Chapter 13: Veracity

Cato and I are side by side, facing Clove. We're quiet. We've been quiet for a while. It feels like hours. Two. Maybe three. I brush a strand of hair away from my face, and fumble around for words to say. Cutting Cato a sidelong glance, I think about his lips on mine, and then I look back toward where Clove is shifting uneasily. She looks at loss for words, as I watch several emotions pass over here face. Surprise. Sadness. Regret. Anger. I'm breathing faster than I should be. Cato, on my right, looks as if he had seen a ghost. He stands up as I go to reach out to him. Oddly, I'm thankful for the space, and I know that he needs it right now. I know that this is a conversation between Cato and him, but my involvement is unavoidable, and I stand up too, facing Clove as I bit my lip. I think I've drawn blood for a second, under the anticipation and strain.

"Clove…" Cato trails off, as I watch his hand reach out to her unsteadily.

"Don't," she replies, swatting his hand away in an instant. "Can I ask you something first?"

"Anything," I interject, which makes Cato look back at me. His brow is furrowed in annoyance and I swear I can see a little bit of pain flicker through his eyes. His eyes are no longer the dazzling blue that I remember them to be. They're grey. It reminds me of a barren landscape and loneliness. Exhaustion.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Clove managed to mumble. Her voice was shaky and I noticed that one of her eyes seemed to hold a fair amount of water on the lid.

When he doesn't answer, I sigh. I decide that it's best if I do the talking. "I…" I begin, before correcting myself. "We. We were going to tell you. What with everything going on lately, we didn't really see a good enough time."

"I didn't ask you what your opinion was, did I?" Clove spites back. I'm so angry in the moment, so sick of her self-absorption, thinking that everything is about her, that I almost freak out and tell her off. But I decide that for Cato's case, it'd be better to keep my mouth shut. "That's better," she says matter-of-factly, taking in my silence with a sadistic grin. "I said, were you ever going to tell me Cato?"

I shift my gaze over to where he stands, just a few inches from me. I could feel the hairs on his bare arms prickle up, sending a shiver down my spine. It felt like a centipede was walking over my skin during the moment. I brushed off the thought, and returned my focus to him. I could see him trying to utter words underneath his breath without any real sounds coming out.

"Before Christmas would be preferable," she spits, as she rests her fiery gaze onto him. I could almost see the daggers slicing through Cato, under her glare. "You know what? I don't think you were ever going to tell me. Am I right?"

"Clove…" Cato mumbles again. It's nearly impossible for me to stand her silently. Useless. I make note of the way that Clove is speaking to him, which makes me feel even worse for putting him into this position. My heart is slowly breaking in my chest, with each word she utters toward him in spite. So, I give into my temptation and move my hand over to his. I just have enough time to brush over his skin before he recoils his hand and puts it into his pocket. He pulls emotion out of me that I'm not used to feeling. For some reason, whenever he acts like this, I feel my walls breaking down. I feel thin and weak. I feel broken.

I look back to Clove, who is now pacing back and forth before the bedroom door frustratingly. I look away quickly when she meets my gaze, unsettled that she can read my emotions so easily.

"I should have seen this coming…" Clove mutters. I begin to formulate a response, to break my silence, before I realize that she's not talking to me. She isn't talking to Cato either. Instead, she's pacing back and forth before us as if we weren't standing there in front of her. "So when we kissed her in your bedroom, it was all for what? Were you trying to make fun of me?" she questions, once again to herself. There's something off in her tone now. Something that makes me think that she truly believes that her reasoning outweighs Cato's opinion on the subject. Something that makes me wonder just how far she plans on taking this.

"Clove, maybe you should give Cato a chance to explain himself," I say. I don't know why I say it when she so clearly silenced me only moments before. And then I do. I remember how Cato was always the most levelheaded of the group, the one whose opinion mattered the most. Even though he was a jock, he was also the most conscience and reasonable of the group, besides Gloss, of course. And I know that if I don't say something on his behalf, I'll regret it later. So there it is. It's out there in Clove's ballpark now. I wait again for a response. Two minutes. Three minutes.

"When? Today, tomorrow, next year?" Clove shouts. There is my answer. Clove confirmed what I had expected all along. She wasn't angry because we didn't tell her. She's angry because she feels betrayed. We're all quiet for a moment. And then I decide to push the conversation on, hoping by some slight miracle that Cato will be able to say something intelligible.

"I don't know how else to say this, so I'm just going to say it: this reaction that you're currently having isn't exactly the easiest when it comes to explaining the circumstances," I reply. There's a thread of dark humor behind the words, because I know in her expression that follows that she is aware of my regard for her.

"How else am I supposed to respond? My best friend that I've been friends with my entire life was just about to jump into bed with another boy!" she starts. I try to interject a comment, but she immediately cuts my off with a wave of her hand. "Shut up, because I don't want to hear it. From either of you!"

"Please, Clove," Cato begins.

"No! I hate you! Finnick was right! I hate you so much! You're an asshole, Cato!" she screams, some of her words catching between one another. Before Cato or I could have the chance to calm her down, she's out of the room with only a few strides. I watch as she rounds the stairs, not bothering to pass a glance back at either one of us, and then she's gone.

Cato and I are pulled into silence, so complete that I can't even make out the sound of the door slamming on her way out. I stand perfectly still, like a statue that's corroded over time. I wait for Cato to say something. I can hear his raspy breath coming in quick intervals, before I realize that I'm not going to get any sort of answer or comment from him. There's a snapping sound, like a hard foot coming down on a thin twig, as he slides down the cold wood of his bedframe and hangs his head in between his legs, his arm crossed over them like an intertwining vine. What happens next breaks my heart into a million little pieces: Cato begins to sob. His breaths come in large gulps, and his body thrashes as it yearns for more air. I hear him trying to be strong. Not for himself, but for me. I can't resist from sinking down beside him to lay a reassuring hand around him. I feel as he pulls his head up to rest it on my shoulder, his sobs coming now in shorter intervals. I rest the side of my head against his, whispering that everything will be okay. I know that things will only get worse for him tomorrow, but I lie anyway. I can't stand to see him breaking apart in front of me, without having the audacity to do something about it.

We sit there together for what feels like an eternity, before a knock on the door signals someone's arrival. Cato manages to pull himself up from where we sit together to stride over to the door to answer it. As he does so, I pull myself up too, using the bedframe to reposition my weight. I manage a small smile when I see that the intruder is Juliet, but Cato doesn't seem overly happy about it himself.

"Hi honey, I noticed that Clove stormed off earlier. Did something happen between you two…or three," she says when she notices me leaning against the bed. I give her a greeting nod, with a calm smile, before Cato responds.

"She caught me and Peeta together," Cato says simply. I almost have a heart attack and deliberately breathe in, hold, breathe out, breathe in, hold, breathe out. How could he tell her that Cato and I were about to have sex? I'm relieved when he catches himself and rephrases his statement: "She saw us kissing, and she flipped out. Mom, I don't know what to do!"

In a distant recess of my brain I hear my conscience kick in, which tells me that it'd be better if I left Cato and his mother to discuss this evenings event. I make a hand motion toward my lips, asking if it's safe for me to interrupt their conversation. Juliet shoots me a smile, and Cato leans in closer to me, "I think I'm going to head out. I'll call you later?"

"Absolutely," he says in reply, before leaning in and kissing my cheek quickly. I flush red when I see Juliet watching us, but relieved when she manages to give me a smile. I swear I see a tinge of happiness in her eyes, but dismiss it as I march out of the room. I pass a glance back at both Cato and Juliet as I round the stairs toward the entranceway. With a final smile in their direction, I trudge down toward the first level, and then the door, and then the night breeze hits me.

Everdeen Residence

It takes effort to focus on the fact that between the run-in with the police during our trek to the school after hours, the distance between my parents and I, and the fallout with Clove, I've basically lost all contact with Katniss and Gale. My focus for the past few days has been on spray-painting walls and the possibility of sexual relations with Cato, but Katniss and Gale have been messaging me non-stop, both happy and furious for some reason.

I tiptoe into Katniss' house, trying to avoid any interaction with Mrs. Everdeen, considering I was late on the paper this week. The last thing I need right now is a teacher-student discussion about missed homework. I head up to Katniss' room with Katniss hard on my trail, and open the door to find Gale lying on her bed, reading a magazine. He looks up and stares at me for a long time, his expression bewildered and also suspicious. I slam down hard on the bed beside him, "what are you reading?"

"What do I owe the honor," he says sarcastically, pretending to bow down to me.

"Stop," I say bemused, and jump onto him. I swat at his arms as they swing at me left and right playfully. He manages to squirm through me reach and flip me over. My face falls hard into the red velvet comforter, and he mounts on top of me, pinning down my arms.

"I didn't think you missed me this much," I say jokingly, through the fabric that laps against my lips. He makes a huffing sound and then crosses over to the other side of the bed, leaving me alone to pick myself up. When I finally do, I turn over to Gale and give him a coy smile.

"Get over here," he says, and throws his arm around me. We hug for a few seconds, before he pulls away. "I have missed you, you know. But you've been too busy with your boyfriend to make time for me." He stares at me again when I think he's being serious, and then we both erupt into an influx of laughter.

"I'm not even sure what we are," I start, "but there has been talk about marriage." Gale's jaw drops when I make the comment, and then I hear Katniss gasp as she enters the room. I swore she was only a few feet behind me when I reached the stairs, but now as I see her strolling in with a tray of fresh lemonade, I understand where she had been this whole time. I eagerly jump up to help her with the tray, which she nearly dropped upon entry, and whisper that I was only kidding. "You've missed a lot in the last few minutes, Katniss. Gale mounted me from behind and everything."

She lets out a second gasp, which quickly turns into a grand laughter. "He better not have!"

"It was truly a magical moment," Gale says, breaking his giggling. I toss him a playful wink, and then look back to see Katniss shaking her head.

"So, is this a polygamous relationship?" Katniss says. I begin laughing by myself, until the reality of the situation sets in. I quickly pass a glance back at Gale and then back to Katniss a few times, each time drawing in their smirks.

"No way!" I squeal, and then run over to Gale to punch him in the shoulder. Normally he'd groan, but right now he's too happy to do anything about it, just easily brushing off his soon-to-be bruised muscle. I freeze, thinking about the way I feel at the moment. For a slight moment in this otherwise crappy day, I feel happy. With a sigh of relief, I turn back to face Gale, "It's about time!"

"Am I right?" Katniss snaps back at me sarcastically. She's beaming with a smile now, walking over toward me to place a lemonade on the night table beside me.

"Can you blame me?" Gale says, passing a glance up and down Katniss' figure. I follow his gaze to see him looking over at Katniss as she places another glass down on the other side of the room, where I presume she will be sitting. She is bent over as she eagerly places the glass on a coaster, and I shoot Gale a you-must-be-kidding-me gaze, eyes rolling unbelievably.

"How did he ask you?" I say to Katniss as she finally takes a seat across the room, before she begins rolling her chair over.

"You do know that I'm still here right? Can't you save the gushy stuff for later?" Gale complains, but the smile on his face gives him away all too easily. I grab the nearest pillow beside me before sending it hurtling toward him. He gasps out in irritation, sending it back at me.

"You need to work on your aim," I state with a grin. He cocks his head to the side, before I beam at him triumphantly. I feel like a kid again. It's been forever since I've seen these two like this. These past few months have been hard on our friendship, but I'm finally happy to say that things are going pretty well. Especially since Gale and Katniss are finally doing the whole dating thing, which is drastically uncommon for the pair. "Seriously. How did he ask?"

Katniss rushes to take a sip of her drink before beginning. I notice a gleam in her eyes that has been missing for a long time. Her blue eyes rival Cato's in appearance, but I'm completely biased in comparison, so I sent the thought away. "We went for supper the other night at that new bar and grill, you know the one with the colorful owning's downtown," she looks at me to make sure I know which restaurant she's talking about. I give her an assuring nod. "Yes, that one. Anyways, when he picked me up he had purple tulips for me. I thought it was so cute," she continued, passing glances at Gale every so often, who had completely zoned out again and was currently deep into an article in his magazine. "After supper he came right out and asked me. I could tell he was nervous, but it was just too cute. And of course I said yes!"

"I wasn't that nervous…" Gale mumbled stubbornly underneath his breath. I tossed him a playful glance, shaking my head as I began chuckling. "What are you laughing about Mellark?"

"You." He ends up laughing with me and I know that he's happy despite being made fun of.

"Why don't you stop antagonizing Gale over there and tell me about your hottie," Katniss suggests, taking another sip of her drink. I notice a pink stain on the glass when she begins placing it back onto the table to her left. She turns to me again, this time giving me a look that's all Katniss: raising her hands in the slightest and raising her brows, while cocking her head in the most minute manner.

I notice Gale mimicking Katniss' over-the-top tone, and smile as I start speaking, even though what I'm about to say isn't a positive thing. "Things have been great between us in the past few weeks. I'm finally fitting in with his friends and he picks me up from work all of the time so we can spend any extra time together." Katniss exerts a look that expresses her entrancement with our relationship. "Anyways, just before I came over Clove walked in on Cato and I when we were just about to have sex and she completely freaked out!" I said, which made Gale immediately sit up and caused Katniss to dribble some of her lemonade on her lap as her mouth hung open.

"That's crazy! Why didn't you tell me?" Katniss screams out across the room, which makes Mrs. Everdeen call upstairs to see if things are all right.

"Us," Gale corrects. Katniss flashes him a teasing look, before turning her attention back to me. She looks completely shocked, I note.

"It happened just before I got here! She completely overreacted," I shout back with unease.

"Not that! That's a whole other conversation. Why didn't you tell us that you and Cato were sleeping together?" Katniss says, this time loud enough for me to hear it, but low enough so that her mother doesn't come upstairs to investigate the sudden increase in tone.

"We're not. I mean, this was going to be the first time," I reply, face flushing red in embarrassment. This day keeps getting more and more awkward with each passing minute. I'm dying to tell her more about his sexy figure, but I know that Gale would not want to hear that much detail. He had a weird fascination with my relationships, but usually any sex-talk was off the table. At least, I thought so.

"So you were going to have man-on-man hot sex with Cato, and just before things got overly heated she walked in and caught you in the act?" Gale inquires. The way he phrase it completely takes me off-guard and I pull a Katniss, but instead of a little dribble, I nearly pour the entire glass into my lap. "Are you that sexually frustrated?" he teases as he watches me attempt to clean the mess.

"I'm not sexually frustrated, and yes, you basically summed up exactly what happened. I'm so embarrassed myself, but Cato's a mess. He's not ready for his friends to know about us." I'm winded after confessing the truth of the matter: I was Cato's secret until now. It would only be a matter of time before Cato made a decision about where to take our relationship now. Public. Or simply end it.

"I'm so sorry, Peeta" Katniss and Gale both chime together. I smile back at them before teasing, "Hey, don't ruin our moment. This is a time to celebrate! My two best friends are dating." I point out the obvious, but I watch as Gale and Katniss flush as red as the burgundy comforter. "Rule #1: I better never walk in on you two having sex."

Panem High Secondary School

Lunch. I have been trying to avoid this all day long. I remember asking Mrs. Everdeen for a make-up assignment at lunch since I lost marks on the last test, asking Katniss and Gale to go out for lunch today, or completely bailing on the cafeteria itself. But I knew that I would have to talk to Clove at some point or another. When I passed her in the hall this morning, I was the one receiving the stone, cold glare this time. I felt the daggers from her eyes piercing each and every pore on my body. I felt the sting of my muscles as the burned for being ripped. I even imagined smelling the metallic blood in the air. Eventually I tossed the thought away and decided that I would confront her at lunch with an ultimatum.

When I entered the cafeteria, I noticed that it was oddly deserted. It was usually booming with students eager to eat their lunches. I shrugged my shoulders and walked to the back of the cafeteria, near the stage, where we usually sat. I could see Gloss, Cashmere, Marvel and Glimmer already sitting down, but there was no sign of Cato or Clove. For a long minute, I just stand here, conflicted. My nerves are starting to act up and I don't know if I can do this. How much has Clove told them? Had she told them?

I push past a few students and finally arrive at the table. Each of them looks up at me with smiles and invites me to join them. I breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn't told them yet. I smile back before taking my seat.

I didn't prepare a lunch for today, since Cato called me late last night and told me that he would bring something for the two of us. I remember spending countless hours in bed last night wondering how I had been so lucky to have a boy like Cato in my life. He had changed so much since I first met him. For better.

I watch as Clove and Cato walked in together, and my jaw goes slack and all I can do is stare aimlessly. His jeans hang low on his hips, roughly an inch from where the waistband of his boxers hangs out. As he walks the hem of his T-shirt catches on his belt, and my eyes immediately focus onto his smooth skin that covers a grooved muscle on his hipbone. When he finally rounds the cafeteria and plants himself down beside me, I'm immediately swathed in the smell of his spicy cologne.

I see that he's cut his golden locks, which were growing a degree too long for his jawline. His hair is now spiked up and I'm drawn to how the hair rests against his temple and coats the top of his ears. He looks at me with an intrigued look, before dropping his sandwich on his tray to stare at me again. I feel my face flushing red, and I wonder whether or not I should continue to look into those dazzling blue eyes or not, for fear of drowning into them. What happens next completely takes me by surprise. He brings his right hand up and cups my cheek, before leaning in and crashing his lips into mine passionately. It's a simple kiss, without tongue, but longer and stronger than a quick peck. The instant he pulls away, I see nearly a billion eyes looking at us in shock. Everyone in the group at our table is looking at us, unblinking, while a select few people from the cafeteria stare too.

"I probably forgot to mention that Peeta's my boyfriend now." Cato's simple comment bewilders me, and I see the others react in the same way. Some confused. Others disbelieving. And even one or two excited and happy.

It happens in a matter of moments and as soon as it began it was over. Everyone went back to eating in silence, and Cato enthusiastically went back to munching on his sandwich.

I smile a little too long and a little too wide. I look around to catch Katniss and Gale holding hands across the room, watching me. I see Katniss grinning and shaking her head as she attempts to hold back a chuckle, and Gale beams at me with a thumbs-up.

It's only when I go to turn back to my plate that I catch Finnick O'Dair glaring in my direction. He won't meet my eyes directly, and I immediately know why. Because he's blatantly glaring at Cato.

Author's Note: Voila! I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter this afternoon, despite how grim things may seem. I take into consideration everything you all say in your reviews and personal messages, so I decided to elongate some interactions - so you can see the dimensions of other characters. Now, I will have to crush all your hopes when I say that *there will not be another chapter until next week or so* since there are 4 birthdays, including my own, this weekend. (I know, I know. I'm sorry). I hope that you all like this chapter, and let me know if you liked having more scenes with other characters to explore their personalities or if you prefer when I stick to Peeta/Cato and the occasional interaction with others. Enjoyyyyyyy! :) Until next time, B.