Catch Your Breath

Part I

A/N: Hello!

With Broken Winged Birds' final chapter being posted this week, I'm taking a venture at another Everlark story! This one won't be as long and is actually planned as a three to four-chapter story if I write it right but once the idea was planted in my head, I couldn't shake it.

There are a few triggers in this story. Strong themes involve suicide; self-harm; eating disorders; and terminal illness. It's based off a book called 'By the Time You Read This, I'll be Dead' by Julie Ann Peters. I wouldn't exactly recommend the story because the protagonist isn't the most pleasant to read but, hey, if you want to check it out I won't stop you :)

I hope you enjoy. If you do let me know with a follow or a comment. Only if you want to of course ;)

Catch Your Breath

By Blueberrychills94

Part I

Tall. Skinny. Shockingly blond.

He always goes to the same spot every afternoon.

Katniss had claimed the bench, he knew it belonged to her, so he leaned against the tree trunk behind, waiting for her mum to pick her up so he could take it. Katniss didn't know what his deal was, but he came out at the same time every day. She didn't like it. Knowing that he was there put her on edge. She wished he would stop.

Her mum pulled up at the curb. Katniss hadn't walked home on her own for years. They didn't trust her to do it anymore.

She closed her book and rose to her feet, shouldering her backpack as she walked to the car. The annoying boy didn't take the bench immediately, and instead stayed by the tree until she'd gotten into her mother's car. She leaned forward and peered out Katniss' window, a confused look on her face. "Who is that?" she asked.

Katniss looked away from the window but didn't answer her mother. She couldn't. Her neck brace squeezed her throat, as if reminding her of her own disability. Katniss scowled and glared at her mother, a clear message to drive already. Why does she always hang around like that? She knew Katniss just wanted to get home and away from this place.

Finally, she shifted the car into drive and pulled away from the curb.

"I'll be going on a business trip for a couple of days," her mother, Rose, explained, "so Greasy Sae will be coming over to watch you and Prim."

Katniss remembered a time where her mother could have left her in charge of Primrose. Now she couldn't even trust her to be in charge of herself. If their father were alive, it would have made things simpler, but now they had to call on Greasy Sae more and more often as Rose got sent away on more and more business trips.

Things would be a lot simpler if Katniss could be trusted.

Katniss learned when she was younger that trust was a special thing. So difficult to gain and so easy to lose. To be perfectly honest, Katniss did not care if her mother did not trust her to look after Primrose. In fact, it was probably better that way. For as much as Katniss loved her sister, she didn't even trust herself to be capable of caring for her anymore. Not after what happened.

"I should probably get some deodorant and toothpaste for the trip," Rose murmured as they approached the corner shop. She glanced at Katniss, dull blue eyes burning into the side of her daughter's head like a fire. She didn't hit the indicator and instead chose to drive on. "I'll get it at the airport," she decided.

Katniss would have scoffed, if she cared enough. Her mother was so easy to read; so easy to see through. It was almost embarrassing. Rose was afraid. She was afraid nearly twenty-four seven. Katniss didn't need to look at the woman twice to know that she was worried that the same thing would happen that happened the last time. The first time. Rose only saw Katniss now as a trigger. Someone who could be set off by anything.