THE SIREN'S SONG 𓇼 F. ODAIR

41 | THE BREAK UP

Carolina never realized how much her body depended on alcohol until she stopped drinking.

She didn't sleep for days. She would just lay in her bed for hours, staring up at the ceiling, pushing her to the brink of insanity. When she finally managed to fall asleep, it only lasted a couple of hours and it ended with her waking up in the middle of the night, shaking in a pool of her own sweat.

Carolina couldn't eat, her appetite was completely gone. Her body was tortured by chills constantly, despite piling on layers. Her head pounded, nearly sending her to her knees during training. Spears fell out of her hands and clattered onto the floor, which left Carolina even more embarrassed. The only thing she was able to focus on was when her next drink would be.

She was nauseous. She was tired.

She was miserable.

Her struggles were clear to the rest of the victors. Carolina was clearly fatigued at training and even fainted a couple of times. At breakfast, she would eat less and less until she didn't touch her plate at all. Her cheeks hollowed out and any muscle she might have had disappeared. She was obviously losing weight rather than gaining it like the rest of them.

Finnick tried to help her. He wanted to make her dinner, so he showed up at Carolina's door with plates of food, despite being a terrible cook, just to make sure she would eat. She didn't open the door, so he sat on the stoop for hours and didn't go back home until he was falling asleep on her front step. 

He just wanted to be there for her at her worst, but every time he would knock on her door, she would refuse to answer.

He continued this cycle for three days. Finnick Odair was willing to do it for weeks, even months if it meant that the woman he loved might one day open her door for him, but Reef noticed Finnick's health was declining and decided he had to step in.

On her fourth day of sobriety, Reef forced Carolina to move into his spare bedroom.

He knew Carolina well enough to know she wouldn't go willingly, so he didn't give her an option. Instead, Reef hired someone to go to her house while she was training to change all of the locks. He then told Carolina that he would only give her the keys when she proved to him she could take care of herself.

Carolina thought Reef was insane. She admired him for it though, so she barely put up a fight.

Reef moved her things into his guest bedroom that night. He was nervous about how his daughter would react, thinking that she might be upset about sharing her house with Carolina for an unknown amount of time, but it turned out the teenage girl was ecstatic.

The two girls even became close.

"Lina, are you awake?" Fiona poked her head into the room Carolina was staying in around midnight, which had become a common occurrence during Carolina's stay.

The teenager never had a prominent female figure in her life. And from what Carolina had heard, she wasn't close to anybody other than her dad. Reef raised Fiona in an extremely secluded manner, likely to protect her. Considering Carolina never even spoke to Fiona before the Quarter Quell was announced, she would say Reef was doing a pretty good job.

But every girl needs at least one friend, and Carolina was happy to be that for Fiona.

So, over the next month and a half, Carolina spent nearly all of her time with Fiona. She would braid the girl's hair, paint her nails, and bake with her. Fiona would come home from the academy around the same time the victors finished with training for the day, so Carolina would then spend the rest of her day with Fiona.

"Yeah." Carolina was lying in Reef's guest bedroom, facing the ceiling. She pulled down the covers next to her and motioned for Fiona to join her. "Can't sleep?"