I can still do this

chapter 19

So we go. He moves quietly through the woods, from all the training, I'm sure, but not quite quiet silently, not like someone who's grown up here. He avoids the Peacekeepers like a champ, though, moving us through back alleys and forest edges to get to our house. We slip in through the back door, Edan's back looking newly horrifying at first glance.

Prim's talking when we first walk in; she stops when she sees me, and runs to hug me. "You're safe," she says in relief, and then she hugs Cato, too. I'm not sure who's more surprised, me or him. Awkwardly, he pats her back.

"What happened?" he asks.

"They're going to turn on the fence. And the new head Peacekeeper is out looking for more people to use as examples. Mom had me come here to make sure you're in here and safe. I'm going to call her now." She runs for the phone and starts to dial, but I'm not paying much attention to her.

Cato and I meet eyes, one thought clearly on both of our minds. "Gale," he says for me.

"You can't help him now," Edan speaks up from the table, clearly eavesdropping. "Don't bother. It's his problem."

"Stop," Ryan says, tired. "You decided to take the fall. Don't get pissed about it now."

"Just saying," Edan mutters rebelliously, but he keeps his mouth shut after that.

"Where is he, the woods?" Ryan asks. Cato and I both nod. "Why'd you leave him there? Why didn't he come back with you?"

Neither of us know how to answer; we look at each other, then down at the ground.

"Is that from him?" Ryan asks, motioning at Cato, his bruised face and hands.

"Yep," Cato says blandly.

Ryan looks at me, and I get the feeling he knows exactly why they were fighting. But he doesn't say anything. And then neither of us have a chance to continue this uncomfortable conversation, because Prim gets off the phone and pounces on Cato. She makes him sit down on the floor against the wall, since all the chairs are occupied or full of stuff, and then she cleans up his face and hands.

I don't get in the way of their little moment, but I sit next to him against the wall and watch the two of them. She treats him like she treats everybody, kind, sweet, and gentle, but that's different to him - I can tell from how he's acting.

He's been gentle to me before, but never the way he's treating her. Everything he does is extremely careful - it's crazy, he's not even making any fast movements. Like she's some kind of baby bird and he doesn't want to crush her. The two of them are almost adorable together. It only makes me like him more.

Prim fills us in after Cato's cleaned and bandaged; the new squad of Peacekeepers are on a rampage, taking prisoners left and right for minor infractions of little rules nobody cared about before now. They probably won't arrest the victors, but my mother wants us all inside until she gets home.

We all stay in the kitchen for no apparent reason. Edan can't move, Ryan won't, but the other three of us have no real reason not to go off somewhere. We just don't. After Prim finishes with Cato, I move closer to him and his arm ends up around me. Prim takes up a place on his other side, asking him a million questions about what it's like in his district because she learned a while ago that I'm bad at description.

Cato's not, though. He's actually surprisingly really good at it. The places he describes aren't any I visited with him - no training center or decadent house with its cold inhabitants. The things he talks about are unlike anything I saw while I was there; stores full of polished stone sculptures, barrels of pebbles streaked through with bright colors, mountainside homes surrounded by pine trees. I don't think he's making any of this up; that's not like him. But I'm officially super curious.