ANNIE

"Gorgeous. Absolutely stunning."

Annie turned around to admire herself in the mirror. Her stylist designed her interview dress to accentuate her eyes and hair, a Caribbean blue. It was short and strapless, elongating her tall, thin figure, with a pouffy skirt to bring a young girl like image. Of course, she was still a young girl, but people seemed to forget that with the title of eighteen. Her long legs stood on silver heels and she couldn't help but think she was beautiful. After everything everyone had done, she was finally pretty.

In the mirror, she saw Finnick walk into the room. His eyes widened at the sight of her, but she thought that it was pathetic. Why was he so interested now? She looked like a Capitolised version of herself. The only difference was she was dressed nice, had on makeup, and her eyebrows were thinner. Annie rolled her eyes.

"You're burning my dress, Finnick," she said standoffishly.

His eyes darted down to the floor.

"Sorry, you just look nice."

She batted her eyes sarcastically. "Eat your heart out, stud."

Finnick was taken aback, but Annie was about to go on stage anyway, so she left the room with as much attitude as possible.

She heard Caesar Flickerman announce her name, so she walked out slowly. The crowd made her nauseous. There were not only thousands of people in the studio, but thousands watching from all of Panem. Everyone she knew would be watching—not that there were many, but the intimidation was still there.

She approached Caesar with caution, but he emitted kindness which boosted Annie's confidence with talking to him.

"So," Caesar started, "Miss Cresta, you seem like a beautiful, kind young lady. You must be one with the suitors, I assume?"

"Well, if I am then no one bothered to tell me," she said back. She felt so witty, so fluent. The crowd laughed with Caesar.

"Well I'm sure that there's someone with their eye on you. You're such a pretty face!"

"With all of this makeup, I'm sure you can't see my face." Another audience laugh.

"Alright," Caeser said, calming the crowd. "On a more serious note, we know that your good friend, Clyte Seeworthy, was in the final two in the Games four years ago along with your mentor, Finnick Odair."

Annie's eyes dropped.

"Yes," she murmured.

"How have you coped with that?" he asked.

She looked dead into the camera with her eyes redder than her hair.

"I don't."

FINNICK

Her words stung. He had told her what happened. He didn't kill Clyte. Why didn't she believe him?

He had never seen Annie's eyes so full of hatred. It made loving her even more painful, knowing she didn't want any part of him.

After the interviews, they made their way back to the Tribute Centre.

"I want you both to know that I'm proud of you," Finnick told them. They nodded. Abe left to go to bed, but Finnick caught Annie's arm and pulled her into his arms.

"Fin—"

"Annie, I love you."

"Oh my—"

"Stop." He looked in her eyes. "I love you."

Then he kissed her. Softly, but he kissed her. He knew that he had to. It could have been the last chance he got.

But it wasn't.

She took him into her bed that night.

He kissed her until the sun rose and the stylists knocked on her door.

"I have to go," she said.

"I know."

"I love you, Finnick."

"I love you, Annie."

She kissed him softly one last time, and with that, she walked out of the door and soon into the arena.