Love in Despair ~a Skephalo fanfic~ ✔️

VII

After dinner I decided to just go to bed. As in 'go to bed' I mean lay in bed and contemplate life. I thought about everything. Juniper and my mom. The blonde known as Tommy who volunteered. The guy from district one.
Why was he looking at me so much? Am I that easy of a target? Is he looking at me to find my weak spots? To plan how he's going to win against me?

The more I thought about him the more my stomach started to feel weird. Am I going to throw up?
I really want to talk to someone. Preferably my sister, but she's not her right now. So I decided to go with the next best person, or at least the only person that I could talk to at the moment.

"Zak? Why are you still up?" He asks as I walk into the living room.
"I couldn't sleep." I state sitting down next to them. Silence.
"Eret, I'm scared." I tell her, trying not to tear up. "I know." She says rubbing small, slow circles onto my back.

"Everyone is such a big threat, I'm definitely going to be out first." I say burying my face into my hands as Eret continued to rub circles onto my back.
"And I promised my sister I'd come home..." I add letting my voice trail off into silence.

"Let's just talk this out, shall we?" He suggests in a soft tone. I give a quick nod, signalling for him to continue.
"I believe in you Zak, I know you have potential. That's why I asked to be assigned to you when I saw your name had been drawn." She tells me.
"Wait, you did?" I ask in shock.
How can she, a literal serious mentor from Panem see potential in me, Someone who lives in district twelve where literally no one comes out of these games alive.

"Yes, you caught my eye." They continue. "Now, what makes you think you don't stand a chance?" He asks furrowing his eyebrows.
"Are you serious! Have you seen how all the other tributes look at me! Especially Badboyhalo from district one." I exclaim in shock getting goosebumps as I say his name.

"How does he look at you that makes him so different from the others?" She asks, clearly not noticing.
"All of training he kept glancing over at me, and when I would look back at him he would quickly look away! It's like he's trying to make out my weaknesses or something." I explain once again leaning back into the soft cushions of the black leather couch.

After a moment of silence he starts to laugh. It's a soft laugh, but I still feel offended. I didn't come to her to be laughed at. "Oh you oblivious child," She says between quiet giggles.
"You don't think I saw what he was doing? I have eyes everywhere." They tell me. "He wasn't giving you a threatening look, it looked like a look of intimation." She continues.

I raise my eyebrow in confusion.
"How about you go get some sleep." He says standing up to lead me back to my room.

I lay in bed, thinking over what Eret had said. Still extremely confused about what he had meant. Badboyhalo, scared of me? Sure.