This is the story of the worst night of my life. (Well. Thus far).
Ever since Thom had started dating my best friend, Bristol, we'd become friends. He joked around with me a lot, ruffled my hair. God, he teased me so much. When he invited me to go to a Seam party though, I was so excited. Hah... Funny how you can think your luck is turning for the better, finally, and really it's just getting worse. Though of course, then I hadn't known it could get worse.
And of course Thom knew about my crush on his best friend Gale. Everyone with eyes could see that. Besides Gale, obviously. God he was ignorant. I have liked him ever since he started bringing me- oh, right. My family, strawberries. I stared at him in the halls... Kind of a stalker really. I just couldn't get him out of my head. I hated the way he treated me, the things he said. But somehow it made me love him too, I admired his fire.
Well, anyways, you can imagine how long it took me to get ready that night. Should I go full on slutty? Keep it classy? Wear a dress? It was a nightmare. Girls, you know what I mean. I finally settled on a tight (but not revealing) black shirt, with some high waisted shorts and some chucks. Not extremely slutty, but my dad still gave me 'the look' when he saw me leave. Y'know, the one that says 'You-don't-look-appropriate-but-I'm-letting-you-go -cause-you-need-to-interact-with-people'. I get that last bit from him a lot. It's not my fault people hate me because I'm the Mayor's daughter. And anyways, my piano doesn't judge me. I'm fine.
So I meet Thom and Bristol in the square and we head down to the Seam part of the meadow. As we walk up we can already hear the music. Folky and rough, it's new to me and I like it. As we get closer it gets darker and the bonfire in contrast is bright and cheery. There are people dancing around the fire and sitting on the logs that make a ring around the 'dance floor'. Bristol looks at me, non-verbally asking if I'll be okay if she dances with Thom and I nod; I was going to get a drink anyways. Speaking of which, there are a lot of tipsy people already. As I make my way over to the coolers, I get some dirty looks, but ignore them. I sit down on a log by the drinks with a can of beer and from my position I can see everything that's happening. I subconsciously look for Gale, and find him talking to some Seam guys on the opposite side of the circle. One of them motions at me and my eyes widen. Gale turns to me, scrunches up his face, and turns back. Great. I stay on my log and sip my beer. I don't want to get drunk, but tipsy will be okay. I'm gonna need it to face Gale and some of the other Seam kids.
I turn and look behind me when I hear rustling and I see Katniss and Peeta walking hand in hand towards me. We wave to each other and they sit on the log next to mine. I kind of give Katniss a questioning look, nodding my head to the dancers, silently asking why aren't you dancing? She kind of shakes her head and grimaces, so I decide to let it go. I've seen Gale a total of 3 times now, each time he was drinking from a liquor bottle. I'm wondering how drunk he is when he comes up into my peripheral vision, standing, looking at me, and holding out his hand. I turn and give him an incredulous look and he rolls his eyes, sets down his bottle and pulls me up off the log.
"Let's see how well the little district Princess can dance!" He jeers, and a few people around him laugh.
I am seething. He's making fun of me, that bastard. Not that that's news or anything, but I'm already out of my element and I really don't need it. So, of course, I make up my mind to show him exactly how well I can dance. And by well I mean slutty, because, let's be honest, his face would be priceless, and I want to relish in the fact that I'll make him squirm for once. I smirk at him, and pull him to the dance floor. No doubt he expected me to run for the hills. Well. Not this time.
We get to the dance floor and I'm a bit shaky, thanks to the alcohol. I turn to face Gale and his grey eyes are stormy and dark. I smirk and start dancing, shaking my hips to the music. He stands there, and once I feel sufficiently awkward; me dancing, and him doing nothing, he steps close to me, our noses almost touching and his dark eyes boring into mine. My eyes widen and a let out a breath. He smirks and puts his hands on my hips, moving with me. This is a dangerous game that we're playing. Who can affect the other person the most? I finally gain back a bit of my confidence and put my arms around his neck and tug on his hair, swaying my hips the whole time. He grins, and pulls me closer. We do this for a while, our little battle of desire. He starts kissing my neck and the feel of his lips on my skin gets my heart racing. I completely forget about our game, my brain is fuzzy from the alcohol and his touch and I grab the front of his shirt with my hands and tilt my head back, giving him more access. Apparently this is synonymous with surrendering and he pulls his head back and whispers into my ear, "I win."
He grins at me, and I scowl. No, he is not getting away that easily. I tug on his hair and pull my body flush with his, standing on my tip-toes and peppering kisses on the underside of his jaw and along his jawline. After a bit of this he groans and now it's my turn to pull back and grin. But when I look into his eyes they're dark with lust and next thing I know he's dragging me off the dance floor and into the little grove of trees a few yards away. He pushes me up against on of them with his body, his arms trapping me there. He then kisses me, and it's like my whole head is filled with fireworks. It sounds cheesy, but that kiss rocked me to the core. I kissed him back of course, very enthusiastically. I remember thinking to myself, "Holy shit, Gale Hawthorne is kissing me. ME. Right now!" Well and then all of my thoughts disappeared with the entrance of his tongue in my mouth. Our tongues danced around each other, battling for dominance. God, he was a good kisser. He hooked my leg around him and I could feel... Wow. I guess I affected him a lot more than I thought. The feeling of his erection on the inside of my thigh kind of woke me up though. I remembered that I was tipsy. I also remembered that he was drunk. And that I loved him, and shit I didn't want it to happen like this. I wanted him to kiss me like this because he liked me, not because his hate for me fueled some kind of crazy sexual desire. I wanted it to be real so badly that it hurt and I just couldn't let him keep ravaging my mouth, even though God knows I wanted to. I wanted to just forget about the fact that he was drunk, and that he hated me and that I loved him. But I couldn't. And so I pulled away and pushed his chest away from me with one hand. My leg settled back down on the ground. He looked at me so adorably confused that I almost gave in again. His hair was messed up because of my frantic hands. His lips were red and his eyes were such a dark grey, it was mesmerizing. I let out a shuddering breath, gathered up all my courage, and prepared my heart to break.
"You're only kissing me because you're drunk." I say. It hurts. Saying it out loud, like it's a fact, hurts like a thousand knives cutting into me.
He looks confused, and a little angry, but I attribute that to the fact that he's just realized he's not getting any tonight. And no matter how much a love him I can't do that to myself.
His silence is all the answer I need and I jerk my head into a nod, straightening my shirt and shakily tucking some of my blonde hair behind my ear. I push past him and make my way back to the party. He doesn't stop me, and my heart shatters as I walk. My eyes search and I find Bristol and Thom by the drinks, laughing. When I come up they fall silent, and I finally feel the tear that's been leaking out of my eye. I hug myself, and Bristol nods to Thom, a silent permission for him to take me home. I look at them gratefully, and he wraps and arm around my shoulder and we walk.
I didn't see it, but apparently Bristol did. Right after we left Gale came out of the trees, running his hands through his hair with a pained expression on his face.
I can't believe her though. If I do, it'll just break my heart all over again.