Shades of Gold and Blue | Finnick Odair

Sixteen

I follow after Finnick and watch as he pulls his shirt up and takes his shorts off. He looks back at me with a boyish grin and holds his arms out wide, "You not coming Angel?"

I narrow my eyes and start walking, "I thought you were on your best behaviour?"

"I'm teaching you to swim, I think we can let a nickname slide."

"It's an annoying nickname," I tug my shoes off and bury my feet in the warmth of the sand. "And anyway, I know how to swim."

Finnick snorts and rolls his eyes, "Cassia, you know how to swim in a pool."

My hands move to my hips, "What are discriminating against different bodies of water now? Swimming is swimming."

He laughs a little and comes behind me, placing his right hand on my waist and pointing to the ocean from over my shoulder with his left. His voice is gentle in my ear and his breath tickles the baby hairs at the bottom of my neck, "Look out there."

I look out at his friends who have already run off into the ocean and are squealing and laughing as they splash each other. They're all far out enough that they aren't able to stand and I see their bodies bobbing up and down in the waves.

"When you swam in the pool, there wasn't a current. You just swam in whatever direction you chose and the water did what you wanted it to. The ocean isn't like that, it's an entity in its self and it will control you if you let it. You need to be able to resist the pull of the current. You'll never be able to control the ocean, no one can, but you can be . . .," Finnick's makes a humming sound in my ear as he mulls over his words, ". . . you can be persuasive."

It strikes me that Finnick Odair is inches from being pressed against me, in nothing but his underwear and I have to force my mind from going down the gutter. But I can already think of what Priscilla would say, or even better – Max – if I told either of them about this situation I had found myself in.

'Jump. His. Bones.' Is what I would be told in no uncertain terms, by both of my best friends. Laelia too more than likely.

I conjure my most charming smile and turn my head to face his – determined to not get flustered like he probably planned, "I can be persuasive."

"I don't doubt you can." He takes his hand from me and it feels as though the air around me has gone from being heated and dry, to cool and fresh again. He glances back to me as he wades into the water, "You'll have to take your overalls off – that material is too heavy for the water, it'll bog you down."

I look down at myself and quickly back to him checking he's not looking, but surprisingly he's chosen this moment to play the perfect gentleman and has his body set out towards the horizon. I pull my overalls down, taking panicked looks over to Finnick to check he's not looking, and move into the water behind him.

I've left my top on, it's cropped so it doesn't provide much cover but it stops me from having to swim around in just my underwear. I can see the other girls have got bathing suits on and I remind myself to always wear one under my clothes while I'm here, it seems impromptu swimming trips are commonplace in District Four.

Finnick turns to me as I arrive next to him – the water only rises up to his hips, but I'm submerged just past the bottom of my ribs.

"So, what do I do?"

"We'll float first, you can get a feel of the current and what the waves feel like."

He jumps up a little and flops back onto the water like a starfish making me laugh at the sight of the famous Finnick Odair starfishing in the water. People back home would pay to see this.