~Katniss~
"Are you gonna talk to Prim?" Madge asks me. I shake my head. We are sitting on her couch drinking coffee and eating muffins.
"I can't" I say
"Why not?" Madge asks me
"Well, I never told Prim just how broken my relationship with Gale was" I say
"I don't understand why you stayed with him" Madge says
"He may have been controlling, but we were in love" I say
"Who was that man who brought you? He didn't seem like Uber or Lyft" Madge asks
"That was Peeta. Finnick and I met him at the arcade. I was running from Finnick and I grabbed Peeta so I could hide from Finnick" I say
"So what was he doing with you last night?" Mage asks
"He's a chef at the restaurant. His dad owns it. He found me walking barefoot on the sidewalk, while drinking. It was raining bad so he insisted driving me here, and on the way up the stairs my heel broke and I twisted my ankle" I say
"Wow, you don't find nice guys like that anymore" Madge says
"Yeah, he's a nice guy" I say. "I don't know what I'm gonna do"
"About what?" Madge asks
"I'm getting my stuff from Gale's house today, and I'm not sure where I'm going" I say
"I told you, you can stay here" Madge says
"No, I can't do that to you. I'll just ask Johanna" I say.
Madge is still in college, so with the recent price rise, her side job affords a one bedroom, one bathroom, living room, and small kitchen, apartment.
"Are you sure?" Madge asks me
"Yeah" I say.
~Noon~
I'm in the car with Madge as she drives me to Gale's house. Madge lent me some clothes since all I had was what I wore yesterday. I already talked to Johanna and she said I could stay with her. When we reach Gale's house, I'm hesitant to get out of the car.
"Do you want me to help you pack?" Madge asks me. I take that to truly mean, Do you want me to go in with you and help you get through this?
"Yeah that'd be great" I say. I use my copy of the key to enter the house. I leave the key on the table. Gale's not home, thank god. I unfold one of the boxes we brought and start putting my stuff inside. I don't have much. I put my kitchen supplies in one box. Prim and I have a storage unit where we have a couch and our beds, and a table. I put my clothes in three other boxes. The next box has pictures, mementos, phone charger, little makeup, hair brush, and things like that. The last box has a blanket and whatever else I have here. Madge and I start taking the boxes to her car.
Madge and I go back inside to grab the last to boxes when Gale comes inside.
"Don't mind us, we were just leaving" Madge says
"No, Catnip stay" Gale says
"Don't call me that" I say
"Fine, Katniss, will you just please stay?" Gale asks
"I can't stay. I swore I would never let a man physically hurt me, and as much as this hurts me, I'm leaving" I say
"I didn't mean to hurt you, okay I'm sorry" Gale says
"No. What's done is done. I'll have a scar to remind me of this, and I don't want it to be reminder that I was to weak to leave and stay true to my word. If I have to have this scar, it'll be a reminder that I'm strong" I say. "Come on Madge, we're done here"
Madge and I start walking and he puts his hand on my arm to try and stop me. I yank my arm from his grip.
"Goodbye Gale" I say, closing the door behind me. Madge and I put the boxes in her car and get in. I take a deep breath.
"Are you okay?" Madge asks me. I nod. "You know, its okay to cry, you don't have to be strong all the time"
"Yes I do Madge, I have to be strong. If I let myself cry, I won't stop. I have to hold it all in" I say
"Katniss, you have so much pain from the past already held in. There's only so much pain and tears someone can hold in" Madge says. I shake my head stubbornly. Madge just keeps driving.
"Can we stop somewhere?" I ask Madge.
"Sure, where?" Madge responds. I give her the name of the place and drives there. When we get there I'm a but shocked. I thought it would be closed since its not dinner time and people don't normally go out for formal dinner around this time. Its open and there are definitely people here. I get out of the car and I go inside. People are eating and having fun and hanging out. I walk up to the counter. There's a lady with a bright orange wig. Her name tag says Effie.
"Hi can I help you?" Effie asks
"I'm looking for Peeta Mellark" I say.
"One moment" She says, going into the back.
A little bit later Peeta comes walking out. He walks up to the counter.
"Hey," Peeta says
"Hey, I thought this place would be closed. I didn't expect this" I say
"Yeah, its like this, a fun relaxing hang out until around 4:30pm, then we close for half an hour to rearrange. We open again at 5pm for formal dinner." Peeta explains.
"Wow" I say "Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for yesterday. It was really nice of you, but I feel like I owe you something" I say
"Nonsense. I did it to help" Peeta says
"No really, there must be something I could do" I say
"Um, well, you could tell all your friends to come here" Peeta says. I blush.
"I think you might have to ask something else, I don't have many friends." I say
"I don't believe you" Peeta says
"I'm not good at making friends, but I could tell my few friends and my sister" I say.
"Alright, well we can be friends" Peeta says
"I already told you I'm not good at friends" I say
"Okay, well you see the way the friends thing works is you have to tell each other the deep stuff" Peeta says
"The deep stuff? Uh oh. Like what?" I ask
"Like..." Peeta thinks " What's your favorite color?"
"Dark green" I say "What's yours?"
"Orange" Peeta says
"Orange? Like Effie's hair?" I ask. Peeta chuckles
"No not that bright. Soft like the sunset" Peeta says. " Now we're friends "
"Okay" I say. He pulls out his phone.
"Here put your number in here and I'll put my number in yours and you can call me anytime you want a cheese bun" Peeta say handing me his phone. I type my number in his phone and I hand him mine. He types his number in my phone and hands it back to me. As he's handing it back to me, it starts ringing. Of course, its Gale. I take my phone from him and press ignore.
"I better go, my friend is waiting for me" I say
"I'll see you around" Peeta says. I nod and I walk out. I go back into the car and Madge starts driving to Johanna's apartment. I go through my phone to Gale's number. I take a deep breath, and repeat my mantra to myself. Stay strong. Stay strong. Stay strong. Stay strong. I do it. I push the delete button. I go into my gallery and I look at the album of pictures of me and Gale. My eyes start to water, reliving the memories, but I refuse to cry. I have to stay strong. I push the Delete button and all the pictures of me and Gale are gone. I take a deep breath. The drive to Johanna's apartment is silent. Its a comfortable silence.
When we get to Johanna's apartment, Madge and I each take a box up to her place. I knock on the door and she lets us in. The three of us go back down to get the rest of the boxes. Once the boxes are all in Johanna's guest room, Madge leaves.
"Thanks for letting me stay here" I say to Jo
"Yeah, no problem" Johanna says
"I'll try to find a place soon" I say
"Don't worry about it, I'm not gonna kick you out" Johanna says, I smile. I go into the guest room and sit down on the bed.
My phone beeps.
Peeta: Hi it polly. I took uncle peeta phone
Katniss: Hi, its bad to take other people's things
Peeta: He let me
Katniss: Did he let you play games or text?
Peeta: Games, so don't tell him!
Katniss: I won't
I chuckle. Polly is the cutest little kid. She probably doesn't know that Peeta will be able to see the messages. I sigh, boy has my life taken a turn. I never really thought about marriage to be honest. I was always so focused on Prim the whole time. Then I met Gale and I honestly thought I would end up marrying him. Now, its like i need to take more control of my life.
Peeta: Hey, sorry about that, Polly can be a handful sometimes
Katniss: Thats alright, I remember how my sister Prim was at her age
I have to move on. I just have to. I can't cry, I can't sulk. I have to be strong. Strong is my forte. It has to be. I have to be strong.
~One Week Later
It's been a long week. Even longer since the guilt of lying to Prim and keeping this from her is killing me. I have to tell her. She called me yesterday and I just let it ring and later texted her telling her I was at the movie theater. I have to tell her. I take a deep breath and pick up my phone. I dial Prim.
Hey Katniss
Hi Prim
How are you?
I'm good, actually Prim there's something I need to tell you
Whats wrong?
I broke up with Gale
Why? What happened?
He slapped me
What? Gale?
Yes Gale, he slapped me and his ring cut my face
I'm confused. You told me things were great between you two
I know Prim and I'm sorry I lied but things weren't great. They were bad
Did he hit you before?
No,
Katniss I'm so sorry
You shouldn't be sorry, nothing was your fault
but I insisted you move in with him
I know but it isn't your fault, Prim if anything I should have seen this coming
No Katniss don't blame yourself
Look Prim I'm just sorry I didn't tell youYou don't have anything to be sorry aboutI love you PrimI love you tooA/N hey people!!!!! I'm really really really really really really really really really really sorry! So the regular update will hopefully be on Friday. I would have made this longer but I'm in marching band and after school we're doing the parade and after that the football game so I wouldn't have time to write more. Life is hectic and I'm sorry. Review!!!!!!
