Once we finish eating, Prim goes to take a shower. In the mean time, I need to start looking at those emails that I ignored yesterday. Hopefully none of them decide to go elsewhere because I didn't respond quick enough which has happened before. I open my laptop to see I have seven job offers, oh great. This is both good and bad news for me. It's hard to do more than one case at a time, not impossible, but hard and extremely time consuming. The first case I see involves travel, I would have to go further than I usually would all the way to Maine.

I bite my bottom lip, this job pays more than my usual ones, but I can't take Prim with me for this assignment since the guy I'm chasing is a murder suspect. The email doesn't give me much information, only enough to know this assignment is too risky for Prim. Even though innocence fades away in everyone eventually, I want to preserve it in Prim for as long as I can. For a few minutes I just stare at the email debating whether or not to reply. I close the email, they can find someone else preferably someone who actually lives in Maine. Once that email is closed I move onto the next, this was one is actually in town which means I could accept now and start working.

I skim the email, they sent this to me Thursday and I have three days to reply and accept their offer or they will find someone else. This assignment says a Mr Daniel embezzled from his employer and skipped down before he could be taken to jail. I type the contact number of Mrs Daniel who I am going to assume is the wife. That must suck, she was willing to bail him out of jail and he just got up and left. A woman answers the phone after it rings four times. I tell her I am the bail bondsman she contacted a few days ago and she sounds relieved.

It doesn't take her long to explain the situation, once or twice her voice breaks when I ask questions about Mr Daniel specifically and I feel sorry for her. She tells me he has to appear at court in exactly one month which is actually a lot of time, but then again she informed me he was going to be arrested Tuesday. Already this case seemed to be all over the place, but I didn't mind.

The other cases I scanned were closer in range, it was going to be a long and busy month. Luckily they all seem to be in close proximity. I end the conversation around nine fifteen and begin to do some research. Prim is out of the shower and I will be taking my own once I've done enough researching for the morning. My phone buzzes minutes later and lights up singling I have a new text message. Wonder who it's from, maybe it's Peeta again.

Peeta (9:26): I know you're probably thinking, why in the world is the bread boy texting me again? Well to answer your question, I wanted to see how you were doing this morning.

Katniss (9:27): Fine, why does bread boy want to know?

Peeta (9:27): I don't know, I guess I'm fascinated by you Ms Everdeen. There is something about the way you talk, the way you carry yourself that has all my thoughts on you. I know it sounds crazy, but I want to get to know you.

I just stared at the text. My fingers hovered over the keypad as I tried to find a response, but came up with nothing. What do I say that? He wants to get to know me, but we only just met yesterday. He says he was fascinated with me, what does that even mean. Five minutes has gone by since he sent the message and my heart beats harder with every second that goes by making me even more anxious.

Katniss (9:34): I don't know about all that.

Peeta (9:36): Well you replied and that's a start. I was thinking maybe we could have a shot at being friends.

Katniss (9:37): I'm not really good at the whole friend thing.

Peeta (9:37): I don't believe that, I'm sure you're better than you're leading on.

Katniss (9:39): Like I said, I'm not good at the friend thing. I'm better on my own.

Peeta (9:40): Again I don't think so, see the whole friend thing works by telling each other stuff. Some deep some not deep.

Katniss (9:41): The deep stuff?

Peeta (9:41): Yeah like… what's your favorite color?
Katniss (9:42): Oh no you've stepped over the line.

Peeta (9:42): Come on tell me.

Katniss (9:42): Green, what's yours?

Peeta (9:45): Orange, not the bright kind, but like a sunset orange.

Katniss (9:46): That's nice.

Peeta (9:47): Thanks, well I better go. Don't want to burn any of my bread. I'll see you soon Katniss.

Katniss (9:47): Yeah, that would be tragic.

Peeta (9:47): ;)

A bit reluctant I set my phone down on my desk and sigh. There was something very strange yet charming about this bread boy and it makes me wonder. I've never been one to get close to. Was it bad that I wanted to get close to someone now? The bird tattoo on my hip bone suddenly feels heavy, the ink sinking deeper and deeper into my skin. I slip my cool fingers over the hot skin and let them linger over the tattoo for a moment. We were just having fun, we did have a little too much to drink and we met a friend of his at a tattoo parlor.

I was dared to get a tattoo and like a drunk idiot I did, I got a tattoo of a silhouette mockingbird about an inch long on my right hip bone. It's my reminder. A reminder to never trust anyone ever again. Everyone I love or care about or trust has left me behind feeling worthless and alone. The only one who has always been there was Prim, but sometimes I worry I will wake up one morning to find she too has left. I look at Peeta's message about wanting to get to know me again and stare.

Even though I am still hurting over what happened with Gale, I do want to move on. But when you have your heart broken, there are a lot of walls to be had. Peeta seemed like an open book, genuinely happy, I'd assume optimistic, trusting in people and friendly. I wasn't sure about him though. When I was with him, it felt as though he was going through my walls like he could see through me. It was as though I wear a glass window. I had pushed the idea because it was ridiculous, but the thought bothered me. Did he see me as an open book?

"Katniss, I'm going to check the mail," I hear Prim call.

Before I can respond the sound of front door closing makes me swallow my words. Prim has been waiting for some package to come in and has checked the mail every other day hoping to see it there. I don't know what she ordered, but I told her as long as it wasn't illegal or something that would get me in trouble she could order whatever she wanted. She has good judgement about what she can get and what wouldn't be a good idea to get. While Prim is out I scribble down a few other notes about the Mr Daniel I have to track down. Next I have to contact the person on the following email about their job offer and work through some of the details. The front door opens and closes rather abruptly, I guess Prim's package didn't come in today.

"No pack-" I stop mid sentence when I turn around to see her behind me.

Her arm is stretched out forward, a white envelope in her hand and I have a feeling I know who it's from. My eyes dart to the calendar to see if my hunch is correct, it is.

"Gale," I whisper staring back at the envelope in Prim's hand.

Gale had been in my last foster home, we would spend hours together just talking and hanging out. I could always be myself, my real self without any restraints with him. Our friendship sparked a romance... then he broke my heart and I can never forgive him. I take the envelope from Prim hesitantly. It feels heavy in my hand and I can already feel the weight of his words sinking in. I don't need to read the letter to know what he's saying, I don't need to see the words in order to hear his voice.

"Are you going to open it," Prim asks.

Her voice so small I could barely make out what she had said. Her blue eyes meet my gaze and I don't know what to tell her. I honestly don't think I can read it without getting emotional about it. Prim thinks I throw the letters away, but I keep them and put them in an old shoe box along with some other things that mean something to me. His letters end up there because they hurt. Prim doesn't know what happened between Gale and I which is the way I want to keep it.

It happened in one day and I remember every single had gotten into some trouble with the cops, he was going to leave me behind because he didn't want the cops coming for both of us. Funny how that is what happened. I trusted him, I told him I would help him with his problem and I did. When I showed up at where we were going to meet the cops showed up in his place. He left me there to take the fall for what he had done, I was his scapegoat. In all the chaos I almost lost everything, I would have gone to jail for a few months and Prim would have been brought somewhere else and we would have been kept apart.

If it weren't for Haymitch, my social worker, I wouldn't be here with Prim. He saved my butt and I owe him a lot for that.

"I don't know if I can," I reply.

All the letters are love letters about the time we spent together. He captures how I felt and how he felt which makes it even harder to read because if he felt that way about me, why would we leave me there? Why did he leave me there to take the fall? How could he do that to me and still say he loved me? I feel my eyes begin to water, how it felt to know he was the one who turned me in, how he was the one to betray me. Prim takes my hands into hers a comforting smile on her face.

"I know he hurt you," she whispers, "I know you want nothing to do with him, but maybe you could give a second chance, a chance to be friends."

I crack a smile at Prim. She always liked Gale and believed that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. To try and prove her point to me she came up with a million different theories about why he hurt me. As much as I want to believe in her theories I just can't do it.

"Prim, I-I can't," I say, but my voice fades out.

Could it be possible it was a mistake and that was why he had been sending me these love letters. He never said anything about that night, maybe it was possible. At the end of every letter he leaves his phone number asking me to call him and talk. He never leaves a place, he knows I would never meet him anywhere after that night. However after reading his letters, I sometimes finding myself typing his number in and wanting to call him.

I never call.

My tattoo reminds about that night and why I shouldn't call him, but a part of me wonders if Prim is right. Should I give him a second chance? Is it worth it to try?

"I don't think I can Prim," I finally say.

She hasn't asked about what happened that night, all she knows is I was gone for a little while because of Gale. Haymitch had me swear not to tell her about my visit to jail or to tell anyone about it because it would ruin our chances of staying together. Once the chaos passed and I was taken out of the foster system officially I became her guardian without issue thanks to Haymitch. Prim squeezes my hand lightly.

"You never know Katniss, everyone deserves a second chance, I think you should at least talk to him and get the answers you want instead of guessing," she says.

Sometimes I see Prim as that scared little girl who could not let go of my hand and other times I see a girl wise beyond her years. This is one of those times I see her as a wise woman instead of the thirteen year old standing before me.

"When did you get so wise," I tease.

She smiles, "I just did. I'll be in my room if you want more wisdom."

Prim goes to her room, I watch her go until she enters her room and closes her door. I'm lucky she's still here, I got lucky and I have Haymitch to thank. Speaking of which I have to call him later about something important, but before I grab my phone I open Gale's letter.