"CAN YOU STOP LOOKING AT ME?" I hissed at Finnick, who was sitting with Peeta and Riff, eating fish they had caught. Katniss was helping me get my new body suit on, and I felt kind of vulnerable sitting in front of everyone and getting dressed. Even with my back turned away, and with the huge sports bra they let us wear under the suit, I felt exposed. Finnick continued to stare a little longer and then turned around.
I was sitting on a rock, walking with my hurt thigh and rib was still a bit hard.
Katniss walked behind me to zip me up after she got my arms in the sleeves. She began speaking, "Thanks— For saving him."
"As I said," I gulped, bringing my hand up to the scratch on my cheek I don't even remember getting during the monkey fight, "No body's killing him but me."
Katniss knew I was joking. I turned around on the rock to face her as she finished zipping me up, "I like you, Katniss."
She looked at me in confusion as I gave her an awkward smile, "Why the sudden change of opinion?"
"I never actually hated you," I shook my head, "I think I just envied you."
"Envy?"
"You and Peeta won together," I gulped, shaking my head, "I had to kill Alexie... And it isn't your fault— But I still felt angry at you for it."
She nodded and turned around, "You want some fish?"
I nodded, swinging my arm around her shoulder as she slowly lifted me up. She used her strength to drag me onto the floor between her and Finnick. Katniss immediately grabbed a fish and devoured it.
Finnick grabbed one of the halves of a fish he caught and gave it to me. I grabbed it and gently ripped it vertically so I could suck the insides of the fish out to avoid the skin. Finnick was doing the same. Riffian was eating oysters and cracking them open with a stick... And then sucking the insides out. Peeta opened a clam as well and immediately smiled as he saw what was in it... A shiny black pearl. He grabbed it and handed it to Katniss, "For you."
"Thank you," she gratefully smiled a little, taking it.
"Finnick gave me a raw fish— And Peeta gave you a shiny pearl from a live oyster," I chuckled, swallowing the fish in my mouth, "Nice to know chivalry isn't dead."
Katniss scoffed, which I returned with a little smile as I continued shoving my face into the fish, "The fish I gave doesn't compare to the kiss you gave me, huh?"
My face went red as I sharply turned my head to face him. Him, Riff, and Peeta chuckled, making me snap my heads at them too, "I thought I was gonna die, Finnick, shut up."
"That was not a goodbye kiss," he chuckled, "That was a smooch."
"A smooch? You sound like a 5 year old," I shook my head, hating the redness that was coming to my cheeks.
A feminine like scream came from the forest behind the ocean... Making all of our heads turn, and Peeta's voice to join the screams, "That's new."
We all stood up, and Riffian grabbed my hands to pull me up. I was getting stronger from that anesthesia Haymitch gave. I was slowly beginning to limp my way next to the others.
A tsunami of water errupted from the trees, splashing in our direction. I looked to the others, wondering if they seemed worried, but they looked relaxed.
The noise of the tree branches cracking and breaking stopped for a second or two, but the silence was cut off by the loud splash of the water. It began splashing onto the land of water that the cornucopia was on, overflowing it. A canon signifying a tribute's death went off as it quickly rushed it's way towards us. But before the water could come near us, it crashed with the cornucopia, which acted as a wall and stopped it from coming any closer.
The splash of the tsunami against the body of water caused the water to touch our feet, but nothing else happened.
A hovercraft came down from the sky, grabbing the tribute's body from the water... They collected the dead bodies to avoid the other tributes from eating the corpses.
"Someone's here," Katniss said cautiously, getting her bow and arrow ready. Riff got out his sword, and I held onto my strap of spears I had just put back on when Katniss dressed me.
Finnick stayed hiding behind a bush, staring at the 3 other tributes who were standing near us. They were covered in blood as Finnick mumbled, "Johanna."
Finnick ran towards them with his trident in hand, "Johanna!"
"Finnick!" she yelled back, sounding happy. She laughed and began speaking to him, but they were too far to hear.
"More allies?" I rolled my eyes, "Jesus, I don't know how many more I can take."
Riff and I walked over in their direction together as I heard Katniss and Peeta's steps from behind us. I let go of the knives on my strap that I was gripping onto tightly, but Katniss on the other hand only tightened her hand onto her bow and arrow.
Johanna began yelling, "We were all the way deep in the jungle where I thought it was gonna be safe— Then the rain started! I thought it was water, turned out to be blood!"
Johanna continued her angry rants as Wiress was behind her, whispering the same two words at us, "Tik tok! Tik tok! Tik tok!"
Johanna pushed Wiress softly, "We were stumbling around gagging on it blind!"
The clots of blood on Johanna's face were drying and thickening... Beetee was in the water cleaning off the blood he was drenched in. Wiress continued to mumble, although she was already slightly cleaned off.
"That's when Blight hit the forcefield," Johanna said through gritted teeth... She was speaking about the tribute in her district who died, "He wasn't much, but he was from home."
"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asked, motioning to Wiress to continued mumbling Tik tok.
"Clearly a lot of things," I mumbled, but Riffian's glares made me shut up.
"She's in shock," Beetee said, pulling himself out of the water, "Dehydration isn't helping— Do you have fresh water?"
I remembered when I declined Beetee's request to be my ally... And Katniss'... And Peeta's... And Finnick's... I didn't know what was going on with me, but the irony made me laugh.
My thoughts were cut off by the scene happening on my right. Wiress grabbed Johanna by her shoulders and kept yelling the same 2 words. Johanna clearly got frusturated as she pushed Wiress onto the ground forcefully, intimidatingly standing over her. Katniss ran to Johanna in Wiress' defense and grabbed Johanna by her neck.
The two swung at each other until Finnick came in between them and grabbed Johanna, pulling her into the water to clean her up. Johanna continued yelling at Katniss, "What are you doing?! I got them out for you!"
"For me? What does that mean?" Katniss asked.
"You did want them as allies," Peeta shrugged, looking at Wiress and Beetee.
"You idiots and your allies," I rolled my eyes, earning a confused stare from Peeta, "Too much trust."
"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up," Katniss said to Wiress, pulling her into the water as well.
Beetee was rolling up some kind of coil near me, as Katniss got to washing Wiress's hair that still had some blood. Finnick came out of the water and pulled his hair back with his hands.
I was never a girl to drool over a guy, especially not in a time like this— But Finnick had complete and utter control of every emotion I had, and it made me nervous. I felt like I was in one of those cheesy beach movies and I was one of the lame 14 year old girls staring at the lifeguard who came out of the water in slow motion...
"Keep staring, I like it," Finnick joked, sitting himself down next to me on the sand. I scoffed and turned my eyes to floor. I looked down to avoid Finnick seeing my red cheeks. But he was staring at me now.
He was chuckling softly, "You don't have to be embarrassed."
"I'm not."
"So stubborn," he clicked his tongue as he shook his head, "So, so stubborn."
I ignored him and grabbed a branch that was on the ground. I wrote my initials softly onto the sand.
A.G.
With no warning, Finnick put his hand on my cheek and turned my face to look at him. Before I could process anything, he pressed his lips to mine. As the peck lasted awfully long, I dropped the stick I used to draw softly, feeling in shock.
Finnick cut the peck and began moving his lips, which I returned by doing the same. I put my hand on the sides of his torso softly, letting my lips dance with his... The kiss felt passionate... Like our lips were meant to be together in that moment. He softly pulled away, kissing the tip of my nose.
He backed away and left me with my wide eyes as he grabbed the stick I was using and wrote underneath my initials.
F.O.
It was his initials.
"I had to make up for that pity goodbye kiss you gave me," he chuckled, staring at our initials. I was still speechless... Confused.
Both of our initials were next to each other as he put a heart around it, making my eyebrows furrow, "What are you, 12?"
"I like that you're rude to me, Gold," he smiled cockily, "Keeps me humble."
"I don't think you could ever be humble," I scoffed, staring at the initials and the heart around it.
"Tik tok!" Wiress yelled louder than usual from the water... Suddenly a large clap of thunder hit a tree near us, making all of our heads turn to thunder.
Katniss spoke, smiling, "It's a clock! Oh my god, it's a clock! Wiress, you're a genius!"
ꨄ
We all walked in a line behind Katniss. Riff was behind me, and Finnick was in front of me as we walked on the bridges that lead to the cornucopia. Katniss explained the clock reference, "This entire arena seems to be laid out like a clock... With a new threat every hour. They stay only within their wedge."
The 12 bridges that sprouted from the cornucopia did look a lot like a clock... Between every 2 bridges was a wedge.
"It all starts with the lightning... then the blood rain, fog, monkies, that's the first 4 hours," Katniss continued explaining, "At 10, that big wave hits from over there."
Finnick walked passed Wiress, smiling, "Wiress, you're a genius."
"The tale points to 12," Peeta said, pointing to the cornucopia's tail that was pointing at the tree.
"That's where the lightning strikes at noon and midnight," Katniss answered.
"Strikes where?" Beetee asked, holding the wire/coil he had rolled up earlier.
"That big tree," Katniss said, pointing to the ginormous tree in front of the cornucopia. The tree was oddly large... And it looked familiar. The lightning striked there at midnight and at noon... Every 12 hours.
"Good," Beetee mumbled.
I felt the blood rushing to my finger tips as I inhaled slowly, staring at the arena. I had my strap of spears on my waist as I gulped and cracked my neck, feeling nervous, "Gold, you okay?"
"Yes," I nodded softly to Finnick. Wiress began mumbling a song, humming to herself as she kneeled down next to the water, farther away from everyone else.
Hickory dickory dock,
the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
the mouse ran down,
hickory dickory dock.
"Take a breath, Ameria," Finnick said, putting his hand on my shoulder and giving it a squeeze, "What happened?"
"I just— I don't know how many more allies I can take," I shook my head, feeling discomfort at everyone around me, "Trusting all these people... It feels like— Like I'm asking for history to repeat itself."
Finnick removed his hand off my shoulder and instead moved them to my cheeks. As soon as he rested his hands on my cheeks he pulled me in, kissing me. He angled his head down so I could reach. I went out of startled mode and put my hands on the side of his torso... But he quickly pulled away, "History won't repeat itself— I'm gonna make sure of it."
Hearing those words... And the passion that came in his tone... It made me fall serious. A tingle was appearing in my stomach and my head was getting dizzy. Then I did something unexpected.
I gently pulled myself up on my tippy toes, giving Finnick a soft kiss on the cheek. I inhaled and let the cheek linger on his cheek before backing away to see his red face, "You're making the bold moves now?"
"I guess," I shrugged.
"Was that another goodbye kiss?" Finnick joked, mocking me.
The silence lingered before I spoke, thinking of Alexie and the damage I was doing by growing trust and care for all these tributes.
"I hope not."