Do and Die

Perhaps I Was Mistaken

I couldn’t get to sleep. Without my little sisters beside me, it made me physically uncomfortable. Since I couldn’t sleep, I decided on a shower. I never took showers at night; I usually took them in the morning. That night was an exception because I hoped the water calmed me.

My bedroom had its own bathroom. I looked into the only dresser in the room for something to wear. Wow, they actually had clothes in there. I chose a pair of white pajama pants and a blue t-shirt. It was around one A.M. as I got into the shower. 

I’d never had a shower before. The closest I ever got was a thunderstorm. Now that I looked at all of the labeled buttons the shower held, I had an idea I was missing out on something. The buttons were all of the colors of the rainbow and more. They were color coded by body wash, shampoo, conditioner and something called sterilizer which sounded bad so I didn’t attempt to press it. As soon as I stepped into the considerably spacious cylinder, the water fell from the faucet above my head in constant droplets. My muscles relaxed. I pressed the shampoo scent of grapefruit. I wondered where that would come out. Ah! Crap, my eyes! I began thrashing around in the shower.

I felt around for the towel that was already in the bathroom after I did my best to wash out the shampoo out of my eyes. I was not going to get back into the shower after being squirted in the eye by shampoo. I just got dressed and sat on my bed, nowhere near sleepy.

For some reason, I wasn’t able to get those chocolate covered strawberries from my head. Well since I’m not tired, why not find some more food?

It was quiet as I crept around the moving train. The single hallway that ran through every car was dark as hell. I tried to keep my bare feet from thumping too much as I felt around the hallway. I couldn’t remember which way the diner car was, the kitchen had to be close to there. 

After going the wrong way, I ended up in the diner car with a stubbed toe. I tried my best to sooth the pain by rubbing my left foot as I sat in the chair.

“You’re still up?” Ah! My hair whipped my face as I turned to the door behind me. It was Peeta.

My face changed from startled to sarcastic, “No, I’m sleepwalking.” I responded. Peeta rolled his eyes as he walked forward from the doorway. Peeta wore plaid pajama pants and a white shirt.

“What are you doing?” Peeta questioned. I massaged my toes. This boy asks way too many questions. “Looking for the kitchen,” I responded stiffly.

The blonde boy raised an eyebrow at me, “You can’t do that sitting down.” Oh, for fucks sake! Would he just go…? I stopped myself to use my brain, not my automatic instincts to lash out. Wait; think of Fletcher’s people skills, Thalia. Use them. Even Annalise said to make alliances with your own district partner first.

“Well, I can’t find it,” I told him, letting go of my foot to stand.

“It’s near the front. Effie told me,” He responded, plucking hair from his shirt, “I could show you.”

It seemed stupid to me to agree to his help just to find something simple like chocolate covered strawberries. We were enemies. Yet, it seemed stupid for me to even chide myself over the fact that I would agree. We weren’t in the arena yet, we weren’t even close. That change of attitude in my room a few hours ago changed the way I thank a bit. Now I’m having conflicting thoughts. “Sure, lead the way, Mr. Mellark,” I motioned for him to lead me while keeping my tone civil. Peeta smiled a bit and walked past me and into another car.

The kitchen looked like the kitchen I would see in Peeta’s family’s bakery when I was on errands with Daddy, or that fancy restaurant near the Victor’s Village. It was the more complicated version of a stove, a stainless steel island, pots hand from the ceiling, and the refrigerator was made of the same metal the island was. My bare feet padded over to the refrigerator and I began to pull everything that was sweet from the ice box.