Mentors (An Everlark Fanfic)

Chapter 25

Peeta smiles down to me, and kisses me softly.

"Don't forget to use protection! We don't need The Girl On Fire to have children at 17."

My eyes grow five sizes bigger, and Peeta looks at Haymitch.

"Haymitch, why are you so gross today?"

And with Peeta's comment, Haymitch walks fast in front of us, chuckling to himself.

When we enter Raze's apartment, Effie comes running to greet us. When she sees me and Peeta, she looks weirdly at us, and turn around.

"Let's go to the living room, where Raze is waiting," Effie says, avoiding looking at Peeta and I.

Raze looks terrible. It's not hard to tell that he hasn't slept or eaten in forever. And he hasn't showered either. His eyes are red and droopy from crying. At first I want to tell him to go take a shower and eat something, but then I think about the fact that I would probably have reacted the same way, if not worse, if Peeta and Prim died, only a few days apart.

"Raze?" I ask softly, letting go of Peeta. He's going through heartbreak, and the last thing he probably wants to see, is the two people who tricked the Capitol into get both of them out of the arena, because of their love.

I sit down besides him in the couch where he is sitting, and wait for him to look at me.

"Raze, please, look at me. I understand that your pain right now, but even though I know that it will be extremely hard, you have to give the Capitol your best smile, and act like everything is oka--"

"No, you do not know my pain. Last time I checked, both Peeta and your sister were alive. You don't understand shit. You're just here to be a distraction, so people forget what the real problems are. You're just here to live happily ever after with Peeta. You're just another part of the freakshow. And I don't fucking want to participate. So if you would just shut the fuck up and leave, I can be alone, and go through the pain I need to go through. I don't even know why you two are here. I won. You did your job. Now, fuck off. You don't even care about me, or Nova, or Ylja. You're just like the Capitol. You don't give a crap about children dying in that arena anymore. That's the only way you can win. If you don't give a fuck. Ylja told me that. But if you do, like Ylja and Nova did, you die."

"Raze, if we didn't care, do you think we would be here right now? We do care," Peeta spits at Raze, obviously tired of his attitude.

"You will have to be just like Katniss and I at some point, otherwise, your whole family is dead. And I think we can agree on that you have lost enough family members already, right?"
"Raze, we're sorry, but tonight, you have to put all your feelings aside, and smile to the cameras."

Raze looks angrily at Peeta, and I am afraid that he'll tell Peeta off, or that's he's really cold-hearted, or something, but instead, he gets up, and walks into the bathroom. Moments later, we hear the water from the shower running.

"I think we're done here," I say, grabbing Peeta's wrist, and pulling him out of the apartment.

---

Peeta and I are sitting in a car, driving to a beach that Peeta once found. He says that it's beautiful, and we'll have the perfect sunset view.

Under the flowy dress that I am wearing, I'm wearing a bikini. Peeta is only wearing his swimming trunks and a shirt. We also brought a bag with some bread, two towels, a blanket, and two pillows. I can already tell that this will be one of the most perfect evenings in my life.

We arrive at the beach, and we walk down to the water, hand in hand.

"We're just in perfect time to see the sunset," Peeta says, pointing out at the sun going down.