stairs to the kitchen. Leaving Rosy and her mother to the muffled sounds of chatter downstairs.

"We weren't doing anything, Mama. I swear, he just came over to talk. He…had a rough evening," Rosy says. Though there is nothing to be embarrassed about, she's had Noah up in her room alone since as long as she can remember, but tonight she can't look her mother straight in the eye.

"Make sure you head to bed soon, you have to be up early too. You wouldn't want to make both of you late for school," Katniss kisses her daughter on the crown before leaving the room, a small smile on her lips.

Rosy turns back to her computer re-opening Skype for the final time before signing out. As she swivels out of her chair, her eyes catch a glimpse of the bulletin board of photos. He will come and pick her up for school tomorrow, they will have lunch together and laugh like tonight never happened. Like they will always do, they are best friends after all.