Hey there! Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it. The previous chapter was kind of intense, but this one is very different. I would like to stress that the previous chapter has been the only violent one in the entire story, there won't be any more beatings! Enjoy!
Chapter 9: "The escape"
My breath stops. My heart skips a beat. I clutch my face with my free hand and use all the force I have left to back away from him. He hit me. I taste blood and put my hand to my lip. There is a cut in it. My eye hurts even more, though. It feels like it's swollen already, although it will probably get much worse. I wipe away some tears. Looking at my hand, I realize that I just wiped away blood. There is a cut next to my eye. Blood trickles down my face. I take my hands away from my face and look up at Gale. I'm no longer angry or sad. I'm just frightened by this man in front of me, this man I don't think I know.
Gale seems to realize what he has done. He freezes as he sees my face. 'Katniss…' he whispers. I turn and start running. I run past my friends' cars, away from the parking lot, past people with shocked looks on their faces, along the road to town. It's not far to the town's center, but walking back to school will take hours. I start to feel dizzy. I can't walk for hours, but I decide to try anyway. My head feels fuzzy. I don't know what else to do. Where should I go? I have no money with me and I left my phone on the beach too. I can't search for help in the town's center; I probably look hideous and I don't want to cause any trouble. Not even after what Gale did to me.
I stop running, because I feel too weak. I cautiously touch my face. The cut near my eye is still bleeding, but I don't have anything to cover the wound with right now. The cut on my lip has stopped bleeding, but it still hurts badly. I feel the tissue around my eye swelling to the point where I can't even open my eye as wide as usual anymore. The tears start flowing again. How could this happen? How could I let things get this far? How could I not see who Gale really was?
After what must be about an hour of walking, I hear a familiar man's voice behind me. I freeze. 'Katniss?' A large and strong hand touches my shoulder. Gale. I flinch, then duck to avoid the hand that caused me so much hurt. 'Leave me alone, Gale,' I stammer, trying to step away. 'Hey, Katniss, it's me,' Gale says, sounding worried. Wait… That's not Gale's voice. The fear starts to fade away, but I still don't dare to turn around. I can't show my face to anyone. Why did I walk through town?
'Katniss, please…' the voice says. I am too confused to recognize the voice. I don't trust him. I know that he's not Gale, but that doesn't mean I can show him my face. He gently tugs on my shoulder, forcing me to turn around. I look into a pair of blue eyes. The pools of oceanic blue slowly fill with fear and concern. 'Katniss…' He puts his hands on my upper arms. I flinch. I forgot the bruises Gale made until Peeta touched them. He clenches his jaw. 'I'm taking you home.' He takes my hand – well, actually, he only touches the tips of my fingers, afraid to hurt me again – and leads me to his car.
For the first time since the fight, I look around. I'm near the pool. Of course, that's where Peeta told me he and his friends would be spending their Saturday. 'Shouldn't you…' I whisper. He turns around swiftly. I look at his face. He looks a little upset. I point at the pool, not able to utter any more words. His friends are facing the other side. 'Don't worry about them,' he smiles faintly. He opens the car door for me, shuts it after I got in and sits down in the driver's seat. He starts the car and drives away from the parking lot by the swimming pool.
After five minutes of silence, he sighs. 'Are you going to tell me what happened?' He glances at me. 'We were at…' I start. The tears start rolling down my cheeks once again. I shake my head. I can't tell him. He focuses on the road again. He carefully puts his warm hand on my knee, bending over to me a little bit to reach me. 'It's okay. Don't worry,' he says softly. He puts his hand back on the steering wheel. I touch the cut near my eye again. It hasn't stopped bleeding yet. This can't be good. I look at my blood-covered hand and sigh.
Peeta looks at me, bites his lip, shakes his head and hands me a towel. It's dry and clean and for some reason, it smells like mint. I press the towel to my head, flinching in the process. We just sit there in silence. Every once in a while, Peeta looks at me. I just stare out my window for the first fifteen minutes. Then, I turn my head to look at his face. His gaze is focused on the road. His jaw is clenched and he's frowning all the time. Suddenly, I'm really glad to have someone around. I feel a need to talk.
'I caught Gale cheating on me with Madge,' I blurt out. His eyes widen, but don't look at me. He doesn't seem to know how to react. He opens his mouth to say something, but then shuts it again. I try to hold back the tears. I can't open my right eye at all by now. I shut the left one too, just to make sure I won't start crying again. It hurts so much. It doesn't get any better.
He waits for the rest of the story. I don't understand what he expects me to say, until I realize that I haven't explained about my face. 'I ran. He stopped me. I tried to get away, but… he didn't really think that was a good plan,' I laugh bitterly. I can't hold back the tears anymore. Laughing hurts. He shifts his hands, gripping the steering wheel tightly. 'It's going to be okay, Katniss, I promise,' he tells me. I shake my head.
'Okay? I've lost my boyfriend, who was also my best friend for years. To top it off, I'm scared of him. I look terrible. Everything hurts,' I mumble. 'That's it,' Peeta exclaims all of a sudden. I freeze and glance at him. The look in his eyes frightens me. He looks furious. He pulls over to the side of the road and parks the car. I don't understand what he's doing. He turns his body to face me and carefully grabs my free hand. His hands are soft and gentle. Nothing like Gale's were, less than two hours ago. His expression softens.
'Gale is a jerk for doing that to you,' he starts, looking at me intensely. 'He doesn't deserve to be your boyfriend or your best friend if he's capable of doing this to you. Do you understand that?' I nod. 'And besides, you do not look terrible.' 'Yeah, right.' I glare at him with my left eye. He cautiously takes the hand that clutches the towel and removes it from my face. 'Okay, maybe you've had better days, but you still don't look terrible,' he smirks. I smile at him. The cut in my lip opens again. Great.
He looks at me in pain. His hand gently touches my lip, wiping away a little bit of blood. He guides the towel back to my face, tells me to hold it to the wound and starts the car again. 'Let's get you to a nurse.' I nod and smile at him, trying hard not to make my lip any worse. 'Jesus Katniss, you did scare me when I saw your face there by the pool,' he chuckled. I scowl at him. 'No, not like that! I mean, I expected you had at least gotten yourself into an armed gang fight,' he says. I smirk. 'Two hits,' I say bitterly. He shakes his head in disbelief. We drive the rest of the way back to school in silence.
