"Did you pick up my medicine?" I say to Peeta as soon as he walks through the door.

"Nice to see you too honey." He snarks.

"I reminded you three times before you left-"

"Yes don't worry I got it." He interrupts. I put down my makeup brush and hold out my hand to him.

"Can you wait a second?"

"No, I need to take it now."

"Jesus Christ I just walked through the door can you not jump down my throat?" He fishes around in his pocket then drops the glass cases of pills in my hand.

I curl my fingers around the cases and cross to the kitchen sink and fill up a cup of water.

"You're welcome." Peeta murmurs under his breath. I unscrew the lid of the case, pop a pill in my mouth and wash it down with water. I catch Peeta staring at me through the corner of his eye.

"What?"

"Better now?" His tone is extremely sour and it ticks me off.

"Yes, thank you."

"So now we can fuck again?" In response, I don't shrug and walk back over to the mirror, finishing my makeup quite unsuccessfully. I've never been good at it.

"If you're good, and don't piss me off tonight."

In the mirrors reflection, I see a cheeky smile forming on Peeta's lips.

"But it's always better when you're pissed off."

"Yeah but I'm really not in the mood for- shit."

My hand is so shaky that the eyeliner forms a thick wiggly line. Peeta notices and comes over to help me, but the slightly amused look on his face ticks me off for some reason. When his hand comes around to hold mine from behind I whack it away.

"I don't need your help." I say and try to salvage the mess I've made on my eyelid.

"You obviously can't, Katniss." He says and tries to grab the brush from me. Not wanting his help, I try to shake his grip unsuccessfully.

"Let go, Peeta!" But It makes no difference, and he manages to grab the brush away from me. Annoyed, I let him wipe the makeup off of my face. His rough hands are so solid and confident as they work. Under his control, the brush gracefully traces the almond curve of my upper lids. I let him paint my lips a natural colour then turn around to look in the mirror. Because the tones are neutral they enhance my features and don't overpower them. I must say I look pretty good. But I don't want to admit it to Peeta. Instead of gushing like I normally would, I say, "Great. Now get ready or we'll be late." But he notices I'm being ungrateful. "You know, I said I was sorry. You don't have to be so stroppy with me." He holds me in place and looks at me intensely, but I avoid his gaze and focus on the leaking kitchen tap.

"Please, just talk to me normally. Or I won't go with you to-" I stop him by shaking his grasp and padding towards the stairs. "I'm gonna get ready. I don't want to talk about this now."

"Katniss..." He shouts after me but I ignore him.

When I get to my room I angrily lock the door shut and strip down to nothing but my underwear. I grab the bachelorette dress out of the cupboard and slip it on. It's a deep blue sleeveless skater dress, with white line patters decorating the skirt. I take my hair out of its braid and let it fall on my shoulders. There's a knock at the door and its Peeta again, trying to get me to talk to him.

"Katniss, I promise I won't speak to her. Okay? Does that make you feel better?" The locked door muffles his words slightly, giving me an excuse not to reply.

"Katniss, stop being irrational."

I march over to the door and slam my palms into. "I am NOT being irrational! Now go get ready the party starts in half an hour." He slinks away from the wall and towards his bedroom. I sink to the floor with my back to the wall and cross my arms sternly over my chest. Irrational? There's no way I'm being irrational. Peeta cheated on me. Well, not really. But he lied to me:

Two months ago he had to go out of town to district 4. They wanted him to paint a mural. I couldn't go with him because Haymitch was very ill with alcohol poisoning, and I had to look after him. Peeta stayed with Annie and Flynn for a week. I had no worries at all about him going without me, but apparently I should have been more aware. His ex-girlfriend, also a painter, had moved to district 4 and was in charge of the mural painting. Everyone over the age of 2 knows that Peeta and I are together and have been for 4 years, but she obviously didn't care, or thought our relationship was a sham.

When Peeta came home he never mentioned his ex being their. It wasn't until two days ago, when I was down at the bakery, did his colleague Pat spit it out by accident. 'She was no where near as pretty as you Katniss.' That's how I found out Peeta and this girl called 'Anjelika' kissed. To be precise, she kissed him. He claims it was nothing and he felt terrible but didn't want me to overreact. Well, overreact I did because I was furious that he didn't tell me.

An ear piercing ring interrupts my stewing, so I get up out of my angry position and slam the off button on the alarm clock. '8.30'.

Dread and frustration churn my stomach as I think about the night ahead.

Johanna's birthday. She loves going crazy and spending all of her money on a bunch of useless party gags. To make things worse, all of her friends are obnoxious whores. Tonight, I'm spending the whole evening with my new friend. His name is vodka.