My tea's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all.
The morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all.
Even if I could it would all be gray…
I turn back to the girl, wondering 'What the hell could you possibly do for me?' while a drop of rain falls onto my navy blue sweatshirt.
"The sky's about to open up and its freezing. Why don't you come inside?" She asks, obviously tired of my attitude. My attitude.
"I don't really want to." I mutter, staring downwards again.
"Oh, come on! I won't bite! Just… come!" She says, waving me over. 'You didn't finish your sentence. I think you meant come here poor homeless boy', I think snidely to myself, 'Let me pity you'.
I slowly walk towards her, and the second I stand under the light of the streetlamp, she hauls me inside of the shop next to the liquor store, a nice department store. A little bit higher end. The lights seem extremely bright and I cringe. White, everything's white. I reach up to my face, covering my eyes. How can this girl drag me in here? Doesn't she have a manager or something? Isn't there some kind of law against poor people socializing with the middle to high class? Oh, there's not? I'm sorry, it always seems like it…
"Oh my god, you're bleeding!" She says, feigning concern. 'Cut the shit, lady', I inwardly snarl, but as I look her over, I see she's no older than me. She has wavy dark hair with a small frame. 'Hey now'.
There's an absolutely horrid song playing over the store and I'm forced to listen to it as I'm dragged to a back room, and the girl grabs gauze. "I could kill him. I'm so sorry he did this to you." She says, almost pleading for me to be forgiving.
"Whatever…" I grumble, looking away as she tugs away my hood, making me jump. My instinct is to clamber to cover myself up again but she's already dabbing at my tender head. "Ah…" I breathe, shrinking away.
"Sorry," she says, "I'll start calling around to see if I can find a place for you after I do this."
"You don't need to," I say, "I've never really needed 'a place' before."
"I'm Katniss by the way." She tells me and I nod.
"Peeta," I grumble unhappily.
She finishes cleaning up my head, and sets her appliances down on the counter, reaching for a phone. "You can walk around a bit. Only if you want to." She says quickly, obviously forgetting it's not easy for me. But I do it anyway, limping to the other side of the room so I don't have to hear her telephone conversation about a poor homeless kid she found outside and he now needs a place to stay.
It's a few minutes later Katniss sighs, hanging up the phone and dialing another number. Apparently they're not answering since she repeats this action.
'The door is right there', my mind yells but I ignore. I couldn't make it there if I tried, I'm feeling a little woozy. Katniss hisses at someone, looking back at me for a second and I get the courage to listen in. "He's young, but he's hurt… His leg's been amputated… No, I don't think he's dangerous… Are you kidding me, you just said you had space… Great, fine, thanks." She snaps sarcastically, hanging up and leaning her hip against the counter.
'Now would be a perfect time to scidattle!' My brain says but once again I don't listen. Someone's voice goes over to the intercom, warning that there's five minutes until the store closes.
"You can come home with me, and I'll keep calling there. C'mon." she says, jerking her head towards the door and I slowly follow. I don't even know if I'd regret anything if this girl's some kind of serial killer. She'd be doing me a favor.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
She drives me to a small house atop stilts, light blue in color. I gawk at it a moment and Katniss is visibly contemplating tapping my arm for my attention, which she doesn't know she already has, but says "Well, come on then," instead.
I think about asking her if she lives alone but decide that would be creepy, and I look like an idiot as I try to stand out of the car with my not-so-flexible prosthetic. She watches me, not offering to help and I finally get to my feet, walking after her. She leads me up a steep staircase which is a pain and she has the decency to hold the door for me. We emerge into a large dining room and I point to a chair, raising an eyebrow as if to ask 'Can I sit?', and she nods.
"Of course, go ahead." She says, putting her purse and whatnot on the counter that separates this room from the next. "Would you like something to drink?" She calls from what must be the kitchen.
"No," I say, studying the pictures on the wall, "I'm fine." All the pictures are of a man with dark hair like Katniss', but they're old and worn and I get the clue that whoever he is, he's either dead or gone or both. The other pictures are of the boy that attacked me, smiling warmly with Katniss' arms wrapped around him, kissing his cheek.
"I've called everywhere though…" Katniss argues on the phone, "Yes, turned down every time… two weeks?... Yeah, yeah okay. Two weeks it is." She says a little sadly, putting the phone down with a 'bang'. She growls, walking back to the dining room where I sit, handing me a glass of water I didn't ask for.
"Uh, thanks…" I grumble, sliding it towards me but don't drink it.
"Okay so the only home I could find with an open room for you will have to be waited for. For two weeks." She says, starting to tie her hair into a braid. I'm a little confused as to what this means, and it seems like she is too. She wraps a band at the end of the braid. "I don't really know what else to do for you… You can stay here for tonight," she offers, telling me with pain in her eyes: "My father has some old clothes upstairs you can use after you shower. I'll make something to eat." She leads me to a room upstairs that very clean and untouched. I feel like I shouldn't step into it.
"Here," Katniss says, handing me a pair of jeans, boxers and a dark t-shirt after digging in a dresser drawer. It looks kind of long for me but I accept without a word. "Alright, the bathroom is the next door to the left. Come down when you're done." She tells me, awkwardly squeezing past me, jogging down the stairs.
Song at the top was Eminem feat. Dido "Stan" follow & review please