I'm walking along the beach, picking up any shred of sea glass I can find, and putting it in a jar. I've always been this way. Even when I was a kid, I would always collect things. I spot my favorite color, the blue sea glass, and I grab it and put it in the jar.
I come to the beach early in the mornings, just as the run is rising. Not many people are on the beach at that time.
A set of joggers run past me, going in the direction that I am not. I'm wearing an ankle long white sundress that billows with the wind and tan sandals. My hair is let down and is blowing in the breeze.
After a good half hour, I set down my jar and move closer to the water so it laps at my feet. It's cold, but it feels good.
Two boys walk past me. I'm twenty six, and they look to be a little bit older than I. Both boys catch my eyes. One has blond hair and blue eyes and one has dark hair and gray eyes. The dark haired boy looks so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.
But then, the dark haired boy stops walking and starts whispering to his friend, and then they both turn around.
I'm not okay with men. The thought of them makes me cringe. No, I'm not a lesbian. I'm straight as ever, but I don't trust them. I have a dark history, and I don't like men because of it.
I grab my jar and just as I turn to turn, the dark haired boy says, "Katniss?"
The voice makes my throat get tight, my eyes get wet, and my heart speed up. I slowly turn around to study him again.
That's where I know him front. The dark wavy hair, just like mine. The gray eyes, just like mine. The same nose, the same eye shape, similar lips, but not the same.
This is my older brother, Reed, who I haven't seen, nor been able to find since I was nine years old, when everything in my terrible life got worse.
He stares right into my eyes and takes two steps closer to me. "Is that your name?"
"Reed?" I whisper so quietly that I can hardly believe he heard me.
He moves closer to me but still, I step back. He stops completely and shoves his hands in his pockets.
"I'm not him, Katniss." He says.
It all starts replaying and I take a vicious blast to the past. It starts when I was four and I snuck a cookie and my Dad slapped me. The hitting and beating continued whenever Mom wasn't around. He started staring at me and telling me I didn't need to wear clothes around the house and walking into the bathroom when he knew I was in there.
Until I turned nine, when Mama and Prim went to the store and got into a vicious car accident. They both died instantly. Prim was four years younger than I, so she was only five. Reed however is two years older, so he was eleven. Dad beat the shit out of me that night, and then he raped me. Reed wasn't home when it happened. When he got home though, and he found how beat I was, he was so angry. He'd always been the protective big brother. He knew what was going on. He tried telling Mom, but she dismissed it. She didn't believe him. Reed called child services and we got taken and separated. That was in Maine. I moved foster homes six times a year, and I was beaten at all of them. Right when I hit eighteen, I got the hell out of there, moved from Maine to California, and restarted my life. I change my last name to Joy, which is my middle name, which no longer exists, I went to college on loans for four years, got a job as a kindergarten teacher, and bought a house that looked like a dump when I moved in. after painting, ripping some things out and putting new things in, I renovated the place and moved in. I still live there now. I've managed to move on from the past. I made a few friends that I trust with my life. I don't talk to anyone that has a drop of my blood in them. Reed is the exception. Reed is always my exception. I've been trying real hard to find him.
And here he is, standing right in front of me.
"Katniss." Reed says.
I put my jar down and walk right into his arms.
"You really grew up." He says.
"So did you." I whisper.
The friend runs his fingers through his hair.
"Reed?" he asks.
"Yeah bro?" Reed lets me go and turns to him.
"I'm gonna go."
"You don't have your car."
"I'll call a cab." He says.
"Alright, call me later."
"Okay. Bye." He walks away.
I pick up my jar.
"We need to talk." He says. "I want to know what happened to you. Also, you need to know some stuff about the family that I've been finding out from Gale." Gale is our cousin. He's another exception, and so is his Mother and siblings. I haven't heard from them since Mom and Prim were killed.
"I don't talk about the Everdeen's." I mutter.
"You're an Everdeen." He says.
"Not anymore." I say.
"You changed your last name?" he asks.
"To Joy." I reply.
"Can we go somewhere?" he asks. "I've got an apartment but I share it with my girlfriend and uh…and Gale." I raise my eyebrows.
"We can go to my house." I say.
"House?" he asks.
"House." I reply, and I turn around and head towards the beach.
"I'll uh, I'll follow you." He says. He's got a Ford F150 and I've got a white jeep wrangler with the soft cover, but the cover is tan instead of black.
I nod and get in my car. I start it up and wait till Reed's truck starts and then back out and head to my house.
I pull into the driveway. When I moved in, my yard was all dirt without a single speck of grass in it. I planted grass seed all over and installed sprinklers. I've had grass ever since. My house looks the most presentable in all of the neighborhood.
I get out and lock the door. Reed follows me into the house. When you walk in the door to my house, the first thing you see is a giant picture of me, Johanna, Annie, and Finnick. Finnick Odair is the first and only male I ever grew to trust, and that took me months. Finnick's are is around Annie's shoulders, because they are married, and they have a daughter. Johanna's arm is thrown around my shoulder, and it's actually the first and only nice picture we have, where we're all smiling and all looking at the same camera.
There's a fan with the light on it directly in the middle of the ceiling. The wall in the living room is a dark bray blue. It's not the super dark, though. The floor is hardwood, and it's a light colored wood.
To the left of the door is the kitchen. It has an archway. The counters are a white marble, the floor is a tan tile, and the walls are a light ocean green. All the appliances are steel and the cabinets are white. There's a door on the right wall in the kitchen, that's the pantry. The kitchen is big enough that the table is in there.
To the right of the front door, up in the corner of the living room, there's a hallway. When you walk into the hall you see the same color and floor was the living room. There are lights in it. The first door on the right is the bathroom. The door directly in front of you is a bedroom, the master, my room. Then there's a closet on the left side on the left side of the hall that has towels and blankets folded neatly on each shelf. Right across from the bathroom is another hallway with a door at the end of that and one of your left. Both doors are bedrooms.
When you walk into the bathroom, you see window right in front of you. There's a toilet against the left wall right under the window. Across from the toilet is the shower/bathtub with a curtain that is a beach blue with white dots on it. There's a tan carpet on the white tile floor and the wall is a creamy white. The sink is next to the toilet. The sink lifts out of the counter and it looks like a bin. There's a medicine cabinet that painted the color of the shower curtain. It has a mirror on it. There's a basket underneath the sink counter (which looks like a table, literally) and it's filled with towels. The pull down curtain on the window is the same one as the bathtub, only the window on pulls down like the projection screen teachers use in classrooms. On the windowsill is all my sea glass, cleaned and put into jars.
My room is a very, very light teal, tan carpet, and has a fan in the middle of the room with a light on it. There's a giant window on the right wall that has a white curtain covering it. The bed is a king. It has old fashioned metal headboards and end boards. There's a blue comforter on it and tons of pillows. There's dark wood side tables and a matching dresser. There's a TV above the dresser and a closet in the left corner.
In the bedroom in the other hall that's right in front of you, there is a big bed and a TV and a closet and a dresser and side tables. It's painted tan and the floor is wood. The curtain is white and the window is big.
The other room is easily a bedroom but I made it into a study. It has a TV, a loveseat, a desk, and bookshelves all over.
I give Reed the tour.
Also, I have a dog. She's a Golden Retriever named Abbie. Her food and water is in the kitchen.
There's a door in the kitchen too, that leads into the backyard, which has a pool, nice grass, sings, and flowers planted. I cut all the vines that grow from my neighbors side of the fence. There's another door out where and when you walk in there, it's a place that's like a garage, only there's not door for a car. It's white and has unfinished floor. There's the lawnmower in there and shoves and stuff like that.
"Your house is nice." he says. He drops onto the tan couch.
I have a thing with fans, so every room has a fan in it except the bathroom. Abbie jumps up onto the couch next to me, lays down, and puts her head in my lap.
"Katniss." He says. "What happened to you?"
"I got switched from foster home to foster home at left six times a year and was abused in all of them. When I turned eighteen, I hightailed it here, went to college, got a job as a kindergarten teacher, and bought this house. It looks bad so I fixed it up, and I restarted my life. I changed my last name when I got here.
He nods slowly. "Dad was in jail. They found out what he did to you. He was sentenced fourteen years. He got out and went right into rehab and made himself a better person. Grandma has breast cancer and is going through reconstruction. Grandpa passed ten years ago."
I nod.
"And Prim's not dead." He swallows nervously. "Neither is Mom."
I stare at him. "What?"
"Remember that day? She asked us to go to the store with her. We said no and Prim said yes." I nod slowly. "She was going to take us to run away. She believed me when I told her when Dad did to you. She couldn't force us to go. If we knew we were leaving we would've tried to take our stuff and Dad would've known."
"But the police…they called us! They told us she'd-"
"Her brother was Uncle Haymitch! He's a police officer!"
"Who knows she's alive?"
"Everyone but Dad."
"So they're alive?" I ask, swallowing the lump in my throat.
"Are you mad at them?" he whispers.
I shake my head. "She tried to make is not obvious. If he found out he'd have killed her. She tried to get us out. We just didn't go because we didn't know."
"And with us being in foster care, she looked all over for us. Every time she got close, we go moved."
"This is…" I frown. "Prim is twenty two." I mutter.
"But she remember Katniss." He whispers. "She remembers us. They miss us every day."
"Did you go see them?" I ask. He nods. "A couple of months ago. Gale informed me with everything and gave me their address."
"Where do they live?"
"They live in Utah."
"I need their address." I say.
"I'll give it to you. Go see them. I won't tell them anything."
"Okay." I say. I get him a pen and pencil and he writes down an address.
2630 S 1100 E Salt Lake City, UT 84106(Sugar House)
He gives me a hug and programs his phone number into my Samsung Galaxy S5.
He walks away, and I wait till he's out of sight and then I go to my room. I get a plane ticket for me to fly there at noon. I take a shower and get out, wrap myself in a towel and then put on a tan dress that goes a few inches above my knee. The top half is lace with a tan fabric blocking everyone from seeing my skin and the bottom half is a not lace and just the tan fabric. The dress is loose where the lace stops. I put on a pushup bra and wedges and panties and then pack my bag quickly. It's summer, so I don't have to work. Then, I throw my bag in my car, bring Abbie, and get my phone and charger, my sunglasses, and ten I lead out. I go right to Johana's house because I know Annie and Finn are there because they were over there yesterday. I wasn't because I had school shopping for work that starts in two weeks.
I walk right into the door with Abbie. Johanna doesn't care if dogs are in her house, expectially not Abbie because she loves her.
"I walk right into the living room and shut the TV off.
"They Kitty." Finn says.
I start pacing.
"What happened?" Annie asks.
"I ran into someone on the beach this morning."
"Who?" Jo asks. I shut my eyes.
"Reed."
"Reed?" Finn demands, standing up, "as in…Reed Jackson Everdeen, your brother?"
"Yes."
He lets out a low whistle. Caitlin comes walking out of the bathroom. She's five. Annie had her when she was twenty.
"Hi Auntie." Caitlin smiles.
"Hi sweetheart," I say, accepting her hug.
"Well what happened?" Jo asks, standing up.
"He…he came over and we talked and he told me that…god. My Dad went to jail for fourteen years. My Grandma has breast cancer and is going through reconstruction, my Grandpa's dead, and…" I swallow.
"And?" Johanna urges.
"Mom and Prim are alive."
"Impossible." Annie says. "You went to their funerals."
"No I didn't. I was in foster care during the funeral. But Mom asked me and Reed to go the store with her that day. She was going to run way from Dad but she couldn't we said no. She couldn't tell us we were going. He'd find out and kill her. Uncle Haymitch called. He's a cop. We didn't recognize his voice."
"Gosh Kat." Annie says.
"I'm going to see them." I say quietly.
"When?" Jo asks.
"I get on the plane at noon."
I look at my watch. It's nine.
I'll have to leave soon.
"Well…someone should come with you."
"I can't." Johanna says. "My brother's wedding is tomorrow. I have to leave in a few hours to go to Phoenix."
"Well…" Finnick hesitates. "Annie, why don't you stay with Caitlin? I'll go with Kitty."
Annie nods. "That's fine. Katniss, Finnick will come with you."
"Take me home to pack." Finn says.
He hugs everyone goodbye, as do I, and then we head to his house.
