To those of you who guessed Peeta's mom... dun dun dun... you were correct. :]

"What do you think you're doing, Peeta? Just what do you think you're doing?" His mother is screeching at him at the top of her lungs. My body shrinks a little as her shrill voice fills my ears. "You must be more desperate than I thought." She turns around and sneers at me. "And you? What do you think you're doing, making yourself at home in my house? Who told you that was okay? You are not welcome here." I'm in shock. I blink a few times, unresponsive, before she pulls me up and throws me out of Peeta's bedroom door which makes me stumble into the hallway. I brace myself against the wall to reel in the pain from my back. Peeta jumps up after me, but she blocks his way and shoves him back into the room roughly. "Get changed and go downstairs and help your brothers. You've done enough."

"Mother, please. Let me walk her home and I'll do whatever you want." His voice is pleading as he glances at me begging for forgiveness. He looks at his mom. "I'll work extra hours tonight, I'll wake up early to prep for you, I don't care."

"You stupid, stupid boy. If you think I'm going to let you walk this girl home to the Seam, you have another thing coming. It's filthy and you don't belong there. She does," she says as she turns to face me. She eyes me up and down. "Get on home. You'll see Peeta at school." I open my mouth to reply but nothing comes out. Before I get a chance to say anything, Peeta's voice fills the hallway.

"Mother, I've been walking her home for awhile now. You would know that if you payed more attention to something other than yourself." Peeta pushes his way past her into the hallway. He nudges me toward the staircase, but just before I turn away from him I see something flashing out of the corner of my eye. I turn back to them just in time to see his mom strike a hard blow across his face, sending him reeling into the wall. He stumbles, knocking over a picture frame hanging on the wall. The glass shatters to pieces and he is covering his face.

"What did you just say to me? You idiot, all you care about is yourself. No one else in this house is as stupid as you. They all know their place. You're nothing, Peeta. If you disappeared, no one would care. You talk to me like that again and you'll get much worse, you fool." She turns to me and her lip curls up in disgust. She eyes me up and down and turns back to Peeta, who is slowly sinking to the floor. "You think she wants you? No one wants you. No one. You're lucky I let you live here. You're worthless. You're nothing to me." She shoves her way past us and goes downstairs. She flips her curly brown hair over her shoulders as she rounds the corner out of my line of view.

I stand in the middle of the hallway in shock for a moment until I realize Peeta still hasn't moved or said anything. I rush to him and sit in front of him on the floor where he is staring at the rug we are sitting on. I take his hand in mine and give it a squeeze to let him know I haven't left him. My heart breaks for my boy with the bread as I see just the beginnings of what he has endured for his entire life.

"I'm so sorry Peeta." I run my hands up his arms and place my hands on his shoulders as I pull him closer to me. I take his hands in mine as I hold them in my lap. I lean my forehead against his as I feel something wet fall on my hand. I look down and see a small drop of water on my palm. I glance back to Peeta's face and see a thin wet line from his eye to his jaw. He still hasn't said anything. I tilt his head up with my finger and face it towards me. He clenches his jaw and makes a point not to look me in the eye, staring away and at everything but me. "Peeta. Look at me, please." He says nothing. "Peeta?"

His eyes continue to stray from mine. I sigh. I brush his hair off his forehead, cradling his face in my hands. I brush his wet cheek dry with my thumb.

Through everything my family has been through my mother has never once said the kind of things Peeta's mother said, or laid a hand on me or Prim. Even when she was at her worst, she never came close. I knew Peeta's mother was bad, but never did I imagine that she was this bad. If she does these kind of things in front of me, I can only imagine how bad she is when no one else is watching.

Peeta is so much better than I am. So gentle. So sweet. So undeserving of this woman who calls herself his mother. I pull him forward so that his forehead rests against mine again. I then pull him against me, wrapping him in a hug. I bury my face in the crook of his neck and hold him close, breathing him in. He's incredibly still for a moment and doesn't move, doesn't breathe. I feel him exhale as his body relaxes and his hands slowly wrap around me as he buries his face in my hair.

The raw vulnerability of this moment is not lost on me, and I savor it. I know I'll hold on until he's ready to let go.

We sit there for a minute or so before he straightens and sits up. He looks at me and gives me a sad half-smile, still holding my hands. "Let's go." He stands and pulls me up with him.

"Watch your feet. There's broken glass everywhere." I look down. I took my shoes off in his room, and I'm barefoot. He sees this and steps toward me; his hands wrap around me. I look up at him, unsure of what he's doing, when he pulls me up into his arms. I wrap my arms around his neck as he carries me into his bedroom and sets me down next to the bed where my shoes are. He releases me gently and sighs.

"I'll be back. I need to clean that up." I watch as he leaves the room. I slip my shoes on and go to the doorway as I watch him fetch a broom and kneel down in the hallway. He scoops all of the glass into a trashcan and he's meticulous as he inspects the floor, making sure he didn't miss any shards, making sure his mother can't inadverdently hurt anyone else today.

A part of me knows that he has done this before. Other picture frames, or broken dishes, or something along those lines. It's obvious that his mother makes the messes and he's always the one left to clean it up afterwards. She hits him and hurts him with her words, leaves him a crumbling mess, and doesn't care about the repercussions. My jaw sets in anger as I know that Peeta is the last person on earth who deserves this.

"Alright, let's go." He nods toward the stairway. We walk downstairs and glance out the window to see it has now started raining. Peeta sighs loudly.

"This day just keeps getting better." Peeta groans, grabs an umbrella and we both step outside. We stand on the front porch for a moment, taking in our surroundings. The ground is muddy and the rain just keeps pouring and pouring. The sky is black. I groan inwardly. I absolutely loathe rain. We both take a deep breath, look at each other, and step into the abyss to get me home.

As we begin our walk to my house, I don't say anything. I know if Peeta wants to talk about what just happened, he'll talk. I'm not going to force him to say anything if he's not ready. I know he has to be incredibly embarassed and angry and sad all at the same time. I don't blame him for being quieter than usual. The sound of the rain falling on the umbrella is enough noise for us though. If we wanted to talk, we would have to be much louder than usual to hear each other's voices.

I'm not sure what exactly I would do if I were in his situation, but I know I would probably need some cheering up.

A light goes off in my head.

"You know what I hate? Rain. It gets everything wet, mud gets everywhere, and your hair and your clothes all get soaked. Worst of all, your shoes just get gross and drippy and then you have to walk and squish and smell like a wet stinky dog until you can get home to change. And forget letting it dry on it's own while you're still wearing it. Those things stay wet for hours upon hours! Which makes you smell bad even longer." Ugh. I shudder.

Peeta chuckles halfheatedly. "You don't smell like a wet dog, Katniss."

"But I feel like I do! You know what I hate more?" I widen my eyes and give him a goofy smile.

He laughs again. "I'm not sure. What do you hate more?"

"Dancing in public."

He bursts out laughing. "Well, you don't have to worry about that right now, do you?"

"Actually," I say as I grab the umbrella in his hand and toss it to the side, "I do." I take his hands and start jumping around dancing. The rain is pouring harder than ever. My clothes and hair is soaked within seconds, but I ignore it. He stands there staring at me with wide eyes, shaking his head, until I shake him into dancing with me. At first he's stiff and just kind of shakes his hips a little, but soon he's jumping around with me, both of us looking like complete idiots. We're both laughing so hard we can barely breathe.

As we're dancing, I feel weightless. None of the worries I woke up with today are tying me down anymore and I feel happier than I have in a long, long time. Peeta is laughing, and his eyes are lit up. His eyes meet mine and he stops and stands still. He smiles a huge grin at me as water runs down his face. His hair is wet and hangs a bit on his forehead, and I reach forward to brush it out of his eyes. As I pull my hand away, he takes it in his. He stops smiling and we both come to a stop.

He pulls me close. As I step forward he gives me a hug and then picks me up off the ground like he did to Prim a few weeks ago, but spins me around in circles. I give a small shriek and laugh. I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on for dear life until he slows down. He places me back down on the ground carefully.

We just stand there for a few moments and uncontrollably smile at each other. About thirty seconds pass as we both catch our breath. He is still standing close to me, his hands placed on my hips. My hands are still on his shoulders, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. He pulls me close again to give me another hug. This one isn't like the others, though. This isn't a hug of laughter and fun, this is a hug of vulnerability. This is a hug of tenderness. He holds me close. One hand is gently caressing the back of my head with his fingers woven through my hair, while the other is on the small of my back, being careful not to touch my injury.

"Thank you," he says into my hair. His hands run up and down my arms. "Thank you." He pulls back, giving me a small smile, and leans in. I close my eyes and I feel his lips as they kiss me on the forehead. I feel a slight feeling of disapointment, but I smile and return his gesture with a delicate kiss on the cheek. We arrive at my house shortly after, and he walks me to my front door. He gives me another hug and turns to leave again. He pauses. "Today could have ended really badly."

"But it didn't." I smile at him. "It'll be okay, Peeta. It will."

"I know. Thank you."

"Anytime."

Peeta leaves and I walk inside and strip off my wet clothes. I sniff them, and wrinkle my nose. I really do hate wet clothes. I know I was trying to cheer him up but I hate rain and dancing in public. Oddly, I didn't care at the moment. Those were the last things on my mind as we were dancing in the rain. All I wanted in that moment was to see him smile and not be sad anymore.

Our day today has changed something between Peeta and I. I honestly can't see myself going a day without talking to him. He makes me forget about all the things I worry about, yet makes me want to trust him with all my worries at the same time. Seeing him in pain, both physically and emotionally, make me want to do the same for him. I want to be someone he can trust. I just want to be someone to him, not just a girl from the Seam.

Then my mind comes to a startling halt. I know nothing of love except for what I saw between my mother and father when I was a little girl. As beautiful as that was, I also saw how much it tore my mother up when he died. I saw the depression she fell into when she no longer had him by her side. To love someone like that only to have it ripped away from you... I'm not sure if i could handle that.

My heart quickens as I keep thinking about this. My mind begins racing in every different direction possible and doubts begin to settle in. After everything today I should want to be around Peeta as much as possible but now I'm more scared than ever. I honestly would not be able to handle losing anyone else in my life. I don't know if I can open myself up the way Peeta does with me. That's a level I have yet to hit, and maybe that's for the best. I don't need anyone else in my life that could bring more disapointment to me. I've lost one person. I don't need to lose another. I don't need to build up feelings that will betray me later on. I don't need more heartbreak.

I just need to distance myself from Peeta.

Don't get too mad at me, everyone! You'll just have to wait and see what happens next and what she'll end up doing in the end. ;] But no worries, we're not at the end yet... there's more to come!