Time Has Brought Your Heart To Me (Clato)

Chapter 10 "Moving On"

Clove’s PoV

I run to the girl’s bathroom, ignoring all the murmurs about me. I turn the lock and fall to the ground. I cry and cry until there were no more tears left. My heartbeat ringing in my ears as I replay everything I just saw. I hear a knock on the door. I use my thumb to wipe away my tears.

“Clove, is that you?” Orchid’s says faintly. “It’s Orchid.”

I gather all my strength to pull myself up and unlock the door.

“What’s wrong?” She says with a caring tone.

“Oh, this guy Cato.” I say sadly and I could feel the throbbing pain of my heart when I heard his name. I tremble when the words slip out of my mouth of what happened.

“So, Cato, is your boyfriend?” She questions.

“No, no, no. He was my best friend but I did like him in that way and he liked me back.”

“Oh okay…” She thinks for a second. “You can hang out with me and Hunter.”

“Hunter?”
“Umm… let’s say, my friend.” She nods and walks out. I follow behind her.

I look anxiously at the guy, about Orchid’s height, and he had short black hair, brown eyes and surprisingly very buff.

“Is this Clove?” He says coolly.

“Yeah. Clove, this is Hunter.”

“Hey.” He extends his arm out to shake my hand. I smile and accept his request.

“What do you want to do?” Hunter asks and messes up Orchid’s black hair with brown streaks.

“Let’s go play some sports!” She answers happily.

‘Sure. What kind of sport do you play?” Hunter asks me.

“Umm…” I wasn’t sure what to say. “I like throwing knives.” I mumble.

“You like throwing knives?” Orchid laughs, thinking it was a joke. I shake my head shyly.

“So your one of those Hunger Games kids.” Hunter says in approval.

“Yeah.” I smile.

“We got to teach her some basketball then!” Orchid yells out. Jocks, huh? They run off and I run after them.

Cato’s PoV

I look around the crowd of people surrounding me and I couldn’t even find Clove among them. This one girl, Ambrosia was all over me but I was hardly interested. Why was I suddenly the most liked guy in this school? I admit I did pack on a lot of muscle during the holidays, being stuck in my room training on every waking hour.

“You wanna go out sometime?” Ambrosia asks while winking at me and flicking her chestnut hair.

“Uhh. Ask me another time.” I say while giving a painful smile. I push everyone out of the way to find Clove. Ambrosia shoots me a very quizzical look, which I ignore. I keep running around the whole school until I see her in a basketball court with two other, unrecognizable people. I didn’t want to spoil her fun so I left her alone for a bit.

***

I wait outside the gate for Clove and she comes out but avoids eye contact with me. She walks in a faster pace than usual and I raise my eyebrow and chase after her.

“Clove! What are you doing?” I ask putting a smile on my face. She rolls her eyes and keeps walking. I grab her arm causing her to stop. Her face flushes red with angry and maybe confusion.