Chapter Sixteen

Ivory's point of view

"Hey, Clove? Can we talk a minute?" I find her several hours after the incident with her district partner. There's a rumor going around that they're dating now, but I can't be sure. There's always at least one couple, and they never stay together long enough to be completely certain.

She turns around, and seems to recognize my voice. "Um, sure. What's wrong?" She looks at me hesitantly.

"It's your friend..." I start off. I was only given a list of last names, and I'm really bad at remembering names to begin with. He and I never made formal introductions. "Cato, right? Anyway, something kind of strange happened. I don't really understand what went on, so I was hoping you'd help me understand."

Clove nods. "Okay. I can try. What happened?"

"It was odd," I start. "We were talking, like we were supposed to. I mentioned your last night, to ask how he felt about it. That's where everything went downhill."

"What do you mean?" She stares at me a little more intensely now. It almost seems as if she's anticipating my next words. The room is so silent before I begin to speak that it's almost eerie.

I look back at her apprehensively, half worried that she might snap, too. "He was blaming himself. That's completely normal, and I expected it. But it was what he said after. He said that there was someone else he's worried about now. I couldn't figure out who that was.

"Oh." Clove is blushing now, and gasping a little bit. She's obviously flustered. "We weren't going to tell anyone. Not yet, anyway. We were going to wait a while. But I guess I need to tell you know. I do, don't I? Will it help Cato if I do?"

I nod. She continues to babble as soon as I do.

"Okay, then. The two of us were dating off and on before the games. We never really broke up, we just always needed to take a break. But we were on for a few months before the reaping. It was a little over two years total that we were together at that point. But the night before the Games started..." She trails off, blushing again. "Do you get where I'm getting at? Don't worry, we both agreed to it. We just weren't thinking clearly about the risks, especially not right before the Games."

I nod. "You made a mistake. That's okay. Do you regret it? Is that the problem?"

She shakes her head. "No, I don't. Mostly because of what's coming from it. Now, we haven't told anyone yet. Because of my head injury in the arena, this is going to be considered very high risk. Not even Glimmer knows yet. Can you keep a secret?"

"Don't worry about it," I answer. "I had to take a confidentially agreement. No one will know a thing until you tell them for yourself."

"Okay, then. In that case, Ivory..." She takes a deep breath and smiles nervously. "I'm pregnant."