BOMBSHELL - Finnick Odair

35

Ember

After Wes filled me in about Katniss getting shot in District Two, I had convinced Johanna, my new roommate in the hospital, to come with me to see her.

Katniss flinches, the hooks of the white curtain squeaking across the metal rod. The girl stiffens at our presence.

"I'm alive," she chokes out.

"No kidding," I mutter, taking in her disheveled state.

"Brainless," adds Johanna.

My friend plops down on her bed and begins messing with her morphling drip. I take a seat next to her, causing Katniss to wince at the sudden movement the shift in weight causes.

"Still sore?" I ask.

Johanna plugs Katniss' needle into her own socket in the crook of her arm.

"They started cutting back my supply a few days ago. Afraid I'm going to turn into one of those freaks from Six. I've had to borrow from you when the coast was clear. Didn't think you'd mind."

At the newfound information, I smack Jo on the arm that's receiving the morphling. She jumps, uttering an "ouch!"

So that's where she had been sneaking off to.

"They've got this head doctor who comes around every day," I inform her. "He's supposedly helping us all recover."

Johanna scoffs, "Like some guy who's spent his life in this rabbit warren's going to fix us up. Complete idiot. At least twenty times a session he reminds us that we're totally safe."

Katniss manages a smile.

"How about you, Mockingjay? You feel totally safe?" asks Jo.

"Oh yeah. Right up until I got shot."

"Please. That bullet never even touched you," she says, laughing sarcastically.

"Right," I agree. "Cinna saw to that."

I reach a finger out and start poking at the black brace around her midsection. "Broken ribs?" I ask.

"No," says Katniss. "Bruised pretty good. The impact ruptured my spleen. They couldn't repair it."

Johanna dismisses her comment with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry, you don't need one. And if you did, they'd find you one, wouldn't they? It's everybody's job to keep you alive."

"Is that why you hate me," the younger girl asks.

Jo shrugs her shoulders.

"Partly," she admits.

"Jealousy is certainly involved. I also think you're a little hard to swallow. With your tacky, romantic drama somehow worse than Finnick and Embers, and then your whole defender-of-the-helpless act...only it isn't an act, which makes you more unbearable. Please feel free to take this personally."

I mumble out a whatever, rolling my eyes at her diss towards Finnick and I.

Katniss' intense eyes dart between the two of us.