ѕуԃηєу ηαтιση: вσσк тняєє

Chapter Four

When Ember woke up the next morning, he lifted his head up slowly from his pillow, and was surprised to see Glory's hand trapped in his, and her head lolled against his bedside. He inhaled and exhaled heavily, then took a second to hover there and stare at her. He normally wouldn't have done this before, but ever since she saved his life from his so-called best friend nearly killing him with a flaming boulder, he couldn't help but have unspoken feelings for her. Like every time she stared at him with curious eyes or her smug grin, he got more butterflies in his stomach. It was weird to have feelings for her, since she never really found interest in him from the very beginning. In fact, she was the hardest to get along with.

But then again, she opened up more to him than any of the other girls did since he'd known them all. And not only that, but Glory seemed to take every punch that came in everyone's way, which made her quite the undeserving friend. Ember never deserved a friend like her and never would, and for the exact reason on her face. Every time he looked at her face, full of bruises and scars, along with the faded white scar lines on her arms, he remembered that awful night in Del Bar, when he hovered over her laid body and flailed countless punches in her face just for payback when she hit him.

He remembered the bloody gashes he gave her, and he nearly broke into tears every time he saw her, because he hated himself for what he did to his best friend. He absolutely loathed what he did to this girl, and he couldn't even count the ugly marks on her face. He tried to picture what her face looked like before he hit her, how beautiful it was. How beautiful she was. When she smiled at him, his heart fluttered around like no tomorrow, and whenever she dodged flying arrows nonstop, her gracefulness was immeasurable.

He had the crying urge to move a strand of hair from her face so long as her eyes stayed shut. She'd probably snatch him in another death grip though. He sighed and reached forward with the one free hand and lightly took one strand of her hair and, as gently as a feather, pushed it behind her ear. Her head moved just slightly in response, and Ember whisked his hand away as forcefully as he could without attracting any more reactions from her.

Ember watched as her eyebrows contorted then relaxed just as quickly, then her eyes flickered open to take in the sunlit room. She blinked with squinted eyes and looked to her side and found Ember still staring at her. She tilted her head to look back at him and she yawned sleepily. She inhaled and exhaled like he did, and she rubbed his clasped hand with her thumb, twirling it in circles. Then she took her skinny hand out of his and stood up, then she brushed herself off.

"Sleep well?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Thanks for bringing me to bed, you could've gone to your hammock though."

"Ha!" Glory laughed. "Yeah right, even in your sleep, your grip is killer! You wouldn't let me leave, and I didn't want to wake you back up. You probably though I was someone else anyways." She smiled, trying not to start off the morning by talking about Mable again.

Ember sat up and stretched. "Actually I knew it was you, and don't feel bad about accidentally waking me up, I would've passed out just as quickly again."

"You know that you drool in your sleep." Glory scoffed.

"Yeah, I gathered that." he wiped leftover saliva from his chin and got up to stand. He walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out a new pair of clothes since he slept in his previous ones. Glory exited the room so she wouldn't have to see him undress, and she walked upstairs to her room to get a fresh pair too.

She dug through her wardrobe and pulled out a clean Flickerball jersey: white cotton drawstring pants, and leather brown tank tops straight from cattle hide. The players usually played without shoes, and they ran around barefoot. But if they were going to wear shoes, they would probably use sandals or short boots. Glory shrugged on her pants and tank top and she pulled her loose hair up into a tight ponytail so it would stay out of her face. The she grabbed her paint pallet from the bottom drawer of her wardrobe and pulled out the black paint. She squirted it onto her fingertip and then she lifted it up and smeared it across her cheeks in a straight line.