Clato: The forgotten love.

Chapter 10

This is a short chapter that I think you'll like!

Clove's POV:

Cato and I awkwardly embrace for a good 20 minutes, until he finally breaks away and goes to sit on my bed.

"Sorry," He says. I stare at him.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," he repeats. "I know we shouldn't be friends and I know I shouldn't have come here."

"No," I say "It's fine that you came here, Just..," I stop "I guess you're right, we really shouldn't be friends," I cross the room and meet him on the bed. We sit in silence for a few moments until a crying Kirsten appears in the doorframe.

"Kirsten what's wrong?" Cato asks, crossing the room to meet her, bending down to hug her small body. Kirsten cries into his shoulder.

"I'm scared Cato!" she cried out. I stand up, and walk toward them.

"Hey, hey it's ok," Cato says, trying to be quiet. I crouch down next to Cato and Kirsten

"No" I hear someone say, but it wasn't Cato or Kirsten. Cato must have heard it too, since he looks up. I look down the hall and see Emma standing there, holding Walker's small hand.

"Cato, we all know things are not ok," Emma says "Mom's sick, you two are going into the games, we barely have any money," She chokes on her words, trying to hold back tears.

"You're going to the games!?" Kirsten asks

"Emma.. it'll be fine," Cato's crying now too, silent tears trailing down his face. I don't know what to do, should I interfere? Should I let Cato handle it? I know I can't leave this on Cato.

"How about everyone comes into my bedroom," I step back, making space for them. "And you guys can just talk it out and cry or whatever." I don't know what i'm saying but Cato looks up at me, his eyes meet mine for a second and It takes all of me not to gasp.

"Clove's right, we need to talk," He stands up, holding Kirsten's hand. They both walk into the bedroom and awkwardly stand there, Emma and Walker follow them.

I pull a chair out from underneath my desk so someone can sit on it, but no one does. We stand there a moment.

"I can leave," I say, starting to walk toward the door.

"No," Cato says. "I need you to stay." This didn't make sense to me since he just told me we shouldn't be friends, but I was not about to leave him standing there alone. I sat down on the bed and looked up at Cato.

He sat down on the chair and looked at his siblings, then he started started talking. He explained how his mom was addicted and he'd been working as a bar tender, and about the hunger games. He talked about how they would need to stay strong and help mom when he went to the games, and that, if he didn't win, they should go to the "District 2's best pub" and ask for a Mrs. Levine to help them, he told them to tell her they were Cato's siblings.

When Cato finished talking, Kirsten was asleep on my lap and Emma and Walker sat on beanbags in the corner of my room, clearly tired. Cato's face was flushed and his eyes watered with unshed tears.

"I should probably go back to my room," Cato says, standing up and lifting Kirsten off my lap. I stand up too and follow him to the door. Walker and Emma go out behind me.

Cato sets Kirsten down on the bed and Emma crawls in next to her and Walker lays down on the other bed. Both seem to fall asleep almost immediately.

Cato climbs into the bed next to Walker and looks up at me.

"Thank you Clover," He says as I close the door and walk toward my room. 

Sorry it was so short, It was kinda like a filler chapter with some good plot points though. Main characters belong to Suzanne Collins (: