“So can I tell you a secret?” Arrow suggested.
He’d been bugging me all morning. We were down in the gully playing with Trouble when curiosity finally got the better of me.
“Fine. What is it?”
“Remember the time all the chickens couldn’t stop pooing?”
“I had to clean out the chickens coop every hour” I answered.
“Yeah well” he shrugged before simply saying “laxatives”.
“You’re a bad person” I groaned, kicking his shin. I was already in a bad mood due to my injuries sustained from yesterday but at least I was able to release some of my anger. It actually felt quite liberating.
“Wow, I didn’t deserve that” he rubbed his shin in defence.
I tried to distract myself by watching Trouble galloping elegantly in the breeze. She was well aware she had an audience and every now and then she would do some sort of trick I’ve never seen before. Her hair flowed perfectly in the wind and when she whinnied it sounded like pure happiness.
“You wanna know another secret?” He started laughing again.
“What now, Arrow?”
“Remember back in the summer when all the piglets on your farm went missing?”
I just looked at him. My siblings and I were supposed to look after the pigs, but every night one would go missing and soon enough there were none left. We couldn’t figure out what happened to the three pigs so we blamed it on the wolves. Besides, it was too expensive to have adult pigs on our farm if they couldn’t provide us with piglets.
“You didn’t” I warned.
“Yup. I had bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner”
“I hope my family is watching this” I said casually before sending another hard kick to his shin.
“Okay” he sat down in order to rub both his already bruised chins. “I deserved that one”
“Did you ever actually, you know, work or help on any of the farms?” I chastised him. I always hated him for that. I did a lot of work I didn’t have to do and it was mainly because of district 10 people like him who never once seemed to pull their weight.
He shrugged, “nah, I use to spend time in the fields with the cows. I had a favourite one of course, her name was Daisy. I use to tell her everything and spend time with her every morning and then one day she bit my finger.”
He stopped telling me his story to show me the scars on his fingers. They looked impressive.
“That’s when she went from the name Daisy to She-Devil. So then when I didn’t want to work on the field or clean I’d spend my days riling her up and making her angry, then I taught her to chase the horses and then-”
“Tomboy” I gasped.
“I was riding on Tomboy one day and Daisy literally chased us down the whole field mooing and carrying on. She blocked the gate and I was stuck in the sun all day with a crazy cow and a whining horse”.
He absolutely lost it. I had never heard him laugh so hard, he was clutching his stomach.
I walked off in a huff. I was still mad at him for the events of yesterday. We still haven’t talked about it yet and every time I thought about the possibility of him in an alliance with Bloom only made me trust him less and less.
~
“Do you want to know a secret?” I heard him snicker.
We were cleaning the cornucopia so that Trouble could sleep inside with us rather than hiding outside in the cold gully. So far though, we hadn’t gotten anywhere because our barn was full of dirt, dust and a multitude of heavy and useless weapons.
"Shut up” I ordered. My mood was slowly reaching a breaking point as I realised my cleaning job was taking longer than I ever anticipated. On top of that Arrow had been trying to annoy me all afternoon.
A day ago, I couldn’t spare the thought of losing him or Trouble. They were in my alliance and now that we were together again it felt perfect; and I honestly wouldn’t want to change it. But as it always happens with me and Arrow, I knew it was only a matter of time one of us ruined it again by either getting captured, killed or by simply getting angry at each other.
Still, it was better than talking about yesterday’s events. It was an incredibly eventful day that’s for sure and with the death of Philip, the tribute from 6, there was only three or four of us left. I had no idea anymore, I had lost count.
I for one was worried about the fact Arrow left Bloom alive. Was he working with her? Were they now in an alliance? My curiosity was burning but at the same time so was my heart. The hunger games were a brutal reality that involved lying, cheating and backstabbing so how should he be any different? And yet, the other part of me didn’t even want to ask. It was afraid of the answer. Loving someone was the hardest thing in the world.
“Fine, fine… You’re missing out” he jeered at me from across the room taking his time to wink at me.
I sighed loudly.
“My job is taking forever” I spent all afternoon trying but failing to use the broom properly.
“Stop complaining” Arrow chastised, chuckling to himself a little. His chuckle could make me smile on almost every occasion; however not today.
“Hmpf”
“Excuse me Scar, it’s not my fault you broke all your fingers”
“No, it’s Blooms fault” I argued. During our big battle yesterday she had tackled me really hard hard into the ground, so hard in fact that she indeed broke all the fingers in my left hand. Unfortunate, because I was left handed. I briefly remember my fingers hurting during the fight but adrenaline and blood lust took over. I could have walked miles on a broken leg just to kill Bloom. I guess she made anything possible.
“Fine, it’s her fault” he snapped.
I took a deep breath. I knew this conversation was coming. The fight was inevitable yet we both seemingly had our own reasons to avoid the conversation.
“Just say it” he ordered.
“Say what?” I said, consciously walking towards the cornucopia weapons just in case the verbal fight turned into a real fight. I was preparing for the worst, really.
“Ask me whatever has been bothering you all afternoon. You’ve been biting your lip and grinding your teeth and honestly Scarlett, you haven’t even been sweeping the floor - you’ve just been pacing back and forth while holding a broom.”
“Fine” I sighed before adding “Why’d you let Bloom live?”
He laughed outright and I felt my heart break.
“How could you. You’re in an alliance? With her?”
Arrow was supposed to be in my alliance… He was supposed to be on my team. More than that, he was supposed to be mine.
“You were my friend!” I shrieked, grabbing whatever weapon I could grab while running straight towards him. He was going to get it.
I plunged the plastic knife into his chest but it broke under pressure. He laughed even harder while I screamed in annoyance.
“Shut up!” I yelled in anger.
“How could you Arrow?” I was beyond hysterics trying to fit the puzzle together. He was working behind my back all this time and I didn’t even realise it. How could I be so stupid?
“Scar, Scar...” He laughed like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. I turned to get another weapon when he forcibly grabbed my arms and flung them behind my back, holding them there.
“Good one Scarlett. Tribute lesson 101, never turn your back to an opponent” he whispered from behind me, his lips so close to my neck that it sent shock waves down my entire body.
I tried to wiggle out of his grip but apparently someone has been going to the gym lately.
“Let me go!” I yelled desperately. Why would he keep me alive until the very end just to kill me? Who does that? What did he want from me?
I leaped high into the air kicking my legs but he only pulled my back closer towards him.
I immediately went rigid and I felt his cool breath behind my neck and his lips tracing up and down my neck.
“I didn’t kill Bloom because there’s four tributes left in the arena”
I tried to wiggle out of his grip trying to send a few more kicks to his chins.
“Stop it, just listen. Think about it” he continued calmly, tracing his fingers up and down my arm, attempting to relax me.
“If Bloom got Philip to join her alliance… Then she would no doubt go looking for Tuckett too. She wants to win Scar, she’s either going to kill him or use him as an errand boy”
He let go of my arms with a little bit of force and I turned around to face him.
“Let her do it. She’ll kill him for us, then all we need to worry about it killing her”.
Tears were still streaming from my eyes mainly because I didn’t know how to stop them. I smiled weakly at him as he grabbed my right hand and kissed it.
“I couldn’t do that to you, Scar. Since day one I have always wanted to be in an alliance with you.”
I looked into his beautiful green eyes and for the first time ever, I actually believed him. I felt my body calming but my heart was still pumping faster than it ever had before. I remember catching butterflies as a kid and then putting them in jars. My heart must be mimicking those butterflies, because it was fluttering everywhere inside my chest threatening to go absolutely wild.
“I didn’t even think I would have survived the first day of the hunger games without you” I admitted honestly, remembering back to the first ten minutes of the games. He had killed someone in order to protect me, how did I forget?
“I wasn’t talking about day one of the hunger games. I meant the first day I ever saw you. You were riding your parent’s horse through the fields yelling at She-Devil for chasing you. The light hit you and I don’t know… From then on I knew I wanted to be around you” he laughed a little
“Even if I was annoying you” It made me laugh too. Arrow was good at that.
I closed the gap between us and wrapped my arms around his neck. He lifted my chin up to his and I could feel our noses almost touching. I felt the warmth of his breath gently brushing the top of my lip and I could feel a dimly lit flame begin to ignite. Then finally, as we breathed each other in, I parted my mouth and was met with burning lips. I had no idea how much I wanted his kiss until this moment. Our kiss was cool and calm, yet fiery and passionate. It was when I felt his tongue trace my bottom lip I realised our kiss was a crowd, roaring in deafening silence. Our kiss was the world, in a game that could take all of that away. Our sweet kiss was a fleeting tragedy, splitting seconds into forever.
“Now” He murmured between small kisses.
“The question is how could you?”
I looked up at him in despair, mainly because I couldn’t feel his lips on me anymore. He chuckled a little and continued to kiss my nose, cheek, eyelids and finally up and down my neck.
“How could you be so foolish Scar? I’ve loved you since day one”.
~
We were lying in the doorway of the cornucopia next to Trouble looking at the stars. We knew they weren’t real, but it was nice to pretend. Sometimes the game makers would simulate a shooting star for us too.
“So what? We’re just waiting here like sitting ducks for Tuckett to die?”
“Pretty much” Arrow agreed.
“But what if he joins an alliance with Bloom?”
“Then I don’t know” he said while shifting his sleeping position. It was obvious he hadn’t thought of that possibility yet.
“Do we kill him?” I asked quietly.
“No need to kill me” I jumped up and saw Tuckett standing there. He had a tall dark frame with very broad shoulders. I barely remember him during the training but someone told me his reaping was really popular. Avery said he volunteered for someone, but she never said who and I always forgot to ask.
Trouble was neighing in alarm and standing in front of me trying to protect me, meanwhile Arrow had already thrown a knife directly at Tuckett. He simply stood to the side and deflected it.
“Peace. I want an alliance”
~
- Happy birthday Animala7! She sent me a message asking me to upload for her birthday but I'm busy tomorrow so I'm uploading now! It was actually the most adorable Wattpad message I've ever recieved, so I decided I had to write something for her to read :D Happy birthday :) hehe also, homg right? Who is Tuckett? Like whaaaaaaaaaaaaat, is he good or evil? :O Btw guys, only two more chapters left - what's going to happen? :O