Are The Odds In Our Favor? ~Cato~

9. Stars

"Hey," says Cato.

"Hey," I say back, biting my lip. "Why do you have that blanket?"

"Well, when my prep team was getting me ready for the opening ceremony, I overheard them talking, that tonight the whole Capitol will turn off all the power and go stargazing, and I thought you'd enjoy it," he answers, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"Really?" I say, smiling at him and walking closer.

"If you don't want to do this I don't care, we can do something else."

"I do want to do this," I reassure him. I never knew Cato was such a romantic guy.

"Okay," he says happily. He spreads the blanket on the floor, sits down and pats the blanket next to him with his hand, beckoning me to sit down.

I walk towards him and sit down.

"So, when is this thing supposed to start?" I ask. The lights are still on in the whole city.

"About two minutes from now, I think," he answers.

We sit in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, all the lights go out at once and we're surrounded by complete darkness, except for the stars shining above us.

We lie down on the blanket and Cato puts his arm around me. We could never do this at home. There were always lights on everywhere. I stare up at the sky as the stars twinkle and shine brightly.

"I saw you got a nine in the assessment. That's a really good score, congrats," says Cato.

"Thanks," I say back. "You also got a good score, so... congrats too."

"Thanks," he mimicks my answer and starts to laugh. I also start laughing soon after. This is a weird conversation.

"Cato?"

"Yeah?" he says.

"What's gonna happen to us when we go into the games?"

He pauses for a bit. "I don't know to be honest."

"Well, are we going to try to forget everything and just avoid each other?"

"I guess, but that's going to be kinda hard," he says.

"Yeah," I say.

"I just," he continues with a sigh,
"I just don't want it to end up just you and me in the end, 'cause then we'd be fucked."

"Yeah," I say again.

"Well, I'm gonna be with the other careers, and you? Do you have any plans for like alliances or something?"

"No, not really," I say and sit up. "I never really talked to anyone else except you, Rade and Lacey, and I'm definitely not gonna form an alliance with her."

"Yeah, I guess not," he chuckles and also sits up. "What about Rade? He seems like a cool guy."

"Well, I never really thought about him being my ally. We never discussed it and we're not really good friends or anything."

"Oh," he sighs.

"Do you think I could join the careers?"

"What?" He gasps in astonishment.

"Yeah, why not? I'd have better chance of surviving than if I'd be alone. Plus, you're all strong and... stuff."

"Yeah, I.. umm," he stutters, shaking his head.

"I'm kidding," I laugh at his shock. "They would probably kill me in my sleep."

"Unfortunately, they probably would," he says, shaking his head and smiles at me.

His eyes flick from my eyes to my lips and I know what he's about to do. He leans towards me and kisses me softly on my lips. I return it and sit up more straight, but Cato pushes me down, so I'm lying on the blanket with him on top of me.

"Oh. My. God!"

I sit up abruptly an whip my head around, and see Lacey, standing at the door, gaping at us.

"Lacey, what are you doing here?" I say, trying to act like nothing happened.

"OMG! I never would've guessed. You two? After your little speech yesterday I thought you weren't interested. Too bad for me I guess, I was thinking of getting him."

"I've noticed that," I say. She ignores my comment.

"Well, are you gonna tell anyone?" asks Cato in a serious tone.

"Who knows?" she says, pretending to think.

"Lacey, c'mon, you can't tell anyone." I plead.

"Fine," she sighs, "but you have to promise me something."

"Okay, what?" says Cato.

"Well, you have to promise not to kill me in the games," she replies.

"Umm, okay," I say.

"Okay," she says. "Well, I better get going now, let you do your thing."
She smirks and walks back through the door and shuts it behind her.

We both sigh in relief.

"That girl is crazy," says Cato.

"Yep, Lacey's one crazy girl," I say.

"Will we keep our promise?" asks Cato, lying back down and propping himself up on his elbow.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if it ended up being me and her, I wouldn't exactly sacrifice myself just because she didn't tell anyone about us," he says.

"Yeah, but I guess we wouldn't exactly target her either," I say, lying down and mimicking his position.

"Well, I wasn't planning on that, but if she gets in the way, then too bad for her."

"And if she tells on us?" I ask him.

"Then she's as good as dead," he answers.

I pick at the loose threads on the blanket and yawn.

"Are you tired?" asks Cato.

"Mhm, a little," I nod my head.

"C'mon, let's get you to bed," he stands up, offers me his hand and pulls me up to my feet.

"This was pleasant, thank you for doing this," I tell him while he's rolling up the blanket.

"No problem, I enjoyed it too," he smiles and takes my hand.

We walk through the door and down the stairs to my floor. We stop in front of the door. I stand on my toes and kiss Cato lightly. He kisses back and pulls me closer to him.

"Goodnight," I say after pulling away.

"Goodnight," he replies.

I go back to my room and change into my pyjamas. I get into bed and fall asleep easily.