Chapter 15
229 days until my birthday.
Apollo and I have to run errands today. He's too tired to worry about my fashion sense today. First stop: His house to get his clothes. Aemelia is tired of me raiding her box of boyfriend clothing. It's her own fault.
Apollo doesn't live that far away from me. His house is only like half a mile away. When we reach his house twenty minutes later, we find out that his house is empty, and a suitcase with his clothes is lying close to the door, along with a note from his brother, Anchises. Anchises is a nice guy. His wife is nice, too. She makes cookies when Apollo and I visit.
Next stop: groceries. As of the day before yesterday evening, we are officially out of real food. Aemelia usually goes to buy the groceries, since that's one of her jobs, but she was too busy watching the Hunger Games. We have to drive to the store. I'm not in the mood to walk fifteen miles just to get some crackers and peanut butter. Seriously. It's not worth it. We use Anchises' old car, since he doesn't drive it anymore and always leaves his keys in his parents' house. I don't have a car for two reason: one, I would be the most aggressive driver anyone has ever seen, and I would probably freak out and crash into something.
I open the door to the black convertible while Apollo puts his stuff in the back. I can drive, I just don't like to. To much work, and it makes me more anxious than I already am. But, on the other hand, Apollo is an insane driver. Our car rides are maddening.
"Slow down. We're nearing a light," I say nervously. I'm gripping the arms rests as hard as I can without breaking my fingers.
"Calm down. The bastard behind me would crash if I did that. He's close enough to touch me," he says through clenched teeth. I look through the rear view window. Red car. Young male driver, a few years older than Aemelia. Late twenties, early thirties. Angry bastard, too. He's clenching the wheel as hard as I'm clenching the arm rests, with teeth bared.
"Stop. Stop stop stop stop stop stop." I curl up in the passenger's seat, hands still locked on the rests. We're rapidly approaching the red light.
"Oh shut up. I'm going to make it," Apollo mutters.
"No you're not. Slow down," my voice cracks. Apollo speeds up a little bit. The light shouldn't turn green, but it does. Just in time for my friend to cross. I let out a sigh of relief. Apollo's grumbling about how the cars around him are driving and I pretend to listen like I do every time he goes on rants. This one, for some reason, is going on for a lot longer than his other ones. I just nod my head when he glances in my direction and think about something else. It takes another ten minutes of nerve-wracking, but the two of us reach the grocery store in one piece.
"So, what do we need," Apollo says, retrieving a cart before entering. I take my mobile phone out of my pocket and search for the list.
"A bag of tangerines, three boxes of saltine crackers, one pound of beef, milk, peanut butter, six apples, cereal, and oatmeal," I say. I love tangerines.
"Okay... let's get the tangerines first," Apollo says, directing me and the cart over to the produce. I really love tangerines. I grab the bag of tangerines and the apples, then my phone starts ringing. Apollo takes my phone out of my hand and answers it.
"Hera Vasik's phone this is Apollo Gray speaking," he says. I roll my eyes and try to take the phone from him. He pushes me away. Why do his arms have to be so long? "Yes. Yes... wait, no. Really? I'd love to. Sure. Let me ask," he puts the phone on mute, "Adriana wants to know if you are willing to come out of retirement and do a competition dance number."
"How about no..." I say, examining the apples, "Give me the phone."
"In a minute. Adriana? Yeah she said... Well- No it's not- No, no. She'd love to." my eyes widen in horror and Apollo mouths the word sorry to me, "Yeah okay. See you in two weeks. Bye," he hangs up the phone and gives it back to me, smiling apologetically.
"I hate you," I say.
"I know," he says, pushing the cart over to the dry goods.
"Are you my partner?" I turn to my happily guilty friend. He just smiles. The only reason we're paired together is because of skill level. I would much rather dance with someone who is closer to my height, "What song are we doing?"
"That is to be announced. And also, we are going to be used as an example for the new dancers." Just great. We get the rest of the groceries, purchase them, and drive back to my house, where we find Aemelia sitting on the couch waiting for us.
"Thresh died," she wails from behind a slightly tear-dampened tissue. Apollo and I sit on the couch with our food and watch the games like normal Capitol residents.
Rate and review please. I just want to post the rest of these god damned chapters so I can get to the exciting stuff I wrote earlier.
Well, you learned something about Hera. She hates dancing.