As she stared at his face, his carefree smile and the crinkles around his eyes, she thought of kissing him.
Katniss' heart skipped, but she tilted her head, confused. Here she was, in this unfamiliar place, with people she barely knew, and this messy haired boy had invaded her head. She wasn't normally this weak.
However, Katniss was exhausted. It was the third day of this stupid exchange and her Capitol counterpart was driving her insane. She had not been able to speak her mind for days, and for a girl like Katniss this was torture. It didn't help that the Capitol girl, Rubia, had done nothing but talk to her since she arrived, her holder brother was a sleaze and every other Capitol person she had met treated her like she was deaf, dumb and blind.
But this boy, this boy looked so... good.
It was only fleeting; her thought of kissing him, but it confused her. It must be her desperate mind, reaching out for some connection with someone. That was all that could explain the tugging at the bottom of her ribcage. Katniss' exchange grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the clustered circle of friends, back to the Capitol flat for the night. Fair enough, it had been a long day. Katniss and the other Seam kids taking part on this 'culture exchange' had been trailed around the Capitol's most famous sights. Despite the splendor, Katniss was missing home.
"Oh Katniss!" Bravo, Rubia's brother, reached out to grab her and kiss her on both cheeks, as apparently was custom in the Capitol. It seemed to Katniss that Bravo was taking extra advantage of this, as while the rest of the family nodded at her when she walked back into the flat with Rubia, Bravo was descending on her. She quickly ducked out of the way, mumbling a greeting and following Rubia to their shared room. As Rubia huffily sat down on her queen sized bed, Katniss decided that, hey, she was stuck here, might as well talk about something she was interested in.
"Who was that blonde boy when we left?" Katniss asked, locking eyes with Rubia, who was twirling her hair around one lazy finger.
"Oh, Peeta? I don't really know him, I don't think he's much fun. Bit square I would say," Rubia announced in that stupid accent of hers, "But I have fine art class with him, he's simply fantastic. He comes from a family of cupcake bakers, absolutely daaaarling."
"Who was he paired up with from my school?" Katniss enquired, genuinely curious about this Peeta boy. She wasn't sure why she was interested in him at all really, but it was the only thing she could talk about with her exchange.
"The tall one, Gale" Rubia preened.