Chapter 5: One Friend
Peeta sat alone in the living room after Katniss had left for her archery instruction and waited for the Avox to take him to the pool.
He looked at the clock. He bit his lip. He hurried to his room.
Picking up the phone, he dialed the number he hoped he remembered correctly. His heart was pounding. He heard static is as it connected.
The line rang. It rang again. He listened to the ringing. He looked at the clock. What time would it be there? He sighed. It would be afternoon. His father always closed the shop for an hour when Prim and Peeta got home from school so he could spend time with them. Peeta sighed. His father would be listening to Prim tell stories about school.
He slumped onto his bed and hung up the phone. He wondered if his father could add another phone in their living quarters if he sent him some of his Victor winnings. He wanted his hear his voice again.
He looked at the shining emerald-studded phone. The idea flashed quickly.
He grabbed the receiver and dialed.
The line sounded worse and more static-filled. But it rang.
"Hello?" The voice that picked up sounded angry and suspicious. Peeta sighed. He could have guessed he'd be wary after all that happened.
"Hey Gale," he said softly. "It's me."
"Peeta?" The gasp was quiet and shocked.
"I'm okay," Peeta continued. "I'm staying with Snow's daughter."
"I know."
"She's all right. She's...nice."
Gale didn't reply.
Peeta sighed. "Gale, I couldn't say no."
He heard the miserable reply. "I know."
A soft shuffle at the door revealed the Avox summoned to take him to Finnick.
"I have to go. Will you tell my dad…I miss him?"
"Peeta," Gale's voice wavered on the phone. "Um… Leevy's brother is really grateful you took care of her for so long. He told me that the day after...I'll tell your dad."
"Thank you. Give Prim my love."
"Okay."
"Bye."
"Okay."
Peeta hung up and nodded to the young boy who'd served dinner the night before. He wondered if he'd suffer the same fate when Katniss grew tired of him. The Avox motioned for him to follow.
Their footsteps echoed against the tiled walls. Peeta heard impassioned voices mumbling as he reached the end of the hall and spied Luxor and Mason arguing among themselves. He stared.
Luxor spotted him and glared at him coldly. Putting a hand on Mason's shoulder, Luxor guided their conversation to a more private spot.
Peeta followed the Avox down a flight of stone stairs.
He'd never seen a pool before, but he knew this was true opulence.
The bottom was a glowing white color and underwater lights seemed to make the whole pool glow. A waterfall poured from the ceiling down a wall of river stones into the pool. Glass and tile and stone were all etched with the emblem of Panem.
Peeta saw a shadow in the water. It rose to the surface and burst out of the water.
"Hello again!" Finnick laughed as he stared.
"I'm going to drown," he blurted out. Finnick laughed, but Peeta only felt more frightened. "How deep is that water?"
"Twenty feet at this end."
"I'm going to drown."
"It's four feet at that end." Finnick pointed to the far end of the wall. "We'll start you over there."
"Is there anything more shallow?" Peeta asked.
"Come on, you chicken." Finnick glanced to the Avox waiting inside the door. "You can go; we'll ring you if we need anything."
The Avox nodded and bowed. He retreated out the door.
Peeta slipped off his shoes and shirts and shuffled to the stairs leading into the water. He stuck a toe in. "It's warm."
"Katniss doesn't like cold water."
He nodded. "Does she swim a lot?"
"Not too much. But enough that you should learn," Finnick cautioned.
Peeta sighed and jumped off the bottom step. He leapt back up. "What's wrong with the floor?"
"It's pearls."
He stared at the glowing white floor of the pool. "It's filled with pearls?"
"Yeah," Finnick smiled. Something wasn't genuine about his cheer this time. "A gift from Four for Katniss' fourteenth birthday. Fourteen thousand pearls."
Peeta watched the hint of resentment in the green eyes. "I don't think Twelve has ever given such a beautiful gift."
"For her birth," Finnick said, gliding over to the stairs. "There was a diamond found in your mine. The only one ever found there. The miner was stupid enough to show it in public," he muttered quietly.
Peeta was surprised at the tone. "What happened to the miner?"
"What do you think?"
He was silenced. He felt ashamed to have pitied the President's daughter when her birth had incited murder. Finnick watched him carefully. "Let's teach you how to swim in deep water."
Finnick showed Peeta how to kick in long strokes. He pumped his arms. Slowly he started to move. He learned how to push through the water.
"This is easier than I thought," Peeta said, spitting out water.
"It's roomier than a water tower, too."
After an hour, Peeta followed Finnick as he led him out to the roaring falls. He drifted over to the side of the pool and clung on to the lip next to Finnick.
"You'll at least be able to stay afloat if she wants to go swimming with you," he told him. Peeta nodded. "Relax, Mellark, no one can hear us over the waterfall. You can speak up."
"Oh." Peeta treaded water thoughtfully. There was only one thing he wanted to speak about.
"Why do you come here?" Peeta finally asked, glancing at the door and trying to whisper. "If she takes all these resources from your - our homes? Why do you hang out with her?"
Finnick smiled sadly. "Isn't that what Victors do?"
"I've never seen Johanna Mason in the papers. Or Chaff Woodson. Or Annie Cres-"
"But you see Enobaria. And Cashmere. And sometimes Gloss. Maybe I want to hob-knob with the best," Finnick feigned.
"Then you wouldn't be hanging out with me."
He looked at him hard. "You are a smart one, aren't you?"
Peeta shrugged, splashing water from his shoulders. "You don't strike me as a fame-hungry socialite."
Finnick was quiet as he watched the pearls shift below his feet.
"She's not like them." He looked to Peeta. "She's not out for the glory either. She just...wants her dad to be proud of her." He saw Peeta's confusion. "She just needs to get some things out sometimes. We come here to talk when her parents are gone. And they are a lot." He shook his head. "She's just very innocent, Peeta. He's kept her very sheltered here. Be careful with her."
Peeta looked up. "What do you mean?"
Finnick glanced at him. "They may not be around much, but her parents dote on her. You have to watch yourself carefully. Don't criticize anything, don't make a lot of suggestions. Okay?"
"Okay," he mumbled at the water.
Finnick watched him for a moment. "She's a sweet kid. I know it's hard to see her beyond the name Snow, but," he smiled gently. "She's kinda immature. Very naive. But she does have a good heart under all that makeup."
"I think she looks better without it," Peeta admitted.
"You should tell her that," Finnick said quickly. "She worries about it a lot. She wants to get modifications done when she's eighteen."
"Why?"
"Her friends. Cashmere and Enobaria. They've had a lot of modifications done. She doesn't compare to them."
"Why would she want to?"
Finnick laughed. "Have you looked around this place?"
"Oh yeah." Peeta watched his feet kicking in the water. "I don't really think I fit in either."
Finnick looked down at the pearls beneath him. "I'm glad you don't. I'm glad they call you 'Peeta the Weak'."
Peeta felt the horror mask his face. "What?" he gasped.
"For the Games. You're the only Victor who's never killed anyone." Finnick looked over. "They think it was weak. That you won by accident. I know that's not true," he said. "I saw how you worked to remember everything from Training. You won by your brain." He looked down to the pearls beneath their feet. "They want us to win by the blade."
Peeta watched the pain cloud his eyes.
"I...I regret the things I've done. Every day. I keep telling myself I had no choice. It was me or them. But it wasn't, was it?" he asked Peeta honestly. "You didn't let them change you."
"You did what you had to do," Peeta said quickly. "It's what all Tributes have to do."
"There you go, being the better man," Finnick sighed with a smile. He shook his head at his memories. "I think that deserves a little help."
Peeta kicked his legs out. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
"I won't."
Finnick laughed a bit. "She picked a good one in you, Mellark."
Peeta smiled. "Hey, how come she's never had a boyfriend? She must meet a lot of guys at all these parties."
"Snow's pretty particular; I think she wanted to make sure anyone she liked would suit his standards. She's a daddy's girl if you couldn't tell," he rolled his eyes. "And let's face it, she's really awkward."
Peeta laughed. "She's not so bad. When she invited me over before the Games-" he froze.
"What?"
"I'm not supposed to talk about that," he whispered.
"She invited you over?" Finnick raised his eyebrows in fascination. "What happened?"
"Um," Peeta glanced at the door. "Well. She wore a see-through dress. She was really coy and..."
"Wait, did she invite you for dinner and try to seduce you?"
Peeta stared. "She did that to you too?"
"No," Finnick shook his head with an incredulous smile. "Cashmere. She's like that with anyone in the Capitol she thinks will get her invited to the right parties." He sighed. "I can't believe Kat would go to her for advice."
"She said it usually works."
"It didn't on you?" Finnick raised an eyebrow.
"I, um. I was too worried about other things," Peeta stammered. "That wouldn't have been fair to her."
He whistled. "And a gentleman. You didn't stand a chance, Mellark. She was going to snatch you up sooner or later."
"She did."
Finnick sighed. "Yeah." He swam in a lazy circle to the other side and back while Peeta watched. "She'll be back from her lesson by now, you should go now."
Peeta nodded. "Okay."
Finnick hauled himself up the side wall of the pull and stretched out a hand to Peeta. "If you want to hang out tomorrow, I'll be here."
"Thanks," Peeta told him. "It's be nice to have a friend here."
Finnick pulled him up out of water with a sad chuckle.
"That's what Katniss said too."
"Peeta!"
He sat bolt upright, sucking air into his lungs. He felt like he'd been drowning. He looked wildly around the room.
Katniss was standing next to the bed. He could feel his hair was still damp from the shower. His fingers were clawing a pillow on his stomach.
Sae was a few feet behind her, holding a wool robe closed over her nightgown.
"What? What happened?" he gasped, struggling to sit up.
"You were screaming," Katniss whispered. Her eyes were wide and she was clutching the stuffed bear she called Gus in her fists.
He'd been tired all day after swimming. They'd watched another of her favorite movies and he'd dozed on the sofa for most of it. With her father and mother gone that night, she'd had Sae make them dinner in her apartment that night and they slurped noodles on the floor, trying to make one another smile. He'd collapsed into bed behind her and was asleep nearly right away.
Now he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the heel of his hand against the socket. The painful pressure was calming.
He had been dreaming.
He sat with Leevy on top of the water tower. She was wearing a grass green bow around her ponytail. He knew it was her birthday. She would be out of the Reaping now. And he was going to make her a chocolate cake taller than Prim. She was laughing. She covered her eyes.
"What are you doing?" he laughed.
"I'm going to imagine it!"
He closed his eyes too. He opened them.
They were in his father's bakery. A giant cake was on the table in front of them. Prim and his father were singing to Leevy. Peeta turned to look at her.
She was clapping her hands and singing too. She stopped.
"Peeta?" She looked at him. "Peeta?"
Her body broke apart and scattered into jagged stones across the floor. Peeta heard Prim screaming.
The cake began to move. It split and cracked and disintegrated. A mutt leapt from the chasm and tore his throat.
"I was having a nightmare," he whispered. "Sorry to frighten you."
"It's okay," Katniss whispered. "Sae, will you get him some water?"
"Yes, miss," Sae said softly, hurrying from the room.
Katniss lowered herself onto the sofa slowly. Her fingers groped slowly towards Peeta's clenched hand.
"What were you dreaming?" she asked fearfully, unsure she wanted to know.
"Nothing."
"Was it your friend?" Katniss whispered. "The girl Leevy?"
Peeta's eyes were wide. "You were calling her name," she told him.
"Oh.
Sae returned with the glass of water. "Do you need anything else?"
"No, Sae," Peeta mumbled. "Thank you."
She waited to watch him drink a few gulps before she left them alone again.
They sat silently on her bed, side by side, in the low light of the bedside lamp.
"It was very brave of you to help her," Katniss finally said. "She ranked a three. The odds were against her."
Peeta swallowed another gulp of water.
Katniss scooted closer. "That was my favorite thing about you." She saw he was listening. "That you won without killing anyone. I know Daddy doesn't think that's the right way to win, but I…I think it's a better way. No one's ever done that before."
"I'd rather have died than kill someone."
Katniss was silent.
"I know that's not brave," he said.
"I think it's brave," she whispered. "It's more brave than killing."
She stared at the wall for a moment. He glanced over as she stood up and marched to the wall by her vanity mirror. Her fingers found the edge of her 74th Hunger Games poster tacked up next to a framed picture of Katniss as a baby and her father.
She ripped it from the wall.
She balled it up until it was no larger than a plum.
"You don't have to do that," Peeta said as she crossed to the window.
"It's okay," she smiled. "I always hated that poster anyway. Let's throw it out the window."
"What?" he sat up.
She nodded her head to the pane behind him. "Open the window."
He opened the pane. She hurled the paper plum out and shut the window with a flourish. "Now it's really gone." She flicked off the light and came back to bed.
He lay down on his back and sighed unhappily. He felt her scoot closer. She draped her arm over his chest and he felt the warmth of her body at his side. His shivers subsided.
"Your Game is over now, Peeta," she murmured to his ear. "You can dream of happier things now."