Since Finnick had basically told her she wasn't invited to go back with him, Eliza decided to kill some time. However, people were everywhere. Their chit chat filled up her ears and restlessness creeped up her spine. There had not been a new attack for a while, but there also had not been any mention of release. A wheel of questions went round her mind, when the only certainty was that she had no idea if they were actually getting out anytime soon.
When going to the lavatories didn't take more than ten minutes, she attempted to look around for Mindy, only to find her blond head in the middle of her lively friend group. Even Lance sat there with them, and when she saw he had not only recognized her, but called her over with a bright hand wave, she thought to herself she could die to be invisible. The last thing she felt like was coming up with small talk, so she turned around before anyone could catch her and decided Finnick would have to put up with her anyway.
Eliza was not the only one looking for a different place to hang, apparently, because she found Katniss sitting by Finnick's side on the bet, and having a chat. Somehow, dealing with Katniss Everdeen sounded even worse than any of her previous ideas, meaning she was running out of options. She turned back, strolling around the halls once again while trying to avoid anyone that might haste her to return to her bed, and looking for some empty corner she had yet to check.
She accidentally bumped into someone standing just outside the door, buying an inhospitable grunt in return. Piled up against each other, everyone was bound to go crazy. The atmosphere felt heavy already without any no real sense of privacy. People would start to get on each other's nerves and conflict was bound to burst at some point.
Eliza herself thought she was about ready to start some conflict. Seriously, couldn't she even get to be in her own bed in peace?
As she walked, her arms and legs went stiff, almost numb. If she could only find some place to be quiet, with no one around, somewhere she could forget about everything that happened, ignore every single person around her and pretend all was okay. The air was starting to feel a bit hot either way.
She just needed someplace to sit down and breathe, everything would be fine.
And what was with her flashlight dimming all of a sudden? She tapped it a few times, turned it off and on again hoping it would fix it, but it was pointless. Every step she took everything got darker.
"Damn you idiotic piece of sh-"
"Eliza?" His voice had her shutting up instantly and spinning in his direction. "What's going on? You keep walking back and forth." Gale stood a few feet away and eyed her in what looked like a mix of confusion and amusement.
"I was just..." The light flickered once again, so she tapped it furiously a few times more. "I was just feeling a bit… I mean, I don't know what happened, everything is fine, really, but..." She shut her eyes for a second longer than usual. "Honestly, I'm sick of this place."
Gale walked the distance between them and held out his hand, requesting her to give up the exasperating flashlight. He turned it off and on like she'd done before, and Eliza suppressed an eyeroll. Then he took the batteries out, rolled them against each other in his hands, and blew inside the flashlight for a second, before putting everything back in place.
It was working normally again.
"Impressive." She uttered with dripping sarcasm.
Gale arched a single eyebrow in question, propelling her to look away and pretend to be very interested in the now better illuminated end of the hallway.
She felt him cross his arms, asking in an unusually tentative tone "Are you sure you're ok?"
Eliza huffed and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "Everything's fine. I just slept for too long and kept losing track of time. Everything and everywhere looks the same. People never shut up. The kids are always running around screaming and I..."
And I kept waiting for you but you never showed up.
"I know." He said simply, leaning on the wall closer to her with his arms crossed, and making her hate him a little bit more, "But there hasn't been an attack for a while. I don't think it will be long before we're out."
Eliza shook her head in disbelief, trying to shake away her frustration as well. She'd spent almost every minute of the last two days thinking she wanted him to come see her, or at least show some kind of sign that he didn't regret everything that happened. But now that he was there, she felt like smacking him on the head.
Gently.
Gale must have sensed it, because his face contorted in a frown and asked, "Are you actually mad at me?"
"What? Me? Of course not."
Maybe just a little bit.
Even though deep down she knew she should not. Nothing happened, really. They'd exchanged some words, she sang a song she hadn't in a long time, and then they slept next to each other. All meaningless. Friend's stuff.
"Then why have you not come to see me?" he insisted.
The question shook her insides. "Me? Why didn't you?"
"Well, first I stalked you to give you your satchel so I'd get your sympathy back. And later I crashed in your bed without really asking. I thought I should give you some space. But then you never came, I thought you regretted it. And now you look pissed, for whatever reason." He looked annoyed, and it hurt to think that what he said actually made sense, and that she'd been wallowing away for nothing.
"Well, I..." she swallowed dry, trying to gain some time. Her discomfort made her want to touch her hair, that she was now suddenly very aware had accumulated days of poor washing and brushing. "I thought you might've regretted it, since you didn't say anything afterwards. And I didn't want to goto you and be, you know, annoying, or whatever."
Handling her messy strands while still holding on to the flashlight proved quite inefficient, as Gale noted, laying out his hand and silently offering to grab it for her.
"So...we're good then?" He asked, a few seconds later, after staring at her hands.
Eliza looked him over for half a second and agreed. "I think so."
"What if I show you a place where you can actually get peace and quiet?" He asked, abandoning his frown and letting a smile fall in his mouth.
"That wouldn't hurt." She conceded, still finding it hard to return a smile to him.
Gale led the way further down the corridor, long after the rooms Eliza had been to so far. When they reached a door marked with the word "Private", he touched his bracelet to the digital lock, opening it wide. It wasn't that different from the previous corridors, except smaller and narrower, most of its rooms looking like storage units. Eliza followed his steps until he turned to an alley with slightly better illumination, and a few wooden boxes scattered around in the ground.
"Are you really allowed in here? How?"
"I don't know. I just tried to open it, but I didn't really expect it to work."
"It does sound a little bit like abuse of power."
"Yet, you didn't complain when I brought you that." He sounded slightly pressed, pointing at the satchel Eliza had brought on her shoulder.
She raised her hands in defeat. "You're right. And I'm not complaining now either."
"Good, 'cause I need a favour." He took a seat on the biggest wooden box put away against the wall.
"From me?" She asked, tentatively sitting next to him. "What? Do you need math tutoring?"
He crossed his arms, but didn't look that annoyed anymore, "No. And don't tease me, I'm much better at it than you think. It's actually for Rory. He wanted to ask you, but mom didn't want him to bother and told me to instead. He saw the one you made for Posy, and wondered if you could make him an embroidery of a cat." His eyebrows raised once again in the form of a question.
The weight pulling down her chest started to fade away and she mumbled through a smile, "Of course."
A/N
Hi after a long time! I'm feeling chatty, so a longish author's note. This chapter has been sitting for a while, and I have another one that hopefully will be posted soon. As always, thank you turtlewatcher for all the help and feedback!
I also wanted to welcome the new readers, for all the votes and comments. It helps to know someone on the other side is reading, but I also think the release of Sunrise has given a boost to this fandom and I'm here for it!
Speaking about it, I still haven't finished TBOSAS because... I don't really like it. I don't think this is a wild opinion, but still, I feel bad... I wished Suzanne Collins had written a 500 page book about District 13 instead of the Capitol, honestly . If you've read either of those books, let me know what you think please. Just keep it spoiler free 3