Shit, that was the last place I ever wanted to go to again. I guess this time it wouldn't be so bad, I mean, all I had to do was tell Cato the job was his. Maybe I'd even catch him outside the bar again and wouldn't even have to go inside.

"Peeta!" Kat called from the door, "What's taking so long? Let me back in!"

She must have still been on the ground for I could hear her nails dragging across the bottom of my door. "Come on! I need to see you one last time before you die from AIDS!"

"Shut up, Katniss!" I shouted at from behind the door, "If my parents hear you screaming about STD's I'll never hear the end of it!"

"I can't help it! You're too young to die! You've barely started living! And then wretched me stole your innocence by dragging you there!"

"Kat! Calm down!" I stated opening the door and pulling her back into my room. Looking both ways, I didn't spot anyone in the hallway. Hopefully no one downstairs heard her. Shutting the door and locking it, I sat at the edge of my bed, Katniss still slumped on the ground at my feet. "Quit it with all this talk, you know I haven't even had sex yet."

"How would you know?" Katniss sprawled fully on the ground rubbing her face into the carpet. "He could have slipped something in your drink."

"What? How can you even say that? I only saw him once. Last night. With you!"

"It could have been a quicky in the alley!" Katniss moaned into the carpet. She suddenly jerked her head up and looked into my eyes. "That's right! I wasn't with you the whole time!"

"You've got to be kidding me, Kat." I mumbled laying my head down on the bed. She had that glint in her eyes again. I've learned to change the subject quickly when it happened.

"We have to be sure!" She shouted jumping on my bed next to me. "I have a great idea!"

I turned to her and saw her rummaging through her bag and pulled out a small box.

"We could use this!"

I looked at the box and noticed it was a pregnancy test. "Kat, are you pregnant?"

"No not for me, for you!" she rolled her eyes at me like I was a complete idiot. "No offense, but if something did happen last night, I'm sure you bottomed. He doesn't look like the kind of guy to take it."

"Are you fucking stupid?" I asked, "Do you even know what a pregnancy test does? Here's a hint, it tells you if you're pregnant or not!"

"That's the point! I'm sure since he drugged you that he didn't bother to wear a condom. We must make sure."

"Kat! First of all, I'm a guy, I can't get fucking pregnant! And I wasn't raped last night!" I rolled off the bed and started rummaging around on my desk for the stereo. If she was going to insist on this idiotic plan, I didn't want anyone able to hear it. The room was filled with the hip hop rhythms of Ca$hmere and the Masonry boys. "Why the hell do you have a pregnancy test anyway?"

"You never know when you'll need a pregnancy test." Kat mumbled laying her head against the headboard of my bed. "This song blows, change the channel."

"I don't care about the music, I only turned it on to cover up your insanity." I answered back and sat back on the bed next to her. "I'm not taking that test, because that it possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard you suggest."

"Damn, Peeta… I'm only trying to help."

"If you're really trying to help, drop the whole subject and accept that I'm STD free. Then you can also support my decission to give Cato a job."

Katniss turned away from me and mumbled, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because if he comes and works here, you two will end up together, and then I'll have no one." She mumbled under her breathe and pulled her legs up into the fetal position.

"Kat, you know that's not true. I'll always be here for you." I reached over and pulled her close to my chest. It was awkward holding Katniss like this, but I felt like she need me right now before she went completely over the edge.

"Yes it is, he's already taken most of you away from me." She answered letting herself relax against me. "You've been yelling at me a lot lately, you barely ever used to yell at me. I know I'm a bit strange, but I just don't want to lose my best friend."

It was probably the first time I've ever seen Katniss actually talk like that to me since I told her I was gay. I kind of missed it and found myself smiling down at her. "Kat, you'll never lose me, we've been through too much. You'd think I'd let a guy come between us? Especially a guy that is straight and has the hots for you?"

I felt her stiffen against my body, "What! Ew! The drag queen has a crush on me?"

I rolled my eyes at Katniss' sudden change of personalities. "Right, real ew. Every time I think I might like a guy he ends up telling me he wants you. It must be real hard for you."

"Oh please, Miss Clove is an 89% on my gaydar." Katniss answered rolling away from me so she could look into my eyes, "And that's saying a lot because you used to be a 28%. Had you pegged as completely straight."

"And this is why I don't trust your gaydar." I laughed, "Just curious, now that you know, where do I stand now?"

"Well, you still hate fashion and refuse to dress cute…" Katniss scrunched her eyes shut and appeared to be deep in thought. She must be basing this off stereotypes, which would explain why Cato had such a high score. "Then again, I'm 90% sure you power bottom, so you get a 68.5%."

"I am not a power bottom!" I mumbled, "And does the .5 really count?"

"Yes! It's a simple mathematical equation! You take all the gayness and subtract the straightness and then divide by observed sexual technique."

"Kat, you suck at math. And wouldn't that make me undefined since you haven't seen any sexual observations from me? You can't divide by zero."

"Oh please, I've seen you choking your chicken before." She squealed, "And don't think I didn't notice the your other hand wandering. Thus, power bottom."

"What the fuck!" I shouted at her and jumped from the bed, "How could you… I don't finger… Oh my god, I lock the door!"

I started pacing the room in a panic at her silence. She was rummaging through her purse again. "Why would you watch instead of waiting or something?"

She held up a lock pick and smiled, "A girls gotta get some action somehow."

"Give me that!" I shouted and snatched it from her. "This isn't okay, Kat! Personal boundaries for fuck sake. It's not like I walk into your room and watch you!"

"You wouldn't be interested, although you might try to steal my toys." Katniss snickered and jumped off the bed, "It's no big deal, Peeta. Really. You think I care?"

"You're not the one being watched! What the hell, are you into me or something?" I muttered, regaining my pacing of the room. "Honestly, who watches their best friend let off some steam?"

"Fuck no, I'm not into you!" Katniss answered and spun towards me on her heals, "Though I'm sure you don't realize it, you actually have a nice body. You're just a paper bag fantasy."

"A paper what? God, Katniss, I can't even look at you right now." I shouted.

"A paper bag fantasy, you know. Put a paper bag over their head so you can just see their body. I could never fantasize about someone with your face." She rolled her eyes and started pacing with me. "Does this really help? Pacing around?"

"Yes, it does." I stopped and grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly, "Do not think about me anymore! And don't watch me, you voyeuristic nut job!"

"Get your hands off me. I'll let this one slide since you are upset." Katniss answered pushing me away from her. "I thought it might give you some confidence since you don't seem to have much."

"Fuck you, Kat." I answered and turned to my mirror. Sure I was insecure, but everyone was. For the most part I was comfortable with the way I looked, mainly insecure about who I actually was. "My best friend telling me they watch me jerk off doesn't exactly add to my confidence."

"Oh come off it! Be proud, let 'er swing! Nothing to be embarrassed about. What's done is done, and I promise I won't watch anymore."

"Never again!" I shouted at her.

"Peeta, what the hell are you doing up here?" The knock at the door made me jump out of my skin and I crashed against my desk. "Why is this door locked? Open it up right now! What is all that noise?"

"Hold on, Mom!" I shouted slumping against the desk and trying to regain my footing.

"Don't tell me to hold on, open this door right now!" she shouted and shook the doorknob intensely.

"I'm coming!" I ran towards the door noticing Katniss sitting on my bed giggling to herself. I shot her the most evil glare I could muster before unlocking the door.

"Ow!" I cried as my mom instantly opened the door and it knocked against me. "Couldn't you have waited for me to move out of the way first?"

"Do not talk to me like that." She answered. "I demand to know what is going on."

She looked around the room, spotting Katniss on my bed and the radio playing and gasped. "I can see you're good at putting your clothes on. You, get out right now. I won't have you defiling my boy."

My eyes bulged and my heart sank once I realized what she was insinuating, "Mom, no, that's not what was going on!"

"Oh my God, that is disgusting. Seriously Momma Mellark, we would never." Katniss added in. I found myself thinking about a paper bag and shuttered at the thought that Katniss would if there was one around.

My mom eyed the both of us, watching us carefully. "Then why is the music turned up so loud?"

"We're teens, it's what we do. We listen to music really loud." I covered, walking towards my desk and turning the stereo off.

"Then what was that crashing noise I heard?"

"You scared the crap out of me and I fell on my desk." I answered, "Seriously mom, we weren't doing anything."

She glared at the two of us before continuing, "I came up here to ask if your friend answered yet on the job. If she could start tomorrow, that would be wonderful."

"I haven't talked to HIM yet, Mom." I answered and noticed Katniss' eyes narrow at the 'she' comment before covering her mouth with her hand to stifle her laugh.

"Him, huh?" My mom answered and glared at Katniss. "Whatever, talk to him soon."

My mom walked out of my room and down the hall. I started towards the door when I heard her shout, "Keep the door open!"

Katniss couldn't hold it in anymore and the room erupted with laughter. "So I guess now would be a bad time to ask you if you wanted to watch me?"

"Jesus Christ, Kat." I slumped against the wall and rubbed my shoulder. The dull ache from my mom smashing the door into it was there and the massage lessened it.

"I'll take this as my hint to leave, don't wanna piss her off anymore than we already did." She jumped up from my bed and walked out the door, "See you later, Peeta. Good luck with Cato."

My room filled with silence as I sat against the wall. Leave it to Katniss to make me feel completely taken advantage of. Way to much was running through my head, Cato, Katniss and her watching, my Mom shouting at me.

I know I just woke up, but I really needed a nap from everything that just happened. To much emotional scarring for one day left me drained. I crawled onto the bed, rolling onto my back staring at the ceiling.

I heard shuffling from the hallway and bolted upright to see what was happening. Katniss reappeared at the doorway, "Oh, never mind, looks like I missed the show already!"

I glared at her and rolled over feeling more violated than ever. "I'm kidding, I left my purse. I told you, I swear I won't watch anymore, but a girl can dream."

I mumbled at her and face-planted into my pillow. "You are one sick girl, Kat."

I woke up about an hour later and bummed around my room for the rest of the day. I messed around on my computer and avoided my mother. She'd never accept that I didn't have his number as an excuse. I mean, how could he be my friend and I don't have his number?

9:00pm rolled around and I figured now would be a good time to go down to the club and try to see if I can find him. Jumping in my car, I drove the familiar path back to the bar. Arriving, I didn't see him outside. I walked down the alley slightly but didn't see him at all. Dammit, hopefully he's easy to find inside and I wouldn't have to spend to much time in there.

I walked up to the bouncer and showed him my fake. "Finnick, huh? Back again already? The way you ran out of here last night, didn't think I'd see you again."

I nodded at him and felt sick to my stomach as he gave me back my ID. "I'm full of surprises." I sarcastically answered and walked into the open room finding a crowd at the bar. I walked over noticing someone laying on the bar top. Was that Cato? A bunch of drags were standing around cheering. I walked closer and noticed it was him. Why did he have a lemon between his lips? Suddenly one of the drags bent down and ran his tongue over Cato's stomach before snatching the lemon from his lips.

My body stiffened. Were they doing shots off of Cato? I suddenly felt 20 degrees warmer and my body boiling with anger. Who do those drags think they are? I was about to walk over to them but stopped myself. Why am I so pissed off? It's not like Cato belongs to me or ever would belong to me. Then why did this piss me off so much?

The bartender started pouring another shot into Cato's bellybutton when he turned and noticed me in the seemingly empty bar. "Peeta?"

I felt my heart stop when he noticed me and I wanted to run away, completely forgetting why I was here in the first place. He jumped off the bar and all the drags around him begged him not to go.

"Kid, what are you doing here?"

I looked towards the door and noticed the bouncer eyeing me funny. I leaned to whisper to him, "Err, call me Finnick."

"Yeah sure, sorry. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

I looked to the ground, my mind racing trying to remember why I was here. "Oh! I never got your number last night!"

He slowly backed away from me at the comment. Shit, that came out completely wrong. I'm such an idiot. "I uhh. I mean, you forgot to give me your number so I could call you back about the job. My parents said it's yours if you still want it."

Relaxing, Cato stepped closer to me again. "Looks like you fixed your skirt." I clumsily noted without waiting for Cato to answer.

"Uhh, yeah I did." He answered hesitantly and quirked an eye brow. God, could I be anymore obvious? I just need to shut up right now before I say something really stupid. Eye contact! Don't look at anything else.

"Yeah, so uhm. The job is yours, my parents want you to start tomorrow if you can." I answered trying to change the subject back.

He chuckled scribbling something onto a napkin and handing it to me. "My number. What time do they want me there? As you can see, I have to finish this shift yet, ends at 2:00am. So morning would be tough."

"Probably 6ish. I can tell them you can't, unless you want to train later in the day. More like 10 or 11?" Why was this so awkward. It wasn't last night when I talked to him, but now it was like talking to him for the first time again.

"I can do that, give me a call later and we can talk more about it. I gotta get back to work. Later, kid." He turned away from me, his skirt swaying at his movements.

"Later, Cat-err Clove." I caught myself just in time remembering his stage name. I watched him walk away for a moment before reminding myself to keep my eyes up. Stumbling I turned back to the exit and walked out.

"Leaving so soon, 'Finnick'?" The bouncer asked, sarcasm rolling off his tongue at the last word.

"Uhh, yeah." Was all I could muster as I exited and walked to my car. Maybe Katniss was right, this may not have been my best idea. I hate it when Katniss might be right, the world is never a good place. Maybe it was time to admit to myself that I actually did like him, then I could treat the situation like I would with Gale. That didn't turn out bad, although I got stuck in the friend-zone, but it's better than never seeing Cato again. Sighing I started the engine and drove back home.

A/N: Happy day! Sorta. I honestly have no idea how this will pan out, I'm letting my characters decide, although I might need to give Peeta and Cato a push soon, I don't want you guys getting bored cause the OTP isn't together yet. Hope you enjoyed. Also, Peeta sleeps a lot... This was unintentional and I swear he won't be sleeping as much very soon.