Trust Me

I was awoken by the soft chirps and chatters of the birds and squirrels hiding in the canopy of the trees above me. It was a pleasant way to wake up; their soft calls were the most gentle wake-up call I could have hoped for. I splayed my legs out, savoring the satisfying stretch as I felt the cool morning air gently nip at my face. I glanced next to me and saw Adri’s face a few inches from mine, sleeping peacefully. I let out a loud scream and kicked him in the stomach, punching his shoulder and pushing him away from me. His face had haunted my nightmares for the past week, and the shock of being so close to him overwhelmed my senses. He flew into the other end of the sleeping bag and jolted awake with a start.

“What the hell are you doing, 4?!” He yelled, grabbing my wrists quickly before I could run away or throw any other punches.

“Oh…sorry.” I said as memories of what had happened in the past 24 hours flooded back to my mind. “I was a little confused and drowsy. I forgot you weren’t trying to kill me any more.” The words were so comical that I almost wanted to laugh, but the grim expression on Adri’s still groggy face was what was most humorous about the situation.

Adri groaned and threw my arms back at me in frustration. “You’re a nightmare.” He muttered, rolling onto his back and running his fingers through his hair as he struggled to wake up. “I’d kill you if it weren’t for what you did last night.”

“Kill me? Literally or figuratively?” I asked.

Adri grunted. “It depends on how drowsy I am when I first wake up.”

I grimaced. “Well, you’re not a morning person.” I sat up and watched him try to stay awake. I realized that it was the second morning in a row that I’d woken up in bed with a shirtless man, and I was torn between finding it comical and finding it worrisome. I suddenly pulled the top of the sleeping bag over my head and crawled down into the bottom of it, near Adri’s feet.

“What the hell are you doing?” Adri demanded, but I heard him laugh.

A few moments later I resurfaced, holding both of our clothes in my arms. “Clothing is now required at all times, unless the Game makers decide to freeze us again.” I said firmly.

“Fair enough.” Adri said, taking his clothes from me and starting to pull his shirt over his head.

“Now, I would like to discuss getting my knives back. I think I’ve proved that I’m in no hurry to kill you, and since I did risk my life to get those knives, I’d appreciate it if I could get them back.” I said once we were both dressed, but we stayed huddled under the sleeping bag for a few moments longer -- though we stayed as far apart from each other as we could.

Adri grimaced. “I’m still very uneasy about the idea of you carrying a plethora of knives, especially when I’m within striking distance.”

“And you think I’m happy about being near you with all your machetes and other various weapons?” I fired back.

He sighed. “Two knives. That’s all I’ll give you.” He said finally, though he sounded very reluctant to make such a compromise.

“How many knives did I manage to grab? I wasn’t really counting.” If there were more than just two, I must have done a bit better than I remembered. I thought I’d lost most of my knives running from the Cornucopia.

“I counted nine, not including the five or six knives you dropped while you were running.” Adri said, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you needed so many knives for, but I hope I don’t ever find out.”

“To be fair, most of the weapons I wanted were just so I could protect myself from you. Well, you and Ingrid.” I grumbled.

He raised an eyebrow. “You really thought I was so dangerous that you needed over a dozen knives?” He was torn between being incredulous and feeling smug.

“Oh, don’t be so pleased with yourself. I was concerned with Ingrid too, remember?” I muttered.

“Sure, sure.” Adri said, a huge boastful grin across his face.

I rolled my eyes. “Hand over the knives.” I said firmly, holding out my hand palm-up.

He grimaced but placed the handles of both knives across my palm. He was very reluctant to let go of the handle, and as soon as his one hand left the knives, his other hand was on the handle of his machete.

My eyes widened. “I’m not going to kill you. I thought we covered that.”

“We did. I’m just taking some precautions.” He said, his fingers flexing as he tightened his grip on the machete.

I kept my eyes on him, watching what he did with the machete as I rolled the handles of the knives through my fingers. I reached out and found a stick off the ground before slicing it clean in two with one of the knives.

“Oh good, they’re lovely and sharp.” I said, savoring the loud twang that the edge of the blade made as it sliced through the air.

Adri grimaced and put both hands on his machete. “You know, it’s strange but somehow you’re not making me feel any better,” he said sarcastically.

“Good. It’ll keep you on your toes.” I muttered, slipping the knives into the sheaths. My hands hovered on the handle for a moment as I watched Adri’s hand, making sure that he didn’t look like he was going to suddenly take a swing at my face. “You know, one of us will have to let go of our weapons first.”

“You can go first,” Adri said firmly, clenching his jaw.

I scoffed. “Yeah, right. Thanks but no thanks.”

“I’ve had access to weapons for the past 24 hours. You know I’m not going to attack you.” He pointed out.

“I do?” I snorted back.

He ignored me. “But this is the first time you’ve had access to knives near me, so I don’t have any assurance. Therefore, you let go of the knives first."

I opened my mouth to shoot back a reply, but realized how stupid this entire situation was. He hadn’t made any move to kill me over the last 24 hours, and I’d saved his life last night. Didn’t we both have enough reason to trust each other? I reluctantly dropped my hands from the knives and held them up mock-surrender style. “Voila,” I tried to sound sarcastic, but I probably sounded scared. I was scared. Though the thought of trusting him made sense in my head, actually trusting him would prove difficult.

Adri watched me a moment more (a moment of sheer agony for me) before he finally seemed satisfied that he was safe, and he let his arms fall to his side, away from his machete. “Okay. Uneasy truce.” He said before sitting up and starting to pack up all our things, stuffing them in the orange bag.

“Very, very uneasy.” I agreed, starting to roll up the sleeping bag. I felt something inside, and I reached in between the lips of the bag to pull out my ropes. I quickly went to throw them away before Adri saw them so that I couldn’t be tied up again, but I saw his eyes on me and knew it was too late to throw them. My eyes flickered to Adri out of the corner of my eyes and I watched the expression out of the corner of my eyes. If he decided to try and tie me up again, I’d need a plan. I quickly walked through my plan in my mind; grab knives, stab Adri in either arm just enough to wound him so I could get away. I couldn’t bring myself to plan to kill him, oddly enough, and I didn’t like that fact.

He leaned over and took the ropes from my hands, and my fingers twitched as I readied myself to grab the knives, but he simply tied them in a loop and put them in the pack. “I suppose we won’t need these any more,” He said.

A breath of relief pushed itself past my lips, and I started to feel almost guilty for my plan to attack him just a few moments ago. “So what’s the plan for today?”