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I really appreciate and take to heart each and every one of your reviews, and I'm so grateful that you guys take the time to let me know what you think of my writing! Now please enjoy the very long-awaited Chapter 16!
When the final bell of the day rang on Friday afternoon, Clove hightailed it out of her AP English class, hoping to avoid Marvel and any questions he may have had about why she cheated on him, and more importantly, who with. She was so close to making an escape – maybe ten meters from her car, if that – when she heard her name being called in an all too familiar voice. She groaned internally, turning around reluctantly to see a pissed off Marvel chasing after her.
"Hey," she said awkwardly when he came to a stop in front of her.
"What the hell?" he asked, breathing heavily.
"I have somewhere to be," she lied.
He rolled his eyes. "Bullshit."
"What do you want, Marvel?"
"I want to know who the hell you fucking cheated on me with. Tell me, and I'll leave you alone."
She sighed. "I can't tell you that."
"Why the fuck not?"
"You don't want to know who I cheated on you with, Marvel. You don't. Trust me."
He groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Look, Clove. If the tables were turned and I hooked up with some other girl, you would want to know who she was, right? You would expect me to tell you so that you could go and give her a piece of your mind."
"That's different," Clove insisted, even though she knew damn good and well that it wasn't different at all.
He folded his arms across his chest. "You owe me this, Clove. It doesn't feel very good to be cheated on, and it downright sucks when you don't even know who it was with."
She glared at him. "I'm not proud of what I did, Marvel. I fucking hate myself for it. I hate that I resorted to something so sleazy and selfish, but I did, and that's that. I'm only fucking human."
Marvel shook his head in disbelief. "You don't get it, do you? I don't give a fuck that you cheated on me. I've been in that position before; I understand. It just pisses me off that you don't even have the decency to admit who it was with."
"I'm sorry," she said, her voice cracking involuntarily. "It isn't my place to tell you, Marvel. I want to be your friend. I want to forget that all of this shit ever happened and go back to being best friends."
"Best friends?" he scoffed. "I can barely even speak to you right now, much less be your friend."
Clove's chin wobbled beyond control, but she willed herself not to cry. She was Clove Carlton for God's sake. She didn't cry in front of people, even if that person was one of her closest friends since before she could remember. She needed to pull herself together. "I have to go," she said apologetically, before turning on her heel and walking steadily in the direction of her car. Silent tears trailed down her cheeks, and she wiped them away.
Marvel called after her, regret evident in his voice. He knew, despite her fervent efforts to hide it, that Clove was crying, and he didn't like it when other people cried. He was a comforter, a nurturer. It was second nature for him to calm people down when they were upset, and it was killing him not to be able to comfort Clove right now, regardless of his state of fury.
By the time Clove made it to her car, Marvel was gone from the spot where he had been standing, probably off somewhere punching a wall. She hit the steering wheel in anger, burying her face in her hands. She felt like shit. As much as it sucked to get cheated on, it felt a million times worse to be the one who cheated.
It went without saying that she and Marvel were over for good this time. It was an inevitable breakup, but it still hurt to lose somebody she cared so much about. She was sure that Marvel could only be mad at her for a week at the most, but that week would undoubtedly be hell. Marvel, next to Jo and Kat, was her best friend, and she told him everything. Hell, she already missed him.
Her pity party was interrupted by two hesitant knocks on her windshield, and she glanced up to see Katniss standing next to her car, a concerned look on her face. Clove rolled down the window.
"Marvel and I are over," Clove explained.
"I figured." Katniss sighed. "I'm really sorry."
"It was going to happen sooner or later," Clove admitted.
"Don't let it get you down, Clo. Me, you, Jo, and Annie are going to the football game tonight, and we're going to have a blast. Okay?"
Clove shrugged. "I don't know."
"You're going," Kat insisted. "Even if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming."
Clove cracked a smile. Once Katniss made up her mind about something, there was no telling her otherwise. "Alright. I guess I'll go."
"Damn right you'll go. And you'll look hot as shit and find some hot football player to help you take your mind off things at the after party, okay?"
Clove rolled her eyes. "Don't push it. You're lucky I'm going."
Katniss smiled. "I'm kidding."
Clove laughed. "I know."
Football games were one of Clove's all-time favorite things about fall. The weather was at that perfect temperature of not too hot but not too cold, it was a perfect excuse to dress cute but comfortable at the same time, and the after parties were legendary. What was not to love?
She, Kat, Jo, and Annie claimed their spots in the student section just in time for kickoff. Cato was down on the field, clearly in the zone, waiting to do his thing and kill it. Since he was only a junior this year, he was ineligible to be captain, but he was a shoe-in for it next year. Clove stared at him for a second too long before forcing herself to look away. He was absolutely no good for her, but damn was he nice to look at as he darted down the field, an incredibly sexy look of determination on that nice face of his.
"So whose house is the after party at tonight?" Annie asked, interrupting Clove's daydreams about Cato.
"Gl-" Johanna started to say but hesitated, glancing over at Clove. "I think it's at Gloss's house."
Clove raised her eyebrows skeptically. Surely her ears were deceiving her and Johanna had not just said what she thought she said. The after party couldn't be at Gloss's house, because Gloss's house was also her house, and him throwing a party at her house would solidify his residence there, which Clove was not yet ready to accept. Sure, Gloss and Cashmere had been living in her house for a couple of weeks now, but she'd been doing a pretty decent job at just ignoring their presence so far.
"You're kidding, right?" Annie asked, almost as shocked as Clove was.
Clove shook her head in amazement. "It makes perfect sense. My mom and his dad are out of town for the weekend, so we have the house to ourselves. Ugh, what a bastard. He didn't even warn me."
"Sounds like typical Gloss," Johanna said.
Clove rolled her eyes. "Do you guys understand what it's like to live with him? He's obnoxious. He's snobby. He's the most unsanitary person to ever walk the face of the Earth, and I'm stuck in a house with him. Just let that sink in."
Katniss looked at her empathetically. "Move in with me."
"I wish." Clove let out a sigh as she imagined what it would be like to live in a house with Katniss, Prim, and their mom. It would probably be peaceful…a lot more peaceful than Clove's house, at least. Their mom probably woke up early each morning to cook them breakfast, like Clove planned on doing for her children. Clove bet that their mom did all of the things that her mom didn't…cooked, cleaned, listened, loved.
The roar of the student section snapped Clove out of her daydreams. Cato had just intercepted the ball, and he proceeded to hand it off to Marvel, who expertly managed to run it all the way down the field and then dive into the end zone, scoring a touchdown for Panem Prep. She cheered enthusiastically along with the rest of the student section, pushing all thoughts of Gloss out of her mind.
She would have fun tonight. She had to.
.
The game ended with a sweeping victory in favor of Panem Prep, which was of no surprise to anyone. Clove leaned against the wall by the locker room lazily, waiting for Marvel to come out so that she could talk to him. She knew that they weren't in a very good place at the moment, seeing as they'd broken up only a few hours earlier, but she needed to complain about Gloss and Cashmere to someone other than Johanna, Kat, and Annie, which didn't leave her with many other options.
She scrolled down her Twitter feed aimlessly as football player after football player sauntered out of the locker room in nothing but their jerseys and football pants, en route to the after party at her own house. After a good thirty minutes, Cato finally made his way out of the locker room, and Clove stopped him.
"Is Marvel still in there?"
Cato shook his head. "He took off right after the game ended."
She groaned. "Could you give me a ride to the after party? I let Kat leave me here cause I figured I'd just ride with him."
Cato shrugged. "No problem."
They walked to his car in a tense silence, both of them ignoring the gigantic elephant in the room.
"You know we broke up today?" Clove finally blurted.
"I heard," Cato replied stoically. Clove desperately searched his face for any sign of any emotion, but it was blank. "He was going off about it before the game. Saying how you admitted to cheating on him but wouldn't tell him who with."
"And?"
Cato laughed. "I didn't tell him it was me, if that's what you're asking."
They climbed into his Bentley. "You know, Cato," she stated, "you don't smell as repulsive as usual."
"That's because I just showered, smartass."
"I can tell," she laughed, ruffling his damp hair playfully.
They settled into a comfortable silence as he took off in the direction of her house. She gazed out the window, deep in thought, as they drove past mansion after mansion, each one larger than the last. For a couple minutes, everything felt right in the world, even though things were far from right. She tried to forget that Cashmere and Gloss were still living under the same roof as she, that Glimmer and she still hated each other, and that Marvel was out there trying to solve a mystery that she already knew the answer to. She just focused on the road ahead of her and the lulling sound of the car speeding down the road.
When Cato pulled up at her house, the place was already packed with people. She sighed as he took the keys out of the ignition, opening her car door to step out and go pretend not to hate everyone.
"Wait," he blurted, pulling her back into the car.
"What?" she asked, raising her eyebrows impatiently.
"Are you okay?"
She gave him a weird look. "Why wouldn't I be?"
He shrugged. "You and Marvel were close."
She rolled her dark green eyes, folding her arms across her chest defensively. "Why do you care so much, Cato? Shouldn't you be off fucking some cheerleader or something?"
"Forget I said anything," he said, shrugging.
She sighed. "I'm just stressed out, okay? It's nothing personal."
"Need me to help you get your mind off things?" he asked sarcastically, wiggling his eyebrows.
She cracked a smile. "In your dreams."
He smirked, and she couldn't help but smirk back. She felt like she was in sixth grade again, carelessly flirting with him and inadvertently wrapping him right around her perfectly manicured finger.
"We should go inside," he stated. "People are probably wondering where we are."
"We should," she agreed, nodding.
Neither one of them moved.
Cato smiled at her knowingly. "What do you say we ditch this place and go get some Starbuck's instead?"
"I say that you know me too well," she answered with a smile.
.
Marvel stumbled around the party aimlessly, drunk and lonely and really in the mood to hook up with somebody. The room was spinning, but he grabbed another beer anyway. In all of his sixteen years of life in Beverly Hills, he had only been utterly wasted two times, and that night was the second.
He spotted Johanna in the backyard and made a beeline for her, only bumping into about five people on the way. As soon as Jo saw him, a concerned look came across her face, and he rolled his eyes. People kept looking at him like that tonight. It was like they'd never seen somebody drunk before.
"Oh my gosh," Johanna started, gagging a little when Marvel came face to face with her. "I've been to a lot of parties with a lot of wasted people, but I don't think I've ever smelt someone who reeked of beer as badly as you do."
Marvel smiled lopsidedly, his eyes out of focus.
"How much have you had to drink?" Johanna asked him seriously.
Marvel shrugged carelessly. "Fifteen, maybe twenty beers?"
"Holy shit."
"Can we go swimming?" he slurred, eyeing the huge pool in Clove's backyard.
Johanna sighed, grabbing his arm tightly and tugging him in the direction of the guest bedroom. "I think it's time for you to lie down."
"No," Marvel protested, trying and failing to wriggle out of her grasp.
"Yes," Johanna rolled her eyes, pissed off that she was stuck babysitting Marvel, of all people. No way in hell would she ever let him forget this.
She pushed open the door to one of the guest bedrooms, thankful that it was unoccupied since she hadn't bothered to knock. "Come on," she groaned, sitting Marvel down on the edge of the bed. He was pretty much just dead weight at this point.
She turned around to pull down the covers, but he grabbed her wrist tightly, spinning her back around to face him. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "What?"
"Please kiss me," he asked, and she almost felt bad for him. The cat was out of the bag that Clove had cheated on him, and he obviously needed a rebound. And as much as Jo loved meaningless sex with hot guys, she wasn't about to take advantage of Clove's ex-boyfriend, especially not while he was drunk out of his mind.
"You're wasted," she dismissed him, yanking her wrist from his grasp.
"Please?" he begged, desperation in his eyes.
Jo's heart broke for him, the alcohol finally revealing what his charisma expertly managed to cover up all the time. Marvel was hurt, plain and simple as that.
"I can't do that to you, Marv. You deserve someone much better than me or Clove or really anybody in this whole town."
He gagged, and Johanna cursed under her breath. If he got vomit on her Manolos, he would pay. Literally.
"Sit up," she ordered.
He didn't answer, which didn't really alarm her until he became completely unresponsive. His eyes started to roll into the back of his head just before he lost consciousness, falling back onto the bed with a thump.
Jo panicked. What the hell were you supposed to do when someone underage got so drunk they passed out? "Help," she yelled, her voice shaking. "Somebody help!"
Peeta poked his head inside carelessly, his eyes widening when he saw Marvel passed out. "Oh my God," he started. "What the hell happened?"
"Well he started like, dry heaving, and then his eyes started rolling into the back of his head, and then he passed out and I don't know what the fuck to do, Peeta. I'm freaking out," she replied, panic lacing her words.
"We have to call 911," Peeta said immediately.
"911?" Johanna asked skeptically. "Isn't that a little extreme?"
"I should've stopped him from drinking so much," Peeta mumbled to himself before looking up at Johanna seriously. "He probably has alcohol poisoning. And if we don't get him help soon, there's a chance he could die."
Clove was snuggled under Cato's comforter flipping through late night television in a desperate search for something at least half decent to watch. Cato was downstairs in the kitchen getting some food, since the two of them combined never stopped eating. They had spent hours at Starbuck's together, venting about their families and their futures and pretty much everything else under the moon, before deciding to head back to Cato's for the night.
Clove probably could have gone back home to sleep – the after parties usually didn't go on too much later than two AM – but she wanted to be with Cato. They were long overdue for one of their intense cuddle sessions.
"Find anything good on TV?" he asked, strolling back into the bedroom with a bowl of popcorn and a bottle of Grey Goose. She eyed the bottle apprehensively, and he shrugged. "I'm in the mood to get drunk."
"When are you not in the mood to get drunk?" she retorted.
He rolled his eyes, holding out the bottle for her. "Want some?"
"Is that even a question?" she replied with a smile, grabbing the bottle from him and taking a long swig. The strong liquid burned her throat for a second or two, but she pushed it down. It had been a long-ass week.
He chuckled, climbing into bed. Her dark hair spilled out across his bare chest as she rested her head on his shoulder carelessly. He played with the ends of her hair absent-mindedly, and a contented sigh came from her mouth.
"So, since late night TV sucks ass, what else do you wanna do?" he asked casually. A small smirk snuck onto her face, because they both knew exactly what else they wanted to do but neither of them had the guts to actually just do it.
"I want to drink a little more so I can build up the courage to hookup with you," is what she would've liked to say, but she settled with a prudish, "I don't know. Rent a movie?"
"You sure about that?" he said with a smirk, resting his hand on her upper thigh. A warmth spread itself throughout her body.
"Fuck no," she said, hastily swinging one leg across his lap so that she was straddling him. But she didn't slam her mouth onto his like she so badly desired to; she let her lips brush against his in a motion so soft and swift that he barely noticed.
His eyes darkened. "I want you so bad."
She smiled innocently, lowering her voice. "Come and get me."
He pulled her shirt over her head, leaving her in only a bra and underwear. "Let's play a game," he said.
She raised her eyebrows in anticipation.
"Let's see how naked we can both get each other before one of us caves and kisses the other."
She smirked and tugged on the waistband of his sweatpants without a word, pulling them down his legs painfully slowly. "Fuck, Clove," he said through gritted teeth.
"Just kiss me," she teased.
"Hell no," he replied, snaking his arms around her torso to unhook her bra. She wriggled out of it hastily, swatting his hands away when he reached for her breasts.
"No touching," she whispered in his ear, taunting him by pressing a lingering kiss to the tip of his earlobe. All of the muscles in his body visibly tightened in an attempt to control himself, and she couldn't help but smirk as she pressed her lips to his ear, his jawline, his neck. It was nice to be in control for once, and even nicer to see Cato so unnerved by what she was doing to him. She liked it. A lot.
She stopped suddenly. "This means nothing, Cato," she assured him. "When all of this is over, we're still just friends, okay?"
"No-strings-attached is perfectly fine with me," he replied, more than okay with being Clove's little hookup buddy. "Now take off my boxers."
She laughed, toying with the elastic on the waistband his navy blue boxers. He groaned in pleasure, clenching his fists and practically begging her to just get on with it.
"What the fuck?"
Both Clove's and Cato's heads shot up at the sound of a very familiar voice. "Oh, fuck," Cato mumbled, taking in the sight of a very surprised Annie standing in his doorway. She was shielding her eyes at this point, mumbling apologies (among other explicit words) hurriedly. Clove pulled a t-shirt over her head quicker than Cato thought humanly possible, her face bright red with embarrassment. Why the hell did people keep walking in on their hookup sessions?
"Oh my gosh," Annie began as the puzzle pieces slowly started to fit together in her mind. "You're the one Clove cheated on Marvel with, aren't you?"
Cato nodded slowly.
"You…you asshole," Annie said, exasperated. "Marvel is your best friend!"
Cato sighed, running a hand through his tousled blonde hair. "I know, Annie. I fucking know. Just please don't tell him. For his own sake."
Annie narrowed her eyes at her brother. "Don't even try to play that game with me, Cato."
"Please, Annie, don't tell him," Clove interrupted.
"Oh, shut up," Annie snapped, whipping her head in Clove's direction. "You're no better than my douchebag of a brother."
A loud exhale came from Clove's mouth as she buried her face in her hands. Why couldn't she and Cato just be normal friends who could be alone with each other for more than ten minutes without hooking up? And more importantly, why the fuck didn't Cato lock the door?
"Why were you even coming in here in the first place?" Cato asked, annoyed.
Annie folded her arms across her chest defensively. "I was coming to let you know that Marvel, your supposed best friend, is in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. The doctors are saying that there's a possibility that he might not make it through the night."
"Oh my gosh," Clove said as an overwhelming wave of guilt came crashing over her. "This is all my fault."
"Don't say that, Clove. It's not your fault," Cato replied in a feeble attempt to console her.
"Then why do I feel so guilty?"
"Cato's right," Annie added reluctantly. "As pissed as I am at both of you guys right now, Clo, you can't blame yourself for what Marvel did. There were a lot of people at that party who could've and should've stopped him from having so much to drink."
"We have to go see him," Clove said.
"I'll drive," Annie said, motioning to the half-drunk bottle of Grey Goose sitting on Cato's nightstand.
Clove and Cato exchanged a small smile. "Good idea."
.
For the second time in the five months that Clove had been back in Beverly Hills, she found herself stuck at the hospital, though she was on the outside looking in this time. She never had particularly enjoyed spending time at the hospital - everything was just too sterile and simple for her liking - yet here she was, sitting anxiously in the ICU waiting room with her whole group of friends as they waited to find out whether or not Marvel was alive. The nurses had refused to release any information about his condition until a blood relative arrived, which was taking an annoyingly long time.
"What the hell even happened?" Clove asked, breaking the tense silence between everyone.
"Well, one second he's trying to hookup with me," Jo started, her arms folded across her chest as she slouched in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs. Clove's gaze hardened. "And the next he's lying on the bed unconscious."
"Fucking asshole," Clove mumbled under her breath. Both Johanna and Annie looked at her knowingly, silently reminding her that she was in no place to be getting mad at him for trying to hookup with another girl. She rolled her eyes.
Just then, the double doors to the ICU opened, and in walked Marvel's mom Renee, a concerned look on her face. "Are you Marvel Rutherford's mother?" a woman in blue scrubs approached her.
Renee nodded tensely. "How is he?"
"Your son had a significant amount of alcohol in his system. It was enough to cause him to lose consciousness, but it doesn't look like there's any permanent damage. He'll be free to leave tomorrow morning."
Renee let out a sigh of relief. "He's okay?"
"He's okay," the nurse verified.
"Oh, thank God," Renee said, tears filling her eyes.
Clove could tell by the look of relief on Renee's face that he was going to be fine. She visibly relaxed, but she couldn't stop thinking about how he almost wasn't okay. He could have died, and she would've lived the rest of her life knowing that she was a big reason why. "We need to tell him," she whispered to Cato.
Cato sighed. "I know we do."
"Tomorrow," she said sternly.
He reached over and grabbed a hold of her hand. "Tomorrow."
AN:
I'm baaccckk :~) I really hope this chapter was worth the wait (probably not, but whatever). But in all seriousness, I'm beyond sorry for taking so long to get this up. I've just been running out of time to write lately, and I guess I should let you guys know that I'm considering wrapping this up soon (and by soon, I mean like 5-10 chapters from now, so not really that soon). But I'd like to propose the idea of a possible senior year sequel? If I wrote a sequel, would you guys read it?
Now for the fun stuff: Should I include more Katniss/Peeta and Annie/Finnick in future chapters? And what do you guys think about the next chapter being set during Thanksgiving? Let me know in a review :)
I'm not really sure when the next time I'll get to update is. Just know that I am not abandoning this story. And as always, please please please review. You guys' reviews really do inspire me to write more, even if it's just a few words!
~xoxo~