Fall Away

She was tall – at least 5’9 – and incredibly lean. Her skin was dewy and cream colored and her hair cascaded down in beautiful long waves of pale blonde silk. Just seeing someone so beautiful made me shift protectively closer to Adri, as if I could somehow shield him from seeing how gorgeous she was.

“She’s as good as one,” Adri interjected.

The girl walked over to the armchair across from us and sat down gracefully, tucking one ankle behind the other and angling them delicately away from her body. She looked like the picture of good manners and lady-like beauty. I glanced down at my own feet and tried to do the same, but my own short legs wouldn’t even reach the floor. I gave up and plopped back into the sofa, making a face.

“Oh, please. Everyone knows she wouldn’t have won if you hadn’t stabbed yourself. If two tributes had to win that year’s Games, it should have been you and Ingrid. Everyone in District 1 agrees. Winnie didn’t do anything; she just got herself killed and let you save her.” The girl murmured, flicking a long lock of hair over her shoulder. Her eyes flickered over to me and ran up and down me as she scrutinized me for a few moments before crinkling her nose slightly with distaste.

“Making alliances is just another part of the Games. Without your alliance, that girl from 11 would have killed you on the second night. The boy from 2 saved you, and later on he was killed – does that mean that you didn’t deserve to win, either?” Adri said, his lips pressing into a tight line.

The girl glanced down to inspect her long ruby red painted fingernails, looking bored. “Well, when you take into account the fact that I was the one who killed him, I think I earned my spot and proved that I was better than him.”

I grimaced. “Look, everyone here is a legal citizen of District 1. Can’t we just accept that and try to build a solid alliance?”

The girl scoffed. “Look at her,” She murmured to Adri, completely ignoring me. “Trying to make peace and ease conflict. She really doesn’t deserve her title as a victor. Then again, she’ll lose that title in a few weeks when she dies on the first day, so I suppose all’s well that ends well.”

Adri’s fists clenched. “You do recall that she received a score of 11, right?”

“She can kick the crap out of a wooden target, but she doesn’t have the balls to use those skills to kill an actual person. Didn’t you only kill one person?” She cooed, twisting a lock of hair around her finger and batting her eyelashes at me smugly.

The train pulled out of the station and the girl turned to the window, waving goodbye to the people who were still staring in at us through the window and flashing a dazzling grin. After the train had passed them, she turned away from the window with a grimace, like she hated having to associate with the public.

She spoke to Adri alone, ignoring me once again.“Look, you’re fairly respected amongst the Careers. Everyone knows you had what it takes to win on your own. However, if you’re going to be hanging around with her you’re going to lose a lot of support, and that’s going to have an impact on my image, too. Just be careful for both our sakes.” The girl grimaced, finally dropping the cute innocent act now that the crowd wasn’t watching her through the window. She stood and left the room without so much as a second glance, and I glowered at her retreating figure, wishing I could think of a scathing retort but coming up with nothing.

“What a…what a…what a…” I stammered, trying to find the right word.

“Bitch?” Adri suggested.

“I was hoping for something a little more offensive, but sure.” I paused and sighed, feeling a wave of dread wash over me. Was it true? Did the other Career districts dislike me for winning? Surely I’d lost all support from District 2 – Ingrid had nearly killed me, but then Adri slaughtered her and managed to miraculously get me out despite the fact that Ingrid had been the better fighter. Plus I’d killed Parq, so I wasn’t going to be in any District 2 citizen’s good books. But what about District 4? Sure it was my home, but it was still a Career district. Did they frown upon me because I’d won through someone else’s work? And now I wasn’t even a legal citizen of District 4 – I wasn’t considered a District 1 tribute, but I’d left District 4 behind…I was left without a home at this point.

Adri seemed to sense the thoughts swirling in my head. “Don’t worry. She’s just trying to get in your head. You used to be so obsessed with mind games, yet it’s only been two years and you’re falling for them!” He gave me a playful nudge, trying to cheer me up but failing.

“But because of me, you’re going to lose sponsors!” I wailed, pulling a throw pillow over my face.

Adri patted my shoulder hesitantly. “Uh…there, there.” He said, his voice stiff.

I pulled the pillow off my face and glared at him. “You suck at comforting girls, did you know that?”

“That’s why I’m glad you don’t often need comforting,” He muttered with a grimace.

“Who was that girl, anyway?” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and sulking. I felt like a child, but I couldn’t seem to help myself from moping.

“Cashmere. She won about ten years ago. Stereotypical Career – bloodthirsty, vicious, prefers brute violence over strategy.” He murmured. “The victors like that don’t consider any other kind of victory to be valid. I’m sure they’ll have the same reaction to any of the other tributes who won through strategy.”

“I didn’t win through strategy, I won because you stabbed yourself.” I pointed out.

He rolled his eyes. “Well what about those victors from District 12? Katniss and Peeta? They pulled that stunt with the berries, so I’m sure they’ll be in the same boat as us.”

“No, because they were the last two left in the arena. If two people had to get out of that arena it should have been you and Ingrid. She got me first; you two were the last ones standing.”

“But you were still alive even after she stabbed you.” He pressed.

“But I wasn’t supposed to be!” I yelled. His face fell and he stared at the floor, and I felt a pang of regret. Why couldn’t I ever shut my big mouth when it mattered? “What I mean is, it’s going to be much harder for us this time around. The Game makers won’t be favoring us so we’re going to have to rely on sponsors, and if Cashmere is right that people feel like I shouldn’t have won, we’re not going to get a lot of help.” I hoped that I’d smoothed over my last mistake.

“We can still get sponsors. You’ll just have to be more aggressive this time, take a different approach. Or, we can play the whole ‘star-struck lovers’ card. As much as the Career districts might not like us that much, the rest of Panem cheered for us to try and protect us because we were in love.” Adri said.

“But now there’s Katniss and Peeta, the other star-struck lovers. Panem will choose one couple, and the other will be forgotten. Besides, Katniss and Peeta have the advantage; they won more recently and they’ve just done their Victory Tour.” I pointed out.

“Then we have to be aggressive. I’ll take on the same front I did last year, you try and do what I do. We can still be a couple, but we have to act like the Games come first. We can’t even associate very much in the training arena.” Adri said, taking my hand.

I wanted to talk about it more, but the train pulled to a stop at the Capitol’s station. I kept forgetting how close District 1 was to the Capitol. Cashmere walked back into the room and took Adri’s hand, pulling him away from me without a word and walking to the window, where she waved and blew kisses at the crowd. Adri met the crowd with the same stony cold front he usually did, and I just sat and watched them, only one thought going through my mind; ‘This is no place for lovers.’