Gasps of surprise come from the crowd; even pained wails after people realize who my love is as I try to hide my face by looking at my shoes. My voice was barely audible, but with the loud speakers, it could be heard easily. And Katniss?
Her face is on every screen. Her shocked face. With cheeks as red as they get, she closes her lips together tightly and looks at the floor. I knew I shouldn't have said that.
"Oh, that is a piece of bad luck," Caesar says.
"It's not good," I say, finally taking my face off the screens showing Katniss.
"Well, I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady. She didn't know?"
Of course she didn't know! And now, she probably thinks anything I've had to do with her has all been a plot to kill her, when it's exactly the opposite. Even though my emotions are going crazy inside my head, I keep that same show face on.
"Not until now," I say after I shake my head.
"Wouldn't you love to pull her back out here and get a response?" Caesar asks the crowd, which screams in agreement so loudly that the buzzer can hardly be heard. "Sadly, rules are rules, and Katniss Everdeen's time has been spent. Well, best of luck to you, Peeta Mellark, and I think I speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours."
I begin to think that I've done it. I've won over the Capitol Citizens. Their roar is deafening, and I wait for them to calm down before I choke on my own words. "Thank you."
I go back to my seat while the anthem blares even above the roar of the crowd, and I notice every screen is focused on Katniss and I. We have done it – we've made Hunger Games history.
I'm still in a daze as we make our way back to the Training Center and ride up the elevators. Katniss goes to a different one than me, leaving me alone with a few others. No one speaks on the way up, and the last person to gets off on the eighth floor. Finally alone. I slump back against the glass walls of the elevator. In just a few seconds, I'll be able to talk to Katniss. She might even be happy. Besides, this should help her and me in the arena with the sponsors. The elevator dings and I take a deep breath in, expecting to explain to Katniss that this has helped her.
I don't have time to though, because as soon as I step out of the elevator, I'm shoved. I fall backwards into an urn. It crashes under me, sending shards all over the floor and into my hand. I look up and see my attacker is Katniss, who's furious. Is she really going to be like this now?
"What was that for?" I ask, my own anger starting to well up inside me.
"You had no right! No right to go saying those things about me!" she shouts.
The elevators open and the rest of the adults come in.
"What's going on?" Effie asks with an edge of hysteria in it. "Did you fall?"
"Katniss shoved me," I say as I glare at her.
Effie and Cinna help me up while Haymitch turns his attention to Katniss. "Shoved him?"
"This was your idea, wasn't it? Turning me into some kind of fool in front of the entire country?" she accuses him.
"It was my idea," I say as I begin pulling pottery out of my hand. And I can't let Haymitch take the blame for something I came up with. "Haymitch just helped me with it."
"Yes, Haymitch is very helpful. To you!" she exclaims.
"You are a fool. Do you think he hurt you? That boy just gave you something you could never achieve on your own," Haymitch says.
"He made me look weak!" she yells.
Haymitch tells her how I made her look desirable and how the citizens think of us as the star-crossed lovers from District 12. She denies it, and Haymitch pins her against the wall by her shoulders.
I instinctively take a step forward, wanting to intervene. But it's just Haymitch. He won't hurt her; he just wants to get his point across. I calm down and focus back on my hands. If I feel protective of her now, how will I be in the arena?
I continue to try and pull the rest of the shards out of my hand, but with no luck. There are still tiny pieces stuck so I just clench my hands in fists to get the bleeding to stop.
Cinna hands me a cloth from his suit pocket and then wraps an arm around Katniss. "He's right, Katniss."
"I should have been told so I didn't look so stupid," she says.
"No, your reaction was perfect," Portia reassures her. "If you'd known, it wouldn't have read as real."
"She's just worried about her boyfriend," I say bitterly as I pull a particularly painful shard out of my hand. Gale will probably guess it's a lie. For the people that now Katniss or me well, they will all probably think it was a lie. Merchant kids don't fall for Seam kids – that's how it's supposed to work.
"I don't have a boyfriend," she says, but her red cheeks say otherwise.
"Whatever. But I bet he's smart enough to know a bluff when he sees it. Besides, you didn't say you loved me. So what does it matter?"
She turns to address everyone else like I'm not even here, just adding to my anger. "After he said he loved me, did you think I could be in love with him too?"
"I did," Portia says. "The way you avoided looking at the cameras, the blush."
"You're golden, sweetheart. You're going to have sponsors lined up around the block," Haymitch tells her.
Finally, she realizes that I helped her and she acknowledges that I'm here. "I'm sorry I shoved you."
"Doesn't matter," I say with a shrug. I'm not supposed to make it out of these Games anyways. Despite my newest reminder that I'll be dead soon, I try to lighten the mood for everyone else. "Although it's technically illegal."
"Are your hands okay?" she asks.
"They'll be alright," I say.
The blood slows down and Effie says that she doesn't think I'll need bandages. We eat dinner, but I only make it to the beginning of the main course when I look down at the bloody roll I'm holding. Everyone stares at me as I set it down on my plate and begin to wipe my hand on my napkin, but it's no use.
"Let's go patch that up," Portia says as she gets up from her seat.
I nod, and then wrap the napkin around the hand that is bleeding the worst. I follow her to a washroom where she turns on the water and starts looking through the cabinets.
"This won't hurt me in the arena tomorrow, will it?" I ask.
She takes my hand from under the water and quickly examines it. "No. You got all of the pieces out."
She spreads a cream on my palms which stings at first, then soothes away almost all the pain I felt just a second ago.
"And I'm sure you'll have plenty of sponsors to help you out in there," she continues. "Thanks to your interview tonight. You know, you're a very convincing liar."
I look at her, confused. I didn't lie about anything except on some of my thoughts of the Capitol.
"When you proclaimed your love for Katniss?" she continues, noticing my confusion.
Portia deserves to be in on the truth, too.
"Portia, that wasn't a lie," I say, and she stops wrapping my hand to look up at me.
"You really love her?" she asks like she didn't believe it the first time.
"Yes. Why would I lie?" I ask.
"To get sponsors!" she exclaims.
"I… I don't think I'll need sponsors anymore." My voice is barely above a whisper; I can't even hold her gaze so I have to look down to my palm.
"Everyone needs sponsors, Peeta," she says in an almost cooing voice. "Why wouldn't you need sponsors?"
I look back up to her, and I can feel the lump in my throat start to form. But I can't cry in front of Portia – it would only make her cry, too. She seems to get it on her own when her face changes from showing confusion to grief and her mouth drops open a bit.
"Peeta…"
"I never stood a chance in these Games, anyways. Besides, Katniss' family needs her more. Mine will get over my death eventually," I say, knowing it's true.
She opens her mouth to say something else, but then stops. She goes to sits on the little velvet-covered bench on the opposite wall, deep in thought. I mess with the fresh cotton bandages wrapped around my hands for a little before she speaks again.
"Just promise me that if your plan doesn't go exactly as you want, you'll at least try," she asks.
"Of course," I answer. But my plan will work. I don't have another choice. Katniss will make it back to Twelve.
"Thank you," she says, and a small smile is back on her face.
She puts away the rest of the medical supplies and she smiles a sad smile. "I was thinking you would stand a pretty good chance, especially after tonight," she says as we head out into the hallway.
"Then that should make getting with the Careers easier," I say.
She nods, but we don't say anything else as we walk back to the dining room. We eat the rest of dinner, then watch the interview replays. Katniss isn't herself on stage; she almost seems like a shallow Capitol citizen. Until she talks about Prim. And the shock on people's faces when I declare my love for Katniss is exactly how I imagined them.
It's time to go back to our quarters, and I know this is the last time I will ever see Haymitch or Effie. Some of the last people I will see that I can still consider friends. They may not be my actual friends, but they aren't trying to kill me. And in this week and the next ones to follow, that's as close as I'm going to get.
Effie takes Katniss and I by the hand as tears well up in her eyes, and she wishes us good luck. But being Effie, she adds, "I wouldn't be surprised if I finally get promoted to a decent district next year!"
I almost laugh, but it's too sad to see our slightly annoying escort leave. Only three left: Haymitch, Cinna, and Portia. The last "friends" I will see before.
Haymitch crosses his arms, refusing to be as emotional as Effie.
"Any final words of advice?" I ask him.
"When the gong sounds, get the hell out of there. Neither of you are up to the blood bath at the Cornucopia," he says. I'm not sure if this is meant solely for Katniss, or if it's for me, too. "Just clear out, put as much distance as you can between yourself and the others, and find a source of water. Got that?"
"And after that?" Katniss asks.
"Stay alive," Haymitch says. I can't help but smile, knowing he's not drunk and that he means it this time. Katniss and I nod.
Katniss walks to her room with Haymitch not far behind as he walks to his, leaving Portia and me.
"At least I'll be remembered as the star-crossed lover and the best dressed male tribute," I say, sensing that the mood between us hasn't changed much since she bandaged my hands earlier.
"We definitely put District Twelve on the map, didn't we?"
"No one will ever forget us; or Cinna and Katniss."
She smiles, and I know I've done my job of trying to cheer her up.
"See you in the morning?" I say, but it turns out like a question. I pray that I wont have to say good-bye to Portia tonight, too.
"I'll be there bright and early," she confirms.
With one last smile, I walk back to my quarters to try and get some sleep. Which never happens. I lie in bed, but I can't stop thinking of tomorrow. The Games. The arena. The blood. Just what will I have to face? What will my family have to face? My body could be mangled beyond repair. Who knows how cruel the Gamemakers will be this year.
I try to clear my mind by looking out the window and watching the citizens party in the streets. Their favorite entertainment starts tomorrow, and I have a feeling Katniss and I will be the stars at least in the beginning.
Even staring out the window brings my thoughts back to the Games. Cinna said I could go to the roof almost any time I wanted. Maybe the wind up there will help me calm down a bit.
This stops in the middle of chapter 10 in the book. it was getting a bit lengthy so i split this one into 2 sections. I just love Portia. But have you SEEN the actress that will play her in the movie? NOTHING like i pictured. nothing. here's a pic: images5. fanpop . com/image/photos/29200000/Portia-the-hunger-games-movie-29211877-500-535 . png
Just remove some of the spaces in the URL.
Reviews are very much appreciated:)
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