Only then could the woman sit up and permit herself a smile, she had done it, she was on her way home. She tentatively looked around, vigilant not to draw attention to herself, letting her eyes hover from one person to the next like someone in court, nervous of being found out, careful not to stare for too long. Her eyes settled onto the back of a boy's head. He was facing the opposite direction so she stared.
"Is that, no, but, it can't be," she whispered under her breath. "Peeta?" she asked, more to herself than the boy.
"Oh my god! I can't believe that it's actually you, what are you doing here? I was on my way back to get you, I shouldn't have left, not again, I missed you, I'm sorry for all those times I beat you, I just wanted to tell you that..."
She reached out across the seat and placed her hand firmly on his shoulder.
"I am never going to leave you or hurt you ag..." The boy turned to face Peeta's mother, taking the earphones out of his ears, stopping her in mid sentence.
"Excuse me," said the boy politely, "Is there a problem?"
"You're. Not. Peeta," Kerry stated slowly.
"No, but I am Cato," said the boy confidently. "Pleased to meet you."
Kerry felt her face grow red hot with embarrassment and stared at Cato. He turned back around, yawned, and placed his head on the shoulder of the woman beside him. She lifted her hand and slowly stroked his head lovingly, then lightly kissed him on the forehead.
Peeta's mother's eyes stung and all of a sudden she felt about as big as an ant. She whimpered and then couldn't hold it in any longer, she let everything go, tears streaming down her cheeks, she curled into a ball to face out of the window. She forgot about everything around her and bawled like a ten year old who just found out the tooth fairy doesn't exist.
Molly, one of the kind old ladies on the bus, with white-blond hair and old leather skin, swiftly jumped from her seat across from Peeta's mum, to sit next to her.
"Are you alright dear? She asked, her voice soft and flowing like a stream of water down a mountain. "Hush, hush, it's alright." All of a sudden she couldn't hold her mouth shut any longer, the words came pouring out of her mouth without her permission.
"He loves him. Their father, they make a perfect family, have a perfect life, without me in it, maybe I will just disappear, I don't mean to hurt my kids I just... They wouldn't notice if I did disappear, at least then maybe Peeta would have a chance at a proper life without the influence of me, if it's not too late. I just can't help it, they never did anything wrong, it doesn't make sense, I don't know why I do it, they're too young to understand, he will never forgive me. I need to become a better mother. I was never really that close to him, he was always in his own little world where he pretended that nothing was going wrong, a place that I couldn't reach him. But I just don't want any of them to have to go through what I did and still am. I don't want them to become like me."
"Who are you talking about dear?" questioned Molly gently, unable to make sense of what she was babbling on about. Peeta's mother closed her eyes and pushed her two main fingers into her temples.
"My kids," she replied softly, without any real sense of emotion.
"I really do love them; maybe it would be better for everyone if I were dead, I wish I was..."
All of a sudden, the bus lurched to one side and then the other, tires screeching, unable to hold their grip on the slippery road. She heard a crash and then was surrounded by pain. She smiled sadly to herself as she felt her eyelids become heavier and heavier. She had gotten her last wish.