Victory - Cato Hadley

chapter eleven

I start the day with the worst headache ever. The concussion is really sucking the life out of me. I'm not planning on going to school today though. It's the last day before training-week starts. I'll go to training though. They need me or they won't survive five minutes in there. All Enobaria and Brutus teach this kids is how to fight but they have no clue of basic survival skills. It's almost sad. 
I hear someone speaking to my mother in the hallway. About a minute later the door opens, revealing a tall, blonde guy.
"How are you?" he asks me.
"I'm fine. You?" I ask. 
"Could be better" he says, and chuckles. He goes to close the door behind him, when I notice the bruise on the left side of his face.
"What happend?" I ask him concerned.
"Nothing. Just training" he says, shrugging it off. I look at the corners of his mouth, they're twitching.
"You're lying" I say. The look on his face looks a little panicking.
"No, no I'm not" he says nervously.
"Cato, I know you're lieing. You don't need to tell me though" I say, and softly smile at him. He smiles back and sits down next to me on the bed. I open my arms for him and he lays down into my lap. We continue sitting there like that for what feels like forever.

"Athena, are you still mad at me?" he suddenly asks. I stop stroking his hair. 
"I don't think so. I'm still a little hurt but not really. Why?" He turns around to look at me.
"Because I am. I did this to you. You broke your fucking wrist because of me" he says with a guilty feeling voice.
"It's okay, Cato. It was a missunderstanding. I just don't want it to happen again. Why were you even walking with her that night?"
"She ran up to me and started talking to me. We're neighbours, so I couldn't just walk away because I knew she'd follow me. I just nodded or shook my head all the time. I didn't really care about what she said. And then all of a sudden she just kissed me. I was shocked and I couldn't move. I couldn't even believe it myself that she would do that. And when I looked to my left, I saw you. That woke me up and I pulled away" he says, and closes his eyes. I can tell he feels bad. 
"It's okay. She's a total bitch and if I see her today in training and she says something stupid, she's dead" He looks at me a little angry, and sits up straight.
"You are not coming to training" he says.
"Yes I am. You need someone to teach you guys"
"We have my father" Cato says. His father has been giving them training for the past three days.
"Yeah, no offense, but he has no clue how the arena really is. He just sees what the Capitol wants him to see. With him, you're dead" I say. Cato's dad has never won the hunger games. He is lead peacekeeper in district two though. He has a lot of fighting skills and that but nothing more. Fighting is not everything you need to surive.
"Okay but you still have a concussion" he says.
"I could care less. Come on. It's four hours, how bad can it be?" I ask with a smile.
"Okay but let me take you there okay? And I'll bring you home again" he says.
"Alright," I say. "Now lay back down"
He does as I say and lays back down in my lap. I continue stroking his hair. I even keep on going as he falls asleep. He looks exhausted. I don't know if it's my fault. I shouldn't have run of, that was a stupid thing to do. But what he did to me was even more stupid. I can feel he's sorry though. He's easy to see through. 

...

We get woken up by my mother. 
"Don't you two need to go to training?" she asks, standing in the door.
"What time is is?" I ask her still half asleep.
"Ten to three" she says.
"Fuck" I mumble under my breath and wake up Cato, who's still peacefully sleeping in my lap. 
"Cato, we got to get to training. We're already late" I say.
He looks at me with a sleepy look but gets up fastly. I get up and put on my training clothes. I put a hoodie over my shirt. Hopefully it'll hide the cast a little better. I'm deemed to wear it for the next feew weeks. We walk down the stairs and walk out of the house. 
"I can't walk that fast Cato" I say almost fainting. 
"Sorry" he says, and helps me walk. He puts one of my arms around his waist and puts his arm around my shoulders. The walk there takes around fifteen minutes.