AFTERGLOW // finnick odair

nineteen

Like friends do.

"Heard you had a breakdown. Pathetic."

Finnick barely raised his head and snorted. His voice was still hoarse from all the screaming and his eyes stung. And, he was still drowsy from his incident, but he sat up and let Katniss do the same. "Thought i'd compete with you to be the mental case of the month."

Katniss noticed the slow movements and how he sounded like Haymitch did when he drank too much. "Did they put you to sleep?"

"Like they didn't want me to wake up."

"And what was the reason? Did you ran out of conditioner?"

Finnick swallowed his words as his whole body shivered, just reminiscing what happened a few hours ago.

"That must never happen to you. When was the last time you showered?" Katniss grunted and elbowed him. While he passed his fingers through the sore skin, he said, "Ow! How did you even find out, anyway?"

"My sister is a nurse here. They tell each other everything."

"Well, that's not a violation of privacy at all," he said sarcastically. "And, why would your sister even tell you that?"

Katniss shrugged. "They said you were with a girl when it happened, she thought it had been me. Was it Alivia?"

Finnick swallowed thickly, partly because his throat was dry and burning. Just partly. He nodded. "We were trying to get out of the infirmary."

Katniss could see how his shoulders tensed up and yet, that didn't stop her from asking, "Is she okay?"

The machine besides his bed seemed to get louder but it only seemed that way because he went quiet. He had no real answer to that. He hoped she was okay; but they hadn't seen each other in about a day. Maybe even more, Finnick wasn't sure how much he had slept after coming back from her room.

His mind was clouded, and he didn't want her to see him like this. Not when he didn't have answers. How would he even begin to explain what happened to him at the infirmary exit without bringing to light every single thing he tried so hard to hide? He was just not ready.

Still, every minute they spent apart, he felt even worse.

While Finnick seemed to have the biggest internal battle, Katniss continued to stare. He had dried tears all over his tan skin. The blond even seemed to cower into himself when Alivia was mentioned. That made her think Alivia was not okay, but she wouldn't expect Finnick to just be laying around if that was the truth. She suddenly thought about Peeta and what he must be going through while she was laying around.

As if they needed more sadness to fill the room.

They were so busy being miserable they never noticed when the door opened until the squeaky hinges were announcing it was closing. Finnick didn't panic as much as the first time when he saw that red hair and those green eyes. Katniss, on the other hand, immediately grabbed a spoon from his untouched dinner they hadn't picked up yet and raised it in a defensive stance. It was a bendable one, the one the district used for children but Katniss' bare hands could be considered a weapon, so Finnick didn't doubt she could still cause severe harm with that spoon.

Katniss saw nothing past that medical uniform. She didn't know who Annie was nor did she care. For her, she was just another threat trying to put her to sleep.

"Katniss! Wait! It's fine, I know her."

Finnick jumped to his feet, and Annie stayed calm somehow, just by the door.