𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐄 ▸ HUNGER GAMES [ 1 ]

NINE

NINE -

My mind is racing the entire journey up to the second floor.

Glimmer must have misheard him, it's the only explanation I'll accept. After all, she said she wasn't sure, and he could feasibly have been saying anything. If I know Cato, he was probably making fun of me. But when I try to think of insults that so much as vaguely match 'that's my girl' in likeness, my brain comes up with nothing.

There has to be a reason, something other than the words my ally thought she heard.

I bid Glimmer goodbye at her floor, and she follows Cashmere out of the elevator, leaving Sidonia and I to make the remainder of the journey alone. My mentor is trying to talk to me, but my brain is still trying to wrap my head around the situation, confused and even a little bit scared. Because however much I want to ignore it, there is a niggling feeling of hope in my chest that perhaps Glimmer wasn't imagining things.

I know I should just forget it, after all, on the train I was practically convinced that Cato had something going on with Aviva Grigson. And it would make sense – Aviva is beautiful, and her bright red hair is something of an anomaly in 2 which makes her instantly noticeable. People turn their heads to stare at Aviva whenever she crosses the floor of the Academy, and the idea of the son of the most infamous Victor in Panem dating the Mayor's daughter just seems to fit.

I am small and plain and the only time people compliment me is after they've seen me throw. The majority of exchanges between Cato and I, before this week, were deprecating comments hurled across the weapons studio at each other, sometimes followed by literal blades. I have never been 'his girl' nor have I ever been anyone else's.

Loren has had a few boyfriends over the years, mostly just idiots from the Academy who disappear on the wind as soon as something blonder, curvier, and more interesting graces their horizons, leaving my sister crying beneath her covers for a couple of days after. But I've never seen the point in it all. I don't have the time to pretend to be in love with somebody who will probably leave within the month, and frankly I've always been too dedicated to my training for that sort of thing.

Of course, it doesn't mean that I haven't thought people attractive in the past, or the present for that matter. But I would never act on it. He might be the most infuriatingly good looking boy in 2, but I'd sooner take the place of one of Cato's training dummies than tell him that to his face.

When Sidonia and I emerge into the apartment, I try my best to avoid Cato's eyes as I make my way towards my bedroom. I don't want to have to make conversation with him when he is at the forefront of my thoughts.

It takes Tallulah calling us to dinner for me to leave my room again, and even then I make sure to sit at the opposite end of the table to Cato, so I don't have to look at him as much throughout the meal.

Sidonia and Brutus congratulating us on our new alliance is a great distraction, and soon enough my head has been drained of thoughts of the golden boy and filled with flashbacks of the day's training session. I relay my assessment of Glimmer's all-round skills to Sidonia, who nods affirmatively as she picks at a pasta dish brought out by our Avoxes. Cato fills Brutus in on Marvel's talent with spears, and 1's apparent pleasure to be allied with us in the arena. Nobody mentions Cato's outburst at the boy from 6, nor my involvement to disperse it, much to my relief.

It takes a couple of chocolate tarts and a platter of fluffy white meringues like whipped clouds for me to realise that I am exhausted. After a day of practicing with weapons my body isn't used to, everything aches, and I'm ready for bed. Nobody protests as I leave the table and make my way down the corridor to my room. I change into the first pair of pyjamas I can find in the drawers full of strange clothes and I fall asleep quicker than a flash.