CHAPTER 2 – IN THE JUSTICE BUILDING/ON THE TRAIN

I try to hold the tears in as I walk into my room and sit down on the couch. The fabric is unfamiliar to me, but it feels nice. I hear a buzz and a disembodied voice informs me that I have visitors. My father, my mother and my brothers walk in. Jeffrey pulls me into a tight embrace, and says "I would have if I could have." I could hear a break in his voice.

My other brother, Mark, hugs me and says "I am so sorry brother, but you understand, don't you?" I want to be mad at him, I so do, but I do understand his reasons. What Katniss did is a rational thing.

Next to embrace me is my father. Wow, for a whole life without any affection, these ten minutes before being sent to my death are quite full of affection. "I'm so sorry, son. I know you had feelings for the girl," at this, I hear a scoff coming from my mother's direction. "So I'll try to keep her family full if neither of you come back. I do, really hope you come back, though!" I feel his tears on my hair. As my father breaks away from our hug, my mother approaches me.

"District Twelve may finally have a victor," she says. I feel a twinge of hope. "She's a survivor, that one." I realise that she isn't talking about me, but talking about Katniss.

My mother is always great with the pep talks.

In what seems like seconds, the remainder of my 10 minutes with them is gone. The Peacekeepers take them away. Well, 10 minutes down, 50 minutes to go. I think no more visitors are coming, but a very frantic – looking Delly Cartwright bursts into the room. "You're allowed to have a token in the arena, right?" she asks. I see the way her watery eyes glimmer in the light. I nod my head. "Can you take this? As your token?" she asks, holding out a bracelet with a flower on it.

"Of course, Delly. In case I don't come back, I just want to let you know that I will always remember you and cherish our friendship," I started, tears welling up in my eyes. I must not cry.

"Stop talking like that Peeta, you will come back," she replies, tears starting to stream down her face. "Delly… I love her. I love Katniss. I can't kill her! I'm so sorry," I say, not caring about the tears streaming down my face.

"I'll miss you Peeta," she says. We hug until the Peacekeepers pull her out. Well, at least now there's only 40 minutes until I leave.

I get another shock when none other than Gale Hawthorne walked in. "Hi, Peeta," he says, approaching me slowly and cautiously, his feet not making a sound.

"Hello, Gale," I reply, wondering why he isn't with Katniss.

"Look, Mellark, to make this visit short and sweet, I'll get straight to the point. I need you to help Katniss get out alive. I know you may think that's selfish of me or whatever, but I don't really care. She can't die. Not when she doesn't know that I love her," he says, still pacing around the carpet. So he loved her too. That explained them spending so much time together. I wonder how you can not know someone loves you. Then again, look at me.

"Okay, Hawthorne. I'll keep her alive. Oh, and if you ever find yourself short on food, stop by the bakery. If you tell my father that you knew me, he'll give you food," I reply with a dry smile.

"Thanks Mellark. Oh, and wherever you go after death, tell my father I said hi," he says, before leaving the room.

For the last half hour, I think about my life, my friends, Katniss and everything that in a matter of weeks will be here, without me. I imagine Katniss, growing up to marry Gale; Logan, proposing to his girlfriend. How I would have loved to be there for those things, I sigh to myself. Snap out of it, Mellark, I think to myself, you're already talking about yourself in the third person. I continue to think back on my life, and I start to cry. I don't know why I'm crying, I think it's just a reflex to my thinking about my death. Also, I guess I'm a little bit upset about Logan not visiting. So much for best friends.

In what feels like minutes, Effie comes in and escorts me to the car to travel to the train. I know my face is red and puffy and I wish I hadn't cried. The cameras are all around us now, and I can see that Katniss looks a little bit bored. I wish I could mask my emotions like her, but the Mellarks were not known for their emotional strength.

We get on the train, and I'm pretty sure my jaw has dropped open. If the exterior was bland, it was all forgiven with the inside. Effie doesn't even stop to look because, being from the Capitol, she is used to beauty. I wish I could live in beauty like this every day, too. Oh well, I think, at least I'll live in beauty for a little while.

I get shown to a compartment and Effie tells me I can do whatever I want until dinner, which was in an hour. I decided to have a look through my compartment and have a shower. I have a hot shower with some gloop that makes me smell like roses. I get dressed and before I know it, Effie's calling me for dinner. I get up and head outside.

When I get there, Katniss isn't there yet, so I sit down and begin to load my plate. I hear a little noise, like an "hmph" coming from Effie. I see her plate has no food on it. "Problem, Effie?" I ask, putting down the plate that I was serving myself from.

"I find it polite to wait until all diners are present at the table before beginning my meal," she replies, turning her head from my plate, like it disgusted her.

"Well, Effie, I technically haven't started my meal yet, have I?" I ask, with a pointed look at my plate. She makes another noise, but doesn't say anything to challenge my statement, so I take that as a sign of defeat. Soon enough, Katniss joins us at the table and Effie starts to pile her plate up. She tells us to take it slow, and that there are more dishes to come, but I just can't resist. All of the food looks so good, and so fresh, that I have to taste it to make sure it's real.

"Effie, do you happen to know where Haymitch is? I'd like to discuss arena tactics with him, if that's at all possible," I ask halfway through the meal. She says that he's probably taking a nap. "Or he's drunk," observes Katniss. "He was drunk this morning at the reaping, wasn't he?" she says, and I notice Effie subtly pursing her lips.

"He's drunk at every reaping," I counter. It is true. I don't think I've ever seen him sober, and I'm not quite sure I want to.

"He's drunk every day," states Katniss. We both start laughing.

"Well, I don't think it's very funny. Haymitch controls your gifts, your sponsors and is your only outside source in the arena. He is the difference between life and death in the arena," she says.

Haymitch stumbles in, and manages to say "Oh, did I miss dinner?" before vomiting on the carpet and collapsing in it.

"So laugh away." Says Effie, walking away.

"I trip? Smells bad," asks Haymitch, covered in his own vomit. By some silent agreement, Katniss and I each grab one arm, pulling Haymitch from the sludge. We manage to take Haymitch to his quarters and get him in the bath.

"I'll take it from here," I say, noticing Katniss looks a little green.

"Do you want me to call one of the Capitol assistants?" She asks.

"No, I'll be fine. Go to bed, Katniss," I say, focusing on unbuttoning Haymitch's shirt. I wash all of the vomit off of him, get him dressed and into bed. I place him on his side, so he doesn't choke if he vomits again. I then leave for my own cabin and fall into a fitful sleep.