The 70th Hunger Games: A Little Love

Epilogue

"Watter," I begin, my voice and head heavy. What do I say? What do I do? I thought back to our times before the games, laughing, walking to swim practice together, getting coffee at the local shop after our meets. "Do you want to go get some coffee at Cafe Océano? My treat!" I smile at them weakly, hoping that a change in atmosphere might change the mood.

"Sure," Watter nodded, picking up their pace a bit now that we had a destination in mind. "Are you gonna get your usual?" they asked me with a small prod.

I'm not too big on coffee, I only really have it if I absolutely need it, so normally when we come here, actually every time I come here, I get a peppermint hot chocolate. "No," I pause, thinking. I wanted to change it up. I need to change it up. I'm a new person, with a new order. "I'm gonna get a hot green tea," I decided with a nod. Bland, but easily sweetened with sugar.

We walked into the cafe, and I ordered my drink, looking at Watter for their order. They chose a hot coffee flavored with caramel, which was good as the weather was slowly getting colder here. I paid for our drinks, and nodded at Mekka, the server, indicating that he should bring our drinks to our normal table.

"So what happened back here during the games?" I asked, crossing my legs under the table and nervously tapping my foot on the ground. I knew for a while that life must've gone on like usual, but afterwords, when it was getting to the top ten, and we were still alive, what did they do? Watter explains it to me:

"Well, at first not much. The school was upset that it lost not only a current student but a future student, since usually the tributes here are from the poorer side, or a volunteer. They were upset to see one of their best students go," they prod me with a wink, implying that I was at the top of my class. Right, I knew that, for the most part. I had all A's except for Biology.

They continue, "they hosted a small funeral-type assembly. Very morbid. They were all like 'oh, let's remember one of our best, Annie Cresta!' And there was food and streamers and some kind of singer who performed and sang all these sad songs about how memories live on forever. It was as if the school was predicting you would die.

Well anyways, mine and your family kept up hope. We started off at first just having dinner together that first night, because we didn't know how to cope with the loss of you and Percy in our homes. But after that, it became kind of a tradition, where we would eat dinner together every night, and talk about how we're feeling and stuff. It was nice, I think that I filled the empty seat of you in your family, and Alex reminded us of our missing Percy. We would take turns bringing food, and we would sit and talk and sometimes even laugh. At least, that's how it was til Percy died. After that, my mom didn't want to leave the house, and I don't think my dad did either.

Maybe halfway through the games, some girl from the poorer side of town said that we should scrape together some money for a sponsor gift for you guys. I don't think anybody really believed in you two yet, you were cornered in the Dinosaur section of the arena, but I don't think you guys knew there were dinosaurs there yet. And so not a lot of people chipped in. She didn't really have much, but she had enough to send you a canteen of water. I'm pretty sure she put most, if not all, of her life savings in to it."

Wow. No one even helped Amelia to sponsor us? I had to find her. I had to thank her, somehow. I hadn't seen her since I got back from the games, I hadn't seen her since the day of the reaping, when I gave her my bread. Oh, what I would do to find her and thank her and give her a hug. Maybe I could ask around, see where she's staying and working.

Oh, shoot. Watter was still talking. I tuned back in to what they were saying, but I feel as if the topic had somehow completely changed:

"And then we had the dance. It wasn't really the same without you. I could tell that Paislee and Immah and Seeah were all upset, they didn't want to be happy without you, but they all looked stunning. And I think I looked relatively dashing in my suit," they proudly beat their chest, smiling at me and turning to the door when the little bell rang.