Patricia's POV
I sit solemnly on the steps that lead up to my new house in the Victors Village, taking a swig of the hot coffee my mother brought for me, for the past 20 minutes I've done nothing but replay the events of my weeks in the arena, 6 months on and it still feels like yesterday that me and Eddie were plucked out of the arena and crowned victors, there's days when my memories don't get in the way of everyday life, other days the recollections of Nina's bloodied body and KT's lifeless corpse consume me. I think today is one of those latter days.
I hear the door open; I don't turn around because I already know who it is, she doesn't say anything but instead sits beside me and places her hand on my shoulder, "You nervous?" Piper says after a while, her hand left my shoulder,
"Little bit." I reply, "Oh, the perks of being a victor." I say with a hint of bitterness in my voice, I take another gulp of my coffee.
"Well, I'll spare you the pep talk, but you'll have Eddie with you, and your mentor, and even the escort will go with you, you won't do it alone." She's right, but that doesn't calm the dread setting like a stone in my stomach.
"I'm on that train in less than 24 hours." I tell her, "I don't even see the point in a victory tour, they all know who I am, they all saw me win."
"It's more than that. It's about the Capitol using you, and Eddie to send a message to the Districts, to tell them that, you're one of them, indirectly telling them that you're just another Capitol puppet."
"Is that what you think I am?" I snap at her, "Just a Capitol puppet?"
"No." She replies, "But Snow does, he's laughing at you Patricia, you and Eddie."
"He can laugh all he wants, I hope the bastard chokes on his own blood-riddled saliva." I drink the rest of the now lukewarm coffee and leave the empty cup on the stone steps me and piper sit on, "I'm going for a wonder, I'll be back soon." Piper says nothing, giving me only a nod and a smile, and walks back inside.
On my way to the town centre of District 2 Piper's words still remain echoing in my head, she's right, Snow is laughing at me, he knows that being turned into the Capitol's poster girl is the last thing I want. Santana warned me about this when she came to visit me in the hospital after my victory, 'Snow's not one for just letting things go' how true her words rang.
I receive a few glances when I walk into the supermarket, one little girl even asks for my autograph so I give her one and ruffle her curly blond hair for good measure, her mother congratulates me and tells me of the pride I've brought to the District,
"You're a credit to District 2." The young Girl's mother tells me, then walks over to the counter to pay for her food. I only came to the shop to pick up a bottle of liquor for Santana, I know she's not overly picky when it comes to alcoholic beverages but I want to get her something nice, in the end I decide on a bottle of 'Jack Daniels: Tennessee & Honey', she does like her spirits after all.
On my way back home I stop by at Eddie's bakery, he greets me with a hug then returns to the other side of the counter and continues to knead the dough. "For Santana?" He says, pointing to the bottle of whisky in my hand, an amused tone in his voice,
"Yeah." I reply with a smile, "So, bread boy, whatcha doin'." I try to sound playful.
"Trying to keep myself busy, not think about tomorrow." He replies, "Which Districts do you think will be the worst?"
"All of them." I answer, "But for me personally 12, 3 and 11 will definitely be the hardest, District 9 won't exactly be a walk in the park either, nor District 1."
Eddie scrunches his face up at the mention of District 1, he knows he won't get the best reception from our neighbouring District, he did kill both their tributes so it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't exactly hurling confetti at us, "Well I should be off, are you coming home tonight?" our houses are literally across the lawn from each other, Santana's house is on the same row as Eddie's but with two houses in between. Santana tells me Lyme's house is three between mine, that she sees a cleaner go there from time to time, since, as far as Santana knows, Lyme is in District 4, but a victors house is theirs for life even if they don't live there.
"Yeah, I should be, if my dad doesn't need me to work overtime." He says, I kiss him before I leave, we wanted to hug each other but his hands were covered in flour.
After knocking 6 times on Santana's door I just walk straight in, "Santana!" I shout, I wouldn't be surprised if she was hungover, or never slept. I find her eventually, sprawled out on the sofa in her living room, with no intention of waking up soon, well, not of her own accord anyway.
After ten minutes of shouting she wakes up, not happy that I've awoken her from her much needed 'sleeping it off' she perks up when she's the bottle of whisky I have in my hand and gladly takes it from me, "You better not get wasted tonight, I need you sober for the Victory tour tomorrow."
"Don't worry honey, I'll be good as gold, promise." I can tell she's being sarky but she smiles at me sweetly, showing off her gleaming, healthy white teeth, "If I were you, I'd be more worried about the type of reception you might receive tomorrow." She's right, I'm no innocent either, I may be a victor, I survived by insuring that other people died, and in my book that makes me no less a monster than the rest of those fallen tributes who tried but failed, an unexpected pain shoots through my left arm, the 'NINA' scar is stinging me again, it does so from time to time, "I still don't know why you want to keep the damn thing."
"Because that scar means something, I can't describe it." I tell her, the words made more sense in my head.
"And you're sure you weren't high on morphling when you made the decision to keep it?" her sarcastic tone returned to her.
"Yes, I'm sure, and when you've quite finished being patronising, I'll pour us some glasses shall I?" She doesn't object, I get two glasses from her kitchen cupboard and return to the living room the glasses, a drink turns into several and soon enough we're both drunk, yeah, that thing I said about being sober tomorrow, not gunna happen. We spend hours together talking about everything and everything from victory tours to Santana's high school escapades, and when I do stumble back into my house at 3am, Piper only laughs and tries to get me up the stairs without our parents hearing.
