The Hunger Games : A change

Chapter 7

I finish my breakfast at nine fifty in the morning and get up.
"Where are you going?" Peeta asks.
"I'm going to spend my day with someone," I say.
"Cato?"
"Yeah."

I get into the elevator and press the button that will bring me to the roof. Cato is there already, I check my watch, it's ten o' five in the morning. I'm five minutes late, thanks to Peeta. Cato smiles when he sees me. I sit next to him on the bench.
"I thought you weren't going to show up or your mentor didn't give you my note," he says.

"He did, I just had to deal with Peeta. Did you see his interview?" I say.
"Unfortunately, yes," he says.
"Cato, are you jealous?"
"Of Peeta? Pfft. No."
"Good. Because you have me."

Cato places his hand on the left side of my jaw and makes me face him, lightly. He brushes his lips against mine, but I don't let him go farther because I'm nervous and I've never been kissed or have kissed anyone. I can tell that I hurt him and I feel really bad about it.

"I'm sorry, I've never been kissed before," I say, looking down.
"It's okay," he says.
He lifts my head, by raising my chin, and he kisses me. I don't want him to give his life for me in that arena. I wonder if Peeta is thinking of doing the same thing, even though I don't have feelings for him... He's still my friend and from my District.

Maybe Cato is lying, maybe he just wants to catch me off guard and kill me. He's a freaking Career! How could I trust him? But he did confess in front of all of Panem, so if he kills me... all of Panem would know he's a liar. I can trust him.

We pull away for air.
"Why would you give your life for me?" I ask him.
"Because I'm in love with you," he says.
"I don't want to die for me, when did you find out that you had to make me live?"
"When I saw how beautiful you were in the interviews. And I found out how nice you were."

I'm nice? Did he not just hear what he just said to me? If Cato gave his life for me, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life, which might not be that long. Because there are other people in the Games.

"Katniss, don't go to the Cornucopia," he says to me.
"I need a weapon," I say.
"I'll get you a bow, a quiver of arrows and a bag."