Peeta and I now fell into routine; we met every night just outside of the fence. The field was soft and we would lay in it for hours talking. Lately we did everything we could to distract ourselves from the rapidly approaching Reaping. Tonight would be the last night I would see him before the reaping. Tomorrow would be spent hunting and building up food supplies for Katniss's and my family. It was all in case one of us was chosen.
I laid in the tall grass waiting for Peeta, it seemed like ages since I last saw him. I knew it wasn't true because I just saw him this morning but as The Hunger Games approached I felt like each minute could be my last. I knew the likely hood of me being chosen, and it didn't cause comforting thoughts. At least I'd know my family would be alright, Katniss would hunt for them. She'd take care of everything. And Peeta, he'd be alright, he didn't need me.
I rolled over placing my face into the ground. Sometimes I felt like screaming, the injustice of the Capitol was doing this to me. Everything that complicated my life came from them. I just wanted a simply life away from this, but I knew that wasn't the life I was going to led. It was in me to fight against this, to find a way to help put a stop to all of this. I just had to wait for the right time to take action.
"Hey there." Peeta had snuck up on me and now took a seat upon my back.
"Hey yourself, bread boy." I turned over and he fell to the ground. I took the opportunity to place myself on top of him. "Not so cocky now."
"Gale." He said as he faked not being able to breath. When he gave up a few minutes later her continued "Your no fun."
"Oh you are so wrong." I leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. I pulled back before he could kiss back. It took a while but around him I finally had a back bone. I was myself around him but that didn't make the knots in my stomach stop, just made me more comfortable. "I am a lot of fun."
"Yeah I've heard." He said winking at me. He pushed me off of him, he could of done this before. Peata had unbelievable strength. He crawled on top of me. "All the girls talk about the great Gale Hawthorne. If only they knew."
I held his face inches in front of mine. "Oh? And what do they say?"
"Why should I tell you?" He said pinning my hands over my head. He began to lightly bite my neck in attempts to distract me.
"Because I want to know what these girls have been telling the baker boy." I taunted him, and in return he bit down into my neck."-Oww!"
"I over hear them mostly, how much of a catch you are. How they wish to marry you some day. He leaned in to whisper in my ear. "They say how handsome you are, and how they envy Katniss, for spending so much time with you. But she isn't the ones they should be jealous of."
He leaned in and kissed me briefly. He had to know what he was doing to me. My breaths came in short gasps as I stuggled to respond. "And who should they be jealous of?"
"Me." He said right before he let go of my hands and he pushed himself off of me. For several minutes we just sat there, my breathing returned to normal and I held his hand in mine. He just leaned on my shoulder. He looked up at me with a smirk covering his face.
"You're too cocky for a Baker boy." I finally said. He just smiled at me. I held him to me and laid looking up into the stars. I didn't want to think of the Capitol or my family but it slipped into my head. In just two days I would take on my fate. I would travel to the Capitol and have to say goodbye to the boy with the bread, and to everything else that had become so familiar.
"Gale?" Peeta asked quietly, he could always pick up when my mind was somewhere else.
"yeah?" I answered after a few deep breaths to pry my thoughts back to the presents.
"What're you thinking about?"
"The Reaping." I replied trying to drag out the words. I was afraid of saying them, because The Reaping is what would tear everything away from me. It what could possibly change my life forever, and it was only two days away.
"Gale." Peeta said sitting up. He looked out to the woods for a moment then looked back at me. "I'd volunteer for you."
As the words came out of his mouth, they seemed to rip my heart out of place. I roughly tugged him back into my embrace. "Never say anything like that again."