A/N: I want to apologize for not answering any of the chapter 3 reviews or messages yet. That is not how I do things at all. I will be much better about answering for this chapter, because reviews are always very much appreciated!


Peeta's palms rest on her jaw, while his fingers are knotted through the hair that he released from the tight braid she had worn to the drive-in tonight. He inhales loudly through his nose and a moan slips out that causes Katniss to smile and pull away from his neck.

"You sound pleased. Did you like that?" She asks. With his hands so wrapped up in her hair, she was able to move down to suck on the space just above his collarbone that is peeking out from the blue Hawaiian shirt he is wearing at her request.

"Mmhmm," he nods. Katniss moves back to his mouth and lightly drags her tongue from his bottom lip, up to the top before closing her mouth around his, pulling away a second later.

"You taste good too," she says, trying to remind him of the texts he sent her after their last date 4 days ago. They've been together all evening and he hasn't mentioned them once, but he makes that same low hum in the back of his throat at the mention of it. Katniss remembers him making the other night, and she looks down to the front of his pants and sees the same swelling and tightness before looking up into his eyes and sweeping her fingers over his cheek.

He closes the space between them and claims her mouth greedily when he notices she's seen his response to her, but hastily rips his mouth from hers and tries to smile - it looks pained.

"I have to get going," he says. Katniss doesn't try to hide the disappointed look on her face this time. It is Friday night, and not even 11:00pm. Why won't he stay longer? "I have a lot of stuff going on tomorrow, but I'll give you a call."

She could reach down right now and grasp his need – tell him in no uncertain terms that he isn't going anywhere until they take care of his little problem. Or at least let him know that there's no reason for him to leave right now, but it's the look on his face that stops her. He looks scared, and Katniss can't figure out why. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but the expression on his face says otherwise. She moves off the couch to follow him to the door, trying to mask her discouragement by changing the subject entirely.

"You're still alright with going out with Gale and Neil next Saturday, right?" Katniss asks, trying her best not to sound upset with him for doing this again. At least this time he wasn't trying to run out the door.

"Of course," he smiles, reaching out and grabbing Katniss' hip, pulling her toward him. "Wouldn't miss it."

"Casual dress code," Katniss reminds him. His hold on her hip is tight, but comforting, and is doing nothing to ease the confusion that is fogging her mind. What did this sudden burst of confidence mean? Is it relief that he was leaving? Does he not feel comfortable enough here yet? With that thought, Katniss wonders what she could say or do to ease his nerves, but her thought is cut off when Peeta begins to speak again.

"That's encouraging, but I think I'll keep the Hawaiian shirts in the closet that night and wear something more presentable."

"I'm sure you'll look great in whatever you pick," Katniss says. She hopes that her words will coax him to come back into the apartment and stay with her a little longer. They could just curl up on the couch and watch TV if he wanted, it doesn't matter right now. She just wants him to stay.

"Not when I'm standing by you," he counters. He leans in for a quick kiss, hesitating when he pulls away to run his thumb over her cheek bone, and at that moment she knows he doesn't want to leave any more than she wants him to go. So why was he? "Goodnight, Katniss."

As though on cue, not long after Katniss has gone into her bedroom to change for the night, a text from Peeta lights up her phone.

"I know you saw what you do to me."

"Then why did you leave?"

"Did you want to touch me, Katniss?"

He didn't answer the question, and if she wanted to, she could give an avoidant answer just like him, but at the moment, Katniss doesn't care about retaliation.

"Yes."

"Tell me how."

Did he really just ask her that? Why couldn't he just ask her to touch him while he was still here? Maybe he just needs to know that she was thinking about it to feel comfortable with it?

"I wanted to reach down and touch you, and hold you in my hand to make sure you'd stay and let me take care of it for you."

"Fuck, I'm still so hard for you."

Then why did you leave?! She thinks to herself. She doesn't answer for a few minutes, unsure of how to respond to someone that was just in her apartment with a need so great it would be apparent to anyone who glanced at him, but in the end decided to leave anyway. When her phone chimes again, she's afraid to look at it.

"I've got my hand wrapped around my dick right now, but I wish it was your hand."

He wasn't going to let this go. While it confused her, she was glad he wasn't stopping. She wanted him to ask her to come help him with it. She'd get in her car in her pajamas and look for his place in the dark if it meant helping him relieve the arousal he's been sporting since he left, but she wasn't going to beg. If he isn't going to ask, she isn't going to offer.

"Pretend it's mine."

"I am."

"Tell me what you're doing."

She's just beginning to think she scared him off when she hears her phone go off again. She grabs it hastily from where it lay on the comforter and opens the message.

"My left hand is covered with lube, and I'm running it over my dick slowly, pretending it's both of your small hands stroking me instead, one on top of the other. I'm thinking about your fingers grazing the head when you move to the tip, stopping my hips from jerking forward with one hand while you continue to stroke me with the other, teasing me, making me wait for it - making me beg for you to make me come."

Was this really Peeta?His messages from Monday night were something else, but these are the hottest texts she's ever gotten from anyone, let alone from Peeta. She's not used to getting this detailed, but she wasn't going to ruin it now.

"Do you like begging for it?"

"I like it any way you want to give it to me."

Just ask and I'll be there, she thinks to herself before typing her next message.

"You're making me want to give it to myself right now."

"Do it. Take your panties off and touch yourself for me."

She does as he says, slipping her underwear down and off her feet and settling in bed on her back. Before she can tell him she's done it, her phone chimes again.

"Call out my name when you come."

"Only if you'll call out mine, too."

"I always do."

"I'm glad we're doing this double date with Gale and Neil," Peeta says, glancing over at Katniss while they're stopped at a red light.

"It should be an interesting evening," Katniss replies. She turns her head to look out the window, not exactly thrilled about having to spend the evening with another couple, not when the last two weeks have been so confusing. Not when she isn't sure where her own relationship is going.

After their intense text conversation last Friday, the texts came every night after seeing each other, but not once since Peeta started sending the texts has he mentioned it in person. Katniss refuses to bring them up first - she doesn't think she should have to. So now here she is, sitting in the passenger seat of his car, wondering why his behavior has been so strange.

She knows by now that it is more than him just trying to be a gentleman. They have been seeing each other for almost a month now and are still dancing around each other like the first night they met when they are together, and talking to each other like they can't get enough of each other when they're apart. Things just don't add up.

"I wonder if Neil is going to bring Gale to meet mom and dad," Peeta says. "He'd be the first one."

"Really?" Katniss asks.

"Yeah, Neil has only been out of the closet for a few years," Peeta reveals, grabbing for a mint from the cup holder.

"I wouldn't have guessed that," Katniss replies honestly. "I've only met him once but he seemed pretty comfortable with himself."

"You're right, he is comfortable with himself… it's our mother that isn't comfortable with him."

"Oh," Katniss says, looking down at her lap.

"For a long time she thought it was me that was gay," Peeta begins, taking a deep breath. "She'd say to me 'Only sissy boys paint,' or 'You cry too much, Peeta. Do you want to be a little girl?' and that was just when I was small," he continues. "When I got older I was a 'dirty faggot', and when I was out with friends she'd tell me not to kiss my boyfriend in public unless I wanted someone to beat my face in. Sometimes she even offered to do it herself."

"What?" Katniss says. She can hardly believe what she's hearing.

"So, of course, Neil heard all of the things she'd say to me. The last thing he wanted to do was to say 'Guess what, mom? I'm actually the gay one,' so he didn't for a long time.

"But you knew," Katniss says. Peeta nods.

"He told me when I was a senior in high school. He had just started college and met someone there who he was really serious about. He told me first because he knew I wouldn't judge him."

"What happened?"

"Things fell apart with the guy, so he went back to hiding it until I was a senior in college," Peeta explains.

"That long?" Katniss asks, shaking her head.

"He told everyone a few days before my graduation and it was a disaster. Nobody but Neil was there at the ceremony and our mother didn't talk to anyone for weeks, even longer for me and Neil. Always me and Neil."

"Why you and Neil?"

"Because we were the ones that strayed, and she figured out that I knew about Neil and was mad because she expected me to rat on him," Peeta says with a shrug.

"What do you mean strayed? What about your oldest brother?"

"We didn't want to be bakers," Peeta replies. "Don't get me wrong, I love to bake but if it means working with her until she decides to retire – which she never will – I want no part in it. Besides, I want to be defined as more than just the baker's son and eventually the baker. Spencer is the brown nose of the family, anything to make mom happy." He begins to chew on the mint angrily and immediately goes for another one.

"You don't have to tell me anymore, it's obviously upsetting you. Let's just go and enjoy dinner," Katniss encourages. She didn't want this to ruin their night, and suddenly what she was upset about earlier didn't even seem to matter anymore.

"No," Peeta shakes his head. "If you're going to start spending time with my brother then this is stuff you should know."

"So what's the story with the mints?" Katniss asks. If he's willing to share stuff right now she may as well ask the question she has wanted to ask since the day they met. Thankfully, he laughs at her question.

"At the bakery, we always keep a bowl of mints on the counter for customers to take," Peeta begins. "When our mother would start yelling, Neil would grab the bowl and we'd go into the supply closet to talk and eat them until things settled down. Neil grew out of it eventually, but it stuck with me. I started carrying them with me, and when things got too intense and I found myself getting anxious, I'd go for one and I have been doing that ever since," He shrugs. "Really poor attempts at a coping mechanism, I guess."

The more Katniss heard about Peeta's mother and the things she said and did to him and Neil, the less she liked her.

"What's your dad like?" She asks, hoping he was nothing like Peeta's mother.

"He's a good guy, pretty quiet," he shrugs. "But he lost his balls years ago at the hands of my mother – he can't get a word in edgewise with her."

Katniss can't imagine what it must have been like for Peeta and Neil to grow up in an environment with a mother like that. Her mother always taught her and Prim to be strong and stand up for themselves, but belittling your children and devaluing your husband was not the way to do that.

"This is it, right?" Peeta says, slowing down the car in front of a small, Mexican restaurant.

"This is the one," Katniss nods, picking her purse up from the floor while Peeta parks.

"Did you want your jacket?" Peeta calls out. "It's supposed to get chilly tonight."

"Yeah," Katniss answers, walking over to Peeta as he holds out her denim jacket for her to slip on. "It's supposed to be summer, why is it so chilly?"

"I don't know," Peeta laughs, slipping his own jacket on. Katniss takes a look at him with the addition of the jacket. He has on his normal dark wash jeans, and a simple light blue t-shirt. The jacket is black – Katniss has never seen him in black before, and it seems to do something to make his eyes even brighter.

She wore a denim jacket over a thin black and white crew neck t-shirt, with cuffed jeans and a pair of white slip on shoes, and she takes a look at their reflections in the windows of the restaurant as they walk hand in hand toward the entrance – they looked good together. It's not something she would normally do, but something about the way they looked together felt good; right.

They find Gale and Neil easily, sitting in a half booth in the corner of the restaurant. They are seated close together in the middle of the booth; Gale is holding one of Neil's hands in both of his as he whispers something into his ear.

"Well they look happy," Peeta notes as they walk toward the table. Katniss continues to watch as Neil starts laughing at whatever Gale whispered to him before turning his head and finding Gale's lips.

Katniss can feel the jealousy bubbling in her stomaching instantly. It's clear even from the short time she has observed Gale and Neil that their relationship is at a completely different level than her and Peeta's. She never thought she would find herself wishing for the day when Peeta wouldn't be too afraid to whisper something into her ear and let her kiss him in a room full of people without pulling away nervously or reaching for a mint instead of in a doing it in a dark, empty parking lot.

"Should we interrupt?" Katniss asks, trying to laugh away the pangs of jealousy that fight for her attention.

"Yes," Peeta nods. "I'm hungry." He walks to the booth and throws himself down onto the seat. The noise causes Gale and Neil to pull apart and look in Peeta's direction. "Get a room."

"Fuck you," Neil says, shoving Peeta's shoulder.

"That's your job, isn't it?" Peeta asks Gale. Gale laughs before looking for Katniss.

"Sit down, Katniss," he says, pointing to Peeta. "I like this guy already."

Katniss doesn't answer. It was only a small exchange, but she has never seen Peeta relaxed enough to make a joke like that before. She knows it probably has to do with being around his brother, but she can't help but feel bad that after spending so much time with her, he still can't act like this when it's just them.

Peeta orders his usual one beer, but when Katniss goes to order the same, he stops her.

"What about the peach margarita?" He says. She told him weeks ago this place has the best peach margarita in town, but when it came time to order, she knew Peeta wasn't going to let her pay for her meal. Now that school let out and he isn't working full time, she has been feeling even worse about allowing him to pay for everything.

"I don't know, I think I just want a beer," Katniss lies. She can tell Peeta doesn't believe her.

"No you don't," Peeta argues. "I can spare the six bucks, Katniss."

"Fine," Katniss resigns. "Scratch the beer; I'll have a peach margarita."

"Trouble in paradise?" Neil asks when it's just them again.

"Peeta insists on paying for everything when we go out," Katniss says. She's hoping that by telling him this he will help Peeta understand that it's alright to let her pay sometimes too. "I'm perfectly capable of paying sometimes, too."

"She's right, Peeta," Neil says. His face looks a little happier than it should for the conversation, but Katniss ignores it. "Let her pay sometimes, man." He elbows Peeta in the ribs and raises his eyebrows when Peeta looks at him. "Okay?"

"Alright!" Peeta mumbles. "Can you please fuck off now?"

"Whatever you say, little brother," Neil smiles and turns his attention to Katniss. "You have beautiful hair, Katniss."

"Thanks," Katniss says, putting her hand to the braid that hung over her shoulder.

"You should come see me at work, I'll give you the VIP treatment," Neil explains. "Shampoo, mini-facial, hand and arm massage, and a nice new cut. What would you say to an undercut and red dye?"

"No!" Peeta says firmly, and Katniss shakes her head.

"That's alright," Katniss says. "I'll stick to what I've got."

"Hey, don't let this stick in the mud ruin the fun. I've been trying to get him to change that ratty mess of his for years now." Neil says. The mention of Peeta's hair causes Katniss to reach her hand up, and run her fingers through it, tilting her head to meet Peeta's gaze.

"I like his hair," Katniss says, speaking more to Peeta than anyone else. Peeta gives a weak smile at the statement, but doesn't move. Katniss takes her hand out of his hair and folds her hands in her lap, remembering they are in public and that probably was making him uneasy.

She didn't understand him. He approached her that day in the hotel bar, he asked her on the first date. Almost everything has been his idea for the last month, but he still won't relax. What is he so afraid of? Katniss had no plans to go anywhere, if he is afraid of her leaving if he gets comfortable, there is nothing to be afraid of.

"Why doesn't this place have cauliflower?" Gale asks suddenly.

"What is it with this guy and cauliflower?" Neil says to Katniss.

"He loves it," Katniss says with a shrug. Gale huffs and sets his menu down.

"Isn't it weird how the two friends ended up with brothers?" Gale asks.

"What's weirder is that Katniss, you were only there for support, the same as Peeta, right?" Neil adds.

"I didn't want to be there at all that night," Katniss confirms, closing her menu.

"See Peeta, you bitched me out for dragging you there. Look at what you have now because of it," Neil says, sounding like he's proud of himself.

Katniss notices that Peeta's original joking attitude has quickly disappeared after she told Neil he wouldn't let her pay for things. She hopes he isn't mad at her; maybe telling Neil wasn't the right decision, but she was tired of him acting like he had to pay for everything.


"So Katniss," Neil says, taking a bite of his enchilada. "Has Peeta shown you his paintings yet?"

She looks over to Peeta and his head is down, pushing the chicken for his fajitas around in his plate, not even bothering to put them together to eat.

"No, he hasn't," Katniss answers, still looking at Peeta. She doesn't like putting him on the spot like this, but now that Neil brought it up, why hasn't he offered to show her yet?

"You paint, Peeta?" Gale asks. Katniss looks up at him with a glare. He knew that, she told him.

"Yeah, since I was a kid," Peeta nods, finally tearing his eyes from his plate.

"You any good?"

"Well, I'm an art teacher at an elementary school, so I can't be too bad."

"But why haven't you shown Katniss yet?" Neil interrupts. Peeta sets his napkin down in his lap and turns to Katniss.

"After dinner, would you like to come back to my apartment to see my paintings?" He asks. She screws up her eyes and looks at him, trying to make out what the expression is on his face; it's not until she looks down and sees his hand on his pocket full of mints that she realizes Neil has just embarrassed him in front of everyone. She reaches out and places her hand over his, willing him to stop.

"Yes," she nods. "That sounds nice." She flashes a dirty look in Neil's direction, but he's smiling back at her. Her eyes move to Gale who lifts his taco up and salutes her with it before taking a bite.

They did this on purpose. She was going to kill Gale for telling Neil that she and Peeta hadn't had sex yet, and then she was going to kill him again for hatching a plan to embarrass Peeta into inviting her to his apartment.


"So, you guys know it's my birthday next month," Gale says as they walk to the parking lot.

"I didn't," Peeta replies. As the evening has worn on, Peeta has begun to relax a bit. He's starting to joke more, and his face looks a lot less stressed.

"Well it is," Gale replies, pointing to Peeta. "And I want you two to celebrate with us."

"We're going to try to book reservations at Pacifica for July 18th, but we can't until we know if you two are coming or not," Neil adds.

"Uh, I can't," Peeta says suddenly. "It's the first fundraiser for the new school year that night, I can't miss that."

"They don't last long, just come after. We'll make the reservations a little later," Neil replies. Peeta looks like he's considering it.

"Come on, man. I know Katniss won't want to go if you don't," Gale says.

"Really?" Peeta asks, turning to Katniss.

"Really," she nods.

"Are you taking her to the fundraiser, Peeta?" Neil asks.

"No, I don't want to subject her to that just yet," Peeta shakes his head. "But the next one, she doesn't have a choice." He smiles at Katniss and she takes his hand, locking their fingers together.

They say their goodbyes and walk back to Peeta's car – the ride to Peeta's place is tense. Halfway through, Peeta grabs a mint from the cup holder.

"My place isn't that great," Peeta says.

"I don't care about that."

"Yeah, but…" he stops for a moment, as though he's trying to think of the right thing to say. "It's just not that great."

"You said that already, and I still don't care." She reaches over and grabs his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze as he drives the rest of the way to his apartment.

Peeta leads her up a narrow sidewalk, past a row of small, brown, one story units. They all look the same, though a few have flags hanging in front of the door. Peeta jiggles his keys and Katniss looks up just in time to see him turn right and stop at the front door of a unit that's three away from the end of the row.

It's void of any flags or decorations to set it apart from the others, and when he opens the door and flips on the light, Katniss walks into a small, studio apartment with paintings covering the walls.

She surveys the place quickly – right in front of her is a small couch bed with the mattress still pulled out. That's where he sleeps. That's where he jerks off thinking about me. She looks from Peeta, to the bed and he gives her an uncomfortable smile.

"Sorry, if I knew I'd have company I would've made the place presentable for company," he shrugs.

"It's alright," Katniss smiles, continuing to look around. To her right is a small, walk in area with an easel, canvases, and paints.

"That's my 'painting room' over there," Peeta explains. "It's supposed to be where the bed goes, but I thought it looked better this way."

In front of the couch was a small, tube TV on a stand that looked like it had seen better days, and just beyond the small living room is an even smaller kitchen. She isn't sure two people could ever fit in there. Aside from the paintings on the walls, the place was depressing.

"As you can see there's not much room around here," Peeta says, spreading his arms. "That's why I prefer coming to your place. I don't even have cable - there'd be nothing for us to do."

Katniss can't stop herself from raising her eyebrows at him, challenging him to think of what they could be doing here to entertain themselves; his face doesn't change at all.

"So these are all your paintings?" Katniss says, changing the subject.

"Yeah," Peeta nods. "It's not an ego thing, I just have no place else to store them, so I just put them on the walls for now. I'm almost out of room, though."

Katniss looks around the room. There are paintings of everything from dogs to trees; then Katniss notices one that strikes her as familiar. A small boy, reaching for a bowl on his tiptoes.

"Is that one Neil?" Katniss points.

"Yeah," Peeta laughs. "Grabbing the mints for us. I still see that so clearly in my head, to this day."

"These are phenomenal, Peeta."

"You really think so?" He turns around and walks closer to her, watching her head as she nods. He grabs her hand and pulls her toward him until their bodies are flush. The kiss is instantly deep; their tongues find each other without delay, coiling around each other.

Katniss moves first and without thought, pushing Peeta's jacket from his shoulders, hearing it hit the ground with a low thud. When Peeta doesn't move to take her jacket off, she begins to do it herself, but is stopped by his hands gripping the denim firmly, and he pulls it from her arms with such force that it pushes Katniss backward onto the thin mattress of the couch bed.

She grabs for him, pulling him to the bed by the hem of his shirt, lifting it and touching his warm skin. He pulls the shirt up and over his head quickly, but Katniss has no time to admire the view before Peeta is on her, pushing her onto her back and covering her body with his.

They stay like this for a while, trailing kisses across each other's faces and neck, periodically stopping to bring their mouths, and tongues, together again. When Peeta begins to thrust his hips into hers, Katniss finally finds her words.

"Touch me like you've been wanting to," she murmurs into his mouth. His hand comes down and cups her breast, squeezing it gently a few times before moving it down further and under her shirt to squeeze again through her bra, moving his lips back down to suck her neck.

She can feel his hardness rubbing against her, and she reaches her hand down to palm the growth. He gasps at her touch and moans against her skin, but suddenly pulls his hand out from under her shirt and pushes himself off her, rolling onto his back next to her.

"We should stop," he's gasping for breath and staring at the ceiling.

"What?" Katniss asks, completely dumbfounded.

"This is not why I brought you here," Peeta explains.

Katniss sits up quickly, pulling her shirt down forcibly, standing from the mattress, and picking her jacket up from the floor.

"You don't have to leave," Peeta says, still stairs at the ceiling. "You can stay tonight; I have some extra clothes you can wear. It'd be nice to share a bed with someone."

He expects me to share a bed with him after he rejected me again? Katniss thinks to herself.

"I want you to take me home now," Katniss says firmly.


Peeta pulls up to the front of Katniss' apartment and parks on the street, shutting off the car, but neither one of the move - they haven't said a word to each other since Katniss asked him to take her home.

Katniss takes a deep breath, trying to decide if it would be easier to just get out and leave it at that, or say something to him. There was nothing wrong with what they were doing tonight. Why was Peeta acting as though there was? Finally, Katniss decides she's held her tongue long enough.

"Why have you been acting so strange?" she asks, turning in the passenger seat to face him. The glow from the street light in front of them illuminates his face just enough so that she can see his eyes quickly dart to the mints he keeps in his cup holder, but he looks back up into Katniss eyes just as quick.

"There's more to a relationship than sex, Katniss," Peeta says. His voice sounds as though he believes Katniss doesn't realize this.

"First of all, that doesn't answer my question," Katniss snaps. "Second, is that all you think I care about?"

"No," Peeta sighs. He runs his fingers through his hair and it sends a pain to Katniss' stomach that almost knocks the wind out of her. As mad as she is, the thought of not being able to touch his hair like that again hurts more than she ever thought it would. "I'm just saying that there is more that should be worked on first."

"You know, under any other circumstance, I'd agree with you, but the way you talk when you're not with me and the way you act when you are just don't match up. You're making it really hard for me to believe you." Katniss says. "I feel like you're hiding something from me."

"I just want to do this right," Peeta replies solemnly.

"So pushing me away is the right way? Using me to get off every night, but never expressing yourself when you're with me is the right way?" Katniss shakes her head. "I don't know about you, but that sounds more like the wrong way."

"Katniss…"

"Are you married?"

"What?"

"Are you married? Got a couple of kids somewhere, waiting for their dad to come home?" Katniss asks. "Was that your secret apartment you brought me to? Where you take all of your girlfriends you keep on the side?"

Maybe that was why he always picked off the wall places to go on dates; nothing too popular, a drive-in 40 miles away, his refusal to get too close to her when they do go somewhere crowded – maybe that was the reason.

"Do you really think I'd go on a double date with my brother if I were married?" Peeta shakes his head. "Is that the kind of asshole you think I am?"

"I don't know, Peeta. How the fuck am I supposed to think anything of you when you keep sending me mixed messages?" She raises her voice this time; the overwhelming emotions that she has been battling all day have finally boiled over. "One minute you're scrambling to leave my house, and the next you're texting me about how hard your fucking dick is because of me!"

Peeta takes a deep breath and turns away from Katniss. She waits for him to answer, but all he does is stare out the window.

"See," Katniss says. "This is what you do. You clam up, and I have no fucking clue what you're thinking." She waits again, but he still doesn't speak. "You know what? Fuck this. When you figure out a way to make this work, you let me know. I'm tired of waiting for you to decide how to do this right."

She pulls on the door handle hard; the noise seems to snap Peeta out of his silence.

"Wait, let me…"

"No," Katniss cuts him off. "Don't bother. I can walk myself to my apartment." She steps out of the car, slamming the door behind her, and walks into the apartment complex without looking back.