Silence [The Hunger Games]

Chapter Two

 I stared at the hole in the fence. I could escape I thought I have nothing here. I could just leave…

 I made my decision. I crouched in the grass, feeling a sense of de ja vu. My head went under the fence. Then my shoulders. Torso. Legs. Feet…I had made it. I was through. I stared at the stretch of forest ahead of me and considered my situation. I had nothing with me. I would have to get everything from beyond the District. Food. Water. Weapons. I suddenly wondered if I was doing the right thing.

 “Going somewhere?”

 My head whipped around. It was Logan Golding. His fingers were laced through the fence wire and he was grinning. His reaping clothes were simple, just black trousers and a white shirt. He had even tried to look scruffy, undoing several of his top buttons, his shirt hanging loose from his trousers and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows casually. His usually neat hair was ruffled, and it somehow suited him. I understood his need to look under groomed. If he was chosen for the Games, he didn’t want to come across as the wealthy kid. It would definitely make him a prime target.

 He had changed a lot since the day of my whipping. He was definitely a young man now, not a boy, and he had stubble on his jaw. He came across as less arrogant, but I wasn’t fooled. Everyone knew he was a flirt and a heartbreaker.

 In the four years since the whipping, we had hardly spoken. To be honest, I had avoided him. He had, for a short while, tried to strike a friendship with me, but my cold attitude had eventually driven him away. From then on, I only really saw him at important dinners that I attended with my father at the Golding household, and even then he always had some girl or another hanging on his arm.

 It suited me just fine.

 “May I join you?” he asked, with what I think was meant to be a seductive smile.

 “Do I look like I want company?”

 “If it’s mine, yes.”

 I couldn’t help smiling at his sheer arrogance. I turned away from him and began to walk towards the trees ahead.

 “Suit yourself,” I called before breaking into a jog. I heard Logan grunt as he struggled under the fence and the pounding of his feet as he caught up with me.

 “Wait up then!” he said breathlessly, “I’m not as fast as you are!”

 I stopped and gave him a small smile “You don’t get enough exercise. Now leave me alone. You should go back.”

 “So should you.”

 “I should. But I’m not going to. Ever.”

 “What?”

 “You heard me,” I said. I thought fondly of the day of the whipping when Logan had said the same to me. He smiled, remembering too, but I knew what was coming next. A pep talk.

 “Sit with me a minute. Before you ‘leave.’”

 I scowled, but sat against a tree trunk, where Logan joined me several seconds later.

 “What makes you want to leave here?”

 I shrugged “What makes you want to stay?”

 “My family. Friends. The food…”

 “Girlfriend?”

 “No,” he said with a frown.

 “Well, anyway. My family...they haven’t spoken to me in over a year. Since…well, they haven’t. Why would I stay for them? I have no friends, so scrap that. And the only decent food here is the stuff that I can’t afford.”