Hunger Games: YouTuber edition

Thirty-Four

Robert

Robert watched as Jack fell to the floor. Mark and Signe rushed to his side.

He looked around as he saw shocked faces... and people yelling at him. Mainly, from the other tributes.

Why the hell did you do that?
You just ruined everything!

What they didn't understand though, was that he had to die in the worst possible way, and that Jack, the only person there to help, betrayed him and ran away.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when President Coin grabbed his arm.

"Could you please come with me?" She asked.

Robert then nodded as he was taken into another room, where she let go of his arm.

"What were one of the rules I told you and the other survivors before we brought the others in?" President Coin asked.
"Don't do any harm to them." Robert responded.
"Then why did you punch one of them?" President Coin asked.
"Because he betrayed me and left me to die with the swarm of tracker-jackers." Robert explained.
President Coin was silent for a moment before speaking. "You do realize that no matter what the circumstance, you wouldn't have survived anyway, right?"
"Yeah, but how did Jack survive?" Robert asked.
"Robert, you were in the Hunger Games." President Coin explained. "Most of the tributes did what they could to survive. Jack realized how it was too late for you, Robert and that's why he left. He didn't do it to betray you."
"Well, he shouldn't have said "Karma is a bitch" to me." Robert remarked.
"I'm sure he regret everything he did, Robert." President Coin responded. "All of the tributes did. In fact the one tribute who did most of the damage received forgiveness."
"Yeah, because he killed the ones who didn't want to be in the games in the first place." Robert said. "I wanted to actually try and win."
"I know you wanted to Robert." President Coin said.

The two of them were silent for a moment before President Coin continued to speak.

"It was very difficult to try and revive you, Robert." President Coin explained. "With the amount of tracker jacker venom in you, I myself was beginning to think you would be the only tribute we could not save. But then, a miracle occurred, all of the people of District 13 came and donated blood, for you, Robert. If it wasn't for their brave actions, you wouldn't have been alive right now. So why are you wasting the fact that you are alive right now, over one person in a game that shouldn't even matter anymore?"

Robert stood there, absolutely silent.

Jack

Mark placed an ice pack over Jack's swollen cheek while Jack held a tissue against his nose, which was just beginning to bleed.

"Sorry about what happened to you, Jack." Mark said.
"Don't worry about it." Jack responded. "I feel like it's kinda my fault anyways."
"Why?" Mark asked.
"Because I made a smartass remark to him before I fled." Jack explained. "I told him 'Karma was a bitch' and left him."
"What'd he do to make you say that?" Mark asked.
"Well, he left me to nearly burn to death in a fire." Jack stated.

Mark then remembered the moment he saw smoke coming from the woods.

"I didn't know you were involved in that!" Mark said. "Because I remember seeing smoke and flames from where I was at."
"Really?" Jack asked.
Mark nodded. "In my opinion, if I was you in that situation, I would've said the same thing."
"Yeah, I know you would have." Jack responded. "I normally wouldn't say something like that."
"Well hey, in my opinion, that bitch would've deserved it!" Mark exclaimed.

Jack's eyes widened as he looked over to the door, noticing Robert and President Coin standing there.

Mark turned around, immediately blushing.

"Oh!" Mark said, smiling awkwardly. "Hi guys!"
"Mark, please leave the room." President Coin stated. "I would like Jack and Robert to speak to each other alone. Afterwards, I would like to tell you the same rules I told the other survivors."
Mark nodded with the same awkward smile, "Will do!"

Mark then ran out of the room, slightly embarrassed with what he just said in front of them.

Jack became more nervous though, because now he was being left alone with Robert.

"Sorry..." Robert immediately began, "for punching you."
"I-It's fine." Jack responded.
"No, it really isn't." Robert remarked. "If Ryan was able to be forgiven for killing all those people, I should've forgiven you."

Jack then looked at Robert. For some reason, he knew he wasn't telling the truth.

"I know that's not the main reason you wanted to apologize." Jack said.

Robert was silent for a moment and sighed, "I-I just felt betrayed. I know I betrayed you and was a smartass myself when we both reunited, but... I just never thought you would do that to me."
"What do you mean?" Jack asked.
"Before our game we were in, I always used to watch you, and basically everybody else that was in the games with us." Robert explained. "I'm basically, what you would consider a fanboy of some sort."
"Really?" Jack asked.
Robert nodded. "So I made my own YouTube channel and started making music videos and such, and I sort of became popular. I guess popular enough to be considered popular with everybody else. Then the reaping happened, and of course it all went downhill from there. I wasn't that psychotic fanboy anymore, I just wanted to survive."

Jack was silent for a moment, listening to what Robert had to say.

"And then when we teamed up, I sort of became hopeful. Not only because I knew who you were, but because you were a skilled tribute. Then I made an idiotic move and left you behind, then my attitude changed about a lot of things, and I just wasn't the same about anything, even after you and I got back together. So I guess with the way I was acting, and after leaving you behind to nearly die, I guess I deserved that karma."

Jack was silent for a moment before finally speaking.

"No, you didn't." Jack said. "I don't care whether you would've became the biggest asshole on the planet or the sweetest human being in Panem, nobody deserves to die, especially after what you went through."
"Really?" Robert asked.
Jack nodded. "If there wasn't so many of them swarming you, I wouldn't have left you behind, but I myself was getting attacked by tracker jackers. So I knew I had to leave. But either way, I kinda suffered from it too."
"But how'd you survive?" Robert asked.
"Mark saw what happened to me and helped me." Jack said.
"How many times were you stung?" Robert asked.
"A couple of times." Jack responded.
"What was it like?" Robert asked.

Jack looked at Robert with a serious, yet sarcastic, expression.

"You tell me..." Jack responded. "You were the one who was stung all over your body."
Robert sighed. "There's no words to describe it. Because it's not just a simple bee sting. It felt like I was being electrocuted, hundreds of times. Eventually, I couldn't even feel most of my body. I thought I didn't have legs or arms at one point even though they were attached to my body. Eventually, I just blacked out. You don't even have time to experience the symptoms. It's so bad that you just die."
"Wow..." Jack responded.
Robert then chuckled, "I would've taken decapitation any day over that."
Jack smiled. "Yeah, me too."

Robert and Jack looked at each other.

"So... are we cool?" Robert asked.
Jack nodded. "Yeah, we're cool."

They then shook hands.

They looked over at President Coin, who was watching the entire time.

"That's what I like to see." She smiled.