Chapter 9: Bread Delivery Man
It is almost cruel, having to wait for Katniss to finish her Victory Celebration, her interviews, before finally being set free by the Capitol to return home to District 12.
The day the train pulls into the station, the crowd extends for blocks. People are standing on rooftops to get a good look at their district's first victor in almost a quarter century. When Katniss gets off the train, she is swamped, first by her family and the Hawthornes, and then everyone else. Unfortunately, I am in the latter group, and have to shove my way to the front. As Katniss's beautiful form draws closer and closer, the bold part of my brain keeps telling me, Push her up against the steam engine and kiss her face off until she forgets her own name….
***Katniss is only a few feet ahead of me now. I can't stand it any longer! As soon as she is within reach, I swoop her into my arms. She barely has time to look surprised and confused before I crush my lips to her in a long kiss. I feel Katniss's muscles grow rigid against me as she stiffens in my close embrace. And then, after a moment, her body goes limp again, slackens, as she swoons in my arms. Closing her eyes, her hands reach to gently frame my face and she kisses me back with heartfelt passion.
The dead silence that has taken over the station now reverses course, erupting into cheers of approval, mixed in with wolf whistles. I assertively raise Katniss's leg to my waist, then hoist her off her feet. We stagger back into the side of the train, still kissing ferociously. I change tactics and break away to attack her neck. Katniss leans back into the train, her arms splayed across my back and her legs wrapped around my waist. Her eyes are wide, the pupils dilated with unmasked lust.
"Peeta…..please…..just keep touching…..me…. just like that…..ooooooooo…" I can tell she is incredibly turned on as I, now bracing her against the train, cup her perky breasts in my palms and knead them like the dough I've manipulated since before I could walk.
"Nnnnn…gahhhhh…Ohhhhhhhh…" Katniss's vocal cords shudder right along with the rest of her body, as she tries and fails to stop moaning like a shameless Capitol whore while I sexually attend to her, pleasure her. "Peeta…..Peeta….." She is practically sobbing now over the touches I give her, as she croons my name like a chant. Before I know it, our lips pounce back on each other again, and we ignore the staring from the whole district. Let them watch! We new lovers are lost in our little world…..***
None of this actually happens, of course. Tempting as it is, I cast aside these dirty thoughts as mere folly. Katniss and I know each other, but we aren't close.
Yet, you wouldn't know it, seeing as how when Katniss finally catches sight of me, she jostles through the crowd and throws her arms around me in a tight hug. I nearly faint with joy.
It takes a couple weeks, but eventually the media retreats from its latest victor, giving her some much needed privacy. Katniss, her mother and her sister move into the Victor's Village, right next door to Haymitch Abernathy. They have more money than God now, but considering the district citizenry still keeps swarming Katniss whenever she appears out in public, that new wealth doesn't do them much good in the way of going shopping for groceries.
Happily, that's where I come in.
When Dad catches wind that, in trying to get to the bakery, Katniss has been sidetracked by admirers at least twice, he has me deliver some bread to Victor's Village. Even better, Mom does not seem to know – or if she does, she doesn't care. It's business, so in her view, I am at least being productive and useful. Me? I am overjoyed.
I practically skip up to Victor's Village that first morning, arms full of bread. I even wave to Haymitch – out on his front porch throwing back a bottle – not minding that the drunk looks at me as though I am from another planet. Prim answers the door after a few knocks, and her eyes light up when she sees me.
"Yay! Bread!" Then, she calls inside: "Katniss! Delivery for you!"
Katniss stomps into view, mumbling something about why Prim just can't take the package herself, but pulls up short when she sees me. She shyly shifts from foot to foot. Despite this and her obvious bedhead, she looks a vision.
"Hey, Peeta."
"Good morning, Katniss!" I practically chirp. "I heard you guys were having trouble getting bread, so…." I present the loaves to her with an overly dramatic bow. "For you, madame. Enjoy!"
The tiniest of giggles escapes Katniss's lips – a rare, glorious sound.
"Oh, and then there's this." I pull out a tinfoil-covered pan and pull back the wrapping slightly. The fraction of a smile appears on Katniss's face.
"Cheese buns?"
"Your favorite, so I'm told."
"How did you know…?"
"Oh, I have my sources," and I give Prim a wink.
Katniss takes the pan and inhales deeply. There's that smile again. "Mmm…. Just like my father used to get for me. Thank you, Peeta." And I can tell she means it.
"You're welcome." I give both Everdeen daughters another playful bow. "Good day to you fine young women." I practically run home in delirious happiness.
This eventually becomes routine. Every couple of days, the Everdeens call into the bakery with a new order of bread, and I am always tasked with delivering it. It doesn't matter if I'm in the middle of another task – deliveries to Victor's Village become my job; Rye and Leven have the good sense not to usurp that from me. Even Mom does not object as much as she normally might. And every couple of days, I get to see more and more of Katniss. Once she lets her guard down and opens up, she is actually quite pleasant and friendly. I always knew she was – this is the real Katniss, and I get to see it shine through. I'm also pleased that she now trusts me enough to let me into her inner circle of confidants – an elite group indeed that includes her mom, Prim, and more recently, Haymitch (probably to fill the void Gale left with his death). Speaking of Haymitch, my errands to Victor's Village soon enough expand to include him. He's drunk most of the time, which makes him cranky, but nonetheless he can be amusing in his own irritating way.
It is clear, however, that while my Mom might not voice any objections to my frequent errands to Victor's Village, she disapproves nonetheless. This is made painfully apparent one day when we have to brave the Hob and we run into Katniss making a trade. Katniss and I engage in small talk, not as open as we would be without my mother around, but she allows it. It's not until Katniss walks away, however, that Mom hisses to me, "I don't know why you bother with her, Peeta. She's just a Seam slut."
I am appalled. Even at her worst, my mother has never stooped this low. Then again, she must know I am hopelessly in love with the girl; perhaps she possesses that motherly fear that Katniss might one day take me away from her. Ha! Rye and Leven would get a kick out of that one, if I told them. No. I am done trying to rationalize her behavior.
"Excuse me?" I snap to my mom. It comes out a little louder than I intended – so loudly, in fact, that the whole Hob quiets until you could hear a pin drop. "Katniss might have been born in the Seam, Mother, but she is no slut, as you ludicrously say. She has pride enough to not go crawling between Cray's wrinkled legs, which tells you she at least has standards regarding penis size."
This is a risky declaration indeed, especially with our aforementioned Head Peacekeeper sitting right there at Rooba's bar. I've never heard of anyone being punished for openly insulting a Peacekeeper in public before, but – as with anything in Twelve – I'm sure there is a law against it. Nevertheless, with a roar of laughter encouraging me from around the Hob, I press on.
"And another thing: Katniss is not really from the Seam anymore. She won the Games, which is one more than you've survived, and is the richest girl in the district. She is above you in every way – basic economics now included – and you deserve to show her some respect!"
My mother is utterly stupefied. She stares at me, her son, speechless, as if she does not recognize me. The Hob erupts into cheers. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Katniss is just as stunned, but nevertheless is smiling.
Thoroughly humiliated, Mom stomps out of the black market. Cray, though equally trolled, passes out at the bar; I'm relieved to at least know he probably won't remember my mockery of him. And nobody here will tell – Seam folk may be poor, but from what Katniss has told me, they are loyal to the end, especially if you stick up for them.
I turn to follow Mom out for home, when I am suddenly almost knocked over by Katniss throwing her arms around me, like at the train station.
"Thank you!" she hisses in my ear. "That was the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me!" Then, she nearly makes me come to pieces by what she does next.
She kisses me on the cheek.
