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Clove lay awake in her bed for hours, twisting and turning at the thought of what might be going on in Cato's hotel room at that very moment. Her cheeks were blotchy from crying, and her usually kempt hair was a knotty, untamable mess. How on earth was she supposed to get herself out of the bed, let alone function and pay attention in class?
"Time to wake up, Miss Clove," Eleanora called from right outside Clove's bedroom door.
Wake up? Clove scoffed. Waking up would require her falling asleep first…
"Go away!" Clove shouted grumpily, pulling a pillow over her ears and curling up into a ball under her fluffy white comforter.
"Miss Clove, it is only the third day of school. You must wake up," Eleanora persisted.
Ugh.
Clove rolled her eyes in annoyance, trying her best to ignore the hurt and empty feeling in her chest. What reason did she have to go to school? It's not like Cato was going to be sitting there waiting for her on the steps with a dozen roses and a box of chocolates when she arrived. She'd be surprised if he even made an appearance at school today. Hell, the only reason he still went to school at all was because he had to be in attendance in order to participate in football practice.
"I'll be down in a little bit," Clove sighed, forcing herself to abandon the comfort and safety of her warm, cozy bed. She had a future to get back to, after all. Since when did Clove Carlton become the type of girl that dropped everything because of a boy?
In the back of her mind, she knew that Cato wasn't just another boy. He was one of her best friends, and he'd been there for her since before they could speak in complete sentences. Still, he had betrayed her in one of the worst ways imaginable, and her fragile heart had all but shattered into a million tiny pieces.
Goodness, this was becoming an even more cliché situation with every passing day. She wouldn't be surprised if an agent showed up on her doorstep asking to film a reality TV show with she and her friends as the stars.
Half an hour later, Clove found herself sitting on a stool at the island counter with a full plate of untouched breakfast food in front of her. She'd managed to get out of the bed and even make herself look half decent, but eating was way too much for her at a time like this. She was having an internal crisis, for Heaven's sake; eating was not a priority.
"Clove," her mother said worriedly as she hurried through the kitchen to the living room in search of her Jimmy Choo pumps, "aren't you going to eat?"
Clove's mom was the sole owner of a cute little boutique on Rodeo Drive. Clove hadn't visited in ages, even though half of her childhood memories were of she and Glimmer begging her mom to let them play dress up in the overpriced accessories that her mother sold.
"I'm not very hungry," Clove swallowed the lump in her throat, pushing the memories out of her mind before sliding her plate away and standing up swiftly. "I'll see you this afternoon."
"Bye, darling," her mom called.
Slinging her book bag over one shoulder, Clove yelled back, "Bye!"
By the time Clove managed to find a parking spot at school, it was 7:26. Cashmere was due to make her big confession in only four minutes. Sighing, she stepped out of her Mercedes and headed in the direction of the steps, where Cashmere stood with a smug look on her face.
"Clove," Johanna waved her over, an agitated look covering her features.
"Hey," Clove forced a smile. All she wanted was to curl up in a ball and cry, but no one could know that. She would make it through today, and then take a long nap when she got home.
"She's claiming to know who actually started the rumor," Johanna rolled her eyes as she motioned to Cashmere, who was standing a few feet away with her arms folded across her chest.
Clove rolled her eyes, turning to Cashmere. "And who might that be?"
"Glimmer," Cashmere smirked.
Clove laughed loudly, genuinely amused. "Why should I believe you?"
"For starters, why would I start a war with someone I'm being forced to live with in only a few months?" Cashmere raised her eyebrows.
Clove folded her arms across her chest, "Because you're a bitch."
"I'm a bitch?" Cashmere scoffed. "What about you? Literally everyone in the student body either hates your guts or wants to screw you."
Clove pursed her lips. She tried to remain passive, but on the inside, she was panicking. Was that true? That was never what she'd wanted. Sure, she'd wanted people to show some respect and admiration towards her, but it was never her intention to be so cruel that everyone hated her. "Fuck you."
Cashmere laughed coldly, "Diddo."
Katniss walked up seconds later, looking at her watch dramatically. "Confession time, blondie."
"No," Cashmere objected. "I'm not confessing to something I didn't do. Talk to Glimmer over there, and then get back to me."
"Need I remind you," Johanna started, pulling out her phone, "why you agreed to confess in the first place?"
Cashmere rolled her eyes. "Hey, Glimmer! Come over here, would you?"
A few seconds later, Glimmer came bouncing over, blonde ponytail swinging from side to side. "What's up?"
"I know you started the rumor," Cashmere narrowed her eyes at Glimmer.
Glimmer's carefree mood faltered for a moment, before she tilted her head to the left seconds after. "What are you talking about?"
"The dumb blonde act isn't fooling anyone, sweetheart," Cashmere said.
"Are you delusional?" Glimmer rolled her eyes.
"Why'd you do it?" Cashmere interrogated.
Glimmer laughed, "I didn't."
"And how can you not feel guilty about it?" she continued to question Glimmer.
"Because I didn't do it," Glimmer insisted.
Cashmere continued, "You've already singlehandedly ruined one of Clove's relationships, and now you've-"
"We've moved past that," Glimmer interrupted.
"But breaking up she and Cato…? That's low Glimmer, even for you," Cashmere shook her head.
"Let it go, Cashmere," Glimmer said.
"How is the guilt not eating you alive? She was happy, and you took tha-"
"Shut up!" Glimmer squeaked, resisting the urge to cover her ears and mumble "la la la" like a four year-old.
"Just admit it," Cashmere narrowed her eyes.
Glimmer clenched her fists tightly, her gaze fixed on the ground.
Cashmere continued tormenting Glimmer, "You have caused your so-called best friend to be miserable, and you don't even have the decency to-"
"Fine!" Glimmer snapped, tears filling her green eyes. "I did it, okay? I started the rumor!"
Clove's jaw dropped.
Johanna's eyes almost popped out of her head.
Katniss furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
Glimmer whimpered pathetically.
Cashmere smirked.
It hadn't even crossed Clove's mind that there was any truth whatsoever to Cashmere's absurd accusations until then. After all, Glimmer was her best girl friend in the entire world, even though they hadn't been as close since the whole fiasco between the two of them and Marvel and Cato.
"I'm so sorry, Clove," Glimmer turned to her best friend, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Clove narrowed her eyes and shook her head angrily. "Just stop."
"I never meant to-"
"I honestly don't want to hear it, Glimmer! Just watch your back," Clove sneered.
"Please," Glimmer begged, "we're best friends."
"Were," Clove corrected her. "We were best friends. I am done with you and your backstabbing and manipulation and lies."
Glimmer sighed, "Clove…"
"Why did you do it?" Clove asked finally.
"I don't know," Glimmer said regretfully. "The gossip scene was dry, so I guess I thought I'd stir things up a little. I never expected it to get blown so much out of proportion. And I certainly never intended for you and Cato to break up over it. It was dumb, I know."
Clove scowled. "Damn right it was dumb."
"I really am sorry," Glimmer avoided eye contact, her gaze fixated on her navy blue ballerina flats.
"Save it." Clove turned on her heel and headed in the direction of her car. Screw school. Screw Glimmer. Screw Cato. Screw the whole entire fucking universe. She didn't have to put up with this shit; she was Clove Carlton.
"Clove!" She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of her name to find Cato coming after her. Crap. Her car was only a few yards away…maybe she could make a run for it. She sighed, turning around and glaring daggers at him. In all honestly, she was curious to hear what exactly he had to say to her after last night.
"What do you want, asshole?"
"Look," he stammered, and a part of her was beyond pleased to see him so unnerved. "I just wanted to, umm, apologize…for, you know, umm…"
Clove smirked coldly, sarcasm dripping through her tone. Who the hell did he think he was, flaunting over to her as if she'd just take him back after what he'd done? "Oh? You apologize? Oh, okay, Cato. Since you apologized, I guess I have no choice than to fucking forgive you, you goddamn motherfu-"
"I'm trying to say I'm sorry here," Cato snapped.
Clove frowned. "You know what? Fuck you."
A small sigh escaped her lips as her words lingered in the tense air between them. They'd never spoken to each other like this before – with venom lacing their words and hatred filling their usually glistening eyes. The two of them had been best friends since preschool, along with Marvel and Glimmer. And even when Clove left for two whole years because her typically lackadaisical parents decided that she was out of control, the bond that the four of them shared was still too strong to be broken. So what had changed?
Subconsciously, she knew exactly what had changed. They'd all gotten older and more attractive and their hormones were raging like typical teenagers'. So what better to do than just start fucking each other until all of their relationships – romantic and unromantic – were so unpredictable and indefinite that none of them knew what to do about it?
Clove turned away from him sharply and headed in the direction of her car, but he grabbed her wrist, pinning her up against the door of her Mercedes seductively. He hovered a few inches above her, so she had to crane her neck to look into his eyes, which only pissed her off more. Delicately placing his hands on her curved hips, he licked his lips as he deeply stared into her beautiful green eyes, searching for some kind – any kind – of emotion.
But her eyes were empty, hurt, betrayed.
She had always been good at turning off her emotions to other people, most commonly the ones she didn't fully trust. However, in their fifteen years of knowing one another, Clove had never, ever done that to Cato. Not once.
Not when they'd gotten into that enormous fight over which one of them was the faster runner when they were in the fourth grade.
Not when he was wasted for one of the first times in the seventh grade and she had to stay up all night with him to make sure he didn't get sick all over himself.
Not even when she found out that he'd slept with Glimmer – even though it was years before they'd even begun to consider an actual relationship between the two of them.
They were always open with one another, and that was part of the reason why they just worked together.
Her eyes bore into his, sending a shiver right down her spine. It would have been so easy for her to get up on her tiptoes and just kiss his soft, gentle lips, but she refused to let herself. Lately she'd been forgetting that this entire relationship thing they had going on had started in the backseat of a limo, not to mention when she was drunk and unstable. It had been nothing but a recipe for disaster from the very beginning.
"Get away from me," she spat, pushing him away both physically and emotionally.
"Clove, please," he begged, and she paused for a moment. His tone was laced with desperation, his blue eyes pleading with her green ones in the hope that she'd give him one more chance. "I know I fucked up, and I know I'm going to continue to fuck up time and time again. But I also know that you know that what we feel for one another is unlike anything either one of us has experienced before, and I don't want to throw it all away because of one night."
"One night? Cato, you slept with some whore you hardly knew less than twelve hours after we broke up! Twelve fucking hours! How the hell would you have reacted if I had done that to you?"
Before she knew what was happening, his lips were on hers, effectively cutting her off. That same fluttering feeling reappeared in her abdomen, demanding more of him. Without thinking, she grabbed his hips and pulled him closer, so that their hipbones were pressed against one another and their bodies fit perfectly together. He trailed kisses down her neck, and she suppressed a moan, her fingers tangling themselves in his blonde hair. Shit, he was good at this.
No. Absolutely not. This was all wrong. It was only a few hours ago that Cato had been doing this same exact thing to someone who most definitely wasn't Clove. This couldn't happen. Gathering up all the strength in her body, she pushed him backwards.
He smirked. "Now look me in the eyes and tell me that you felt nothing."
A part of her wished that the two of them had never hooked up in the first place. That they could just be best friends like before for the rest of eternity, and she could go back to dating Marvel, and Cato could go back to being a typical Beverly Hills' man whore, and everything would be just as perfect as it was for the first month and a half that she'd been back from boarding school.
She folded her arms across her chest, staring directly into his piercing blue eyes without faltering. "I felt nothing," she lied. "I'm done."
Clove ditched school for the rest of the day, deciding to go running along the beach after a short nap instead. Running always filled her with a certain peace and comfort, even in the most difficult times.
Her long, dark brown hair was tied up in a messy bun, and she'd changed into a black sports bra and spandex shorts with her Nike running shoes. She jogged at a constant pace with only a few breaks in an effort to calm herself down, but it was to no avail. Five hours later, a sweaty and disheveled Clove collapsed into the front seat of her car, propping her elbows up on the steering wheel and burying her face in her hands. She was mentally and physically exhausted and painfully alone, but more than anything, she was confused.
Why would Glimmer pick her, of all people, to start a fake rumor about? God forbid that she said it was Cashmere and Finnick or Johanna and Finnick that were hooking up. Cashmere would have adored the attention, and Johanna honestly wouldn't have given a crap.
She sighed. Maybe Glimmer lied earlier about why she'd started the rumor. It wasn't exactly difficult for Clove to believe that Glimmer had done it out of jealousy. But still, Glimmer had been her best friend for years. Why would she throw that all away simply because she was a little envious?
She glanced at the clock in her car. The big black numbers read 3:16, which meant that school had officially ended for the day. Turning the keys in the ignition, Clove took off in the direction of the one person's house that she knew she could talk to about this: Marvel. His two-story modern mansion was only a few miles from the beach, so it was less than a ten-minute drive before she pulled into his driveway, where a white Porsche, black Jeep, and gold Volvo were parked. Needless to say, his family was filthy rich, much like her own and practically everyone else's in Beverly Hills.
Marvel's house had been declared the party house since before Clove could even remember. The Rutherford estate was the very definition of a modern mansion, with multiple rooflines, several floor to ceiling windows, an open floor plan, and a luxurious pool with a waterfall in the backyard.
After making her way up to his glass front doors, she knocked tentatively and smiled politely when she saw Marvel's mom walking towards the door.
"Clove!" his mom, Renee, greeted her with a huge smile. "It's been a while."
"Hey, Mrs. Renee," Clove hugged her quickly.
She really did love Marvel's mom. For one, she was absolutely beautiful, with shoulder length light brown hair and lightly tanned skin that just seemed to glow. Plus, she was one of the sweetest and most genuine people Clove had ever spoken to. Today, she wore a black pantsuit with a gold belt and gold Louboutin pumps, and her makeup was done to perfection. If Clove and Mrs. Renee weren't as close as they were, she would have been entirely embarrassed in her sweaty workout attire.
Mrs. Renee invited her inside kindly, and it was no wonder where Marvel's charisma came from. "So what brings you over to my house?"
Clove replied curiously, "I was wondering if Marvel was home. I just really need to talk to him."
His mother smiled knowingly. "He's in his room, sweetheart. You know your way around."
With a grateful smile to Mrs. Renee, Clove headed in the direction of his room before opening the door tentatively. Marvel glanced up, pulling his headphones out of his ears.
"Hey," he flashed her a friendly smile, patting the spot next to him on his bed, where he lay with his laptop open. "What's up?"
She sat down slowly, causing the bed to shift slightly. With a sigh, she said, "I'm just…lonely. I'm pissed at Glimmer, and Cato's just being…Cato. And I can't really talk to Jo or Kat about any of this because they're friends with Glimmer too, and I shouldn't force them to pick sides, even though they should be on my side, which I think they are, but-"
"Clove," Marvel looked at her with an amused look covering his features. "Slow down. What happened?"
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "No one told you?" He shook his head. "Well, basically, Glimmer ended up being the one who started the rumor about me and Finn, and so I went to leave school all pissed off when Cato showed up trying to apologize but then I may or may not have cursed him out and then he sort of kissed me and I guess I kissed him back but then I pushed him away and then I left and napped and went jogging and now I'm here."
Marvel raised his eyebrows. "Wait, what?"
"I know," Clove sighed. "I just needed to talk to someone about it all."
Marvel smiled. "So why me?"
Clove shrugged. "I dunno. You're just nice and I know you won't judge me and you're really easy to talk to."
"Well, thanks, I guess," he laughed. "So anyways, what do you want to do to get your mind off things? We could go swimming or watch a movie or play a game. Whatever you want."
She thought for a moment before smiling mischievously. "Can we watch Crazy Stupid Love?"
He groaned. "You've seen that like a thousand times."
"Only seven times, thank you very much," she rolled her eyes playfully. "Pleeaassseeee?"
He rolled his eyes dramatically, "Fine."
Two hours later, they were lying on his couch watching the scene where Ryan Gosling tries to seduce Emma Stone at his house when Clove exclaimed, "He's so sexy!"
Marvel shook his head with a laugh, and Clove lifted her head off his shoulder, looking up at him with a smirk. They made eye contact, and from there, things seemed to move in slow motion. Marvel mischievously glanced at her lips, and she raised an eyebrow at him teasingly. Slowly, the space between them got smaller and smaller until their lips were pressed against one another's and the gap was nonexistent. He smirked into the kiss, and she smiled contentedly. Climbing on top of her, he pulled of his shirt and she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist. The kiss deepened, and his fingers tugged at the bottom of her sports bra hungrily.
"Oh God, not on my couch." Clove's heart practically skipped a beat at the voice coming from behind them, and Marvel climbed off of her clumsily and quickly.
"Umm, hi mom," he said awkwardly, and Clove pulled the blanket over herself, suddenly feeling way more exposed than she had earlier, despite the fact that she was wearing the exact same attire. Her cheeks were flushed, and her heartbeat raced.
Mrs. Renee laughed with a shake of her head before making her way into the kitchen, mumbling, "Teenagers."
"Soooo." An embarrassed Clove glanced over at him, and they erupted into laughter simultaneously.
"Yeah. That was, umm, fun," he smirked.
She stood up from the couch, cracking her back and her neck loudly before biting her lip. "Let's do it again sometime."
With that, she left his house hurriedly, hoping to avoid another awkward run-in with his mom. Climbing into the front seat of her car, she groaned. Great, just great. She'd gone over to Marvel's house to clear her mind and relax, and what did she do instead? She hooked up with the guy. And here she thought she was confused before.
Why did she hook up with him anyway? She was almost entirely positive that any and all romantic emotions towards him died when she found out that he slept with Glimmer. Maybe she'd done it subconsciously to get back at Cato. But it just didn't make sense. Why Marvel, the one person she'd sworn to never be with again? As she pulled out of the driveway and onto the perfectly paved streets of Beverly Hills, she struggled to push all thoughts of Marvel and Cato and Glimmer out of her head.
She wasn't ready to go home, where her mom would act all fake nice and Eleanora would be clueless as ever. But where else was she to go? She sped past mansion after mansion in an unknown direction, wishing she could talk to her dad, who was God-knows-where with God-knows-who. Tears blurred her vision as the setting sun painted the sky an array of pinks and purples. Music blared through her car speakers, and she was going a good thirty miles over the speed limit when a yellow traffic light changed to red.
Slamming on the accelerator, she was halfway through the light when two bright headlights appeared suddenly in her peripheral vision and the frantic sound of a horn honking drained out her loud music. A forceful impact caused pain to shoot throughout her body, and she let out a terrified scream before squeezing her eyes shut. The car was still moving - spinning, she thought - but her hands were clenched into fists. The spinning sensation stooped. And then, there was silence.
AN:
Are you proud of me? It hasn't even been two weeks since I posted the last chapter & I'm already updating again! So yes, Cato is remorseful and Clove is pissed off and Glimmer is clueless and Marvel is acting like a teenage boy. Typical.
Now if you couldn't tell, I used the description of Marvel's house as foreshadowing to an upcoming party that he will be throwing. And I think we all know that nothing good ever happens at parties :P muahahahahha.
Anyways, I hope all of you have a very happy and blessed New Year filled with love, kindness, forgiveness, and hope. Speaking of hope, I am hoping that I can update within the next few weeks. However, school is starting up again soon and my schedule is going to be crazy busy over the next few months. Lucky for you guys, I have a pretty good idea as to what is going to be happening over the next few chapters, so it shouldn't be too hard for me to put it into words!
Please review & favorite & follow. The reviews you guys leave me never cease to put a smile on my face :D
~xoxo~