Aftersun 𖤓 peeta mellark

ix. faith

•°. *࿐

ix. faith

          AFTER THE TRAINING SCORE ANNOUNCEMENTS, Avonlea retreats to her room while everyone continues to celebrate Katniss and Peeta's successful week of training over dinner. Avonlea couldn't eat, she couldn't even look at the food set out on the large dining table without feeling nauseous.

Once the door was locked behind her, Avonlea stumbles to the bathroom as her tremulous hands latch onto the walls to keep herself up. She presses against the sink and looks in the mirror at her mutilated reflection, noticing the bruising already starting to appear around her eye and on the bridge of her nose. Dried up blood was scattered above and below her lip. She leans further over and spits into the sink, watching as the blood splatters on the porcelain tile.

She wets a small towel and starts wiping her face. Each time she hovers over a wound she thinks about how it had come to be and flinches as she relives the infliction. As she continues to clean her wounds, she holds back tears with a tight pout and furrowed eyebrows. She pauses, placing the towel back on the counter and stares at herself in the mirror.

"You are alright" she mouths, the words not coming out of her mouth but instead spoken in her mind. Her arms are shaking against the bathroom sink and her pout grows deeper as she refuses to tear her eyes away from her broken face.

"You are alright" She says again, this time letting out an airy sigh. She squeezes her eyes shut, murmuring the phrase again, raising her voice to a mumble. She drops her head and allows a singular tear to roll down down her cheek. 

Avonlea gives herself sixty seconds to breath, compose herself and stand up right again. She grabs the towel once again and cleans the rest of the wounds without a break in her composure. Once she is done treating and wrapping them, she gives herself one final look in the mirror.

"I am alright"

•°. *࿐

     THE CELEBRATIONS WERE LONG OVER, once Avonlea crawled her way out of the depths of her room. The penthouse now seemed like a ghost town, with plates and leftovers still scattered across the dining table and unfinished bottles of alcohol abandoned on the bar. Avonlea finishes off a glass of bourbon sitting in front of Haymitch's usual place at the table and wanders down the hallway. Her original plan was to join Haymitch in his room and drink her pain away but after a quick moment of hesitation, she knocks on Peeta's bedroom door.