It's silly really that Eponine is offended by Katniss not trying to contradict that Eponine is ugly. It's the truth anyway. It still stings though.
Eponine's quiet when Katniss speaks of prostitution. She looks at her hands jammed between her thighs, at the rents in her skirt, at her bare feet.
"My Pa sends me with letters. He writes 'em, to claim he's a famous actor or old nobility or - or anything he can think of. Lies. He asks for money, and he says his daughter will do the man's bidding." Her lips twitch. "I were small the first time, and I were that scared. But after it, it is how it is and it don't hurt nothing but your pride no more. But I ain't got none of that anyway, so..." She shrugs.
"My sister, 'Zelma, does it too. She's stupid, that one. I try to take some of her's, but there's that many. And if she did none, she'd say, and my Pa'd take his belt to both our arses, her for disobeying and me for lying. I fucking hate my arse being belted. The buckle makes you bleed and it fucking hurts. I'd do anything to avoid that. So Azelma can do her share. I love her, and I didn't kill myself for her because she cannot cope with our father anyway, but I cannot save her."
She looks up at Katniss through the tangle of hair she's let drip over her bowed face, as if hiding behind it.
"And now they're gonna kill me. I'm glad I can't go home, because my father is going to murder me, or my husband will, and they'll fucking make me feel every second."
cw: underage prostitution, domestic violence, child abuse, prostitution, murder
Eponine's quiet when Katniss speaks of prostitution. She looks at her hands jammed between her thighs, at the rents in her skirt, at her bare feet.
"My Pa sends me with letters. He writes 'em, to claim he's a famous actor or old nobility or - or anything he can think of. Lies. He asks for money, and he says his daughter will do the man's bidding."
Her lips twitch.
"I were small the first time, and I were that scared. But after it, it is how it is and it don't hurt nothing but your pride no more. But I ain't got none of that anyway, so..." She shrugs.
"My sister, 'Zelma, does it too. She's stupid, that one. I try to take some of her's, but there's that many. And if she did none, she'd say, and my Pa'd take his belt to both our arses, her for disobeying and me for lying. I fucking hate my arse being belted. The buckle makes you bleed and it fucking hurts. I'd do anything to avoid that. So Azelma can do her share. I love her, and I didn't kill myself for her because she cannot cope with our father anyway, but I cannot save her."
She looks up at Katniss through the tangle of hair she's let drip over her bowed face, as if hiding behind it.
"And now they're gonna kill me. I'm glad I can't go home, because my father is going to murder me, or my husband will, and they'll fucking make me feel every second."