The Boy from One

Chapter Thirteen: Marina

I awake at midday and the first thing I see when I crawl out of my tent, is Marina sitting by the lake. 

I feel a lump in my throat when I see her. She seems more relaxed than the night before, and that gives me courage to walk up to her. 

As I get closer, I see that she's making a net and I awkwardly squat down beside her. 

"Um, hi." I say, cautiously. 

She looks at me, and I see that her eyes are red and she has dark circles under eyes: she's been up all night crying. 

"Hi yourself," she says, lightly, and pats the ground next to her, inviting me to sit down. 

There's silence as I watch her deft fingers make knots for the net. 

Then: 

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

We both glance at each other, surprised. 

I cough awkwardly, "You go first."

She raises an eyebrow but then shrugs, "I don't like people hugging me unless I initiate contact first."

"Umm, so you..." I say, trying to order the words into a language I can understand. 

"I don't like people hugging me by surprise, basically," she explains. 

"Sorry," I says quietly. 

"I should have told you," she says, "But I honestly never thought someone would come up and hug in me the Games. The only person who ever hugs me is my girlfriend, Ariel."

"You have a girlfriend?" I ask. There's a strange feeling in my throat, like there's a lump. And there's an emotion I've never felt before. It feels that something inside of me has just been crushed. "You never told me," I accuse. 

"You never asked," she smiles wistfully, "But, yeah, make that another thing I never told you." We sit in silence again, with me unsure of what to say, but then she looks at me and asks, "Did I tell you that Murdoch was Ariel's brother?"

"No?" I ask. The surprise is evident in my voice. She falls silent, concentrating on her net, but then I blurt out, "Wait, so if Murdoch's your girlfriend's brother-"

"Was." She corrects, quietly, and I feel instantly guilty. Though referring to Murdoch in the past tense means that there's one less person I need to kill to become victor. 

"Then your girlfriend..." I trail off. I can't imagine what a hard time Ariel has. She's lost both her girlfriend and her brother. 

Marina smiles a sad smile, "I said I would look out for him. I promised her that one of us would be making it home." She looks at me, and her smile drops. There's a sad but determined look in her eyes, "And I intend on keeping that promise."

"But-" I flail, unable to state the obvious: if she comes home, I'll have died. 

She sighs, "Face it, Marvel. All of us have got people we want to come home to. I have a girlfriend. You have your family-a mother I know for definite wants to see you win." She flashes me a sympathetic smile, "Clove has a brother. She told me this morning that that's the reason she volunteered. She wants to win so that the two of them can live in a nice house together and be rich, not having to worry about money and food. Apparently, her brother was the little boy who was reaped too. Cato volunteered to protect him. Those two really have had bad luck."

She sighs and I follow her gaze to the camp, where Clove and Glimmer are arguing, arms gesticulating wildly. Peeta and Alvis are talking quietly. Cato is nowhere in sight.