"And your new." She therapist smiles at me. My sister sits on the floor with a Barbie on the floor next to my chair. She's three years old. "What brings you here? How about you tell us about yourself?" I'm surrounded by strangers at the Support Group I forced myself to go to. I have to get better, for Prim. I don't say anything because I have trust issues and I don't know any of these people. "It's okay. We're all friends here." The kind man, named Dr. Aurelius says. I take a deep breath.
"My name is Katniss Everdeen." My eyes are welled with tears. "I'm twenty. A few months ago, I was tied to a door and was forced to watch my parents get murdered in front of me. My three year old sister is the only blood family I have beside my Uncle Haymitch who is now an alcoholic. I have to raise her. I don't know how to deal with myself anymore. I cut because I have no way to let out emotion. I work at McDonalds because I can't get hired. I have probably the worst apartment where the ceiling is falling in and there was garbage and drugs all over the floor when I moved in. It's a studio. I stopped paying my phone bill because I can't afford to get our clothes washed. I go to college online, and normally I go without food for a few days because Prim is more important and I can't afford anything. I have one friend, Johanna Mason. She doesn't live here in New York City. She lives in Florida, and I can't afford to go and see her, and we're drifting apart because I haven't got a phone. I have a car that takes ten minutes to start up, if it will. I try my best, but I want to stop cutting and maybe get better. I can't go off to rehab because I've got my sister. We don't have TV, and every night I wake up screaming from nightmares as my Mom and Dad's deaths replay before my eyes. I've thought up plans of suicide, but I can't do it. Not with my sister. I want to go and die. I don't know how to deal with anything anymore."
"That must be really hard." The doctor whispers.
"It is." I mutter. "My boss lets me bring Prim into work, and I think I'm going to get fired because of it. I would hire a babysitter, but I can't afford it. I would call Johanna and try to keep in touch with the only sane person I know that I love beside my sister, but I can't. My Uncle can't take care of Prim either, and I refuse to give her up for adoption. I can't afford anything. I can't even wear clean clothes. I have to get those hotel shampoos. I'm struggling with my apartment and it's only like seventy five a month."
"Why do you cut yourself?" the doctor asks.
"Well what do you expect me to do! I can hardly keep myself alive! I'm not healthy! I can't talk to anybody because I don't have a phone. Nobody fucking cares about me! I don't even know if Johanna's okay! I don't know what to do anymore! I can't afford shit and I have to take care of a three year old! Do you realize how expensive diapers are? Clothes? I don't have money for that but I refuse to let her go! I just skip meals! Do you realize I only weight eighty five pounds because I can't eat!" I'm crying now. "Clearly, you don't know what it's like to have no fucking money!"
He doesn't get pissed off like I expect him to. He stays completely calm. "What happens if she gets sick?" he asks.
"She did once. She was half fucking alive before someone gave me the money to get her the medicine she needed." I hiss.
"Why did you come here?" he asks.
"So I can get better enough to stop cutting myself so I can take care of my three year old sister because the child services comes and decides to take care of her for me! You know I have one fork and two plates that I have to wash with bar soap?" I stand up, pick up Prim and her stuffed animal and walk out of the building. I decide to go ahead and pay the fifty cents to call Johanna.
"Hello?" she asks.
"Jo?" I whisper.
"Brainless?" she asks. "Are you alright?"
"No! I can't handle anything anymore! I can't afford to feed myself! I weigh eighty five pounds, I think I'm gonna get fired, Prim's going to need more clothes soon. I can't deal with this anymore. I don't know what to fucking do!" I add another quarter and bump the price up to four minutes.
"Jesus Christ. What's your address?" she demands. I have to wait three minutes for her to get something to write on and then I give it to her. "I'm coming to New York. Is Prim alright?"
"She's skinny as fuck but she's alright." I reply. The line goes dead. I put the phone back and head towards my shit car with tears sliding down my cheeks as it starts pouring terribly. It won't start. I slam my hands down on the steering wheel repeatedly and just cry. Prim starts crying, so I stop and force myself not to cry.
I don't have any more money, which means I'm walking. I get Prim, in her car seat and head down the sidewalk. Stopping multiple times when my stomach hurts because I'm literally starving.
"Hey!" someone touches my shoulder. I turn around to see a guy that was at that stupid group with Blond curly hair and beautiful blue eyes.
"Hi," I start walking again, but his hand grabs my shoulder gently.
"Do you need a ride?" he asks.
"No." I reply. I hate letting people do things for me.
"Can I give you a ride anyways?" he asks. It is raining really bad, and Prim is crying. I sigh.
"Fine, If you try to rape me I'll fucking kill you." I follow him to his car, and he opens the door to the backseat for me and the passenger door, too. I put Prim in and get in the passenger. He shuts both doors and walks around to the driver's side.
"I'm not going to rape you." he says. He seems perfectly fine.
"Why the hell do you go to those stupid groups? You seem perfectly fine to me."
"Well…" he lifts his shirt up and reveals a huge burn scar. "My parents got divorced. Dad remarried the witch. She beat me all the time. When I almost died and Dad found out she'd been beating me, he divorced her and got back with my Mom. I have issues now, mentally, because of her."
"Oh…sorry." I turn my attention to the window. I give him directions quietly and he follows them.
When we pull up in front of my place, he follow me out if the car and upstairs to my apartment.
"Do you mind if I use your restroom?" He asks politely.
PEETAS POV
This beautiful girl is standing before me. She needs help and I want to give it to her. She's the most beautiful person I've ever seen. She silently steps aside. It breaks my heart when I see her apartment. There are few children toys. She has cardboard boxes for her dresser. She has a twin sized bunk bed and only the bottom one has sheets. I walk into the bathroom and am shocked at how small it is. I do use the bathroom and wash my hands, and I make sure to stay silent as I search her cabinets.
Success. I find her blade she must use to cut and put it in my pocket and walk out of the bathroom. She's leaning on the counter with tears in her eyes, staring at the clothes on the floor.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Just fine," She says. Her voice is amazing. Her little sister sits on her bed, naked.
"Alright, bye," I wave.
"Bye. Thanks for the ride." She says.
"No problem."
I walk out of the apartment and go right to the store. She's got a washer and dryer hookup in her apartment.
She needs help and I'm going to give it to her.
KATNISS'S POV
A few hours later, someone knocks on my door. I get up and pull it open. Nobody is there, but there's a brand new washer and dryer sitting there with groceries surrounding it and bags from babies R us.
I look down the hall on either side. There's a sticky note on the dryer and it says 'no need to thank me Katniss. You don't even know who 'me' is but still, you need it'
I look down and see everything I could possibly need right now. There's got to be a year's supply of diapers. I start grabbing bags of stuff and pull them into the tiny house. I struggle but manage with the washer and dryer and I set them up.
Thank god to whoever did this. I start putting groceries away and I start a load of laundry and I find a Ziploc bag with three hundred dollars in it. I know they're real because they're the new bills that have the plastic garbage on them. I hold them up to the light anyways. The bag says 'to pay off your phone bill'
I start crying because whoever did this is truly a saint. There are plates and forks and knives and dish soap and hair soap and a ton of healthy foods and there are diapers and baby clothes and toys galore.
"Hey Prim?" I ask. She looks up at me. She looks so hungry. "Want to eat something?" I ask. She waddles over to me and I let her pick out three things. They're all things that will last a while. I get her a glass of water and one for myself and then I make a sandwich for me and cut up her fruit.
Tonight is the first time in months we go to bed in clean clothes, both of us with blankets, and full.
