The Runaway Victor | Book II

Chapter Twenty-Five | Just Friends

Quinn jolted awake as soon as she heard a door close. Quinn looked up quickly, her sight blurry because she had only just woken up. The house was dark, no even the light from the moon shined into the house, probably because the curtains had been drawn and they were quite heavy. So she gave her eyes a moment to adjust to the dark, she could see a bit of light flooding under the door that she and Gale had hurried Orion through, but that was it. Then she could see the shape of Hannah on the floor still sleeping. Her eyes finally could focus on the table, and empty table. Orion was no longer there.

Quinn looked around frantically for a moment, until she put two together. She heard a door close, and Orion was gone. Quinn got up and hurried towards the door, hopefully catching Orion before he got to far. He wouldn't make it far though, she knew that. So when she got to the door, she opened the door as quietly as possible. She was expecting to maybe chase after him, but instead he had seated himself on the cement slab outside the door.

"You shouldn't be walking around." Quinn said as she stepped outside and pulled the door shut behind her.

"I'm not," he replied looking up at her as she sat down next to him. "I'm sitting."

She rolled her eyes, "Funny. But you know what I mean."

He shrugged, "It's stuffy in there, I wanted some fresh air." he said, "Did I wake you?"

"The door woke me up when you shut it." she replied. The moon was in fact out, because she could see that Orion had been given a clean shirt and jacket. Probably someone Gale had.

"Sorry 'bout that." he sighed.

Quinn shrugged, "It's okay." she told him, "So are you feeling alright?"

He was quiet.

"Orion?"

He sighed heavily, "I guess I just thought running away from the Capitol would...disconnect me with my grandpa." he shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"They called me Mr. Snow," he replied looking down at her. "I guess I started to forget it was my last name."

Quinn looked away from him and at the ground between her feet. She understood why he was upset. No matter how hard he tried to be different than his grandfather, he would always be connected to the name Snow. He would always be family to Snow, he had the same blood running through his veins than President Snow had. For a while, the fact that Orion was a Snow was in the back of her mind. He was just Orion, he wasn't Orion Snow the Presidents Grandson. But now that she was reminded of it, the thought of sitting next to someone with the same DNA as the man that put her in the arena and did everything he could to kill her made her blood boil and stomach turn into knots.

"Change it then." Quinn replied, "Nothing stopping you..."

He shrugged, "It doesn't matter that much." he stated, "It's the least of my worries." he said with a small chuckle, in a attempt to lighten the mood.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"I started out with a group of five." he frowned, "Ciruss is in the Capitol, Wades' dead, Jules and Marcus could possibly be dead because I let them go of on their own. Then we got the Bensons, and Kal's dead."

"But people are going to die no matter what," Quinn said quickly. "And they all knew what they signed up for. They all knew your-- President Snow," she corrected herself, "would try to kill them if he knew they were with me." she explained, "You shouldn't blame yourself, if I wasn't the rebel victor you wouldn't have had to come to Four. You could have gone right to Thirteen."

"I never would have run away," Orion replied, "You need to get used to it, you are the reason this rebellion started. And that's a good thing."

"Then don't put blame on yourself for what happened." Quinn stated, "It happened, can't change it."

"Is that what all Victors say?"

Quinn stared at him.

"Do they actually try to just move on?"

"The games are different, Orion. We all killed people." she replied, as if it was something obvious. "You can't just move on from something like that."

"And being responsible for getting a group to Thirteen and losing all of them is supposed to be easier to move on from?" he asked, raising an eyebrow sharply.

"I didn't mean it like that," Quinn defended herself with a long sigh. "But I get what you're saying."

The two of them remained quiet for a moment. Sitting behind the Hawthornes house in the cool night air, sitting on the cold cement. It was peaceful, but the thought that they could get caught by peacekeepers at any moment was enough to ruin it.

"Why didn't you and Hannah just leave? You could be in Thirteen right now."

"Because I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about you." she shrugged. That was the truth, she wouldn't have been able to live with herself if she hadn't even tried to help him. When she looked back at him she saw him looking directly back at her, with an eyebrow raised slightly. "As a friend. We are friends, aren't we?"

He nodded with a sigh, "Yeah, just friends."