Stay with me? [Finnick Odair]

48

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Chapter forty eight: scars
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The final day of training is here where we have our private sessions with the Gamemakers to show our skills, we each get fifteen minutes to show what we have, the only problem is that I don't know what to do. Finnick and I continuously joke about what we're going to do, strip, dance, tell jokes, even Katniss and some of the other victors decide to join in.

"You know what, I think I'm just going to tap-dance," I joke, earning a laugh from Katniss and Peeta when I jokingly begin to tap dance, sitting back down, Finnick slings his arms around my shoulders and we both sit and cuddle until it's our turn.

Since I'm the female, I'm supposed to go second, I give some last minute words of encouragement to Finnick and he simply sends me a wink before leaving the room. Rolling my eyes, I look away from him and see Katniss and Peeta smirking at me.

"What?" I laugh, brows furrowing, they both share a look and a laugh before Peeta turns to me.

"What's going on between you and Odair?" He asks, I scoff, rolling my eyes again and looking away from them. I stay silent, ignoring the beating of my chest, the heat in my cheeks at the memory of last night, I wait until they call my name and I leave the room without a second thought.

I still don't know what to do when I enter the room, eyes wandering around the place, I see Finnick has made use of the tridents. My eyes suddenly flicker towards the archery area and Charlotte's face flashes in my mind, I suddenly feel the need to prove something, to prove that I'm not afraid, that they can't control me through fear anymore.

I walk straight towards the archery section, anger rising in my stomach, pursing my lips, my fists clench as I stop in front of the weaponry. I stare at it for the longest time, wondering if I should or if I should just play it safe and head towards the throwing knives; something I'm comfortable with, something I know.

Against my better judgement, I pick up the bow and look down at the arrows. My fingers somehow attach the arrow to the string without me dropping it. Before I know it, I'm shooting arrows towards the targets, hitting most of them within seconds, I finish in two minutes and I look towards the Gamemakers. Only Plutarch is watching me closely, narrowed eyes watching my every move, I keep my eyes locked with his and nod subtly. He notices, nodding back, I go back to doing my own thing until I'm excused.

I go to find Finnick as soon as I exit the elevator, but there's nobody around, I sigh, loosening my hair out of the ponytail it was in and dropping the hair tie on the floor. I go to my room and take a quick shower, changing out of my training clothes, I switch them for an oversized sweater and a pair of shorts along with a pair of fluffy slippers.

We all gather for supper, everyone, including the prep teams and stylists, a large portion of fries and pie is dished out. We're all pretty quiet, but Finnick and Mags are constantly talking about the training sessions and Asher is gossiping to my prep team about random crap that I'm not bothered about; so I don't care to listen.

Soon enough, supper is over with and we're all sitting around in the living room for our scores, I keep my knees pulled to my chest and my head is buried in my knees. Finnick managed to pull an eight and I pull an eleven, I don't know why, but everyone stares at me in disbelief and nobody is celebrating. I know what this means. It means it just gives the other victors no choice but to target me, I'm the odd one out that is most likely to win, so they have to kill me off first.

Maybe it's for the best. Me dying during the first few hours, leaving someone else to be crowned victor, or someone else to lead the rebellion — whatever works.

I go to my room in silence, ignoring anyone who tries to make me feel better, I don't feel like talking at all, so I just go to my room and crawl into bed; pulling the covers over my head and taking in a deep breath.

It's my fault the rebellion started, I gave Cosmo a platform without even knowing about it, I'm the sparrow, and now that I've agreed to it I can't back down unless I die in that arena.

Tomorrow night will be the televised interviews, I will be all dressed up and made beautiful, I won't look like myself and I'll have to put on an act. I have to pretend I'm ready for these games, but I know the other victors will try anything they can to get these games stopped, they're all angry, that's obvious, but it's no use because Snow will be adamant on having these games play out. That will be his mistake.

I eventually manage to sleep after hours of tossing and turning, I even got up to get a drink, but that didn't even help. But, after a while, I begin to slip into a void of nightmares and memories that I can't get out of until morning...