Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or its characters. It belongs to the lovely Suzanne Collins.
Bitter. That's what I tasted when I took a sip of my coffee. I knew the barista wasn't fully listening to my order. She was too busy batting her eyelashes at the blonde man behind me. I had asked for a decaf coffee with one cube of sugar and milk. She gave me my coffee black. My Latte-loving friend tells me that I should take it back up to the counter and have them make me a new one.
I decline and instead tear open the little sugar packets from the center basket, pouring a few into my coffee. I take a cautious sip and find it less bitter than before.
"I think today, I might actually need something more than this," my friend, Madge, says. I look up from my own cup surprised. I don't remember Madge ever needing anything more than her Latte in the mornings.
"Why? What's happening?" I ask taking another sip of my drink.
"Yesterday during my volunteer hours," she says quietly. "I was told to talk to a patient like I normally do, but this patient's in a coma."
She brushes some of her hair that has escaped its ponytail behind her ears. I don't understand why this coma patient is affecting her more than the other patients have.
"It's just that most of the patients they had me visit were elderly or young children, it's still sad to see them sick, but the last few ones have been around our age. It just makes me think. There's a chance that that could of been me. I hope not, but anything can happen, you know," she shrugs.
"Yeah," I reply, "I know." I know a lot about how that feels and then some.
Madge must sense my change in demeanor because she's quick to apologize. "I'm sorry. I-"
"No, it's okay," I interject. "I do know how you feel though."
It's quiet for a few moments before she continues, "The coma patient, his family is coming tomorrow. According to Doctor Aurilus, his family only visits him once a month so I'm free for the day. Do you want to hang out?"
"I can't," I sigh. "I have an appointment to view that house you found."
"Oh, the one in front of the beach!"
I nod. Madge was the one who found it online. I had given up on finding my own place when she showed me the advertisement.
It's a fair size house with the beach as it's backyard. The rental cost is affordable and the old lady I talked to seemed enthusiastic to show it to me. I've only seen the outside since there were only three photos in the advertisement. Two are of the front and one of the back.
"Yes, you can come with me if you want," I tell her. She agrees to accompany me but one glance at her watch and she's out the door with a promise to meet up later. I don't know what's up with her. For the last few weeks she's been fussing about being late to class, which doesn't make sense since her class starts at 8:30 but she takes off in a rush about an hour before.
I sip my coffee slowly as I run my fingers along the edge of the table. As I look up to check the time on the clock, the blonde man who was behind me in line gives me a small wave. I scowl at him before I realize he wasn't waving at me. A plump strawberry blonde girl at the table beside mine waves back at the man with a small rather sad smile. Swallowing a little more of the bitterness I head out of the coffee shop. A cool October breeze blasts me immediately as I push through the glass door. My fingers curl greedily around the warm cup.
In the silence of the street I can hear my heels click against the pavement. Normally, the streets are crowded around this time. Some students rushing to class, professors with their brief cases and coffee striding along the streets, younger siblings pushing their faces up against the store windows, and the occasional drunken student staggering back to their apartment.
I live in a small city called Panem. There isn't much of anything here but we do get frequent tourists. Only the tourists are soon-to-be students and their parents. The main attraction of Panem is the university. Capitol State. It used to be called something else, but one day a long time ago some man in a fancy suit showed up with documents and a new name.
We have a movie theatre, a library, a bakery, a bar, a hospital, a floral shop, ten restaurants, and over fifty other little stores. Oddly enough, everything here seems to be family owned, except for the hospital. I've learned that the hospital used to be a lot smaller and owned by my mother's family. Her parents, my grandparents, sold it to the city. The mayor immediately started expanding it. To this day, parts of the hospital are still under construction.
Whenever I accompany Madge to the hospital, I feel odd knowing part of my family used to own it. I've never met anyone on my mother's side. For some reason, she never mentioned them before. I only found out about them when I started school at Capitol State.
My mother lives quite a distance from Panem. I used to live with her and do the 45 minute drive every other day when I had class. Then things started getting hard for both of us. We would argue and when we weren't arguing we were pretending the other didn't exist.
I cross the long patch of yellowing grass into the building 12 apartments. Gripping the railing, I ascend the stairs and dig into my pockets for my key. With a creak I manage to get the door open with a nudge of my shoulder.
"Good morning, Katniss," my little neighbor chirps. I turn to see her shrug on her coat. Thresh's younger sister Rue, shines me a warm smile.
"Good morning," I reply. "Shouldn't you be in school?"
Rue has told me before that she attends the high school on the outskirts of Panem. The same high school I attended and my sister attended. "No, it's a student free day. That means there's no school for students," she giggles. "I thought I told you yesterday."
"You probably did and I just forgot."
Mm. She hums. "That must be it. I have to go, but I'll see you later."
I watch as she barrels down the stairs and onto the walkway. I really hope Rue takes care of herself and becomes someone brilliant one day. I can imagine her graduating with the highest honors and getting accepted full scholarship into Capitol State. Just like I imagined my sister Prim.
Inside the apartment I share with Madge, I kick off my heels and slump onto the couch. Madge took me in after I moved out of my mother's. "If you want, you can come and live with me. I need help paying the rent anyway," she had said. It seemed like I didn't have any other option, so I accepted. But even from here I can still feel my mother's hollow, accusing stare. I know better than anything, that she still blames me for my sister's death.
Hello! In the spirit of October, I wrote this new story. I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I've already written out most of it and I hope you stick around for the rest of it. I have put my other story on hold so I could work on this one. I hope you'll come to like this story and hopefully I'll see you in the next chapter. I'd love to hear from any of you if you have questions, comments, or if you just want a sneak peek. Just let me know.
Happy October!
~ secretTHGluver ~