Chapter Sixteen

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"I just got here. Hurry up!" I say sternly into the phone. I close the door to the cab and walk up to the front door of the restaurant.

"I'm trying! I was at the gym and had to take a shower. Do you want me to stink during our lunch?" Alexander asks back. I roll my eyes and get a table.

"Just hurry up. I got us a table."

"I want water." He tells me.

"Coke it is." I say before hanging up. I hear him groan before I do so.

When the waitress comes to the table, I get two glasses of water. Alexander gets to the table just as she brings them out.

He smiles at me from across the table and picks up a menu. He scans over it, and orders some kind of chicken stuff. I order pasta, and the waitress takes away our menus.

"So..." Alexander begins. "How has your off days been?"

"I've slept a lot. And gone from interview to interview. Lots of those." I say with a laugh.

Over the past week of off days, I have gone to 14 interviews. Many interviews are of course about my role as Clove, but some didn't even really talk about that.

When Alexander films his death scene in two days, we will be done filming. Then, while the film is in editing, we will begin the mall tour. They just released the trailer for the movie yesterday, and that has already gotten tons of hits. Everyone is already going crazy over it.

"How has your off days been? I haven't seen you at all. The only times I see you is when you decide to stop by the trailer..." I say, trailing off. All of our stuff should be packed up and ready to go back to the hotel by next week. I'm kind of sad; it's all over now.

"Oh, I've been working out. Trying to build up some muscle, you know?" he says with a smirk. He takes a sip of his water and stares at me.

I roll my eyes at him and unwrap one of the straws lying on the table. I push the wrapper down to the bottom to where it is in a tight coil, and then put a drop of water on it. The small coil grows larger at the drop.

Alexander laughs a little in amazement at that.

"Never seen that before?" I ask with a smile.

He shakes his head. "I think I'm going to get the costume people to rip my shirt all up for the mutt scene so the fans can see my abs."

I laugh at him, and remember the prank he pulled on me a week before when I had to text him all of those directions. My thumbs were sore for two days! I forgot about it, and haven't gotten him back. I know how much he cares about going to the gym...

"Gary said you can't do that already. It was recommended, but he shot it down." I tell him, forcing back a smile.

"What?!" he asks, clearly shocked.

"Yeah," I begin, "he said you were losing muscle tone."

Alexander looks as if he is about to cry, and stands up from the table. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"I better go hit the gym." He says. I hold up my hands in defense.

"Just joking! I swear!" I say and laugh this time. He looks upset and sits back down.

"You sure I'm not losing muscle tone?" he asks with a sad look. I laugh again, and he scowls at me. I try and calm down.

"Yes, Xander, you are not losing muscle tone." I tell him.

"So, do I look good?" he asks. My face goes red, and I see him smirk.

Yes, I think. You look fantastic.

"Uh...sure." I answer. I turn my head downwards so he can't see my reddening face.

"Aw, thanks. You look good too." He says.

I snatch my head up and stare at him. Now it is him that is turning red from embarrassment.

"I mean-uh-fitness. You look real...fit I guess." He says awkwardly. I want to laugh at his awkwardness, but just smile instead.

"Thanks." I say with a small laugh. He turns his head down to his phone.

Our food comes out, and I begin eating at the pasta. Alexander nearly eats all his plate in 5 minutes. I just pick at mine, but realize I am not very hungry.

When we both decide we are done, I get a to-go box to put my food in. I try to pay for my own, but Xander won't let me and gets the check. When we walk out the door to the restaurant, we decide to walk down the block for a while.

I quickly realize that it was a very bad idea to go in the book store for a few minutes. Alexander takes a moment to look at a movie edition of The Hunger Games, but when he does, I hear a shriek.

"Cato!" the high pitched voice yells. Xander snatches his head up and we both see the group of girls.

"And Clove!" They proclaim. They all hold movie edition copies of the book.

I grab ahold of Alexander's arm, ready to go out the door. But instead, he pulls me over to the group of girls.

"Hey!" he says when we approach them. They all squeal, and I think a few of them start crying.

"Can we have-"

"Of course!" Xander exclaims, pulling out a pen. I take a pen off the counter beside me and begin signing messages in the copies that are handed to me.

Some of them have us write special messages. Others make us write quotes from our character. All in all, it was actually kind of fun.

When Alexander and I finally sign all of the girls' books, they decide that they want to take pictures with us. Which I am completely okay with; I don't have anything better to do.

Some want pictures with just Xander, and some want pictures with just me. All of them want pictures with the both of us.

One girl is crying so hard that she can't get a picture. So, Alexander goes over to her and wraps his arms around her. I hug her from the other side, and someone snaps a picture.

The group breaks up and looks at our signatures and pictures with them.

"Oh my god, thank you so much!" one of them says. I smile. I could definitely get used to this.

"Oh it's no problem!" Alexander answers for the both of us.

"This means so much!" one of the others say.

"Aww, I'm so glad. Well, I hope you guys like the movie!" I tell them.

We decide to give them all one last hug before walking out of the bookstore.

When we get out, we head back down the block to the restaurant. We call a cab, and pile in the back seat when it arrives.

It's not a long drive back to the camp. But when we get back, almost no one is there. I see that Leven and Jackie's trailer lights are on, and so are mine. But the lights in Alexander's trailer are off.

"Dayo and Jack went out with a couple of girls or something." Alexander says.

I walk towards his trailer with him. "You didn't want to go?"

He thinks for a minute, and then smiles. "I guess I would rather hang out with you than a couple of hot girls."

I take it both as a compliment and an offense, but just smile at him instead. When we reach the porch of his trailer, I decide to head back and go to my own.

"So I guess I don't count as a hot girl?" I joke at him before he closes the door. I expect him to laugh, but he frowns a little.

"It would be offensive to categorize a beautiful girl as a hot girl." Alexander states before shutting the door.

I stand frozen on his porch, my face turning red. I can't help but smile.

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