A/N: I wrote this story for the August one-shot prompt "Broken" on the Starvation forum.
We broke many things in the days surrounding the Games.
He broke my trust.
"Peeta has asked to be coached separately."
I didn't even know I trusted him until he betrayed me.
Did he even betray me? We were tributes.
We weren't supposed to trust each other.
Still, it was there. The assumption that we would stick together.
Even if it was just for that little bit before the Games.
I should have been grateful.
I broke an urn.
I broke his hands, too.
"You had no right to go saying those things about me!"
I was secretly a little satisfied when I saw him fall into the shards.
I wanted him know what it was like to be the fool.
I was not desirable, the lover girl he wanted me to be.
It took me too long to realize he was helping me from the start.
I should have been grateful.
He broke down my walls.
"You're not going to die."
I saved his life, and he saved mine.
He gave me something to hold on to in the deadliest of places.
He was an anchor, forcing me to think, to fight, to be human.
He became a friend.
I repaid him with fake romance
I should have been grateful.
I broke his heart.
"It was all for the Games. How you acted."
Most of it was. I couldn't lie to him.
I thought he was pretending.
I was too confused to say anything more.
I didn't want him to love me. I did not deserve him.
I should have been grateful.
They broke us.
Left us with nightmares and a punishment we never deserved.
They took what freedom we had and made us theirs.
Now we have to pick up the pieces of ourselves.
We will stand against them.
I will never be grateful.