"You're coming home, right?"
Katniss walked out of the small apartment she shared with Gale, onto the balcony where she could look down on the shittiest view known to man. "Yes, little duck, I'll be there in a few days. We have to wait for Gale to finish up the set he'd booked and then we're out of here."
"I'm so excited to see you!" Prim said excitedly. "It's been so long."
"A year and a half, little duck, hardly any time at all."
"Says the girl who's living it up in LA while I'm stuck here in Podunk city," Prim said.
Katniss could see her pout in her mind and she laughed. "You're leaving PodunkCity soon, little duck and heading out to New Haven and having all the fun."
"Oh please, like those uptight yuppies are going to be any kind of fun," Prim said, laughing. "They're gonna take one look at me and roll their eyes. Scholarship kid, right there."
"Prim! You worked your ass off and got a full ride scholarship to an IvyLeagueUniversity; do NOT blow it off like you're not the best thing ever!"
"I love you, Katniss," she said. "Hurry home, I can't wait to see you!"
"Me either, love you too, little duck."
"So, what's the plan?" Gale asked as they passed the sign showing their exit in two miles.
"Not sure, lemme text Prim, tell her we're nearly there." Katniss said, pulling out her phone and sending a quick message. "What're you going to do?" she said as she set the phone in her lap and looked over at him. He hadn't changed much since the day she'd shown up at his house and told him she was ready to leave whenever he was. Same spiky dark hair, tipped now with purple and green, grey eyes lined with heavy black liner, fingers adorned with thick, silver rings, tapping on the steering wheel as he drove.
"Rory wants to talk to me," Gale said, rolling his eyes and making air quotes, "without mom being around."
Katniss laughed. "Probably wants you to buy him beer now that you're legal."
Gale snorted. "Please. Who do you think made me my fake ID last year? That boy's been drinking longer than I have."
Katniss' phone vibrated in her lap and she picked it up, reading Prim's text. "She's working, wants me to stop by, says there's someone there who wants to say hi to me."
"Where is she?"
"The hospital. She got a job there a few months ago working with the physical therapists doing rehab."
"Sounds like not fun?" Gale said, laughing. "How you two are sisters, I'll never understand it."
Katniss shrugged. "She takes after Mom; I take after Dad, simple as that." She reached over to punch Gale on the arm. "Asshole, like you're anything like your brothers."
Gale chortled. "True that. Can't really see Rory or Vick being down with the shit that happened last weekend."
Katniss shook her head. "How many people did you fuck that night?"
Gale shrugged. "Hell if I know, but I do remember using condoms, the box was empty when I woke up the next morning and I still had one glued to my dick."
"Ugh, too much information!"
"Prude, you love it, living vicariously through me."
She rolled her eyes. "What the fuck ever. If I ever decide to fuck someone of the same sex, you'll be the second to know."
"Promises, promises Catnip. We both know why you haven't fucked anyone since we left this shithole, even if only one of us admits it."
She turned to glare at him. "I am not hung up on Peeta Mellark, so fuck you very much and keep your opinions to yourself. If I choose not to whore myself out to whoever makes the offer, that's my business. You might try it sometime, might help you remember where you left your fucking pants."
"Damn, I miss those fucking pants too," Gale said, shaking his head and winking at her. "Relax, pissy pants. You're only here to see Prim graduate and then we're off to New York City and the party that never ends."
"Says you. Have you thought at all how we're going to pay for this summer of debauchery?"
"I have a few gigs lined up, and there's always waitressing, like the rest of the wannabe's do. There are a million and one fucking restaurants and they all need staff at some point."
Katniss rolled her eyes. "Joy, another summer of slinging shit and having my ass grabbed. Cripes Gale, I should just go back to LA, at least there I can take a class over the summer."
"Fuck that," Gale said, banging his hand on the steering wheel in time with the thumping bass pouring out of the shitty speakers in the van. "We're going to have an epic summer, you mark my words."
"Epic," Katniss echoed, her stomach clenching as they passed the city limit sign. How the fuck was she going to handle being back here?
"Katniss!" Prim turned away from her patient as her sister stepped into the room.
"Hey little duck," Katniss said as the younger girl wrapped her arms around her neck, squeezing lightly. "Easy, I'll be here for at least a week; you don't have to get all your hugs in one."
Prim laughed, stepping back. "That's the sister I know and love." She turned and Katniss froze as she came face to face with the person that had haunted her dreams for the past eighteen months.
"Hullo, Katniss."
Peeta Mellark! OH MY GOD, IT'S PEETA! Her brain was tripping, her tongue feeling a million sizes too big for her mouth and so dry she could barely swallow. She drank him in, from the top of his too shaggy and needs to be cut hair to the long length of his legs, encased in loose grey sweats. He looked terrible, like he'd been run through the wringer and come out the worse for it. His eyes were sunken into his head and his skin was waxy and pale. Stubble covered his cheeks, and it looked like it'd been there for awhile, it was almost long enough to call it an actual beard but it was him and the painful ache that accompanied every thought of him sat up and settled dead center in her chest like a lead weight. He sat in a chair at the end of what looked like parallel bars, sweat beading his upper lip.
"Peeta," she said finally, dragging her gaze up from his legs to his face. She could feel the hot, prickly blush stealing over her cheeks and blooming across her chest as he stared just as hard at her as she had at him. Damn, it hurt to see him, hurt deep inside like a splinter that had festered and was impossible to dig out without screaming in pain. "You look like shit." Perfect, once again her mouth had decided to completely bypass any censoring by her brain and just spit out the first thing that popped into her head.
He shook his head, laughing. "You haven't seen me in nearly two years and that's the first thing you say to me? Maybe Davin was right about you."
Katniss snorted and rolled her eyes. "Davin took sadistic glee in torturing me with the pictures from 'Peeta's adventures in college', the bastard hated me."
Peeta inhaled sharply, fists clenching in his lap. "There wasn't anyone else, despite what you thought," he said shortly.
Katniss shrugged. No way was she ready to pick that scab, the wound beneath was still a gaping hole. She motioned to the bars. "What happened?"
Those bluer than blue eyes met hers and she flinched at the pain reflected in them. "I just had my last surgery to try to repair my leg enough for me to use it again."
"From?"
Prim laid her hand on Katniss' arm. "Peeta was injured in the last game of the season last year at Notre Dame. His femur was shattered when he was blindsided by a Georgia Tech player.
"Damn," Katniss said, her gaze straying to his leg and back again.
Peeta rolled his eyes. "You can see it if you want, but I warn you, it's not pretty. I'll be lucky if I ever walk again without a cane."
"Nonsense," Prim said, walking back over to where he sat. "That's just defeatist talk. You're not only going to walk again, you're going to be able to do almost everything you could before the accident. All it takes is some work and commitment, Peeta. You know what Dr. Portia said."
"Primrose Everdeen, the eternal optimist," he said bitterly.
Prim stared at him, hands rising to her hips. "Stop wallowing in self-pity, Mellark. It doesn't suit you. I'm going to get Dr. Portia so she can sign off on your at home exercises." She glanced between him and her sister. "Will you two be okay in here for a few minutes?"
Katniss sighed. "We're not going to kill each other Prim."
"Well, I'm not, not too sure about her," Peeta said, staring at her hotly.
"You're safe, Mellark. We've already done enough damage to each other without me kicking you when you're down."
"Play nice, children," Prim said over her shoulder as she walked out of the room with a clipboard in her hand.
Katniss waited until her sister was down the hall before moving closer to where Peeta sat. "Since when did you become a quitter?"
His head whipped around from where he'd been staring out the window, pinning her with his gaze. "What the hell did you say to me?"
She moved closer until she stood right beside the bars, leaning down to rest her arms on the closest one. "You heard me, when did you give up on everything?"
He glared at her. "Maybe it was the day I lost everything I ever wanted over a stupid picture and you refused to even give me the opportunity to explain anything."
She snorted. "Bullshit, this isn't about that and you and I both know it."
He shook his head, sighing in disgust. "Why do you fucking care? You made it abundantly clear you were done when you left town with Hawthorne."
"I still care about you Peeta. It's not like I just shut it off."
His gaze was bitter as it swept her face. "Right. You cared so much you had Abernathy chase me away with a shotgun rather than talk to me and then left town so you didn't have to even see me. Run away again Katniss, you're good at that."
She drew back, standing up and folding her arms across her chest as she glared down at him. "Fuck you, Peeta Mellark. You left me first."
He laughed mirthlessly. "I didn't give up on us, you did, remember?"
She spun on her heel and stalked to the door, fully intending to leave him wallowing in his misery, but the memory of him standing in the pouring rain, refusing to give up on her stung her hard. She turned around and stalked back to where he sat, fisting her hand in his t-shirt, jerking him closer. "I care too much. That's why I left. I couldn't stay where everything reminded me of you."
He stared at her for a long moment before lifting his hands and sliding his fingers through her hair, dragging her closer, lips covering hers in a heated kiss that she felt all the way to her toes. Her traitorous body remembered his touch, reveled in it. She hesitated for the barest second before kissing him back fiercely, hands scrabbling across his shoulders as their tongues mated and danced against each other. She moaned as his hand slid down to cup the back of her head, tilting it so he could deepen the kiss further. She was drowning, bliss rocketing through her with tidal force, damp heat seeping between her thighs.
She bumped hard into the bar as she tried to move closer and it brought her back to reality long enough to pull away from the intoxication of his lips. Her body cried out at the loss, a sharp ache settling in her chest as she panted for breath. The throbbing in her core was so intense it was all she could concentrate on.
A wicked grin curved her lips as she stared down into his flushed face. Licking her lips, she moved closer again until her breath skated across his lips. "I dare you to walk the length of this thing. That's what Prim was trying to get you to do, right?"
He nodded jerkily, biting down on his lip as his hands clenched in his lap.
Katniss leaned up, sliding underneath the bar to stand in front of him. "So, do it."
"Why?" He stared up at her, frustration written on every pore. "Why do you want this so badly, Katniss? Do you want to laugh at me, is that it?"
She frowned. "What? No! I would never…"
"Then why do you want me to walk so fucking badly?"
She inhaled sharply. "Because I hate seeing you like this," she hissed, folding her arms across her chest.
"Go home Katniss, I can't deal with this right now," he said wearily, scrubbing his face with his hand.
She lifted the hem of her tank, whipping it up and off of her body. "I'll make it worth it," she said softly. "Give you something to work for, Peeta."
His head rose, eyes darkening as they landed on her lace covered breasts. She wasn't sure what'd inspired her to wear her fuck me bra this morning, but right now, she was damn glad she had. The spark of life in his eyes was enough to make her insides twitch with need again. "If you catch me, you can have me."
"So now you're going to whore yourself so I'll get up and walk two feet?"
"If it gets your dead ass up out of that chair, yeah," she said, leaning forward, just out of his reach. "I can see it in your face that you want me still."
Anger bleached his face of color, and two spots of red splashed his cheeks, the big muscle in his jaw ticking as he stared at her. "Of course I fucking want you! I NEVER STOPPED WANTING YOU!"
"Then quit fucking around and come get me," she said, trailing her finger along the lacy edge of the left cup.
"I can't believe what a fucking bitch you are," he swore as he struggled to his feet, hands gripping the bars so tightly his knuckles were white.
"You've known what I was from the very first, Peeta and you still fucking want me so suck it up and put one foot in front of the other."
He gritted his teeth, arms shaking as he took a hesitant step, balancing his entire weight on his good leg. Sweat popped as he dragged the left one forward, a low groan escaping his mouth.
"Just like that, Peeta, all the way to the end and then I'm going to fuck you into oblivion," Katniss purred, reaching out to tease her nails along the back of his hand.
Another groan and two more shuffling steps. His chest was heaving with exertion and his arms shook as he pushed them straight. His gaze never left her face and she smiled, crooking her finger. "Almost there, sweet buns."
"Shut! Up!" he snarled, taking another step and then a shuffle drag as he pulled the left leg forward.
"What? You don't like my pillow talk?" She swirled her fingers over her nipples, hard and pebbled beneath his furious gaze. "Come over here and shut me up then."
"Bitch," he gasped, taking another stuttering step, left leg dragging against the smooth floor.
"Your bitch," she said softly, taking another step backwards as he slowly and painfully closed the distance between them.
"What the hell is going on in here?"
The sharp voice of the doctor made Peeta lose his concentration and Katniss darted forward, wrapping her arms around him as he stumbled. It took every ounce of strength she had to keep him upright and she glared over her shoulder at the short, dark haired woman that stalked towards them, Prim right behind her, a worried expression on her face. "What the hell? You nearly made him fall!" Katniss snarled, tightening her arms as Peeta slumped against her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Are you a trained therapist? You could've set his therapy back months with this stupidity!" The short woman got right in Katniss' face, gesturing impatiently. "Primrose, get the chair, NOW!"
Prim hurried around to the other end of the poles, sliding the chair forward until it was right behind Peeta. Katniss helped him down into it, his fingers grasping lightly at the loose strands of hair over her shoulders. "Gonna hold you to your promise," he said, staring at her intently.
Heat speared through her at the look in his eyes and she nodded, tongue darting out to moisten her suddenly dry lips.
"What promise? Peeta, who is this girl?"
Peeta grinned up at the dark haired woman. "Dr. Portia, this is Katniss."
The doctor turned to look at her and Katniss wanted to drop into a convenient hole in the ground at the look on her face. "You're Katniss?" When she nodded, the doctor gave her a withering glare. "Forget your shirt when you got dressed this morning?"
Katniss flushed bright red, ducking underneath the bar to retrieve her tank top, jerking it back over top of her head. "No, I was just giving him some inspiration."
"Well, I think you've done enough for one day." Her tone softened as she turned back to Peeta. "How are you feeling? You really should've waited until someone trained was in here to try to walk. You just got out of surgery last week."
"I'm fine, Doc, really. My leg hurts a bit, but I think it's because I haven't used it in so long."
Dr. Portia bent down and gently rolled up his pants leg to examine it and Katniss nearly threw up at the sight of the mangled mess of his thigh. Her startled gaze flew to his face and he sighed deeply, pulling back into himself. "You can go, its okay."
"No," Katniss said, swallowing hard. "It's still you underneath the scar," she said gamely.
"Katniss, why don't you wait out in the hall, I'll only be another minute," Prim said, gaze darting between her sister and the dark haired doctor bent over Peeta's leg, running her fingers over the damaged tissue.
Katniss felt her blush return and she nodded, backing away quickly. "Yeah, I'll um; I'll be out in the waiting room, Prim."
She walked out into the hallway, hoping she hadn't done irreparable damage to either Peeta or her sister's job with her stunt but dammit it'd been hard to look at him, completely giving up. Prim came out a few minutes later, after Katniss had shredded one of the leaves on the large fern in the corner of the waiting room at the end of the hall.
"He's okay," Prim said as she came up behind her, staring out at the view of the parking lot. "You managed to do what we've been trying to do for a week now, get his ass out of that chair." Prim gave her a sideways look. "But did you have to do it topless?"
Katniss shrugged, picking the leaf bits even further apart. "I didn't think," she said softly. "All I knew is that I had to get him up and walking or he'd never do it and that's just…"
"I know, Katniss," Prim said, laying a hand on her arm. "Look, I don't know what happened between you but it looks like there's still a lot of something there"
"It's complicated," Katniss said softly.
"When aren't things with you complicated, Katniss?" Prim asked, laughing. "Come on, Davin and Mrs. Mellark are coming by to pick him up and I know you don't want to see either of them."
Katniss nodded, following her sister down the hallway to the stairwell door. "Did he…"
Prim turned to smile at her over her shoulder. "He'll be home in an hour and he said you'd better have your ass there with bells on one minute past that."
Katniss laughed throatily. "In that case, I have a stop to make first."
Katniss knocked lightly on the door, hoping that Prim was right and Peeta had moved out of his parent's house and lived alone. She wasn't up to dealing with Davin or Mrs. Mellark at the moment, especially not with what she had on underneath this damn coat.
It opened slowly, Peeta standing there, leaning heavily on a thick, wooden cane. He swallowed hard as he stared at her. "Didn't think you'd actually show up," he said thickly.
"I suppose I had that coming," she said softly. "Are you going to make me stand out here all night or ask me in?"
He flushed a dull red and shuffled back, a pained grimace flashing across his face. "Sorry, come inside." His eyes traveled slowly over the long trenchcoat she wore. "It's like eighty degrees out there, why the hell are you wearing an overcoat?"
She watched as he closed the door and leaned against it before undoing the buttons and the sash she'd tied tightly. Pulling the coat open, she let it fall to the floor, standing before him in the skimpiest lingerie set she'd brought with her. Tiny green lace slings cupped her breasts, leaving her erect and pebbled nipples bared to his heated gaze. Matching green lace boy panties and mile high black heels completed her outfit. When she'd bought the set back in LA, she'd never imagined wearing it for him, but once she put it on, she knew that it had been bought for him alone. No one else would appreciate it the way he would.
He stared at her for so long she began to get uncomfortable, worried that this was exactly the wrong thing to do. Bending down, she reached for the trench only to be hauled up against his chest, mouth opening wide in surprise.
"Every time I think I'm over you, you pull a stunt like this and I'm right back to where I was senior year, head over heels in love with you." He cupped her cheek and kissed her, nibbling and licking along the lower edge of her bottom lip. She sighed into his mouth and clung to his broad shoulders as he swept his tongue into her mouth, rubbing hotly against hers.
Her hand slid between their bodies, cupping the heavy bulge of his cock. She squeezed lightly and he groaned into her mouth. She felt him wobble and slid her arm around his back, breaking away from his lips. "Let's move this to a horizontal space; I don't want to have to call an ambulance because you got a concussion."
He snorted. "Bedroom's in the back, down the hall."
She walked over to where he was pointing turning back to look at him when she realized he wasn't following. "Well, are you coming or not?"
He sighed, raking his hand through his hair with his free hand. "Why are you here?" He limped over to one of the big armchairs and sat down heavily, staring at her.
Katniss folded her arms across her chest, feeling vulnerable and exposed, two feelings she hated worse than anything else. "Because I said I would be," she said softly.
"And what, you're going to fuck me and then leave again? I know you're not here long term, Prim's been talking about you nonstop."
She felt the uneasy prickle of tears stinging at her eyes and she spun around, reaching blindly for the overcoat. Coming here was a mistake –she was good at those at least because she certainly wasn't good at whatever this was.
"Here." Soft material draped over her back and she could smell the spicy notes of his cologne and the sweet essence that was uniquely him that made things low in her body tighten with painful need. She stood up, pulling his t-shirt over her head.
"What do you want from me, Peeta?" she asked, turning to face him again, kicking off the heels that were killing her feet.
He sighed. "I think that's my question Katniss."
She bit her lip, staring at him. "I'm not… I'm not good at words like you are." When he lifted his gaze to hers, she continued softly. "But I'm here, that should count for something, right? After all we've been through?"
He stood up shakily, gripping the cane hard as he shuffle walked to where she stood. "I can't do that again. I nearly went crazy when you left."
She looked up at him, eyes shiny with unshed tears. "I hurt just as much."
"But you still stayed away," he said softly, shaking his head.
"I needed time to think," she said, wrapping her arms around her waist once more, as if that would protect her from the hurt she knew was coming. "Away from this place that sucks the life out of you with every breath. You were the one good thing here and then I lost it."
"You threw it away," he said tightly.
"No!" she cried, blinking rapidly to fight off the tears. "How the hell did you think I'd react to seeing those pictures? Dammit, Peeta. I know what I am and what I'm not." Her voice dropped until it was barely a whisper. "How was I supposed to compete?"
His hands gripped her upper arms. "Did I ever for one second give you a reason to think I wanted someone else? Fuck me, Katniss! I've been in love with you since kindergarten and you got up to sing that stupid valley song. Then I spent the next eleven years watching you while trying to work up the nerve to talk to you. I finally get you and I think great, things are fucking perfect and then one day out of the blue I get a voice mail telling me that I'm a fucking bastard and it's over? You didn't have to compete; there was no fucking competition – ever!"
The tears she'd been fighting finally began to spill down her cheeks and she pushed closer, wrapping her arms around his waist. Peeta pulled her close, tilting her chin up with one long finger. "I love you, Katniss. Damn me but I still do."
She sank slowly to her knees, fingers moving to drag down his loose sweat pants. "What are you doing?" he asked, grabbing for them one handed.
"Stop, let me do this," she said softly, looking up at him.
"You don't have to," he said, frowning.
"I know, I want to." She gently prized his fingers loose and pulled the sweats and his boxers down his legs. "Lean on my shoulders to step out of them," she directed, straightening her back so that she could support his weight.
Peeta gritted his teeth and managed to lift his leg enough so that she could slip the leg off of him. He leaned hard on his cane to do the other side. His cock stiffened and she lifted her hand to gently encircle it, bending closer to lick the soft head. Opening her mouth, she slid the thickening length inside and swirled her tongue around it.
"Oh fuck," Peeta moaned, fingers grabbing hard at her shoulder. "Katniss."
She hummed lightly, smiling as he grew harder in her mouth. She stroked down the length of him, nails teasing gently at the big vein pulsing on the underside, her lips following as she took him deeper into the wet heat of her mouth.
He was panting heavily, the harsh sounds interspersed with deep groans as his hips rocked towards her face. "So good," he panted.
"Mmm," she replied, hollowing out her cheeks and sucking hard as she slid back up the length, teasing the slit at the end with her tongue.
"Gonna…oh shit…gonna come if you keep that up," he ground out, fingers flexing on her shoulder.
She slid her lips down the length again, and repeated the hard sucking as she bobbed up and down on his cock.
"Katniss," he groaned, hand sliding up to her hair, tangling in the long, dark strands. "Ngughhh." He came with a harsh groan, his hand fisting hard in her hair as she milked him slowly, swallowing hard after every burst.
When he was soft again between her lips, she moved back, staring up at him with limpid eyes. She rose smoothly to her feet, wrapping her arm around his waist. "Come on, lover; let's get you into bed before you pass out on me."
"You didn't…"
He stared at her and she smiled. "It's okay Peeta, we've got time," she said softly, threading their fingers together.
Three months later
"Katniss, can you get that? I've got dough all over my hands."
Katniss sighed and put down the book she'd been trying to read for the last twenty minutes. Her brain was refusing to cooperate though and she'd read the same sentence at least ten times. "Hello?"
"Ahh, I'd heard you were back in town."
"Davin," Katniss said shortly. "Peeta's making bread; do you want to leave a message?"
"Nope, this one's just for you," Davin said, his voice cold. "Did you really think you could come crawling back here like the piece of trash you are and just pick up where you left off after what you did to him?"
"I'm not discussing my relationship with your brother with you or anyone else, Davin."
"I'm not discussing it either, you white-trash, good for nothing cunt. Stay away from him if you know what's good for you. This is a small town and we protect our own, remember?"
"Nice, you're threatening me now? Fuck off Davin and don't have a nice day." She slammed the phone down into the cradle, her hand shaking slightly as the viciousness of his tone sunk in. He'd threatened her, really honest to god threatened her. Anger bloomed in her chest and she clenched her hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
"Babe? Who was it?" Peeta asked as he came in from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel.
"Oh, wrong number," she lied; shrugging in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner, uncurling her fingers and shoving them in her pockets. "Somebody asking for Thom." No way was she going to ever tell him what Davin had said, it'd kill him to know his brother hated her that much. Better she just find ways to avoid him.
She smiled to see him walking without his cane. They'd been working hard all summer long with Dr. Portia and he was almost to the point that he didn't need it anymore. The only time he limped was when it was going to rain. Dr. Portia had told him that he'd have a harder time in the winter when the damp cold came, but for right now, he was doing fantastic. "Look at you," she said, walking towards him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "I can't believe three months ago you couldn't walk two steps without that cane."
"I know, and it's all thanks to you," he said, bending down to brush a light kiss across her lips. "It was all those promises of wild monkey sex that my super sexy girlfriend made."
"Oh, do you think she'd be jealous of me hugging you?" Katniss teased, winking at him.
"Nah, I think you're good."
"Okay, because I could totally take her, you know?"
He grinned, swatting her lightly on her ass. "Such a badass."
"I try."
He glanced over at the phone. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, a letter came this morning for you from California. I was going to tell you after lunch and then you distracted me and I forgot. It's in the pile there by the phone."
Katniss turned and walked over to the phone, her stomach cramping with nerves. Davin's angry, evil words were still spinning around in her head and she felt like she was going to throw up. Sitting next to the phone was a cream colored envelope with a blue embossed UCLA logo surrounded by a gold circle in the corner. Slitting it open, she pulled out the thick letter inside.
Dear Miss Katniss Everdeen,
The University of California, Los Angeles is pleased to inform you that you have been awarded a full scholarship to study abroad in Barcelona, Spain for the fall semester. Flight, accommodation and class information are enclosed in the following pages. Please contact my office at your earliest convenience to schedule your flight times.
Congratulations!
James Beetee, PHD
Dean, College of Arts & Letters
"Well, what is it?" Peeta asked.
She lifted her gaze to his and smiled, the tension from the phone call and the news in the letter leaving her stomach roiling with nausea. "I'm uh; I'm going to Spain. I got the scholarship I applied for to study abroad."
"Oh." His smile dipped and then returned. "That's good news, right?"
"Yeah, they only give two full rides per year, the competition is ridiculous," she said, still staring at the letter in shock. Honestly, she'd forgotten she'd even applied, the chances were so remote of her getting it that she'd put it completely out of her mind.
"You deserve it," he said, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.
She spun in his arms, wrapping her hands around his neck. "You should come with me!"
He shook his head. "I can't. I've got the bakery and school."
"Can't your family handle the bakery for four months?"
"No, not since I bought out Davin and Will's shares. It's my responsibility now. Besides, I just got the loan to add the patio area. Dad wouldn't have the first clue how to handle that side of the business, that's why they were so happy I decided to stay here. They're ready to retire and leave the day to day stuff to me."
"Oh," Katniss said, biting her lip. She was so overwhelmed at the moment that she could barely breathe, let alone think. Offering for him to come with her had been an impulse, one that her mouth had shouted out before her brain could process. "Yeah, I didn't think." She glanced back up at him. "I should probably call them, classes are supposed to start in three weeks."
"Yeah," he said, sighing deeply. "I keep trying to forget that you're leaving again."
She moved out of his embrace and towards the phone, turning to glance at him over her shoulder. "It won't be forever."
"No, it'll just feel like it."
He had no idea how prophetic his words would be. Six years would pass before she saw him again…