CHAPTER 8
KATNISS'S POV
Later that night, we arrived back at our house. We put everything away and ate quietly. I hadn't spoken since I had jumped Delly.
"Why did you go after her?" Haymitch asked.
"Because she needed to learn her place. And I wasn't exactly going to kill her." I replied. Haymitch smiled at me.
"I'm glad to see your fire coming back." he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You were starting to mellow out. And I think that proved us that you're still the girl on fire." Haymitch replied. I didn't say anything. I did the dishes and made sure the house was clean before joining him to watch tv.
HAYMITCH'S POV
I hadn't been very surprised when Katniss had jumped Delly. I had known it would happen at some point while we were up at Effie's, but I had never imagined it would be so soon after arriving there.
She didn't talk until we were eating dinner. Even then, she only talked when I talked to her first.
"Why did you go after her?" I asked.
"Because she needed to learn her place. And I wasn't exactly going to kill her." she replied.
"I'm glad to see your fire coming back." I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You were starting to mellow out. And I think that proved us that you're still the girl on fire." I replied. She didn't say anything else. She did the dishes and did some light house cleaning before joining me to watch tv.
I had an idea and switched it to a scary movie channel. I knew that despite her going through two hunger games, she was still scared easily by movies. I hoped she didn't know what I was trying to do.
Soon she was sitting on the couch with me burying her face into my chest at every scary part in the movie. I pulled out some whisky that I had hidden behind the couch when she had went through the house and thrown out all the alcohol that I had.
"Where did you get that?" she asked when she saw what I had.
"I've had it, sweetheart. I hid it when you were throwing all my other alcohol away. This is all I have left." I replied. I took the lid off and started drinking. It burned my throat since I had gotten used to not drinking. Katniss took it from me and drank a third of it and I downed the rest when she handed it back to me. Neither of us were drunk, but we both definitely felt some effect from it.
We watched the rest of the movie and went up to bed.
About an hour after we had went to our separate bedrooms, I heard the door to my room crack open. I opened my eyes and saw Katniss standing in the doorway. I already knew why she had come. She was probably scared to sleep alone. I patted the bed next to me and she shot under the covers.
I wrapped my arms around her tightly and held her as close to me as I could. She fell asleep abnormally quickly. I sighed, thinking about how it was always like this. Me holding her and wanting us to be more than what we really were. I began to wonder if she just used me to comfort her after her nightmares, but I quickly shook the thought considering she fed me, cleaned for me, and always came if I had nightmares.
The next morning when I woke up, she was gone. I got up as well and headed down to the kitchen. She was sitting at the table looking very upset.
"What's wrong, Katniss?" I asked.
"They called from District four. Mom died last night." she replied. I hugged her and held her as she cried.
Once she was done crying, she looked extremely embarrassed for some reason. I didn't say anything. I knew she thought I would be disgusted by her moment of what she would call weakness. Personally, I knew she wasn't weak. After everything she had gone through, I was amazed she wasn't mentally unstable. She was mentally and emotionally stronger than anyone else I had ever met. Sure, she had nightmares and cried once in a while, but even normal people that had never encountered anything bad did that. At least she wasn't like I was. At least she didn't drown her sorrows away in alcohol. And at least she didn't fall for someone half her age and become dependent on them.
I was the weak one out of the two of us. Before she had come along, I had handed two kids over every year and didn't attempt to help them. I drank my sorrows away. I'd wake myself up screaming every night. And when she marched into my life, I slowly became more and more dependent on her.
