hope in our eyes || 37th hunger games ✔️

Falling

Aspen

The first thing Eisley says once we're out of earshot is, "You can't fall in love with her."

"What?" I say. But I heard her. And I know what she means. She takes a beat.

"You can't fall in love with Lily." She says. I scoff.

"Y'jealous?"

"Aspen. Listen to me,"

"What, Eisley?" I say dismissively. I hike my bag up higher on my back.

"You can't fall in love with her because it'll just make everything harder." Eisley runs a hand through her hair.

"What if I can't help it?" I sigh. "That's the thing about falling, y'know. You can't control it." I frown. We've stopped walking.

"You just can't, Aspen. You don't want it to be like Ol-" Eisley stops. She looks down and bites her lip. I slap her arm gently.

"It wouldn't be like Olive. Olive was my sister. This is just a silly crush. Anyway, she'll probably last longer than me."

"Aspen, I'm trying to help you, dammit!" There's a fire coming into Eisley's eyes.

"Eisley, it's nothing." There's a long silence. We keep walking. Finally, Eisley speaks again.

"This isn't going to end well..."

"Eisley."

"Aspen!"

"EISLEY!"

BOOM!

"A cannon." We say at the same time and all that's running through my head is, Please don't let it be Lily, please don't let it be Hazel.

We take off running towards our old shelter. When we get there, we dash through it, because Hazel and Lily went the opposite way as Eisley and I.

"Lily! Hazel!" I whisper-shout. We hear a scream.

"NO!" Is it just me or does it sound like Lily? Then does that mean Hazel...

"Lily!" No. That's Hazel.

"HAZEL!" I shout. We break through layers of foliage but we're still not there.

"Aspen?!" Hazel shouts. We're close now. And getting closer.

"Hazel!" Eisley shouts, relieved, as we crash into a clearing. "Lily!"

I'm about to rejoice when I see the body of the dead girl. My breath catches.

"Aspen," Hazel starts. "Lily-"

"No," Lily mumbles. She just keeps saying it. "No, no, no."

There's a bloody sword laying near Hazel. And a bloom of red in the dead girl's stomach. And there's blood on Lily's hands.

I look up to Lily's face. There's tears leaking from her eyes.

"Lily..." I say and walk towards her. Eisley and Hazel stand by and give each other tight-lipped looks.

"Aspen, I... I killed her. I-"

"Shh. It's okay. You had to," I'm not sure about the whole situation but I'm sure Lily wouldn't have killed if it wasn't necessary. I pull her into an embrace and her hands travel to my neck as she presses her forehead against mine and cries silent tears. "Don't cry." I whisper.

After a while Eisley says, "Aspen," and places a hand on my shoulder. I pull away from Lily a bit to look at her. "We should go so they can clear out the body." I nod and mutter an 'okay'.

-

We see the girl's face in the sky tonight, but that's all. We go to bed right after, but a few minutes later I sit up as slowly and quietly as I can and nudge Lily.

We get up and I lead her through the trees to a moonlit patch in a nearby clearing.

"Lily? How... are you?" I ask, gently touching her shoulder.

"Pretty shitty." Lily says numbly.

We both sit down cross-legged and after another moment of silence I place my right hand on her knee and whisper, "Don't blame yourself."

"But I do." She says quietly and places her hand on mine. Then her hand travels up my arm and to my shoulder right shoulder. Then it moves around to my left and she scootches closer, pulling me into her with her arm. I move my hand from her knee and slip it around her back. All previous conversation is forgotten. All previous anything is forgotten.

I tilt my head as Lily moves hers and we look into each other's eyes. God, it's hard not to get lost in hers, like flecks of ocean themselves.

She whispers my name and it's like music when she says it like that. Then she turns and puts her hand on my left knee, stretching around me so she's sort of in my lap. I hold her by the waist and then I pull her closer and she whispers my name again. I move my hand up and down her back slowly as she tilts her head closer. I pull her in and she says my name one more time before our lips collide.

My heart hammers in my chest as we kiss because this is basically my first kiss and I'm not sure what to do if or if I'm doing this right. Kissing Eisley was different. Like she said, it was like kissing your sibling.

But I'm not thinking about Eisley right now. My mind screams LILY LILY LILY!

Our hands travel over our bodies and our mouths part and we explore new places there.

We're like water. Fluid and dancing over each other, pushing hard and fighting for dominance. We hold each other so tight and kiss each other so intensely I can't even think. All I can do is kiss her. We're like fire.

Her lips are like satin.

The kiss slows. Lily kisses the spot right beside my lips and says my name in that beautiful way. Her lips move to my jawline, my neck. Her eyes are closed tight and she's grimacing and crying and so am I. And I don't know why.

Her hands grip my shoulders as her lips move slowly back to mine. It's a feeling like falling.

-

We wake up to birds chirping and the sun shining. Our arms our wrapped around each other and we're lying on the ground in the clearing.

"Lily?" I whisper. She looks confused, as if she's not sure if last night was even real. I kiss her lightly on the lips as if to say 'yes'. I can feel her smile.

We get up and slowly make our way back to our camp hand in hand.

"I love you." She whispers suddenly. It takes me too long to answer and she starts to pull away.

"No!" I shout and pull her close to me again. "I love you, too... I... really, really do." Oh, how the crowd must be reacting to this.

Tragic Hunger Games love story. Two tributes fall for each other, but they both know that in the end- I stop thinking about that. I think about what Eisley said about not falling in love with Lily. I shake that out of my head too.

"Aspen...?" Lily says as we reach our camp. I look at her and she's frowning. I look back at the camp. Hazel and Eisley are gone.

We hear a scream from across the woods. In the direction of the water area. In the direction of Ash.