Dependence - Book Two (Wattys 2013 Finalist)

Piper's New Condo

Piper Papillon’s POV:

‘’ It’s just about five more minutes.’’ Smiles Tiberius as we ride in his limousine.

We are sitting in the back of the giant car, the seats are red leather and there is a bottle of red wine sitting in a bucket of ice that is attached to the seat. We both have a glass in hand, although he seems to be drinking a lot more than me. He’s obvious not as scared as I am.

‘’ I can’t wait to see it.’’ I smile fakely and hope he doesn’t notice.

How can he think I love him? Is her on something? Please God get me out of this mess!

‘’ I know you’ll just love it.’’ He grins and refills my wine glass.

‘’ Oh no. I’ve had enough.’’ I smile, blocking his access to the class by placing my hand over it.

‘’ Nonsense. There’s plenty! I am the richest man alive. I can afford it.’’ He smiles, lifting my hand off the glass and pouring more wine into it.

‘’ Thank you.’’ I force myself to say.

‘’ Go on, drink it.’’ He smiles.

Apprehensively, I take a sip.

‘’ Oh look, we’re here.’’ Smiles the President as we pull up outside a huge glass building and an Avox opens the door from the outside.

He steps out of the car first and grabs my hand as I climb out. He then links my arm and we enter the building with our arms linked. As we enter the lobby, my jaw drops as I take in my surroundings.

‘’ Wow.’’ I say aloud and Tiberius chuckles jollily.

The lobby is truly a wonderful site. There is a beautiful marble fountain in the centre of the room that has a statue made of ice in the centre. The ice statue is sculpted into a volcano shape and there are red lights beneath the ice that make the whole sculpture glow red. Hanging above the fountain in the centre of the towering ceiling is a giant crystal chandelier.

There are Avoxs stationed around the lobby, most just stand at attention in the doorways and stare ahead of them, refusing to make eye contact with either me or the President. We walk past them and enter an elevator. We step inside, there is an Avox standing inside and pushes the ‘penthouse’ button on the President’s orders.

Even the elevator is amazing. The walls, floor and ceiling are all mirrors so there are an infinite amount of reflections no matter what direction I look in.

‘’ Are you excited to see it?’’ He asks as we ascend the first ten floors and continue to rise.

‘’ Yes!’’ I reply enthusiastically, genuinely blown away by the hotel.

‘’ I can’t wait to see your face, the bedroom is just fantastic!’’ He replies with another chuckle and I fight hard to keep my smile on.

Bedroom!? What does he have in mind?

I glance at the dial that indicates we have risen yet another ten storeys.

How high is this building?

‘’ Thirty stories.’’ Laughs Tiberius and it takes me a moment to realise that I didn’t just think the question, I must have said it aloud.

The door slides open and the elevator chimes and we step into the room. The doors close and the Avox rides the elevator down. The room is just as fabulous as the lobby, with regal red carpets and a huge – and beautiful – fish tank in a cylindrical shape with yellow and blue fish swimming about inside.

There is a giant flat-screen television sitting on the wall, with beautiful ivory coloured couches surrounding them and throw pillows tossed onto them. There are paintings plastering the walls, paintings from Districts...the forests of District Seven, the ocean in District Four, all making the Districts look a lot nicer than I know they are. There is a framed scroll on the wall, the speech – written word for word – that Tiberius’ grandfather made when the Hunger Games was first announced.

Tiberius leads me into the kitchen area and my eyes enlarge; the kitchen is astonishing. With beautiful marble countertops and a giant silvery fridge with the Capitol emblem engraved into the front. There are amazing, state of the art facilities – even better then I’ve seen anywhere else in the Capitol.

‘’ This is amazing.’’ I gasp.

‘’ I thought you’d like it.’’ He smiles. ‘’ C’mon, let me show you the bedroom.’’

I gulp. Not the bedroom. I haven’t drunk enough wine to agree to that.

‘’ Em...how about we get some more wine.’’ I suggest, doing anything I can to stall for time.

‘’ I’ve got that sorted!’’ He smiles. ‘’ There’s a couple of bottles waiting for us.’’

He takes my hand and I am reluctantly lead by him into the bedroom. Despite how horrible I feel as he leads me inside the room, I am still astonished by it. There is a beautiful four poster bed in the centre with a huge cylindrical fish tank on either side of the bed. There are rose petals littering the bed and countless heart-shaped pillows.

I watch as Tiberius takes off his jacket and takes a seat on the bed. He pats the spot on the bed beside him twice and smiles at me.

‘’ Let me just go get ready.’’ I smile fakely and disappear into the en suite bathroom.

I stare at myself in the mirror and feel myself get light headed. I feel physically sick as I stare at a horror-stricken reflection. There are black bags under my eyes and there is fear flooding my eyes.

‘’ You can do this.’’ I quietly whisper to myself. ‘’ Come on Pip, you can do this.’’

I open up the press under the sink and am shocked at the fact that it turns out to be a mini-fridge. The fridge is full of wine bottles. The most expensive bottles in the Capitol. I’ve never seen so many in one place before. I grab a bottle and pop open the cork. I then lift the bottle up in my hand and begin to drink it.

The concentration of alcohol is too much and it makes me cough, sending wine all over the mirror in front of me. ‘’ Shit!’’ I grab tissue from the toilet and wipe the mirror, then I resume with the bottle. I chug the whole bottle down in minutes and turn from the mirror, refusing to look at myself.

I attempt to get to the door and almost break my ankle as I trip in my high heels. I curse and remove the shoes. I’ve drank too much. That is a good thing though. Now I’ll be able to do this. I open up the door in front of me and take a deep breath. The bedroom has transformed. The curtains have been pulled and the room is in darkness apart from the two fish tanks that turn out to be lights as well. Tiberius is beneath the sheets of the bed, his suit and shoes are sitting neatly on the floor beside the bed.

I gulp once again and smile at him.

‘’ What took you so long?’’ He chuckles.

‘’ I had to make myself more presentable.’’ I smile flirtatiously and hope it works. If he finds out I have been faking all this, he will kill me.

‘’ Come on then.’’ He smiles.

I fight back tears as I strip off and get into the bed with him. He smiles and places his arm on my bare leg. I pull back for a second in a twitchy movement, and he jumps.

‘’ Something wrong?’’ He asks, sounding genuinely worried.

I can’t do this. ‘’ No. No.’’ I laugh fakely. ‘’ Let’s get to it then.’’

He chuckles once again and grabs me by my hips. The lights dim even further and I then freely portray my disgusted facial expressions.