Enough with thr gooey love notes, I am ready to write up some Victory! Victory Tour that is. That's right; it's been one month already in one chapter. And I promise, I am going to try extremely hard to fill you all in on what's going on now. Here you go; I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. Enjoy it! Warning, this chapter may get to be a bit long. Hope you like that and just to be safe, just wanted to let you know that I am writing a gay character, so I just wanted to clarify that. OK, now here we go.
It's 4 in the morning on a Saturday. Why does Xavier insist on making our meetings so freakin early? It's late May, and yet it is freezing this early in the morning. It's also pretty much pitch black and I stand under a street lamp, just like we are supposed to according to Xavier. He controls everything. I stand in the town square with my black and red hoodies hanging over my arm and black boots paired with a black tank top with sequins, the same one I wore on my first date with Luke, and lime green leggings under a mini skirt. My usual outfit. And even if it is four in the morning, I mange to look flawless. My hair is pulled into a high ponytail and my nails are emerald green and sparkly. My lips have a bubblegum pink gloss and my eyes match the emerald green with a black layer slightly above it. Yup, I need an opinion from the guys on if I should wear this for the first time when the camera people come and film Luke and I reuniting after one long horrible month.
I decide to put on my sweatshirt. I am not going to freeze my ass off for those losers, no matter how cool they are. "Hey babe." Spencer exclaims, smiling at me. His red and black streaked hair mixed with the eyeliner he wears totally doesn't give the impression that he is actually super nice, and not at all Goth. "What b up?" Justin says, running in, out of breath as usual. "Your almost on time this time. Xavier said 3:30am, and your only 35 minutes late." I sigh. "Oh come on, let up, Liz! God, you know Xavier and Jason won't be here for another 20 minutes, and Samuel will sneak in and pretend he's been here since 2. And who the hell knows about Brent. He'll get here just in time." Justin whines. "True. Very true, but I unlike you, wanted to get here before so I could yell at you when we were late, which you were." I smirk.
"That party at Beverly's last night was EPIC!" Spencer pipes up. "Hell yeah! Dang, I can feel my hangover fading out though. I had such a bad headache like an hour ago." Brent says, walking in with his flashlight he always carries. His thick brown wide rimmed glasses are perched on his forehead, and he whips them off like a professional. "That would be because you were partying at Bev's an hour ago, Brent." Spencer chuckles."Are your parents still insisting you wear those butt ugly things?" I ask. He nods. "That would be a yes. I can totally see fine without them." He says. Then he trips over the curb, landing flat on his face. "Yeah, you can see." Samuel laughs, sliding down from a rooftop behind where we sit. Not to worry, the house is abandoned. Always has been. Sam lives behind it and then just climbs up a ladder and up and over the roof to get here. "Dude, I can se. This is just because of my hangover."
"Would you all shut up? God, there are kids here for god's sake!" Xavier yells. We all swivel around and stare at him walking hand and hand with Jason, his boyfriend. "Aww. Here comes the happy couple. When can we expect the wedding invites?" Brent says in a spot on interpretation of Caesar Flickerman. "And must we wear purple and lime green tuxes?" Justin asks.
Let's just say the two of them haven't been so supportive of Xavier coming out about a week and a half ago. I had been pretty alright with it after I realized he wasn't lying- something Xavier did a lot. He now perches a quick kiss on Jason's lips and I smile. I am going to see Luke later today, and I can't wait. We've been apart too long. Justin and Brent need to get their asses handed to them. Maybe that would stop them from being so cruel and mean to Xavier, who is as pale as a white bed sheet. I raise my boot and kick the toe of it right into Justin's shin. Then before he can react, I take Brent's wrist and flip him over my shoulder. That brings back some memories.
I frown and look at my shoes. "Liz, what's up?" Jason says, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Nothing. Just Games stuff. I'm seeing Luke again today for the first time in a month for the Victory Tour. Speaking of that, opinions on my outfit?" I say, twirling around. "Love it. But you're going to stink it up with smoke fumes. Sorry." Xavier says. "I have something for that." Jason says.
He pulls out a spray bottle filled with clear liquid. "You spray it on your clothes and it protects the fabric from getting annoying fumes like smoke stuck in them." He says, flicking the nozzle rapidly "Spin around! Spin around!" Xavier commands. I do as I'm told and I feel the misty façade fan out around me and into my clothes. "Cool." I reply.
Xavier pulls out a pack of cigarettes. "Anyone need a smoke?" He asks. I shake my head. "Oh come on Liz! You bailed on the party at 10 last night! And then you don't feel like smoking. What are you hiding?" Xavier exclaims, waving a cigarette in front of my nose. Everyone else holds a cigarette in between their fingers or in their mouth. Brent pulls out a lighter. "No thanks. But when I get back here, I am going to need a bad girl montage before I get ready for my wedding." I say.
Justin stops mid flick of the lighter. "Wedding? Girl, your only one year younger then Brent. How are you getting married so damn quickly? Are you pregnant?" He exclaims. "No. I most certainly am not pregnant! I am required by our president of Panem to be married within 6 months of the end of the Victory Tour. And then I'll be getting pregnant." I reply, rolling my eyes. "Oh my god, Liz! We never had to do anything like that. We were required to not talk shit about the Hunger Games, but that was it. We could do whatever we wanted." Samuel chimes in.
"Well, Luke and I are the third couple in history to ever win together. My parents and his all said they were required to do the same sort of thing Luke and I have to do." I say. I look at my watch. 6AM already. "Later dudes, I got to jet off! See ya when I get home." I say, blowing kisses to the boys.
They wave and I go sprinting down the paths in heels. My parents have no idea I'm gone, so when I reach my house, I am careful to not make any noise as I pull on the rope hanging from my window. I test it to make sure it will hold me. It will. It always will. And then I put one foot on the side of the house and push up, grabbing the rope with both hands. Then I put my other foot up and slowly start walking up the wall. Then when I reach the window, I slide the window open and swing my left leg over the ledge. My right leg follows and then I am in my room, untying the rope and stashing it under my bed behind a box of old trophies for things my parents bought me on the internet. Kidding! I am wonderful at many things, so I have many trophies, naturally.
Anyway, I make my bed and then put on some new makeup, reapplying what I already have. My mom knocks gently on the door. If it was my dad, he wouldn't have knocked. "Come in." I murmur. She walks in and sits down on my bed. "Are you excited?" She asks. "Yeah. But I'm also scared out of my mind. What do I say? What do I do?" I am ranting. "We'll tell you and Luke exactly what you need to do in each district. Each one has different protocol." She replies. I slump down next to her. "Mom, I never imagined I would be back here with you after the Games. I thought I would be dead." I say. She gasps.
"There's no chance of you ever losing. You would have won no matter what." She says. "If the Gamemakers had waited one more second, Luke and I would have both been dead. He was going to shoot me and I was going to stab him." I add. She sits up and perches on her hands. "I know. Your father and I nearly did the same thing when we thought only two could win. We wanted Katniss and Peeta to win, because they were better than us. To us they were. That's why we strive to be like them. They are the good parents." My mom says. "I don't know, I think you and dad are pretty awesome." I smile.
She kisses me forehead and stands up. "Well, the camera people are here. Luke is faking his entrance in about 5 minutes. He's already standing on our doorstep though." She says. "In the cold?" I practically shriek. She laughs. "No. He's walking down our street now. The people want you to walk out and look uninterested at the mailbox, and then he's going to enter. Just go with whatever feels right." She says. I giggle and jump up. I check my makeup and hair and everything one last time, and then I go and stand in the living room where my dad and about a million paparazzi are. As soon as they catch sight of me, they raise their cameras. I strike a pose and smirk at them, like I did in the Capitol. Then I walk out the door and down to the sidewalk to our mailbox. I open it and look around inside. We have a lot of mail.
Luke POV-
I watch as Liz walks out down the sidewalk in front of her house and peers inside the mailbox. I step lightly and quietly, about 20 steps behind her. I have to stop myself from running at her. I look around at the cameras everywhere. They are capturing every moment of this. I step toward Liz and slip my hands around her waist. She whips around and kisses me. Hard. But I don't care. We haven't seen each other in a month. I am happy for anything I can get.
We separate and kiss again, slower. Gentler. And we repeat the process three or four times. Then I do what I have wanted to do for a while. I sweep her up into my arms and carry her around and up the sidewalk like a prince with his princess. Then I release her and we hold hands. I smile and she smiles back. Then she looks straight ahead and pulls me after her up into the house. We kiss one last time, and the cameras pause outside the door.
One cameraman gives Liz the direction to close the door, making it seem like she is hiding something. She reacts amazingly. Her expression never changes. She still smiles. She slides the door partly shut and then winks at the cameras. Then she closes it all the way and slumps against the door. "I love you." She breathes. "I love you too!" I exclaim.
I kiss her one last time and then our mentors are there, standing around looking….well, like our mentors. Haymitch and Effie can't seem to stand far enough away from each other. They despise each other. Cato and Clove stand there with happy smiles on their faces, and my parents are close to happy tears. This couldn't have worked out better.
Sooooo, what's the verdict? Pass or fail? And rate it please. And comment. Review. Make me happy and I'll write something more…interesting. Tell me what you want to happen next, because I am in need of some major inspiration. And I am talking about in the next chapter, so what do you want to happen in the next chapter? There, I specified. And wedding dresses are still greatly appreciated until the end of the Victory Tour. Then my secret source and I are going to choose the top 5 that all of you will vote from. And a special shout out/thank you to Obviously Annoyed, who helped me a lot these past few chapters, especially with her contribution of 20 wedding dresses and over 50 baby names! 3 of her dresses went into the next round, and I only have 5 total, so please, help me out here! Love you all! Review and comment on stuff! Please