A/N: One of New Year's Resolutions is to stop apologizing all the time, so I'm not going to apologize anymore for keeping you all waiting for a new chapter. SO JUST DEAL WITH IT! (I'm so sorry, was that too harsh?) Haha. Even though this took me a little longer than I think we all hoped, it is a longer chapter that usual (almost twice the size!) Here goes...

Chapter 10.

Madge POV

I make it home and to the Hob in record time. I've thought up my game plan for how I'm going to handle this. I decide I'll be super sweet to him, kiss him a lot and tell him how much he means to me. As soon as I have him wrapped around my finger, I'll tell him how glad I am that we decided not to keep secrets from each other. I'll tell him how I know that no matter what, I can tell him anything and that I know he feels the same way about me. From there, it can go one of two ways. Either he confesses and I get to scream at him, which I'm dying to do. Or, he doesn't say anything about the kiss, and I out him. And then I scream at him.

By the time I turn the last corner, I'm fuming. Absolutely livid. I can't let myself over think things, I don't want to sort everything out reasonably and calmly. I want to yell and I want to scream and I want to make him feel like the coal on the bottom of my shoes. I try to take a deep breath and remember my plan.

Gale is waiting for me, sitting on one of the crates. "Hey," he says and stands up. He leans in to kiss me. For a split second, I think about accepting his kiss and just ignoring everything that happened at lunch today. However, I pull back, and he looks up at me in confusion. So much for the plan.

He leans in again, and I put a hand on his chest. "No, Gale."

"What? Is everything okay?" The confusion in his voice hits me like a train- the guilt I suddenly feel is enough to make me forget why I'm so angry.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that. Thought I saw something, but, uh, it was just a stray cat," I tell him. The second the words are out of my mouth, I want to kick myself. I need to go through with this.

He brushes the hair out of my face and leans in again. This time, I let him kiss me. His hands settle on my hips, pulling me closer to him. I wrap my arms around his neck. The kiss is soft and gentle, and very un-like Gale. He knows something's wrong.

"Mmph" I try to speak, but his lips cut me off. I try again, but the words are lost beneath the kiss. I pull back from him, and he flashes me a smile. I scowl in return, suddenly angry again.

"You okay?" he asks.

"I don't know, you tell me!" It sounds like something a child would say, and it barely makes sense. Smooth, Madge.

"What's going on? Are you alright?" his eyebrows crease together in confusion and worry.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Sorry," I reply, furious with myself.

"You sure you're okay?" he asks again.

"No, Gale, I'm not okay! Does it look like I'm okay? Does it sound like I'm okay?" I yell. He looks startled, and takes a step back. If he were a dog, I'm sure his tail would be so far between his legs you'd need a search team to find it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" comes the response.

I shake my head. "No. You know what, never mind. It's silly really. Just forget it."

"What in the hell is going on, Madge? Out with it already."

"I'm fine," I insist.

"You clearly aren't fine! Talk to me about it," he looks more frustrated than anything.

"What's there to talk about? You kissed Katniss and you didn't tell me!" Crap. Well, so much for my plans of getting him to tell me himself.

"What did you say?" he asks, taken aback.

And that's the exact moment right when everything goes to hell.

"I said I know everything. I know you kissed Katniss. And I know that we swore we were done keeping secrets from each other. How could you not tell me something like this, Gale? I mean, this is big!" I say, fighting to swallow the lump forming in my throat.

Gale doesn't say anything for a very, very long time. First, he paces for a minute. Then, he runs his hands through his hair for a while. Finally, he looks at me again.

"I-I'm so sorry."

"I need to hear it from you. Tell me what happened. And on top of that, you better have a really good explanation for why freaking Sabine Alyxander was the one to tell me," I say. I didn't realize it before, but I'm shaking. He places a hand on my shoulder, but I brush his touch off.

"I'm sorry, Madge. I should have told you, you're right. I don't even know how it happened. I was in the Seam. Katniss was walking out of her old house and she tripped on a root and rolled her ankle pretty bad. I helped her into the house and told her I would stay with her until she was able to walk on it and get back to Victor's Village. We were just talking and then she leaned in and kissed me. It happened so fast. I'm sorry, Madge. I really am. I shouldn't have let it happen, let alone keep it from you. I-"

"Wait, what? I'm talking about the time in the forest before the Victory Tour. What are you talking about?" I say.

I hear him curse under his breath. My heart sinks.

"Gale?" I ask quietly. I can feel the tears coming, but I blink them back.

Silence.

"Gale." The hurt that I'm feeling subsides for a minute and is replaced with rage. I've never been angrier in my entire life than I am in this moment.

"Madge, I don't know what to tell you," he says quietly.

"Tell me when. When did this happen?" I ask. I'm furious.

His eyes are glued on his boots. The coward can't even look me in the eyes. The air has grown cold and the sun is down, but I don't care. Finally, he says something, but I can't hear him.

"What?" I say.

"Tuesday."

I can feel the anger inside of me, coursing through my veins and overtaking my body.

"T-Tuesday?" I say incredulously.

He nods.

"So she just leaned in and kissed you?"

Another nod.

"But you stopped her," I say, wanting nothing more than to see him nod again. He doesn't do anything, just stands still. "Answer me, dammit!" I yell, letting my anger get the best of me.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," is all he says. His eyes are still locked on his feet. I don't say anything in response, and he turns away from me and kicks one of the crates so hard that it breaks into two pieces.

Suddenly, the anger is replaced with the most extreme hurt I've felt all day. I don't know what to do. I can't look at him for a second longer. Before I know what I'm doing, I turn around and walk away, and I don't look back.

OOOOO

The events of the day have caught up to me as I walk down the alley, and I let the tears come. I don't get very far before they cloud my vision. I can't see a thing, and my hands are going raw from the cold, so I decide to stop walking until I can collect myself. I press my back up against the wall, and the next thing I know, I'm sitting on cold cobblestones, back against the same wall.

It feels like hours have passed when I hear my name echoing down the alley. I know it must have only been seconds, but it feels like I've been sitting against the wall for eternity.

"Madge? Madge? Madge!" The voice sounds frantic and sad. I don't look up to find its owner. Instead, I bury my face in my hands and sob, an awful, unattractive sound. The voice becomes louder and louder, and then it stops altogether. I feel someone's presence beside me, but I refuse to look up.

"Madge, talk to me. Please." Gale. I don't know who I was expecting it to be, but I inhale sharply at the sound of his voice so close to me. I shake my head, which is still in my hands.

"Madge, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. You know what? No. Sorry doesn't begin to cover it." His voice sounds strangled. I don't move or speak.

"Listen. You don't have to talk to me, but just know that I'll never forgive myself for this. I'm an ass, and you know it's true. I never meant for any of this to happen. I, uh, I'm not really very good at sharing my emotions, you know? I don't like to let people in 'cause it makes me feel weak. But things are different with you. I've never felt this way with anyone before, and it scares me. I've never had a serious relationship like this, and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I know all of this won't change anything, but I need to tell you that I don't have feelings for Katniss. I'm not going to lie to you and say that I never did, because there was a time when I thought we were going to get married. But things happen, people change. I mean, we're the perfect example. The whipping changed everything, and when I let myself open up to you I realized you weren't just another stuck up Townie."

I lift my head out of my hands and let out a very un-ladylike sniffle. He keeps talking.

"As for Katniss, I don't know why I let her kiss me, it was stupid and I should have stopped her. I guess I though if I let her kiss me, it would be as a goodbye. I'm done with her, I've grown to resent her. Besides, she's engaged to Peeta now. I know all of this probably isn't making any sense but I told you, I'm not good at, uh…just…like… telling people what I think. Just know that the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I'm not a freaking super human like everyone thinks. I'll tell you- it's hard, it's really hard. I realized that in the middle of all the craziness of my life, there was you. You come everyday, and somehow, everything else slips away for a while, you know what I mean? It's like when we're together, I can forget about how I'm going to keep my family alive another day. I can forget the countdown to the days I return to the mines this spring. I can forget everything that's stressing me out and it's because of you, and-"

"Stop it, Gale. Just stop," I say through my tears. "You can't go all soft on me. Don't tell me how much I mean to you, don't tell me I made you a different person, I don't want to hear any of it. I'm supposed to be hating you right now and you're making it really, really hard."

"So what should I do?" he asks quietly.

"You have to forget it all. Forget about me and just let this go. We can end this and just go back to the way everything was before the whipping," I reply, still crying.

"I can't do it, Madge. I can't just let this go, I'm not just letting this end. I realize how much I hurt you, and I'm never going to forgive myself for that. I don't want to lose you, you're the best thing that's happened to me in this rotten District," he says, staring straight ahead.

"You can keep telling me all those things, but they aren't changing the fact that you majorly screwed up! You didn't tell me that you had kissed Katniss in the forest months ago. We swore to each other that we weren't going to keep secrets anymore, Gale! I realize that it had happened before we were together, but that's something pretty important. And then you tell me you kissed again a few days ago! Are you kidding me?" I wipe my nose on my sleeve and think about how my mother would have my head if she knew.

"No, I'm not kidding you," he says.

"It was a rhetorical question."

"What's that?" he turns to face me.

"It means you're not supposed to answer it. Instead, I suggest you explain to me what happens now."

"I think that's in your hands now," he says with a sad smile.

"How do you expect me to just keep trusting you?" I ask after a minute.

"I don't know."

"Do we just pretend like this didn't happen?" I ask.

"What do you think we should do?" his eyelashes flutter as his dark eyes scan my face.

"Forgive and forget," I whisper after a while.

He wraps his arm around me and I scoot closer to him. Only now am I realizing how cold it is. I rest my head on his shoulder and sigh.

"We really aren't a perfect couple, are we?" he says, looking down at me.

"Not by far," I say. He doesn't say anything, just tugs me closer to him.

"But you know what?" I ask.

"What's that?"

"I couldn't be happier."

He lets out a noise of frustration and removes his arm from my shoulder. I lift my head up and look at him, confused. He rubs his face and then runs his hands through his hair several times.

"What?" I ask, worried I said something wrong.

"Nothing. Never mind," he says with a chuckle.

"No, tell me."

"Well, it's just that you're so…I don't even know the right word for it! One second, you're so angry at me that you're ready to end everything, and the next minute, you want to cuddle and tell me how happy you are. I just can't get it right, can I?" he says, shaking his head.

"Wh-wh-wh-what do you mean?" I say, surprised.

"Exactly what I said! Just that you're black and white with me, Madge. How about some gray, huh?" he says, encircling me with his arm again.

"What's that supposed to mean? What did I do wrong? I don't understand! How about some gray? What does that even mean?" I ask, words flying out of my mouth before I even think about them. I know I sound defensive, but I don't know what he means and if it has a negative connotation, I want to be prepared to strike back. I slip out from his arm and get to my feet.

"I'm not trying to start anything, and I didn't mean it in a bad way! I'm just saying that you're happy, sad, happy, sad, happy, sad all in the course of a day, and-" he's cut off by the loud ring of a gong. It rings once, twice, three times. My eyes widen and my hands fly to my mouth. Gale jumps to his feet. He looks horrified.

"Three gongs. It means mandatory viewing is beginning in five minutes. I completely forgot," he says. His voice seems far off, distant. He swears under his breath. "I know they're going to have Peacekeepers coming around, with all of the enforced security now. If we're not accounted for, we're both in serious trouble. There's no way you can get home in five minutes...can't get to my house in time either." He curses again.

"Then I guess we have to go to the square," I say. It's the third option, and it seems to be the obvious one.

He nods.

"Let's go," he says and grabs my hand, pulling me out of the alley. As soon as we're on the main roads, we break into a sprint, determined to get to the square before the Peacekeepers start to make their rounds.

OOOOO

We get to the square just in time. There's a crowd of people gathered in the middle of the square, necks craned to see the Capitol Seal come on the giant screens. When it fades away, there's Caesar Flickerman talking to a crowd about Katniss and Peeta's wedding. He introduces a man I don't recognize right away, but after a minute I'm able to place him- it's Cinna, the stylist who worked with Katniss before the Games. The two men talk for a minute before the crowd before directing everyone's attention to a big screen.

On the screen, pictures of Katniss in her wedding dress are shown. Angry as I am with her, she looks gorgeous, and the soft, romantic music in the background adds to the allure. "Let's get Katniss Everdeen to her wedding in style!" Caesar yells. Then, "That's right, this year will be the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Hunger Games, and that means it's time for our third Quarter Quell!" I feel the crowd around me stand up a little straighter, pay a little more attention.

Gale's grip on my hand tightens as the Capitol anthem plays and President Snow walks across a stage.

"You okay?" I whisper in his ear. He keeps looking straight ahead, but he grips my hand even tighter than before. My neck is beginning to hurt from looking at the huge screens, but I ignore it and focus on keeping Gale calm. "It's fine. It's just another year of the games, Gale. You're safe and Katniss is safe. It's not for months, try and calm down a little," I say. He doesn't respond, but his iron grip loosens a bit.

Behind President Snow is a young boy dressed in white. He holds a wooden box. The crowd of people around us begin whispering, and I strain to hear what's going on. The only word I recognize is "card", but it is all I need to hear. My face goes white in anticipation, I wonder what horrible things will be waiting for this year's tributes?

I tune the president out as he gives the all-too-familiar speech about the Dark Days. I'm shaking by the time he explains the Quarter Quell concept and begins to recap the previous two Quells. Just tell us, already.

"…On the fiftieth anniversary, as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes," the president says. My heart skips a beat at the reminder. Aunt Maysilee. Gale looks down at me and suddenly drops my hand, but I don't even notice right away.

"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors." With that, the president places the card back into the little envelope, hands it to the boy in white, and walks off the stage as if nothing happened.

My mouth is wide open in horror. For a second, everything is quiet as everyone registers what this means. Suddenly, people are shouting, crying and running all around me. Katniss. Peeta. Haymitch. I can't believe the words that just came out of Snow's mouth. I turn to look at Gale, but he's no longer next to me. I spin around, searching for him frantically. Where the hell could he be? I stand on my tip-toes to get a good look over people's heads, but I can't find him anywhere in the crowd.

I spot a mop of black hair a few feet from the entrance to the Seam. The body language looks familiar, it has to be him. All hell has broken loose in the square, and I have weave through throngs of people to chase after him. When I push my way to where I saw him standing, he's gone. I run into the Seam, towards where I think his house is. After running for a few blocks, I see him a few dozen feet ahead of me. He's walking slowly, with his hands in his pockets.

"Gale!" I yell. He spins around, searching for my voice. When he sees me a ways behind him, he turns and starts to walk faster…away from me.

"Gale, get back here!" I yell, not caring who hears and sees me. If this is how our secret gets out, so be it. Right now, there are bigger issues to deal with. I know he hears me, because he falters a little bit, but he doesn't stop walking or even look over his shoulder. I begin to run again, and soon I've closed the gap between up.

He must sense me stop several feet behind him, because he picks up speed.

I have a decision to make- I can do the logical thing and leave him alone, and get home before my father shuts down the District to find me. Or, I can follow him to his house, where I can calmly confront him.

"AH!" I yell, and drop to the ground, clutching my leg. Option number three: get him to come to me. It works, and he spins around and sees me on the ground. It's dark, and I can't see too well, but if I had to guess, I'd say his face went totally white. He runs over to me and kneels next to me. I begin to whimper in "pain".

"Madge? Madge! Look at me, okay? Where does it hurt? What happened?" he's gasping for air, his eyes frantic. He grabs both of my hands in his and squeezes gently.

"I- I hurt my leg! I think it's from last week. Remember, I tripped over an old bottle behind the Hob and hurt my leg? I think running re-injured it," I say, tears welling in my eyes. One of the things I've always been good at is crying on command.

"Which leg is it?" he asks.

"Right," I say without thinking.

He drops my hands like they're on fire and stands up.

"Nice try, but you hurt your left leg last week. I remember because I told you about the time I got the same leg caught in a snare when I was fourteen. Definitely the left leg. But nice effort," he says, and turns to walk away.

I jump up, blinking the fake tears away.

"Gale, please just stop for a second!" I exclaim. It works, and he turns so he's facing me.

"What?" he asks.

"What happened back there, in the square?" I ask.

"What happened? What happened?" he asks, raising his voice.

I nod.

"Katniss is going back into the arena, that's what happened! Did you hear him, Madge? Snow said this year's tributes are going to be previous victors. Twelve has three victors. Katniss is the only female. Ergo, Katniss is going back into the arena!" he exclaims.

"Ergo?" I say, raising my eyebrows.

"Yes, ergo! Ergo, as in thus, hence. And so on!" he yells.

"Gale, I was there. I know what the president said. I'm trying not to focus on that for the time being. What I would just love to focus on, however, is why you ran away? You can't just take off on me like that, it terrified me! Yeah, I know this is really difficult for you, you and Katniss are close. But you have to realize that there are ways out of this!" I say.

"You don't get it, do you?" he spits.

"What?" I ask.

"You don't get it, no one gets it. It's pure hell having to say those goodbyes. Never knowing if you'll see her again. The Capitol just swoops in one day, and all of a sudden she's gone. You don't even get to tell her how much you love her, how you've always loved her. The worst part is watching someone you love so much fight for her life, and now it's happening all over again. I can't go through this again, Madge!" he says.

"Excuse me?" I swallow, "You l-love Katniss? You told me you resent her just an hour ago! You said you were done with her."

I don't wait for his response. Instead, I lower my eyes at him, shove my hands in my pockets, and give him a good view of my departing back.

A/N: Yay for long, drama-filled chapters! The idea for the fake injury came from the movie "You Again" so I can't take credit for that (no copyright infringement intended). I need to ask a favor from y'all...can you please either review or PM me and let me know if you like short chapters every three or four days, or long chapters every week or so? Majority rules, so please give me your input! Hope you all enjoyed, can't wait to see the reviews! :-)