"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." - C.S. Lewis
Looking at her riding in that chariot, holding his hand, Gale couldn't help but think.
He couldn't help but think about how beautiful his best friend was.
He couldn't help but think about how in love with his best friend he was.
He couldn't help but think about how it was wrong to be jealous of Bread Boy.
They were both tributes, they had the right to comfort each other. They were the only ones who knew each other's pain.
But Gale couldn't help but be jealous.
For years, Gale and Katniss had shared the burden of feeding their families; he had been the only one to understand her pain. It hurt him that he couldn't understand.
Bread Boy was the only one who could understand her now, and for that, he was jealous.
They were best friends; they understood each other more than anyone else. Gale was supposed to be the one on that chariot with her, holding her hand.
But that wouldn't work. Katniss would be mad. And Gale hated how he understood that.
He was supposed to take care of her family now that she was gone. He couldn't do that if he were at the Capitol with her. He hated how he understood that.
He hated how the only one that could possibly feel his pain at the moment was halfway across somewhere holding another boy's hand.
He hated how she was the only one who knew.
He hated how she was his closest friend.
He hated how she supposedly knew everything about him, but didn't know he was in love with her.
Looking at her riding in that chariot, holding his hand, Gale couldn't help but think.
He couldn't help but think about how he didn't mind dying before she came along.
He couldn't help but think that the only reason he lived after his father died was for his family.
He couldn't help but think that before he had met her, he hadn't been living he had been surviving.
He couldn't help but think that she was his savior; the person that taught him how to live.
He couldn't help but think that he had no idea how to live without her.
Gale loved his best friend in a much larger way than she grasped. She was his world, his salvation, his paradise.
He couldn't help but think that she could very well be dead in days.
His world: Gone.
His salvation: Lost.
His paradise: Destroyed.
Gale would be right back to surviving. He would survive for Katniss, and her family, and his. But he wouldn't live anymore. He couldn't live without her. He didn't think that she knew that. He wished that she knew that. He wished that that damn peacekeeper just gave him ten more seconds.
Maybe she wasn't meant to know.
Maybe that would cloud her judgement in the Games.
Maybe they were supposed to stay friends.
Maybe they weren't meant to be.
But they were. They were meant to be because Gale couldn't live without her. That's how he knew they were meant to be.
Gale knew that she was his. He knew that he was hers.
And yet, she wasn't holding his hand.