The Taste of Death ~ Hunger Games- Finnick Odair/OC FanFiction

Chapter 63

I promised I would have a 2nd update today and I kept it!!! 

If you do like this chapter, remember to vote and comment!

As always, take care and stay safe! ~ CANGEL

***

Scarlet Wolfe

     Scarlet should have braced herself for his inevitable approach. Tonight, as they found themselves in the same vicinity yet again, she should have anticipated his presence at her side at some point tonight. They always seemed to find themselves face to face as if unable to stay apart.

     Though Scarlet couldn't exactly say that their exchanges were unpleasant, and, when considering the more recent ones, Scarlet might have been tempted to say that they were friendly and playful in nature. Regardless, the encounters always left her feeling more unsettled than before, leaving her to wish that they had never occurred in the first place.

     That was why she'd hoped to avoid him tonight.

     But as Finnick Odair quickly closed the distance between them, Scarlet realized that in the passing time, she'd thought they wouldn't cross paths tonight and now she was no where near ready for their normal verbal sparing match.

     Finnick carried himself as he normally did, his wide smile showcasing his pearly white teeth and his head up with his chest out confidently. With his flawless golden skin on display for the Capitol guests present tonight, much to their delight.

     For once this evening, he wasn't accompanied by anyone else as he carried a drink with him in each hand as he headed in her direction.

     She could turn and walk away. Though her eyes had met his seconds ago and there was no pretending she hadn't seen him. He'd let her. But choice itself held her there, rooted, the weight of it pressing as he stopped beside her, a respectable distance between them, holding out one of the drinks he carried.

     Her gaze flickered up to his before lowering to the drink held out to hers. She took it without a protest, though she had no intention of drinking it. Her body still buzzed from the last drink she'd consumed, and she could not afford to lose any more control.

      "Now that you've scared away the last emboldened drunk admirer of yours, is there anyone left who likes you?"

     Scarlet read the words on his lips with ease, despite the fact that she could recall him nearly always having a drink in hand throughout the entire evening. Either some of those drinks weren't alcoholic, or Finnick's tolerance was just well built. Annoyance flickered in, with the realization that she'd apparently kept track of his whereabouts more than she'd thought.

     Now that Finnick was in front of her, Scarlet could see that something was not quite right with him. He smiled, his back straight and his chin held high with pride and arrogance, and nothing he did was particularly un-Finnick-like, yet all of him seemed not exactly right and a bit off.

     She wasn't sure if it was for this reason, or if it was the drink still buzzing through her own veins, but she found herself answering him with far more honesty than she ever would have any other day.

     "I have a younger brother back home that does."

      Tension crackled between them, thick with her truthful words hanging between them. Finnick's smile faltered for the briefest moment, his green eyes betraying a flicker of something raw beneath the carefully crafted façade reminding her that Finnick wore a mask. He was so much better than her about keeping it in place. Was the wrongness she felt coming from him, a glimmer of something stirring underneath? Something he was trying hard to hide?