Teenage Memories.

The One with the Confused Hearts.

A week had passed since the party, and Thresh had distanced himself from Clove, or perhaps she had distanced herself from him, as she wasn't even sure what she truly felt for him and preferred not to hurt his feelings with her indecision. Similarly, she had been ignoring Cato, which caused a deep sense of suffocation in her chest because he was one of her best friends, and they had never been apart for so long.

Clove thought that upon waking up the next day, she wouldn't remember anything, but it turned out to be exactly the opposite: the night had been permanently etched into her mind, leaving her confused and feeling awful.

On Sunday, she woke up with a terrible headache, smelling of cigarettes because of Gale. She found herself hugging Katniss while she was still asleep, and more than ever, she knew that her friend loved her because she hated being touched. Katniss had also prepared an incredible breakfast for her, and they talked for hours about other things. She managed to distract herself for a while, but upon arriving home, the kiss repeated obsessively in her mind.

Something was wrong, and it was probably her stupid brain inventing feelings once again. Although she had to push the issue aside for a few hours because her parents thought she had gone to Katniss's house to study, they didn't know she had been to a party, let alone would she mention what happened there. She had to stay alert not to give away her lie during dinner.

"How was it?" her father asked, curious as usual. "How's Katniss?"

"We had a great time," Clove replied, biting her tongue. "Katniss is fine, dealing with school and family stuff, as usual, nothing new."

Luckily, her parents didn't ask anything too specific, as the secret to being a good liar lies in the small details. Clove usually tried to remember even the most insignificant thing when lying to her parents so that if they asked the same thing again, she wouldn't slip up.

After a dinner that seemed to never end, Clove finally found herself alone in her room. She stared at the message Cato had left her the previous night for hours: "Call me now."

She didn't, but she was very tempted to do so because she wanted to know what he had to say. She remembered asking Katniss to delete the messages, but she didn't, and Thresh's apologies were still on her phone. She felt like a complete idiot; if she hadn't kissed Cato, the situation would have been completely different. It was a mistake, a stupid one, and no matter how hard she tried to forget about it, she couldn't.

The week passed painfully. On Monday, she couldn't make eye contact with either of them, nor with Marvel or Gale. The latter two pretended they hadn't seen anything, so after a couple of hours, they were already joking and laughing about nonsense.

Tuesday was a strange day because Haymitch had decided they wouldn't have class as he wasn't in the mood for it, and obviously, they decided to do what any rational human being would do: meddle.

The girls and Marvel dragged their chairs to Haymitch's desk. They created a small semicircle around him and tried to get information out of him; apparently, he was lovesick. Despite being a grumpy, bitter, and complaining old man, he was the best teacher in the school. They could talk to him about anything; he was like their life mentor.

"If you all were as interested in my class as you are in my personal life, you'd graduate with honors," he said, reclining in his seat. "You all might even earn scholarships for the University of Gossip."

"We don't gossip," Annie complained. "We enjoy learning."

"Learning about other people's problems."

He had also mentioned that they were the only students he considered "not so annoying," and Clove supposed this was because the other teachers hated them. They hated them back, and Haymitch hated his coworkers too, but obviously, Effie Trinket was an exception to all of them.