Victory - Cato Hadley

chapter ten

Cato's POV

I walk down the halls of our school. My hair is messy and I have huge, black bags under my eyes. I wasn't able to sleep for the whole night. The guilt has been eatin me up from the inside out. I never wanted for her to find out that way. At first it was like Lavender said, but it didn't take me long to actually care for her. When I found her behind her house, the night me, my father and my brother ate dinner at their's. When I saw her sitting there crying, scared out of her mind. Mumbling something. That's when I wanted to know more about her. I wanted to get to know the true her. I wanted to know everything about her. 
I screwed up. I know. I should've told her earlier. I shouldn't have even agreed on doing this in the first way. She deserves more than me. I'm such a fucking idiot. 

I walk straight past my friends, ignoring them calling my name. I open my locker and look at one of the pictures I have there. It's from the party. We're dancing together. She looks happy. 
I sigh, closing my locker again and walk to my first class. I look up and see Athena isn't there. She hasn't been to school a lot the past few weeks but never in the morning. I sit down and look over at Dolion. It takes a bit of courage but I eventually walk over to him.
"Where is she?" I ask him.
"I don't know. Nobody's seen her since last night. Not even her brother and her mother" he says. He looks like he had a sleepless night too.
"What do you mean?"
"She wasn't at home this morning. We have no clue where she is" he says.
"Fuck" I mutter and pick up my bag. I just want to walk out the classroom when our teacher enters the room. 
"Where are you going mister Hadley?" he asks me.
I have no time answering him and run past him. Quickly, I put my bag in my locker and run out the school. I need to find her. What did she think running off like that? The distirct isn't very big so she can't have gone too far. Then my thoughts start connecting. The fence. I took her up to this picknick and we went out the fence. What if she found out where that was and went to the other side. It's all my fault. 

Athena's POV

I open my eyes to see the clouds above me. I brush my finger over the tip of my nose. A waterdrop fell down and woke me up. I get up onto my elbows and look around. I know where I am. Our first date. Pathetic how I came up here when he did this to me. I shouldn't have came here. But that was the only place giving me peace. I had my best time ever here with the person I love the most. Do I love Cato? I have no clue to be honest. I did loose my virginity to him though. I have never been interested in boys other than Cato. He has always been the one to me but unfortunately he doesn't think that way about me. A few more waterdrops start falling and soon it turns into full rain. One of these summer thunderstorms. I hold my head up high, feeling every drop hit my skin. I go to stand up but flinch, when my hand touches the ground. My wrist is swollen and bruised. It hurts a lot. I think about last night again. 

"Fuck!" I shout and start smashing things. My pictures, a few trophies, everything gets smashed into pieces. How could I be so stupid and belive him? Nobody could ever love me. Not even my own mother does. I need to get out of here.
I take a jacket from my closet and run down the stairs. I open the door and run outside. I just keep running and running until my feet can't take it anymore. I fall to the ground and fall down a hill. My whole body's hurting. I try to get up but flinch. May wrist must be broken. I do somehow manage to get up and keep walking.

That's all I remember. My head is hurting like crazy. Must be a concussion or something. I decide to just lie back down again. My head starts spinning everything starts getting blurry. Nobody knows I'm here. How should they? 
That's all until I hear footsteps.
"Athena!" I hear someone shout. The person keeps coming closer.
"I'm here" I mumble trying to stay awake. I say it over and over again until my vision goes black. I sense someone picking me up, that's when I loose consciousness

Cato's POV

I run into the doctor's office. It's rather small but he's a very good doctor. I've been here a few times before, when I broke something in training or when my father broke something again. She's unconscious. 
"Lay her down here" the doctor says, and I lay her down on the bed. She has a few cuts in her face, a few heavy bruises on the rest of her body and her wrist looks really badly.
"What happend?" he asks.
"I don't know. I found her like that" I say slightly freaking out. He shoves me out of the room and closes the door behind him. I decide to let him do his job and sit down on one of the chairs. It takes about an hour before he comes back outside. I stand up and walk over to him.
"Is she okay?" I ask.
"Yes she is. Her wrist is broken and she has a concussion but she should be fine. You can take her home in about an hour. A nurse is just doing some checkups on her but after that. You can take her home"

...

It takes actually two hours before she comes out. She looks terrible.
"What are you doing here?" she asks trying to walk past me. She almost falls but I catch her.
"Taking you home" I say and put one of her arms around my shoulder.
"You don't need to. I can do this by my own" she says trying to push me off but she's too weak.
"Come on. Let me take you home. You can hate me later again" I say and she looks at me sadly. 
"I could never hate you" she says sadly. I decide to talk to her again at home. It's not a long walk until we reach her home.

"Oh my god, Cato. You found her" her mother squeels. She looks like she's been cooking. Not really like searching her missing daugther.
"Yes. She has a broken wrist and a concussion" I say and carry her inside. We push past her mom and I pick her up and carry her up the stairs. I shut the door behind us before her mom is able to walk inside. 
I'm a little shocked when I walk inside. Everything's smashed. Everything's on the floor. It's all my fault. I sigh shortly before laying her down in her bed, I help her putting on some fresh clothes and tuck her in. She looks exhausted. I go to leave again but stop in the doorway.
"Cato, can you please stay?" she asks weakly.
"Sure" I say with a smile, and lay down next to her. I put an arm around her and pull her close to my chest.
"I'm sorry for running off" she whispers.
"I'm sorry for being an asshole" I say, and she chuckles.
"Yeah, you are" she says, causing us both to laugh a little.
"I never wanted this to happen Athena. I really do like you, I may even love you. You're a great person and I'm sorry for doing this to you" I say but she silences me.
"I want to go to sleep" she whispers, and we both go quiet.
Her body is really cold and she's slightly shivering. After all she'd been up there for a whole night. She didn't deserve all of this. It's only my fault.
"I may even love you too Cato" she whispers. A smile appears on my face.