The Hunger Games: Entropy (A Clato Fanfiction: NTI Series, Book 2)

Chapter 44

CLOVE’S POV

I wake up in a groggy state with slightly blurry vision to find my mentor standing in the middle of the doorway.

“What’s going on in here?” a sharp voice rings through the area and my head. “Do you realize what time it is?”

I rub my eyes and stretch my arms before Enobaria’s stern face looms over mine, forcing me to wake all the way up from my apparent slumber. I lean to the left to find Cato sleeping on the other side of the bed with his head facing away from me.

OH SHIT…WHAT AM I DOING IN CATO’S ROOM?!

Here comes the inevitable punishment.

“Clove,” she exhales in exhaustion, “Even though you’re late, you’re not in trouble. I’m not going to bother asking you about what happened in here last night. I don’t care what’s going on between you two unless it’s jeopardizing someone’s safety. Just make sure that Prince Charming gets up on time for the appearance today.”  She closes the door and leaves me hanging without saying anything else.

I’m late? What did I do last night?

I lift up the sheets and assess the situation. I don’t ever recall such a thing happening, but both my shirt and my pants have somehow gone missing. That’s not good.

I may have two articles of clothing still on, but I’m not proud of it. Only bad things can happen when I realize that realize that I’m somehow a part of a partial strip tease. I must have really overslept last night.

Despite how bad this situation looks, I must admit that I slept better last night than I have in weeks, months even. I spent long nights cooped up in my room before we left and the past few days worrying about how the Capitol will evaluate us when we conduct the final interview. I don’t know what happened, but I must have suffered from insomnia for the last few months. If not that, my health must have taken a turn for the worst. Either way, I ended up in here last night. I really need to get to sleep earlier more consistently.

Last night feels like a total blur. Things got intense too quickly, so I must have lost track of both time and space. I know that we didn’t go all the way last night, but things got hot, steamy and passionate. I guess I got too carried away and lost control of myself.

I can’t explain myself when I say this, but I actually liked it. For some reason, it felt like letting go of a burden I carried for far too long—as if I was a pack mule for an inexplicably long time. It doesn’t feel right saying this, but I think I needed it.

No, no, no… this is very wrong. Cato and I did something very stupid last night. I don’t know what came over me or why he decided to push his luck. I still don’t understand how or why I gave in to letting him barge into my side of the bed. I don’t even know why I decided to come crawling in here last night! This is pathetic.

The only thing this can lead to is us getting sloppy with the few remaining appearances. This was a terrible mistake that never should have happened in the first place. If Cato even thinks that he’s going to do this again, let alone get away with it, it’s not happening. How I managed to end up almost completely undressed in his bed is beyond me.

In the long run, it doesn’t matter how the story goes, as long as the Capitol never finds out about this. Someone’s going to pay if they spill the beans and make me look like the delicate little flower that I’m not with their sappy and tasteless caricatures. Nothing good can come out of the word getting around and people getting the wrong idea about it.  

I emerge from the bed in my almost-birthday suit and retrieve my clothes from the floor, throwing them back on as quickly as possible. I’m going to face Cato when right when he wakes up so I can maintain as much of my dignity as possible. I don’t even hesitate to violently shake him awake and end his peaceful sleep, even though he clearly doesn’t have a shirt on.