Stay with me, always.

Chapter 3. Cellar Confessions

There's always been tension between the two of us, always. When we were little it was obvious that we both hated each other in our own ways, I hated her for taking my parent's attention away from me. She hated me because my Mother took her away from her family. As if she knows struggle. My Father told me that my Mother always wanted a little girl and once they had me they saw no need to continue having children. They needed an heir, my Mother supplied an heir. My Father, I suppose, saw Soarynn as a way to please my Mother, in other words, to shut her up, keep her preoccupied. People in the Capitol love their children, always toddling around them, dressing them up, and buying them whatever pleases them. My Mother says she brought Soarynn into this family for me and well I say, if it smells like shit, it's probably shit. It was later revealed to both of us that the real reason she was brought with us was to supply me with a future First Lady. Now my parents explained this the best they could without making it sound absolutely disgusting to a couple of thirteen-year-olds, who at the time thought that the opposite gender was revolting. So we tucked the idea in the back of our minds and moved on with our lives. 

Present day that thought persists in the front of my mind as we walk towards the dining room doors, how on Earth am I going to marry the girl I've spent my life growing up with? If I had to pick someone to marry I suppose she's not a bad option, she's well-mannered, naturally pretty, funny, and well-educated. But she's District. How one can look past that I simply don't understand, all those around us have simply glossed over the fact that Soarynn was brought here and not born here, but most people around us work for us. It's a delicate system to keep in tact I suppose. "Is that a new dress?" I ask, trying my best to ease the tension growing between us, "Oh, yes. I had it made especially for tonight." She says. Ah yes, tonight is her birthday. My ever-so-generous Mother took it upon herself to give Soarynn a brand new birthday when she first came to the Capitol. T

he day my parents deemed her acceptable to present to the rest of the Capitol, simultaneously became her birthday, leading all of the Capitols citizens to celebrate for three days straight. Of course, they celebrate my birthday for five days but who's counting? "Well, you look quite lovely," I say to her, and it's true the Capitol look certainly looks good on her. Her sunken cheeks were now full and rosy, her bony legs were now long and elegant, and her once straw-blonde matted hair, was now an icy platinum blonde without a single knot. Say what you want about our prep teams, but they're good.

Soarynn has given me several accounts about what she went through when she first was brought to the Capitol, usually after we both had broken into my Father's wine cellar supply, but who's to know? I remember us huddled behind a barrel of wine while she whispered to me, "They gave me the Tribute Treatment Coryo," a phrase I had not yet coined. "The Tribute Treatment?" I asked puzzled, she was a lot of things but a Tribute was not one of them, my Father saw to that himself. "Mhmmmm, it's what they do to all the Tributes when they come to the Capitol," she explained, "they made me look like a doll, and cleaned me up until I was all sparkly." My Mother did love sparkly things. 

I can't remember the last time we snuck into the cellar and told each other secrets, we were so young back then, so unaware of whatever was blossoming between us. "Say, why don't we sneak down to the cellar later tonight and celebrate the birthday girl?" I asked, bumping my elbow with hers as we reached the doors. She looked at me with a glint in her blue-gray eyes that recently had begun to make my heart skip a beat. "I'd like that Coryo." She said, smiling, I offered my arm up to her, and she stared at me for a moment with something that looked like longing in her eyes, before taking it as we opened the doors and walked into the dining room full of people waiting to celebrate my parent's latest crowning achievement.