Stay with me, always.

Chapter 33. An Actress

Part of me has always wondered how Mother has the energy for things like this. Is she not absolutely drained once the last guest stumbles off of our property, through the gates, and onto the street where they will most likely throw up? Because right now, she was living.

Normally, a walk from the gates to the front door should take three minutes, it took us thirty, and to be honest, we could've taken longer. It didn't help that our entire entourage was in front of us, keeping Soarynn and me from pushing through the crowd, and trust me, I wanted to plow down everyone I made eye contact with. I did my best to smile for the cameras, there were so many of them taking our photographs, flashing and nearly blinding us as the photographers yelled at us to get closer. Like that'll happen, I thought, thinking back to last night.

Soarynn was clutching onto my hand with such a grip I thought it might fall off of my arm, but I was glad to have some physical contact, we were both keeping each other grounded. People were more interested in her than me, touching her dress, her hair, and even her shoes. One man reached out to touch her face and she immediately jerked back, watching as a Peacekeeper grabbed the man to kick him out. The nerve of some people.

Once we made it inside, I wanted to go back outside. Soarynn let out a gasp when she saw the number of people in our house, Mother truly had gone all out for this party, the second floor of our home was always off-limits to guests–unless we brought them up there, but that's a different story–so the first floor was packed. Most people were chatting it up with Mother and Father, but all their eyes turned to us as the large door slammed behind us. "Just smile and wave," I whispered to Soarynn who nodded and put on her best Capitol smile.

We weaved our way through the crowd saying our hellos, I was aiming for the ballroom, but we ended up in the main dining room, the same room we had celebrated Soarynn's seventeenth birthday dinner in. It seemed so long ago, even though it had only been about two weeks since everything had happened. The dining room was lined with tables, filled with every soup, cake, drink, and over-the-top dish you could imagine. Thank goodness because I was famished. Soarynn was too because she immediately pulled me towards the dessert table, it was undoubtedly her favorite table at any party, and who could blame her? I watched her, smiling to myself as she dipped her tenth strawberry into the chocolate fountain.

I remember when she first discovered the wonders of a chocolate fountain, she had just turned nine and we were at the Plinth's celebrating the New Year. Mother had almost popped a blood vessel from scolding her when Soarynn had taken a cup from their cabinets to drink the chocolate itself. But Mrs. Plinth didn't mind, she just laughed and told Mother that children should enjoy the little things in life. How good the Plinths had been to me and Soarynn.

"I'd be careful with those, wouldn't want to ruin your appetite," someone said behind us. We both turned to see Sejanus smiling at us, I returned his smile, reaching out my hand to shake his. "I didn't know if you'd be able to make it," I said, he laughed, "I couldn't miss the party of the year," he said as he made his way to Soarynn. It took her a moment to realize that it was Sejanus, she broke into a grin and put down the strawberries, giving him a hug. Oh, so he gets a hug and I get nothing.

"I never thought I'd see you again," Soarynn said as she pulled away, he nodded, "Me neither, but you pulled through." She frowned, looking down as she picked at her cuticle, "I'm sorry about Finn and Cleo," she said, he shook his head, "Don't be, Cleo was always that way," he told her. She looked up, "Still, I could've done it in a better way, and I feel awful about Finn, especially since I ran into the stag shortly after." So she's been watching the Games, I thought, strange considering every time I went to see her she was supposedly asleep. He nodded, "Finn wasn't much better," he admitted, "always throwing rocks at birds and little animals." She wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Then I suppose he got what was coming to him," she said, Sejanus nodded, "They all did in their own ways."