"I'm sorry." I whispered trying not to create conflict.

"I just wanted to check the time." My eyes were trying to avoid his.

"It's a little after four." He replied in a much more relaxed tone.

Puzzled by his response, I lifted my head and stared into his eyes only to see him deeply studying my face. I then quickly looked away, embarrassed, realizing that he knew that I've been crying the night before.

"Are you okay?" He then asked slightly concerned.

"What do you care?" I said mocked coldly, not willing to continue the conversation.

The corners of his lips went up very slightly, as he recalled our earlier conversation. I was repulsed by his response and rolled my eyes with anger.

"Wait, you think it's funny what you said to me?" I snapped at him, breaking the silence of the night.

Without even acknowledging what I had said, he disregarded it and kept his expression light.

"Come here, sit down." He motioned me over to the seat on the couch, next to him.

Hearing his response, I was taken back, but I hesitantly walked over to him and sat down.

"Look, I'm not in the mood for your criticism." I started before he could get another word in.

"Right," he replied, keeping his eyes down at his lap. Something was troubling him, which I curiously waited to hear about.

"So, when I was about 10, my mom died from leukemia in the middle of the winter. A few weeks after Christmas, actually. My family was already struggling financially, having four kids in the family and paying for her hospital bills, so times were tough. My father, no matter how much wood he split, couldn't keep up with the money and caring for the kids, so I had to step in and kind of be the new mother. I started to do almost everything, like split the wood for money, clean the house, and take care of the kids. It was a lot of work, but I knew that my mom would want me to keep going for her. Besides, when I see those kids' faces, that's really the only reward I need. I know it sounds corny but, I love all of them so much, I would do anything for them. But, when I got picked for the games, all I could think about was my family. What were they going to do?" His voice started to trail off in a quiver, which he then quickly tried to disguise. "So, when I had to say goodbye to them, I felt as if my heart had been ripped out, seeing the tears in their eyes. And when I saw my father, I just lost it. Sure, the boys are older, but they need me. Not just as a provider, but we need each other to get us through the day. I didn't want to put them through another loss." He paused for a second to steady himself again. I could tell that speaking of his family like this pained him, so I stayed silent to let him have a moment.

"I guess it really bothered me when you acted as if you didn't care. It's like, how could you volunteer to leave your family like that? Mine is everything to me. This is really weird, but, I almost envy you, that you can detach yourself so easily from your old life and enjoy everything here. But, the more I thought about it, I realized that there had to be a reason you left home like that. I don't think people would do that for nothing. You were right, I don't know you. Look, what I'm trying to get at is that I'm really sorry. And that it was wrong of me to assume things about you."

I stood there shocked that Damon Woods had actually apologized to me, and felt that I had no choice but to accept it.

"It's okay." I answered, slightly confused and not fully trusting his honesty. There had to be a reason he apologized because he didn't have to.

"Well now you know my story, so what's yours?" He asked, a sense of eagerness in his voice. So that's why he apologized. To guilt me into spilling my secret. As much as I didn't want to tell him, at this point I felt obligated to tell him the truth now. It crossed my mind that he would try to use my information against me somehow in the games, but I have dirt on him too, so I don't see how this would help him too much. Maybe he is being sincere, and maybe I should trust him. But, it's hard to reveal my secret, I've never spoken of it to anyone except for Rose.

I took a moment to collect me thoughts, and breathed in deeply. Then I looked Damon straight in the eyes, who was waiting for my answer.

"Well there's a lot. I don't even know where to begin." I stalled, trying to avoid the subject with no success.

"Start at the beginning." He suggested slightly impatient. I took in another long deep breath to calm my rising nerves and began to speed through it. "Okay, fine. So, ever since I was little, my mother has hated me. Actually, I wasn't even supposed to be born, I was like a mistake. So, since I was the second born, Mother treated my sister Rose better than me, which wasn't too bad compared to what happened after Rose died...Most of the hate she has for me, is because she truly believes that it's my fault that Rose died...that I killed Rose."

I took a moment to drop my gaze with Damon, feeling sorrow after speaking of my sister. The impact of saying that I killed my sister out loud truly began to sting in my heart.

"But, after Rose died, things changed. Mother did things to me.." My brain began to search for the right words for this kind of situation. I took a long silent pause as I tried to explain myself.

"What kind of things?" Damon asked, falling impatient.

"Maybe it would be easier to show you." I told replied as I hesitantly pulled up the tight yellow sleeves on my yellow reaping dress, revealing the different shades of purple that covered different sections of my arms, along with a few scars from the deeper of cuts I had received. As I somewhat regained my crumbling composure, my eyes looked to Damon's, whose face was twisted with shock. I had tried to brace myself as well as I could for his response but no matter how much I prepared, it still stung from his lack of comfort, and I felt tears begin to blur my vision, which I quickly tried to conceal by turning away my head.

"So now you know." I felt as if I didn't have to say much more from there. I let him take in the sight of my arms for a few more moments, then dropped my arms to my side, feeling slightly embarrassed from the unexpected silence. As I wiped away a few stray tears that began to streak my cheeks, I let my eyes wander over to Damon who was still awkwardly standing there, mouth slightly opened, and stunned. Out of my embarrassment I began to feel resentment towards Damon that after spilling every secret I had to him, he had nothing to say. I just shook my head disappointed.

"I knew it was a mistake telling you." I snapped at him, breaking the silence. His daze was broken and he began shaking his head in a panic, stuttering something I couldn't make out. Without listening I turned myself around and began to stomp out of the room.

"Sage, wait!" Damon pleaded, and I quickened my pace slightly, hearing footsteps trailing behind me, but as my hand reached the door of the cart I felt a hand tightly grip around my wrist.

"Hey!" I swung the back of my hand across his face, forcing him to release his grip. I heard a grunt of pain as he wobbled backwards.

The bruise was still tender from my final goodbye with Mother and the way he grabbed me flashed me back. But once I heard his pain, I was brought back to reality and stared blankly at Damon's red cheek.

"Oh my gosh," Both of my hands covered my mouth in utter shock of what I had done. Regaining balance, Damon's hand softly rubbed the now reddened area of his cheek as his eyes narrowed in pain. I felt fear in the pit of my stomach of how he would react, and as I stood there frozen, I could feel more tears trickle down my pale cheeks onto my fingertips.

"I-I'm so sorry," I stuttered, feeling my voice quiver slightly.

His head snapped back to face me and his deep blue eyes stared into mine, puzzled by my fear. He dropped his gaze, once again unable to speak, but this time opened up his arms and slowly walked towards me.

"It's okay, Sage." His voice was gentle and lowered into a hush whisper as he gingerly put his heavy arms around my crippled body. I instinctively attempted to pull away from him, but he squeezed me tighter, making escape impossible. As my muscles relaxed, I was almost happy he didn't let me go, because the tighter he hugged me, the more comfort I felt.

"It's okay, Sage." I heard a crack in his voice this time, and it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself. I remembered that I wasn't the only one hurting. Suddenly, it felt as if the walls I had been building around myself for so many years was crumbling down, and I began crying harder, almost at the point of it being out of my control. He held me tighter, and brushed his fingertips through the strands of hair that fell out of my messy blonde braid. I buried my face in his chest and let the tears roll down as I closed my eyes. The whole scene was like a dream. I hadn't felt someone hug me like this since, Rose.

We stood there in silence while we put ourselves back together, and as the volume of cries ceased, all that was left was the sound of sniffling. Once I had calmed myself enough to stop crying, I felt his grip on me loosen and I felt his chest pull away from my head.

But, then he paused. Puzzled, I let my eyes lift to find his, but instead I felt the pressure of his lips against my forehead. Once I felt his lips touch, I froze unable to move and not knowing what to do. Instead, I took in the moment, and felt his soft lips pull away.

I quickly wiped away any tears left on my cheeks with my sleeve and brushed the hair out of my face to try and clean myself up. Damon quickly turned away from me now as he tried to conceal himself rubbing at his eyes. The air soon turned awkward though, not really understanding what happened between us just then. Damon awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, and I just stood there nervously fiddling with my fingers.

"Um, do you know where my room is? I'd rather not sleep in a booth." The sound of my voice startled him as he turned around and avoided my eye contact.

"Yeah, I'll show you." He replied, and motioned his hand for me to follow him. We walked in silence as we went through a few train carts until we reached my small cabin.

"Goodnight," He said awkwardly, and before I had a chance to return the gesture, he was gone.