Chapter 35
(Madge POV)
I sneak downstairs to the kitchen and start cleaning up the mess we left. Part of me really, really wants to sneak out and go see Gale but I worry that with Drew in the house I'll get caught. I'll try to sneak off to see him, even if just briefly, whenever Drew is busy working. It won't be much of a visit or anything, especially since it'll be during the daytime but I just want to be with him so badly. I crave time with him, even if it's just mere minutes.
After I clean the kitchen, I go upstairs. I listen at Drew's door but don't hear anything. Maybe he really was just sleepy. Maybe I'm over thinking all of this. But then there's the whole thing with that warning from Martin not to trust Drew and that leaves me with nothing but uncertainty. I pace the floor of my room for awhile but all I can think of is trying to find out who Drew's roommate was at the matching week. It's the only sort of progress I can think of making that may possibly lead me closer to an answer. What I really need is to talk to Martin. To beg him for more insight. But I can't talk to him if I can't get on that train. Too bad I didn't make more of an effort to be chummy with Natasha. She may know something about the connection to Martin since she's friends with Drew and that girl would gossip about anything if she thought someone was interested. Frustrated, I go to bed and call it a night.
When I wake up, I go downstairs and find Drew already dressed in his suit and tie, drinking a cup of coffee and reading over some sort of papers. He shuffles them and sets them aside when I walk in.
"Good morning!" I greet him brightly.
"Good morning." He says, only half smiling at me.
"Something wrong?" I ask, surprised by his lack of enthusiasm this morning.
"Did you clean up the kitchen last night after I went to bed?" He asks.
"Of course. I never leave messes for Bethany. It wasn't a big deal and I wasn't tired yet." I shrug as I pour myself some juice, trying not to look at him because I don't like how he's making me feel guilty for doing something that felt like the courteous thing to do.
"I told you that you should just leave it for the help though."
"What difference does it make? It wasn't as if I asked you to clean it up." I tell him, anger edging in my tone and my choice of words.
"Please don't get upset. I just want you to have the experience you deserve. You are one of the future leaders of Panem. A role most would kill for. A role you should be embracing. Part of that role is establishing yourself as someone of authority. I worry that your heart of kindness, which I love by the way, is going to keep you from being a respected person of authority."
I stare at him. Is he serious? Does he really think I won't be taken seriously if I clean up after myself.
"I am sorry to have disappointed you by having a heart so full of kindness." I tell him flatly, then turn and leave the room, heading outside to the back porch. I know I am supposed to be giving him the impression that I support the Capitol and not giving him reason to get me in trouble but I am so furious right now that I could just scream. He practically just scolded me for cleaning up a mess I made.
I'm only out on the porch for a minute or two before I hear the screen door open and shut again behind me. I don't turn around. He slips his arm around my waist and I stiffen. Is this what it's going to be like when we're married? He'll tell me what to do and how to do it and then expect me just to comply without question and accept his affections? And then tears spring to my eyes because I know that's exactly how it's going to be. I fight to not let them roll down my cheeks.
"Madge, I don't want to upset you, that's never my intention. I hope you know that. I only want what's best for you, for us."
I swallow all my pride and give him the answer that I know I have to give him. The one that's expected of me. "I know. I'm sorry and I'll be more mindful of my actions going forward." I don't look at him when I say it. I can't. It takes everything in me to just say the words.
He sighs. "I feel like we argue or disagree about something every time we see one another. I hate that. Tell me how I can put an end to that."
"Just be patient with me. There's going to be a lot of little things like this that we see differently on and I need you to be patient with me when we discover those things and while I learn to change the way I see those things. I know the level of expectation that is being placed on us and I won't let you down." I tell him while still fighting back tears.
"I can do that." He kisses my temple and hugs me. I let him because I honestly don't know what else to do. I have no choice in this whatsoever and if I try to fight him on stupid things like cleaning the kitchen when he doesn't want me to then I will end up just making life even more miserable for myself.
"I've got some work to attend to this morning but I'd love to have lunch with you at that little cafe place we went to that one time. Meet me there at noon?" He asks.
I put a smile on my face and look up at him. "I'll be there."
He goes inside and gathers his things to take to the Justice Hall so that he can do whatever work it is that he has to do. I wait by the front door and give him a quick peck kiss as he goes. When the door shuts behind him, I lean against it and let myself slide down to the floor and let the tears fall. And boy do they fall! They fall for the future I do not want. They fall for the boy I can't trust but have to marry anyway. They fall for the boy I really want who I can't ever truly have.
(Gale POV)
I'm sitting on the front porch whittling again because I've got nothing else to do but sit here. There's no way I can get out to the woods to hunt and there's no work anywhere in town for me to pick up a few jobs. I've already done all the chores around the house and chopped wood for the stove. So I'm left with just whittling to pass the time until the viewing. My work is starting to take the shape of a star when I hear someone walking towards me so I look up and see a red eyed Madge.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" I ask, leaping to my feet immediately.
She shakes her head. "I'm fine. I don't have long to talk but I wanted to tell you I'm sorry he showed up like this, I had no idea he was coming."
"You came all the way down here just to tell me that? I already knew that. What's wrong?" I insist.
"Just trying to come to terms with the future that awaits me is all. It's way to ridiculous to even start explaining it all. I'm fine, really."
I pull her to the side of the house where she'll be mostly out of sight from anyone passing by and hug her to me. I don't know what he did to upset her like this but I know he did something.
"How long is he here for?"
"For the duration of the games." She tells me.
"Super." I reply and then wish I hadn't. "Sorry, I just hate that he's got you all upset about something is all." I add so she knows my comment wasn't directed at her.
"When my father comes home and the fence is turned off, I really need you to find out if the rumors about District 13 are true or not. Because if they are, I really am going to leave and go there. It's going to kill me if I stay in Panem for the rest of my life." She tells me and she's so serious that it hurts.
I reach up and wipe away a tear that slips down her cheek. "We'll get you out of here, one way or another, I promise."
"I have to go. I just wanted to see you while I could, even if it was just for a minute." She says, putting a smile on her sad face.
"Be careful, okay? Don't let him get to know the real you. Just do your fake Capitol thing until he's gone." I tell her.
"I am. I'm trying anyway."
I lean down and kiss her once, knowing it may be awhile before I get another chance. Knowing she looks like she needs the kiss something terrible.
"I'll see you again as soon as I can."
"Hang in there." I tell her as I watch her turn and hurry back towards town.
(Madge POV)
I hurry from the Seam to the Cafe to meet Drew. I fight to make the tears stop falling. I've been crying all morning, a total mess. Seeing Gale, even for just that brief moment made a world of difference. Something about being with him calms me. With my nerves calmed a little, I decide I need to make a plan. I can always handle things so much better when I have a plan. My plan now is to have lunch with Drew and then go home and figure out how to find out who his roommate was at the matching. Something about that is really sticking with me and making me think I'll find some answers once I find that out. There would've been a list of heirs and somewhere, at some point there would've been a list of roommates. I know the computer in my father's office at home would have those kinds of lists on it somewhere but I have very little experience with computers so I'm not sure I'd know how to find it. But I'm going to try. It's the only thing I know to do at this point.
Drew is waiting for me when I walk up to the cafe. I wave and flash a big smile. He leans down to kiss my temple and then we go in.
"Did you finish all your work?" I ask. What I really am asking though is if he has more work to do this afternoon. I need to know how much time I have to try and use my father's computer.
"I'm afraid not. I'll have quite a bit more I need to finish before the viewing this afternoon."
"That's okay. I'm glad you were still able to meet me for lunch." Internally I'm jumping for joy at the news.
"Let's have our movie night tonight. It'll give me something to look forward to while I slave away at my work."
"What are you working on? That is, if I'm allowed to ask that sort of thing?" I ask. I'm actually not sure if it's okay for me to ask about his work or not. I've never wanted to ask my father so I have no idea if it's proper manners to ask that sort of thing.
"You can ask. I may not always be at liberty to discuss details with you but you can still ask." He says with a smile, reaching across the table and touching my hand.
"I wasn't sure. So what is it you're working on now?"
"My father has me working on reconciling the budget from the Matching of Heirs ceremony. I'm literally up to my eyeballs in invoices and reciepts for services rendered. It's a nightmare trying to sort it all out and figure out which charges belong to which District."
"That actually sounds like fun."
"You've got to be kidding." He says with a look of horror.
"No, I love math. Working with numbers has always been very easy for me. I'd love to help you tackle some of it." I offer. I am good at math but I don't necessarily love it. I just think this could be the chance I need to find out who his roommate was since every heir would have a trail of receipts to reconcile and some of those would be for lodging expenses.
"You want to help sort out receipts and invoices?"
"Can I?" I ask with enthusiasm. "Bring all your papers back to the house. We'll spread everything out, get to work and be finished in no time!"
"I don't know. It seems like something I should really handle myself."
"Don't be silly. I've got nothing else to do and I really am good at this sort of thing. It'll be fun, trust me."
"Okay, you win. I'll let you help me. We cannot tell my father though. He needs to think I did this all myself."
"Deal!" I say as I take a bite of my chicken salad sandwich. And for the first time today I feel like I have a chance to gain some insight on Martin and hopefully figure out what his connection to Drew is.
We finish up our lunch, stop by the Justice Center to collect his belongings and then set up shop in my room. He places various stacks of papers in rows and then hands me a list of names of heirs and the district they're from.
"So I need to get all of these matched up with the district they belong to. If I read you the names, can you scan the list and tell me where they belong? After we do that, I'll let you help with all that fun math and tally up charges per district. Then later, if time allows, we can see if each district stayed within their allotted budget or not." He instructs.
"Let's do it!" I say as I pick up a pen and the list of names.
He shakes his head and laughs as we get to work. He wasn't kidding about being up to his eyeballs in receipts. There are hundreds of them. Literally hundreds. It's really absurd how much money each heir wastes on this ridiculous event each year. I keep my ears peeled, waiting for Martin's name to come up but it doesn't. I do see from my list that he's from District 4. So now I know he knew Drew. I wonder what his father did for work? Drew's dad is mayor so that mostly just leaves head peacekeeper as far as leadership positions within the district. It seems awfully unusual for the son of a head peacekeeper to have been fraternizing with Avox. Usually descendants of peacekeepers are incredibly strict rule followers down to every little thing. There must be some other position I'm unaware of that pertains specifically to District 4. Maybe something to do with it being on the ocean or something? I don't know.
We make quite a bit of progress but don't fully finish before it's time to go to the viewing. I tell Drew just to leave it all sitting where it is and we can work on it more later. I want to keep looking through things. I know I can find some answers if I can just keep looking through all those papers.
At the veiwing, Drew and I sit alone on the stage. With my father still out of town, the Capitol guests aren't here. I notice again that the Everdeens aren't here. I lean over and whisper to Drew about it.
"Do you know where the Everdeens are?"
"Final 5 interviews probably. We'll only see the interviews if they make top 3 but they always interview the families of the top 5 tributes."
I breathe a little easier knowing it was all routine reason for them not being here. I'll have to make sure word of that gets to Gale. I should've thought to ask Drew about it yesterday.
The viewing shows us that the girl from District 5 dies when she eats some sort of poisonous berries that Peeta had been collecting, neither of them knowing how dangerous they are. Thankfully, Katniss knows what they are and warns Peeta never to eat them. Apparently they can kill you in mere seconds. So that leaves it down to just 4 tributes. I can also tell that the game makers are ready to wrap things up. They create these mutant mutts that start chasing after the tributes. And they're chasing them all towards the cornucopia. Everyone is getting pushed together. Unfortunately, that's all we see for today. I have a feeling that tomorrow or the next day will be the end of the games. And I pray that Katniss and Peeta can hang on until the end.
After the viewing, we go back to the house. Bethany is working late this evening to prepare us a dinner. I think it's totally unnecessary but I'm not going to raise the issue with Drew. We eat a much too elaborate dinner which is served in several courses. I'll have to do something nice to thank Bethany after Drew is gone. This is too much work for her to fool with for just us.
"Do you mind if I take a few minutes to make a phone call before we get back to work?" He asks me.
I know it's likely a call to Ellison and I do not care one bit. It'll allow me time to look through those papers alone and find out more information. "I don't mind at all. Take your time. I'm going to get out of this dress and get changed into some comfy pajamas before we get going again anyway." I tell him with a kiss on the cheek.
Back in my room I change into pajamas as quickly as humanly possible, and then get busy looking through the stacks of receipts and invoices. Instead of doing what we were doing earlier, I start skimming through them looking only for ones related to Martin or Drew. I keep glancing up at the clock too, knowing I only have a few minutes before Drew comes back. I'm on the 5th stack of papers, almost at the bottom of the stack before I find it. Drew's lodging invoice. It doesn't say who his roommate was but it has a room number. Now i just have to find out who else had that number. There is no way I am going to be able to find it before Drew comes back, not in this mess of papers. But I'm happy with what I have learned. I now know Martin was from District 4, likely the son of a head peacekeeper. And I know what room Drew was in so now I can find out who his roommate was and figure out why he skirted around naming them when I'd asked about it. If I can convince Drew to leave all this work in my room when he goes to bed, I can solve the roommate question tonight. I'll stay up all night if I have to.