𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒕𝒖𝒔; 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒊𝒓

𝑩𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓

The carriages are off. Starting with District One, Gloss and Cashmere are first up. After a minute, Lilith and Silas are sent off. The crowd goes wild just from Lilith looking in their direction. She has a confident expression on her face, this seems to make the people like her, although they could just be staring at her body.

Instead of stopping in front of the podium President Snow sits at, the tributes loop around and begin to head back where they came from. As the District Two carriage passes the President, Lilith makes brief eye contact with the man. His soulless eyes staring at her. She sees a slight smirk on her face, and she slightly narrows her eyes. She then snaps her attention back to the crowd.

When they come to a stop, Lilith jumps off the carriage. She is about to walk away, when Silas stops her. She looks at him confused. Silas nods his head to the side. Lilith looks in that direction and sees Finnick looking at her.

"I'll just be a minute," Lilith mumbles to Silas before walking over to Finnick.

Once she reaches Finnick, she offers him a small smile. He returns the gesture.

"Nice outfit. Or lack there of," Lilith comments on Finnick's getup. She looks him over. His stylist didn't even bother to give him a shirt.

"Yeah, well look at you. Is that a bra or a top?" Finnick jokes back, tilting his head to the side.

Lilith lets out a small laugh. She shakes her head and looks down smiling. "Saw you talking to our 'Girl on Fire'. How'd that go?"

"Good conversation. Her nickname suits her," Finnick replies, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why's that?"

"She's always fired up," Finnick chuckles. "I'm serious. She basically jumped down my throat, and I was just trying to be polite."

"Oh, come on. You talked to her for the same reason I talked to Peeta," Lilith says.

"And what's that?"

"We don't think they're actually head over heels for each other," Lilith says in a low voice.

"Okay, you got me," Finnick huffs.

"I mean you watched last year's Games. Katniss didn't care about Peeta until they made that announcement saying there could be two victors," Lilith says. She's bitter about the allowance of two victors. She could've gotten out with William all those years ago. She wouldn't be haunted by his face every night.

"Even before the Games started she didn't care about him. The only time she showed the smaller amount of interest was clearly forced," Finnick rambles. He clearly seems annoyed about the two victors as well.

"Glad we're on the same page," Lilith declares.

"I guess I'm holding you up," Finnick says, looking over at Silas.

"Oh, he's fine," Lilith turns to look at Silas. "But, I guess I should go."

"See you in training," Finnick calls out as Lilith walk away.

Lilith turns her head back and shoots him a smirk. Silas and Lilith leave, and head to their apartment.

During dinner, the District Two posse eat in a comfortable silence. Lilith knows she should be mentally preparing for the Quell, but she has other things on her mind. A certain someone, to be exact.

"What are you smiling about, Lil?" Julia asks from across the table.

Lilith pops her head up, dropping the smile she didn't know she had. "What?"

"Thinking about something? Or someone?" Julia taunts jokingly.

"No," Lilith says dismissively.

"I think I know who it is," Silas chimes in.

"So, there's someone to think about?" Ember doesn't even try to hide her interest.

"I'm not thinking about anyone," Lilith groans, putting her head in her hands. She's lying, she knows she is.

There are just some things she can't admit, not in the world she lives in. The rest of her life is already decided; she can't make any last minute changes. Especially not one that involves her love life, that is surely set in stone for her. As long as things are the way they are, she can never admit she cares for Finnick, not even to herself.

If things were different, maybe she could, but they're not. Even if they were, she doesn't think she would. Secrets are all she has. She doesn't want those to be shared to the public, just like every other aspect of her life is. This is the age of The Hunger Games, and nobody is safe.