Shades of Gold and Blue | Finnick Odair

Four

I find myself fighting the urge to take a glance at Finnick, who I can hear laughing loudly as the girls surrounding him giggle and whisper things in his ear. After an hour or so when Cashmere is talking to Laelia, Priscilla and I about a highly anticipated fashion show we'll all be going to in July, I can't bear it anymore and give in to the magnet which seems to pull my eyes towards Finnick.

When I do, I wish I hadn't because he's looking right at me as the girls around him caress and kiss him. The second he sees me looking he downs the last of his drink, stands up without a word to the girls who pout as he walks away and moves across the circle straight over to me.

He looks devilishly handsome in his plain white shirt and dress pants, with some kind of shell necklace laced loosely around his neck. No one could deny that he's attractive. No, trash that, Finnick Odair couldn't be described as anything other than beautiful. I couldn't really blame the girls who throw themselves at him every time he's near. He radiates charm.

I have to force myself to calm down as he approaches and holds out his hand. I remind myself that I don't like him, I just like how he looks and those are two very different things, "Care to dance Angel?"

"What, now?"

I look onto the dance floor and listen to the sensual music that's playing, everyone dancing is pressed together like sardines and rubbing against each other. Out of all the songs that could have been playing, he had to ask me when this one was on?

"Well, they say there's no time like the present." He gives me one of his dashing smiles and takes my hand irrespective of the fact that I didn't offer it and leads me to the dance floor.

I'm a good dancer; it comes from years of ballet and the Mansion instructors teaching us any new dances in the Capitol, I even know some of the district dances. But as Finnick leads me into the middle of the crowd and pulls me flush against him, I forget how to move for a second.

It takes a while for us to get used to each other, and to work out how the other moves but soon we're dancing away. He twirls me around at one point so my back is against his front and I blush as I realise how close we are and I feel his mouth close to my neck, his breath dancing over it. I think he loves knowing what effect he has on people and knows exactly how to use it to make everyone fall head over heels for him and he smirks as he spins me back around to face him and sees my still-red cheeks.

Someone knocks into me and I stumble closer to Finnick so that we're only centimetres away from each other's faces. His signature smirk broadens, "If you wanted to kiss me you could have just asked."

I cock an eyebrow, "I thought we established this morning that I don't want anything to do with you."

"Is that why you couldn't keep your eyes off me over there? Or why you blushed when you were against me?" He laughs as I struggle for an answer, "It's okay Angel, I have that effect on everyone."

"Stop calling me that!"

He chuckles but looks as though he doesn't really know what he's laughing at after a couple of seconds, "You don't like it?"

"No, I don't. You don't give pet names to people you've just met - it's odd."

"Don't be ridiculous, we met years ago. You wanted my autograph remember? You had on that pretty dress and you did your makeup for the first time just to meet me, if I didn't know any better I'd say you had a crush on me." His eyes glimmer with mischief as my eyes almost bug out of my head. I cannot believe he remembers that! "No need to be embarrassed angel, like I said, I have that effect on everyone."

I scoff in an attempt to hide my embarrassment although I'm sure it's evident on my face well enough, "We all make mistakes when we're young, I clearly wasn't aware of how big your ego is back then."

The song changes to a more upbeat song, one that we don't have to be pressed together for and although I want nothing more than to go and sit down and wallow in the embarrassment of my adolescent attempts to win Finnick Odair's affections back when he had first won his games, I refuse to back down. And so we continue dancing - we jump and sway and twirl and I only stop a few songs later when Finnick's movements become lethargic and confused.

I furrow my brows as I look at his eyes and see they can't seem to focus on anyone or anything all of a sudden. "Finnick, are you okay?" He replies to me but his words begin to slur as he does and I can't make a word out of what he's saying. "Finnick? What have you been drinking?" I try and catch someone's attention from the group as Finnick begins to become heavy against my body, he's still conscious but I'm worried he's about to collapse.

They're all too busy drinking and flirting to notice us and so I have to stumble across the floor supporting Finnick and grab an Avox who helps me walk him out. Once we get to the front of the building, the doorman Atlas holds Finnick while I call the driver for the car to come and get me. We push Finnick out of the view of the door, it wouldn't be fair on him to have this plastered all over every magazine in Panem.

Atlas looks to me, "What has he had?"

"I don't know, he was fine and then he wasn't."

Atlas pulls a face and speaks into his communicuff, "Jason, can you check the surveillance on Mr Odair's glass?" We wait a moment and I look at Finnick, he's rolling his head around as if he can't see where he is but his eyes are barely open. He's sweating a lot too, despite the fact that it's early March.

The man on the other end of the communicuff is back, "I can confirm that a tablet was slipped into Mr Odair's drink – it looks like a Jacker to me."

I look at Atlas with a disbelieving look, "How would someone even get something like that?"

He sighs, "They're hard to get a hold of, I guess you just have to know the right people."

Jackers had been a big problem a couple of years ago but as far as I knew they were practically unavailable now. They were small tablets that held a trace amount of Tracker Jacker venom in them, they weren't enough to make you hallucinate but they did make you severely inebriated. Enough for someone to take advantage of a person.

Soon the car is here and with help from Atlas and another one of the doormen, we manage to get him out without anyone really seeing. They wouldn't have been able to tell it was Finnick anyway.

I turn to Atlas as he holds the door open for me and smile, "Thank you for all of your help Atlas."

"Not a problem."

"What about the perpetrator?"

He gives me a smile, "Already dealt with – Florentine Wicknott has been given a two-year ban from Rubie's. We take this kind of thing very seriously Miss Snow."

"Good," and with that I climb into the car and he closes the door after me. I turn to look at Finnick laying down on the leather chairs and pull down the screen so I can talk to the driver, "Julian, I'll be going to my university apartment tonight. Not home."

"Very good Miss," he pulls the window back up and I feel the car glide into action, taking us somewhere safe for the night.

How's this for a quick update? And to make up for going such a long time without uploading, I will be adding another chapter tonight as well. Thank you so much for reading!

C