Thanks so much to Bookfanic {thank you!}, Victoria-Hunter-Of-Artemis {thanks :D}, BamSQUARED {I do toooo}, {thank u thank u}, Anna {something like that will def be happening :P}, Guest {thank you so much! I updated:P}, Guest {thanks!}, Guest {let it be known that this is the review that inspired me to write the beginning of this chapter}, Clovelyshannonigans {March 4, 2014: I get called perfect by someone other than my mum:P}, Guest {yay:P}, and demigodclovelytwiheart {here's more3} for their fantabulous reviews. You guys have no idea how inspired I get every time I check my email & see a new review on here :)
The movie was just starting as Clove strolled into the movie theater on her crutches, followed closely by Cato, who held a large popcorn in one hand and a large coke in the other. A group of freshmen sitting near the middle of the theater slipped out their cell phones and not so subtly began to snap pictures of Clove and Cato together for their irrelevant tween gossip blogs. Clove looked the other way with a roll of her eyes; she was used to it by now. Ever since their little hookup this summer, she and Cato hadn't been able to go anywhere alone together without receiving a multitude of knowing stares. It was pathetic, really.
Silently, they settled into their seats on the top row, and Clove could see the little freshmen tapping away at their phone screens a few rows below. Every now and then, one or two of them would turn around and peek at Clove and Cato, just to see if they were doing anything juicy, which (obviously) they weren't.
Clove nudged him with her elbow and pointed to the underclassmen below them with a shake of her head. "They've got to have something better to gossip about than us coming to see Insidious Chapter 2 together," she ranted quietly.
Cato smirked, a mischievous glint in his eyes. His voice was husky when he whispered, "Why don't we give them something interesting to talk about then?"
A chill ran down her spine at his flirty tone of voice as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders with a chuckle. She knew damn good and well that she should've stopped him, considering that she was still very much in a relationship with Marvel, but she just couldn't bring herself to tell him no. All they were doing was having a little bit of fun, after all. It meant nothing.
Resting her head on his shoulder, she averted her attention to the movie screen, where the main character was currently being interrogated about some lady's death. Clove let out a small sigh. What on earth had possessed her to want to see this movie? She literally peed on herself while watching the first Insidious, and she'd heard that Chapter 2 was even worse than the first.
"You can hold my hand if you get scared," she heard Cato say in a teasing tone.
Elbowing him in the side with a huff, she tried her best not to act like a petrified little child. "Shut up," she grumbled. "It's not even that scary."
"Yeah, okay," he said sarcastically.
"Have I ever told you how much I hate you?" she muttered.
"You may've mentioned it once or twice," he said, and she didn't even have to see his face to know that there was an amused smile plastered across it.
"Just watch the movie," she mumbled. He never ceased to piss her off, yet she couldn't seem to stop herself from loving him – just as a friend, of course…or at least that's what she kept telling herself.
If she said it enough, it might actually become true.
"Oh…my…god…"
The final credits began to roll down the screen, but Clove remained unmoving in her seat, eyes wide as she stared straight ahead in disbelief. A cliffhanger. The movie had ended in a fucking cliffhanger, and God knew there was nothing in this world that she hated more than cliffhangers. Now she had no choice but to go see the third part, which most likely wouldn't be in theaters for over a year anyway. Damn movie producers and their twisted moneymaking tactics.
A confused Cato poked her arm multiple times, to no avail. "Clove? Clove, are you in there? Cloovveee?"
"What?" she finally snapped, turning to him sharply with an annoyed look on her face.
"It's over," he stated simply.
"Gee, thank you Mr. Einstein. I couldn't tell. It's not like the credits are rolling or anything," she said sarcastically as she stood up from her seat. She arched her back, lifting her arms high above her head as she stretched out her stiff body.
"The bitchiness just comes naturally to you, doesn't it?"
"What can I say?" she smirked. "I'm a natural."
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone. There were two missed calls from her mom and a text from Marvel that read:
Lunch date with your mom, huh?
Attached was a picture of she and Cato in the theater. Cato had his arm wrapped around her, and she was resting her head contentedly on his shoulder. They looked like…a couple.
Well, shit. Obviously, it wasn't what it looked like, but how was she supposed to explain that to Marvel, who had every reason not to trust Cato?
"What's wrong?" Cato asked, noticing a conflicted expression on Clove's face.
"Marvel," she replied honestly. "I was supposed to go out to lunch with my mom today, but I blew her off because I'm pissed that she didn't even bother to tell me that Cashmere and her dumbass brother and father moved in while I was in the hospital. And now Marvel saw a picture of us here and he thinks I lied to him this morning when I said I had to leave because I was going out to lunch with my mom."
"So what's the problem? Just tell him you blew off your mom?"
Clove rolled her eyes and sighed. "It's not that simple. You know he doesn't trust us together."
"So what?" Cato said. "If he really loves you, he'll trust that you're telling him the truth."
Clove ignored him, instead occupying herself by chewing on her fingernails. "How could I not have foreseen this? Gosh, I'm such an idiot."
"Hey," Cato grabbed her hand. "You're not an idiot. You were smart enough to walk away from me, after all."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
Cato shook his head. "You really love him, don't you?"
"I do," she answered without hesitation, and she could've sworn that she saw a glint of disappointment in Cato's eyes for less than a split second.
The real question, however, wasn't if she loved Marvel…it was how she loved him. For the umpteenth time that month, she thought about whether her love for Marvel was simply as a friend, or if it was more. She desperately wanted to love him romantically, but in the end, there was no use in lying to herself.
She was still in love with Cato, and there was no denying it.
Monday morning finally rolled around, and Clove's alarm went off bright and early for the first time in weeks. She groaned inwardly, slamming her hand down on the snooze button for the third time that morning.
"5 more minutes," she reassured herself as she curled back up under the covers. But five minutes turned into forty-five, and soon enough, she was rushing around her room frantically as she tried to get ready as quickly as possible. She was finally healed enough to walk around without the demon crutches, at least, so that sped things up a tiny bit.
She analyzed herself in the mirror. Her hair was too tangled and unkempt to be curled or straightened in less than fifteen minutes; today would have to be a braid day. She tied her hair into a messy side French braid and splattered on a minimal amount of makeup – foundation, mascara, blush, and lip-gloss. After slipping on her school uniform, she rushed down the stairs. "Rushed" being used extremely lightly, considering she still wasn't fully healed and had been awake and alert for less than five minutes.
"Good morning, Miss Clove," Eleanora handed Clove her breakfast of two pieces of toast and an ice coffee as she hurried out the front door towards her Bugatti, designer book bag slung over her shoulder casually.
As usual, it was a beautiful day in Beverly Hills, with the sun shining brightly overhead and a cool breeze blowing through the warm air. Clove smiled; she could live in this weather year round and be entirely content.
The shrill ringing of her cell phone interrupted her daydreams. "Hello?" she answered the phone cheerily.
"Hey." It was Katniss. "Where are you?"
"On my way," she yawned.
"Good," Katniss replied. "Oh, and Johanna says we need to have a sleepover pronto."
"For some weird reason," Clove heard Johanna say into the phone, "I actually miss you."
"Ha ha," Clove smiled. "I'll be at school soon. See you."
"Bye!" Johanna and Katniss chorused, and then the line went dead.
Johanna was right…a sleepover was way overdue. The only sleepover Clove had had recently was watching late night Disney Channel at the hospital with her mom. Turn up.
It took less than five minutes for Clove to find a parking spot and make her way up the steps towards her friends. "I'm back," she smiled as she plopped down next to Johanna, purposely avoiding both Cato and Marvel. After ignoring Marvel all weekend, the last thing she wanted was to make things worse by choosing to sit next to Cato.
"Clove?" Marvel looked at her expectantly. "Can we talk?"
She sighed and secretly hoped that the bell would ring soon so that their conversation could be cut short. "Sure."
They moved a few yards away from the rest of their group before Marvel raised his eyebrows and said, "What the hell?"
"Good morning to you too," she said sarcastically.
"I'm serious, Clove." His lips were turned down in a frown, and there were bags under his eyes, suggesting that he hadn't gotten much sleep lately. "Why have you been ignoring me all weekend?"
All she really wanted to do was stare down at the ground guiltily and never have to finish the conversation, but she could feel the eyes of nearly half the student body on she and Marvel. So she looked him right in the eye, knowing that she couldn't appear weak, because a good queen bee would never seem weak, and with a nonchalant shrug she replied, "I've been busy."
"Busy with what? Or better yet, with who?" he scowled, deliberately glancing at Cato.
"We decided to give the whole friendship thing another shot," she rolled her eyes. "Is that really that hard to believe?"
"Yes!" His eyes bore into hers, begging for the truth. "It's extremely hard to believe, given the history between you two."
"Why can't you trust me? We're just friends."
The high-pitched bell that marked the beginning of the school day rang out loudly across the Panem Prep campus, but no one dared to move an inch.
"You wanna know why I can't trust you?" Marvel said, shaking his head. "Because, take it from me, you can't be just friends with a person you were once in love with."
"We were," she pointed out. "While I was dating Cato, you and I hung out all the time just as friends."
"No," he shook his head, "we didn't. I never stopped loving you, Clove. Every time we hung out as just friends, it took me all of my might not to kiss you. Every single fucking time…"
Wait, what did he just say? "I-I've gotta get to class," she suddenly stuttered.
All of the bystanders scattered off towards their classes, but Clove couldn't seem to move. She was in a state of pure shock from Marvel's little confession. How could he have loved her all that time and just kept it bottled up inside?
"Clove, wait," he grabbed her hand as she finally turned to leave. The majority of the eavesdropping peasants had scampered off to their first periods, leaving just Marvel, Clove, and a few stragglers on the steps out front.
Confusion lined her features. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Because you were with Cato," he shook his head. "It wasn't right."
"And you still love me, even now?" she raised her eyebrows. It was hard to believe that anyone loved her anymore. Her mom was too caught up in wedding planning to pay attention to her, and her dad was God knows where with God knows who. And as for her friends…well, Glimmer had clearly forgotten all about their memories together, and Cato was far too busy with football and partying to bother with defining their relationship.
Like it was the most obvious thing in the world, Marvel replied, "Of course I do."
"Promise?" she smiled.
"Pinky," he laughed, gently placing his hands on her hips and pulling her closer. He leaned in to kiss her, and for a millisecond, Clove wondered if things might actually be able to go back to the way they used to be. But then their lips connected, and there was nothing – no jolts of excitement through her body, no craving for more of him, nothing. And the realization that their relationship was as good as dead came crashing down on her. No matter how tightly they clung to the fragments of their love, the spark was gone.
Clove had developed a desire for love that no one but Cato Astoria could satisfy.
The rest of the week flew by in a haze of makeup tests, quizzes, and homework. While she'd done as much work as she possibly could in the hospital, Clove was still miles behind everyone else in her classes, so much so that she swore she could physically feel herself slipping in her ranking. By the time the final bell rang on Friday afternoon, her brain was fried.
Only when school finally disappeared in the distance was she able to breathe a sigh of relief. The amount of mental breakdowns she'd gone through while trying to catch up on all her missed work this week was immeasurable. She desperately needed these next few days to simply relax.
Her stomach grumbled and she piped up from the passenger seat of Johanna's Range Rover, "Can we get McDonalds?"
"Ugh. Absolutely not," Katniss butted in from her spot in the backseat. "Their meat isn't even real."
"I'm not going there for the meat, Katniss," Clove said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "You know their fries are my favorite food on this planet. And after the week I've had, I deserve some goddamn fries from McDonalds."
"Later," Johanna dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "First I need to get out of this dumbass uniform."
Folding her arms across her chest, Clove slumped back in her seat with a huff. "Whatever," she grumbled.
Johanna recklessly turned into the rounded driveway of her house and the three girls filed out of the car, Vera Bradley duffel bags slung over their shoulders. The school week had been a stressful combination of all-nighters and minor anxiety attacks, and the girls couldn't wait to settle into Johanna's movie room and watch romantic comedies all night long.
Pulling out her house keys, Johanna pushed open the front door of her three-story, European style mansion. As usual, no one was home. Jo's parents were workaholics – her mother was a local orthodontist and her father was a politician.
After trekking all the way up to the third floor, where Johanna's room and the entertainment room were, Katniss and Clove dropped their bags in the doorway of the movie room and immediately headed over to the concession counter, which was fully stocked with an array of different flavors of popcorn, candy, and soft drinks.
"Johanna," Clove said as she retrieved a king-sized pack of Reese's and a bag of sour skittles from the counter, "how do you ever leave this room?"
"Retweet," Katniss laughed, collapsing onto the plush lime green sofa that wrapped around the entire movie room with her snacks. "This place is perfect."
Johanna emerged from her room with a bunch of different blankets and pillows and tossed them at Katniss. After popping some popcorn, she plopped down on the couch between Clove and Kat, who were both scrolling down their twitter feeds absent-mindedly.
Clove's phone pinged, and a second later she gasped. "Oh my gosh, you guys are not going to believe this."
"What?" Katniss asked curiously as she shoved a handful of m&m's into her mouth.
"Annie and Finnick hooked up after school today," Clove shared before reading the text message that Annie sent her to Jo and Kat aloud.
"About time!" Katniss hooted.
Jo laughed. "Cato's gonna be so pissed when he finds out."
"Oh, he's gonna be way more than pissed," Katniss said. "He's going to be livid. Remember how protective he got when all Finnick and Annie were doing was flirting?"
"He'll get over it," Clove said.
"Ten dollars says he ends up punching Finn when he finds out," Johanna declared.
"You're on," Clove smirked as she opened a pack of Reese's.
"So are Finn and Annie like, together now? Or was it just a one-time thing?" Katniss asked Clove.
Clove shrugged. "Knowing Annie, I doubt she would've just hooked up with a guy like Finnick before they sat down and defined their relationship."
"Call him and ask," Jo suggested as she started a game of Flappy Bird on her phone.
Clove nodded before finding Finnick's contact and calling the number. He answered on the second ring.
"So I suppose Annie texted you?" Finnick answered the phone with a laugh.
"Hey Finn," Clove laughed. "You're on speaker with me, Jo, and Kat."
"Hello, ladies," Finnick answered, and they could practically hear him smirking through the phone.
"And to answer your question, yes, Annie just texted me," said Clove.
"I hope you know that Cato's gonna kick your ass when he finds out," Katniss interrupted.
"Yeah, I know," Finnick said, but he didn't sound nervous. How the hell was he not nervous? Cato was one of the strongest guys on the football team, and he wouldn't hesitate to beat Finnick to a pulp if he thought he deserved it.
"Shit," Johanna muttered under her breath. "I just lost on Flappy Bird."
"So are you and Annie officially dating now?" Clove asked Finnick.
"I guess so," Finnick said nonchalantly.
"You better not break her heart," Katniss warned.
"Yeah," Clove agreed. "Forget Cato. If you do anything to hurt her, I will personally send the entire student body to burn down your pretty little house."
"I know what I'm getting into with Annie, okay?" he said. "I wouldn't have hooked up with her if I didn't."
"Okay," Clove answered warily. Annie was sort of like the sister she'd never had, and while she wasn't as protective over her as Cato was, she still wouldn't hesitate to open up a can of whoopass on anyone who dared to tamper with her innocent little heart.
"It's been a lovely chat, really, but I've gotta go," Finnick said coolly.
"Adios!" Katniss called into the phone.
"Talk to you soon," Clove said before ending the call.
"So they're really officially together now," Katniss said to no one in particular.
"Somebody better get Cato's reaction on video," Johanna butted in.
Clove laughed. "Literally. No doubt it would get at least a million views on YouTube."
Poor Finnick and Annie. They seemed to really care about each other, but God only knew what Cato was going to pull when he found out about them. Hopefully Clove would be there to warm him up to the idea. After all, the two of them were by far one of the cutest couples Beverly Hills had seen in a while.
"So which movie are we watching first?" Johanna asked before shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
Clove scanned over the huge stack of movies sitting on the end table. There were at least a dozen movies to choose from, including Just Go With It, Easy A, and Silver Linings Playbook.
"I vote Silver Linings Playbook," Clove decided finally.
"Silver Linings Playbook definitely," Katniss agreed. "And can we order some pizza or something? I'm still starving."
"Silver Linings Playbook it is. And sure, I'll go order a few pizzas. Double pepperoni, double cheese?" Johanna double-checked with Kat, though she was almost positive that she was right. Those had been Katniss' preferred toppings since long before Jo could remember. At every single sleepover, birthday party, and holiday party that Katniss had ever thrown, the pizza toppings had been the exact same.
Katniss smiled proudly. "You know me so well."
Clove smiled, although she couldn't quite help feeling like a third-wheel on their friendship in times like these. Johanna and Katniss had a friendship that was almost identical to Clove and Glimmer's, with the only exception being that Jo and Kat weren't in the middle of an age-old civil war. Sometimes Clove even felt a little envious of how close the two girls were, but she would never ever tell them that. Never in her life had they made her feel excluded. Just like she and Glimmer, however, they had inside jokes and memories that no one else could ever completely understand or be a part of. It wasn't their fault that Glimmer had turned out to be a backstabbing bitch, leaving Clove without a best friend.
For a fleeting moment, she wondered if Glimmer ever missed her, but she quickly dismissed the thought. It was highly doubtful that Glimmer even thought about her anymore. Their friendship had gone up in flames the second Glimmer started that dumb rumor, and there was no getting it back.
Three pizzas and two movies later, Clove was scrolling down her Instagram feed inattentively when a picture that Glimmer had posted a few minutes ago caught her eye. She looked flawless, as usual, in a sleeveless black crop top, high waisted gold sequin shorts, and light pink pumps. Her long blonde hair fell in loose waves, her makeup flawless. But it wasn't how Glimmer looked that caught Clove's attention – it was the people who surrounded her. To her right was Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter, and to her left stood Beverly Hills' favorite twins Cashmere and Gloss Montgomery. The caption read, "The Amethyst," which was the name of an exclusive nightclub a few miles away.
"You have to be fucking kidding me," Clove seethed.
"What?" Johanna asked curiously.
Clove showed the picture to Jo and Kat, and both of their jaws dropped simultaneously.
"This has to be some kind of joke!" Katniss exclaimed. "Sure, Glimmer can be a little materialistic and egotistical at times, but Madge, Cashmere, and Gloss? I don't believe it for a second."
Furiously, Clove slammed her phone down on the end table. "I will ruin her," Clove threatened. "Or better yet, I'll ruin all four of them."
"This is fucking bullshit," Johanna ranted.
"How on earth could she go from us, athletic and classy and insanely popular, to them?" Katniss said it as if Madge, Cashmere, and Gloss were from another species.
The three girls spent the next fifteen minutes in a rage, until Clove was suddenly struck with a seemingly brilliant idea. "Call the boys," she ordered with a smirk. "We're going clubbing."
AN: Hiii :) I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to hear that for once, I know the general direction that I'd like to head in with the next chapter. And I'm planning on making it extremely eventful, so be there or be square :P
As always, I'd like to give a big gigantic huge enormous thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, & followed last chapter! I don't think I'll ever be able to express to you guys how much it means to me when I see a new review on here, whether it's two words or two hundred words :)
~xoxo~