❛ 𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬- 𝘵𝘩𝘨

CHAPTER 9

After that, Caesar seemed flustered. "All right then. That's one woman's opinion. Who's next?" He said as the timer went off.

Blight was up next, and he stumbled through the interview. The effects of alcohol had a pretty clear effect on him, especially with the with-draw.

Arya saw Colton sigh, but people in the audience still cheered and rooted him on.

Eventually they were about finished, but as Arya's eye lids were about it droop, the bomb was dropped.

The District 12 female tribute, Katniss, and her partner, Peeta, were having a baby.

WAIT-What?

Arya felt her eyelids pop open, and she was one of the thousands screaming in protest.

The interviews ended, and the noise was deafening. But then, suddenly everything went dark.

The crowd started panicking, but somehow Arya found Johanna. Her and Finnick were trying to get in the same elevator as Katniss and Peeta, but the three of them were forced to get into the next elevator.

"Are you okay?" Arya breathlessly asked Johanna.

Johanna stared at Arya. "You're not going to lecture me on cursing at the Capitol?"

"I was going to save it for later. I'm making sure you're okay first. It's more important, anyway."

Johanna tilted Arya's head up, and kissed her gently. "Aw, baby, are you saying I'm important? Don't worry, sweetheart, I'm okay." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Arya could see Finnick smirking as he looked away. She frowned at Johanna, and they continued the rest of the elevator ride up to their room's in silence.

When Finnick left the girls alone, Arya felt like she could explode.

"Really? Why, Johanna, why? Why did you have to do that in front of Finnick? He could blab, and Snow could hurt one of us, or they could force the information from him! Johanna, I can't do this anymore! Why do we have to be falling for eachother?! We were just supposed to be friends, nothing more! I don't even know if I'm ready to be in a relationship again!"

Johanna stared at her. "Is it wrong that I want to kiss you right now?"

"Yes." Arya couldn't hide her smile. "But I'm being serious! You can't be kissing me in front of people, in fact we shouldn't even be doing it at all! We're just friends, remember?"

Johanna smiled and hugged Arya, wishing her a good night's rest, and the two separated.

Arya changed into a loose sweatshirt and white pajama shorts and fell into bed. Her mind was buzzing too much to even consider going to sleep, so instead for the rest of the night she stared at the ceiling and imagined life without the Hunger Games, without the Quarter Quell, and without Kinsley Kirth's memory haunting her.