Thanks a million to ClovelyLittleReader (thank you, thank you :P), Hannie597 (I agree, Glimmer should definitely fall down some stairs!), clovelycato555 (of course Jo & Kat are going to be on Clove's side. What do you think I am, a monster? :D), loopid (yes, yes, & yes! Thanks so much!), Guest (there will most definitely be revenge!), kelster07 (Haha!), Guest (something like that will definitely be happening, don't worry!), Guest (jealous Cato is my favorite Cato), jesshungergamesfanficlover (here's more :P), Bethany (here's the update you requested :P), & Guest (here is more!) for their fab reviews.
As her eyes fluttered open, Clove immediately winced at the dulled but still there pain in her left hip. The last thing she remembered was being wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher before one of the nurses said something about surgery and jabbed her in the arm with a shot.
The scent of anesthetics filled the cool air, and she glanced around her hospital room tentatively. Cato sat in a large, lime green chair in the corner of the room, his elbows propped on his knees as he stared blankly at the ground. A nervous Marvel paced back and forth by the door, and her mom was asleep on the stiff-looking couch by the window.
"What's going on?" Clove asked in a hoarse voice.
Cato lifted his head, relief flooding his features when he saw that Clove was awake and functioning normally. "Thank God you're okay," he let out a shaky breath. There were dark circles under his eyes; he looked exhausted. "How's your hip? Can I get you anything? Water, something to eat, anything?"
The corners of Clove's mouth turned upward into a smile. "I'm fine, but thanks."
Across the room, Marvel squared his shoulders and narrowed his eyes slightly at Cato. Walking over to the hospital bed, he leaned down and pressed a lingering, territorial kiss to Clove's lips. Cato visibly tensed from his spot in the corner, and Clove, noticing this in her peripheral vision, resisted the urge to smirk. She'd almost forgotten about her eternally screwed up love life.
Cato cleared his throat awkwardly and she looked over at him innocently, thoroughly enjoying the look of perplexity on his annoyingly attractive, defined features. He furrowed his eyebrows, "Are you two, like, together now?"
Clove grabbed Marvel's hand, lacing their fingers together. She nodded, and Marvel smiled down at her, too in love to realize that Clove wanted nothing more than to use the rekindling of their relationship to make Cato jealous.
"Oh," Cato's voice was unusually calm. "I see."
"So what's wrong with my hip?" Clove changed the subject.
The look of confusion on Cato's face was quickly replaced once again with concern. "Why? Does it hurt? Should I get the doctor to give you some more painkillers?"
She laughed. "I just want to know what happened to it."
Right then, a man in a long white jacket with a stethoscope around his neck stepped inside the hospital room. "Hi Clove. How are you feeling?"
"I've been better," she said flatly, raising her eyebrows with a shrug. "What's wrong with me?"
"Well, Clove, you're very lucky. While you could have suffered multiple severe injuries, your worst injury is a posterior hip dislocation, which we've already fixed partially. As soon as you got in, successful closed reduction surgery was performed. However, the next couple of months are going to be difficult, between physical therapy and adjusting to walking on crutches."
Well, shit. According to this guy, she was going to be out of volleyball for practically the entire season, which basically screwed up any and all chances that she had of getting captain next year. She scrunched up her nose as she peered around the plain, boring hospital room with disdain. "When will I be able to get out of here?"
"Hopefully by the end of next week. We just need to monitor you for a few days because of the surgery. Plus, you won't be able to walk, even with the crutches, for three or four days at the very least."
She groaned. Damn Cato and Marvel and their dumb lips that kept kissing her and distracting her from driving. A fluttering feeling snuck into her abdomen at the memory of she and Cato at school earlier, pressed up against her car, their lips desperately exploring one another's bare skin.
Ugh. She truly disgusted herself. The only way to get better at kissing was practice, and Cato was a master at it. She was no good for him; he was no good for her. And that was the way it was always supposed to be. End of story.
Besides, she could learn to love Marvel. He was smart, and funny, and simply…good.
But perhaps she didn't want to be with someone who was good. Maybe what Clove really needed was someone who was completely and utterly bad. Someone who made shitty decisions and did horrible things but didn't think twice about it. Someone like Cato.
Sure enough, the damned nurses kept her trapped in the hospital until Friday of the next week. Friday, as in a whole nine days since she'd gotten in the wreck, since she'd hooked up with Marvel, and since she'd ended her lifelong friendship with Glimmer.
And, of course, even in the hospital, the past nine days had been far from peaceful. For starters, Cato, whose presence did nothing but mess with her head, had insisted on waiting on her hand and foot whenever he didn't have to be at school or football practice. And because Cato refused to leave her side, Marvel was also there almost all the time, just to make sure Cato wouldn't try anything on her. Then again, she wasn't exactly complaining about having two of the hottest guys in Beverly Hills at her constant beck and call for over a week.
Johanna and Katniss had stopped by three or four times too, always bearing gifts. One time they'd brought her two large fries from McDonald's. Another time they showed up with homemade brownies and a fluffy white teddy bear that was twice her size.
Even Finnick and Peeta stopped by a couple times, although the only thing they ever brought her was the joy of watching the nurses and doctors roll their eyes and grumble at the two boys' stupidity.
Glimmer had visited once, the day after the accident, and it had been nothing short of awkward. As much as Clove wanted to forgive her for everything, she simply couldn't bring herself to do it. With Cato and Marvel there as a constant reminder of what Glimmer's dumb rumor had caused, it was almost impossible to have any sympathy for the girl she'd once called her best friend.
Anyway, the nurses were finally releasing her from their care, and she had never been more eager to go home than she was at that moment. The first football game of the season was that night, but her mom refused to let her go, and with good reason. Bleachers and crutches weren't exactly the best combination. However, Marvel was throwing a welcome back party after the game in Clove's honor, so her mom had to let her go.
As she limped out of the hospital, using her crutches for support, her mom exhaled loudly. "Thank God you're out of there. I hate hospitals."
It was a sad attempt at making small talk, but she wasn't complaining. She and her mom hadn't had a normal conversation since Clove caught her in bed with Mr. Montgomery a few weeks ago. "Me too."
"Are you excited for the party tonight?"
"Yeah. I feel like I haven't seen most of my friends in a lifetime."
"There won't be any excessive alcohol consumption, right?"
Clove resisted the strong urge to scoff. As if she would actually tell her mom that. Actually though, Clove would bet her life that, even if she said yes, her mom wouldn't give a damn. She only pretended to care. That was all her mom ever did anymore. She pretended. She pretended to love Mr. Montgomery, she pretended to care about Clove, and she pretended that her ridiculously screwed up life was picture perfect. "No, mom. Marvel is throwing it."
That was another awesome thing about Marvel. The parents and the teachers all adored him. As far as they were concerned, he was infallible and 100% harmless. Sure, Marvel was nowhere near as far gone as most of them, but he still participated in all of messed up crap that the rest of them did.
"True," her mom laughed, and Clove glanced at the woman next to her. Her mom really was beautiful. Once upon a time, she even used to be a model.
"Mom?" Clove said with curiosity lacing her tone.
"Yeah?"
"Do you miss dad?" She said it before she could make the decision not to and held her breath as she waited for a reply.
Her mom paused, taken aback by the question. It was silent for a moment or two before she raised her eyebrows and shrugged the slightest bit. "Sometimes, yes. I did love him once, you know?"
Clove sighed, running her fingers through her tangled brown ponytail. "But you don't love him anymore," she said matter-of-factly.
With a shake of her head, her mom said, "That's not true, Clove. Obviously I don't love him in the same way that I did when we were young and crazy and hopelessly in love, but I'd like to think that each of us will always hold a special place in one another's hearts."
"Okay," Clove said. That was probably the best she was going to get, for now at least. They loved each other, but they weren't in love.
The more she thought about it, the more she thought of Marvel and how she loved him. She loved Marvel because he was always there for her, even if it was three in the morning on a school night. He was friends with everyone, and the two of them always had an amazing time when they hung out. But was that enough for a romantic relationship? Was she really in love with him?
It wasn't like that, however, with Cato. She loved Cato because he made her want to try new things and explore new places. He was like a breath of fresh air in a town where almost everyone lived in stereotypical houses living stereotypical lives. He didn't have his future planned out to a T like Marvel and Katniss and Johanna and even Clove herself. He lived in the moment, treating every day like it was his last. But the good didn't necessarily outweigh all of the bad that came with Cato. He sucked at expressing his feelings, and he acted like a complete and utter asshole about 90% of the time. And not to mention he'd slept with roughly half of the teenage girls in Beverly Hills.
She sighed.
Clove started up the path to Marvel's front doors on her crutches with Johanna on one side and Katniss on the other. She wore a deep V-neck red romper with long sleeves. Her dark brown hair was tied into a messy bun, her makeup done to perfection, complete with a flawless brown smokey eye and scarlet lipstick.
Inside Marvel's house, the party was already in full swing, with an M.I.A song blaring through the surround sound speakers and two hundred of the most popular students at Panem Prep dancing along to the music with plastic red cups in their hands. The Panem Prep football team had managed to pull out a 24-21 win against their long-time rivals, Hidden Hills Academy, in the last forty-five seconds. It sounded like it had been an awesome game, and Clove was beyond pissed that she hadn't been able to go.
"Clove, Johanna, Katniss," Marvel waved them over from his spot on the white couch in his living room. The same couch that they had been hooking up on just last week, if she remembered correctly.
She limped over to the sofa, where Marvel, Cato, Finnick, and Peeta were all seated proudly in their dirty jerseys. Gently, Marvel pulled Clove onto his lap before pecking her on the lips. "How's your hip?" he said into her ear, just loud enough for her to hear him over the music.
Normally, she would have pulled away in disgust, considering that he smelt of sweat and dirt, but she could feel Cato's gaze on them, practically daring her to stay seated on his lap regardless of how repulsive he smelt at the moment.
She shrugged and leaned back into him. "It's alright, I guess."
"We missed you at the game, Carlton," Finnick winked at her before something behind her caught his attention, causing the slightest hint of a smile to sneak onto his face. Clove followed his gaze, which just so happened to be fixed on Annie, who stood across the room with a red cup pressed to her lips.
"Finn," Clove rolled her eyes and leaned over to Finnick, whispering in his ear, "You're practically undressing her with your eyes."
Before Finnick could reply, Annie came bouncing over to them with a huge smile on her face. She looked cute in high-waisted denim shorts, a loose-fitting light pink tank top, and an oversized gray cardigan. "Hi Clove!" she chirped before glancing at Finnick. "Hey Finn," she smiled as her cheeks turned a light shade of pink on instinct.
"Annie," Finnick nodded in her direction and licked his lips.
Cato growled. "Dude. She's my little sister."
Annie rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Stop trying to babysit me, Cato. I can take care of myself."
"Can you?" he raised his eyebrows, unconvinced, before looking at Finnick. "If you so much as touch her," he narrowed his eyes, "I will beat you to a pulp."
Holding up his hands in mock surrender, Finnick looked at Annie and said jokingly, "You better not let me lay a finger on you, unless you want to see me beaten to a pulp."
She rolled her eyes and giggled. "Whatever you say."
Cato, unable to watch his baby sister and best friend flirt shamelessly any longer, stood up from the couch and headed in the direction of the bar, grumbling something about needing a drink.
"Care to dance?" Annie held out her hand to Finnick, and he took it graciously before kissing her palm and heading into the mass of people across the room.
Clove shared a knowing look with Johanna, who had squeezed onto the couch next to Peeta. "They totally love each other," Clove mouthed.
"Definitely," Johanna mouthed back with a nod.
"So Clove," Marvel whispered into her ear. His hot breath tickled her neck, causing a shiver to run straight up her spine. "I've missed you."
Slowly, he traced a finger up and down her side, and she let her eyes drift closed with a sigh. "I've missed you too."
He pulled her closer so that she was straddling him, and it would've hurt like hell if the doctor didn't have her practically high on painkillers. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she inspected the rest of the party. On impulse, her eyes were drawn to Cato, with his tousled blonde hair and tight-ass football pants. She stared shamelessly, but her joy was short-lived when she noticed a certain blonde who had her hands all over him. Cashmere Montgomery, to be exact.
What the hell? He'd spent every breathing moment with Clove for the last week and a half, and now she's finally out of the hospital and he decides to start flirting with her almost stepsister, who just so happens to hate her guts? Why had she ever gone out with such an asshole in the first place?
In the back of her mind, she knew exactly why she had dated him – because he intrigued her, and even more than that, he was damn sexy. But she had to get over that now. He was clearly moving on (with Cashmere…gag), and she should too.
She reverted her attention back to Marvel and planted a lingering kiss to his lips. Pushing all thoughts of Cato and Cashmere from her head, she deepened the kiss and tangled her flawlessly manicured hands in his hair. It was a twisted but surprisingly effective method of forgetting about all the screwed up things in her life.
Against her better judgment, she let her eyes drift back open and wander over to the corner, where Cashmere had her lips pressed to Cato's. It shouldn't have pissed her off, considering that she was literally in the middle of a make out session with Marvel, but it did. She climbed off his lap swiftly before grabbing his hand and tugging him in the direction of his room with a mischievous smirk. She was walking on crutches, which made things infinitely less sexy, but she refused to let it stop her. Johanna's disapproving gaze burned a hole through her back, and she chose to ignore it.
Right before rounding the corner of the hallway, however, she caught Cato's eye, and he raised his eyebrows at her. On any other occasion, it would have made her feel guilty as hell, but right then, only seconds after he had been kissing her evil soon-to-be stepsister, she couldn't have cared less.
Clove awoke to the bright morning sun streaming through a crack in the gray curtains in Marvel's room, and a sinking feeling quickly replaced her morning disorientation as she recalled the events of the night before. She and Marvel had gone all the way, and she didn't have a single drop of alcohol to blame it on this time. No, she'd done this out of pure hatred for Cato and Cashmere. No alcohol had been necessary.
The irresistible scent of freshly cooked bacon lured Clove out of bed, and she pulled on her wrinkly red romper, which had been ungracefully discarded in a ball on the floor last night in the heat of the moment.
On her crutches, she limped into the kitchen, where Marvel was leaning over a plate of hot, crispy bacon. She grabbed a piece of Heaven, aka bacon, off the plate happily, and Marvel could swear that he saw stars in her eyes. Clove peered around his empty house silently. She noticed that the help had already cleaned up any mess that had been made last night – yet another one of the many perks of living in Beverly Hills.
"Good morning, beautiful," Marvel kissed her tenderly on the lips, and the guilty feeling that she'd been lacking last night finally made an appearance in her gut. In Marvel's mind, he and Clove were doing perfectly fine. As far as he was concerned, she was entirely and completely over Cato, but damn was he wrong. Not that she'd ever admit that, of course.
"Morning, babe," she occupied herself by continuously shoving pieces of bacon in her mouth. She couldn't help it. She had a soft spot for the stuff.
"Did you sleep well?"
She nodded in reply as she stared at the pool in his backyard absentmindedly. She'd really fucked things up this time. Marvel had fallen head over heels in love with her sometime over the last 24 hours, but she was still annoyingly stuck on Cato.
The same Cato who had been making out with her almost-stepsister less than 12 hours ago.
The same Cato who was making Clove look uncharacteristically lame because he'd moved on far sooner than she had.
The same Cato whom she just couldn't seem to shake, regardless of all the shitty things he did to her.
"Last night was amazing," Marvel wrapped an arm around her waist gently, careful not to press too hard against her injured hip. He was everything a girl could wish for in a guy – smart, athletic, funny, attractive – so why wasn't Clove content with him?
Because his eyes weren't blue and familiar when she looked into them, and his hair wasn't blonde and tousled when he woke up in the morning. He wasn't flawed. He didn't have nearly as many as problems as the rest of the kids raised in Beverly Hills. No, he was an all-around perfect guy, and where was the fun in that?
"I should get home," she said finally.
"So soon?" he asked.
Damn, he was getting clingy.
"Yeah," she sighed. "My mom is probably waiting on me. We're going out to lunch today. She said she had something to tell me. Plus, I'm gonna need to take some more painkillers before these wear off."
"Okay," he slumped a little.
"Sorry," she offered.
"I forgive you," he smiled, gazing into her eyes.
She pecked him on the lips and retrieved her car keys from the counter. Thankfully, her mom had taken the liberty of replacing Clove's totaled Mercedes with a beautiful, brand new white Bugatti. She'd loved her Mercedes, but she absolutely, without a doubt adored this new Bugatti.
"Adios," she called as she strolled out of his house.
It was a beautiful day, and she was unusually happy. There was a slight breeze blowing in the wind, and the sun was shining high overhead, not a cloud in sight. Plus, she was actually excited to be going out to lunch with her mom and hear whatever this "big news" was.
Maybe they were finally adopting a cute little Siberian husky puppy. Or perhaps they were building an indoor pool…she'd always wanted one of those. Or maybe they were buying another beach house in Malibu. The possibilities were endless.
After getting lost in her daydreams for basically the entire ride home, Clove slid out of the front seat and made her way up to the front door. As she stepped inside, she bumped into something large and hard.
"Fuck," she mumbled under her breath before she glanced up to lock eyes with none other than Cato Astoria. "What the hell are you doing in my house?"
"Nice outfit," he retorted. "Though it does look a lot like the one you were wearing just last night."
She rolled her eyes dramatically, and it was only then that she spotted an annoyingly familiar blonde standing a few feet behind him.
"Cashmere?" she furrowed her eyebrows. "Why are you here?"
Cashmere feigned innocence. "What do you mean?"
Clove folded her arms across her chest. "Cut the crap. I mean why the hell are you in my house?"
Cato took Clove's moment of confusion as the perfect opportunity to sneak out, and sure enough, she barely even noticed that he was gone. She was too busy putting the puzzle pieces together in her head to worry about Cato.
"Your mom didn't tell you?" Cashmere asked, though it was more of a statement than a question. She knew damn good and well that Clove thought she was coming home to a house where the only other resident was her mom. "Gloss, my dad, and I moved in while you were in the hospital. Your mom said she was getting lonely."
Clove pursed her lips. "Oh, was she now?"
"Uh huh." Cashmere's true colors started to come through as a victorious smirk played on her lips. "So how's it feel?"
Clove rolled her eyes, not in the mood to be making small talk with Cashmere. "How's what feel?"
"To have everything you love taken away from you?" Cashmere started. "I moved into your house, slept with your ex, who by the way is stellar in bed, though I'm sure you already know that…how much longer until your friends start worshipping at my feet instead of yours?"
Clove knew she shouldn't let Cashmere get to her, but everything the bitch was saying was true. Sleeping with Cato certainly wasn't that big of a deal (at least half of the girls at school had done it), but it still bothered her. And maybe it shouldn't have, given that she herself had woken up in another guy's bed this morning, but it did.
Ignoring Cashmere, Clove turned around and walked right back out of the door. She was headed in the direction of her car, but she stopped halfway there and decided to confront Cato instead.
"Hey asshole," she called to him. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
He raised his eyebrows. "What?"
She came to a stop next to his car and folded her arms across her chest. "You know Cashmere probably thinks you two are like engaged or something after last night?"
He smiled egotistically. "She seemed pretty chill with the whole friends with benefits thing actually. We even messed around a little this morning."
Clove clenched her fists. So while she'd been devouring an entire plate of bacon, he was busy hooking up with Cashmere. Lovely. "Why did you stay with me the whole time I was at the hospital?" she blurted out.
"Cause I care about you," he shrugged.
"Don't give me that crap, Cato. If you gave a flying fuck about me, you wouldn't have been screwing around with Cashmere last night."
"Oh, I get it," he started. "You're the only one who can sleep around, right?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" she rolled her eyes.
"Marvel," he said simply. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you did him last night."
"So what if I did? I've been with a total of two guys in my entire life, and that's you and Marvel. You, however, have slept with half the class, and then some."
"Yeah, right," Cato scoffed. "You were pretty wild when you got shipped off to boarding school, and I know that those traits don't just disappear. Am I really supposed to believe that you stayed a virgin for your whole two years there?"
"Yes!" she protested. "I did a lot of things with a lot of people at boarding school, but I stopped myself before we did anything that I knew I'd regret. Unlike some people, I had this thing called self control."
"So I was your first?" he said incredulously.
"Yes."
"Wow," he tilted his head to the side. "You seemed…experienced."
"Well…I wasn't," she looked at the ground.
There was a long pause before he finally said, "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have slept with Cashmere."
"No," she shook her head. "You shouldn't have."
"I just…I don't wanna fight with you anymore, Clove. We used to be so close, before all of this dumb relationship shit started happening."
She sighed. "Is it even possible for us to be friends again?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "We can always try."
"Wanna start by going to see a movie?" she offered. "Insidious Chapter 2 came out while I was in the hospital, and I've been dying to see it."
He motioned to the passenger seat casually. "Hop in."
AN: Hi there. A lot has happened in the two months that I've been writing (& rewriting) this chapter: Bieber got arrested, Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show, and Blurred Lines finally stopped playing on the radio. In all seriousness though, I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. And yes I am aware of how boring and uneventful this chapter was, but you should still review to make me happy :)))
& also, what do you think should happen at the movies? I have absolutely no idea what I'm planning on putting in this next chapter, so I desperately need your reviews & ideas as inspiration :D
~xoxo~