"Gosh, it's so hot out."
We got the hell out of Kentucky. When we started the reality TV show, which is even higher up than the Kardashians, it just got boring in the small town of Kentucky, so all of us, and by all I mean all moved to Los Angeles.
All of us being Finnick, Annie, Ben, Johanna, Blight, Mason, Prim, Collin, Mom, Dad, Haymitch, Effie, and of course Peeta and I and the kids, and then Rye, Ashley and Olivia, their new baby, and Graham and Emma and Christina. The show goes where we go, so if I went to Johanna's, I would go there. The whole family is used to it and it really doesn't change us or our lives. Peeta's working hard on opening the bakery.
Peeta's at work, and me and the kids are outside. The kids are all playing in the pool and I'm lying on a lawn chair watching them to make sure they don't drown.
I hear the back door slam with force, making someone's arrival clear, and whoever it was, they're angry. Peeta sits down on the edge of my chair. He's in a pair of basketball shorts and he took his shirt off. The hem of his boxers is showing.
"What's wrong?"
"Come here." He says. I sit up and he hugs me.
"What's wrong?" I repeat, giving him a kiss and then laying back down.
"Delly showed up." He says. The cameras follow Peeta to work, too, so they saw whatever happened. "She begged me for forgiveness and I left, and she gave me this." He shows me this flash drive, which he completely destroyed. His eyes are black in fury. "Come here." He begs. I scoot closer to him and he takes my spot. I turn around and scoot close so our knees are touching. "When I got home like a half hour ago," he takes in a shaky breath. He took a shower or something because his hair is wet. "I plugged this into my computer." He holds up the flash drive again. "There was this video…" he trails off and then he looks like he's going to be sick. "It was a sex tape. I stopped it before it even really started and I used the meat pounder and destroyed this and then I got changed and went jogging to clear my head. If I knew what it was I wouldn't have watched it and I'm really sorry."
"Peeta…" I search for the correct words.
"I'm just so angry!" he bursts loudly, and then he looks over his shoulder at the kids. "Caden!" he says. I look over my shoulder to see he's taking off his floats on his arms. Ryan puts them back on and they start playing again. "I don't know what to do and it's just really upsetting me! I wish I never even met her in the first place. Katniss, I-" he buries his head in his hands. "I don't know what to do."
"Baby, I think you just…I think you should let it go. If it comes down to it, we can just get a restraining order. This is getting ridiculous. You're married and she gave you a sex tape. She always seems to know where we are. You guys broke up most six years ago. She needs to move on." I tell him, and I keep my voice gentle to calm him down. "As of right now, you don't need to do anything. If she keeps going though, you can press charges because this is harassment."
"I don't want her near you or my kids or my brother or anyone else I know."
"I know you don't." I say. "You can't protect everyone. I know you want to, but you can't." He sighs and pulls me against him, keeping his head down so the cameras or anyone else, even me, can't see him, and then he buries his head in my shoulder for a while.
I stay in his arms. I know he's really upset by this.
It must be a long time, because he pulls away and we open our eyes and see it's getting dark. "I really love you." He says.
"I really love you." I kiss him, and then he stands up and stretches.
"Let's order pizza. I'm not in the mood to cook." He says.
"Alright."
He gets my phone and calls.
I'm not paying attention to him, because I hear the kids get all quiet, and then he picks me up and tosses me into the pool.
…a….
"Pizza for breakfast?" Peeta asks me. "You know I made French toast, right?"
"Yeah."
Juliette giggles.
This morning I wok in a panic because I thought I overslept and forgot to take the kids to school, but Peeta did everything for me, and when I asked him why he kissed my forehead and told me I needed my beauty rest.
He's working right now and reading papers. I wrap the leftover pizza in tin foil, put it on a paper plate and toss it in the microwave.
"Katniss, you can't do-" Peeta begins, but then he cuts off. "Never mind."
"Can't do what?"
"Nothing." He bites his lips, trying not to laugh. I yawn.
"Tin foil will heat it up faster in the microwave and make it cook faster."
I press random buttons and press start.
He lets out a snort.
"What's funny?" I ask.
The microwave says 1:23:33.
I bet that means one minute, 23 seconds and 33 milliseconds. I lean back against the counter in front of microwave.
"Would you please inform me what is so funny?" I cross my arms.
A loud explosion comes from right behind me and I spring away from the counter to see the microwave is on fire.
And then he explodes in laughter.
"What'd I do?" I ask, panicked as the fire alarm start going off. He gets up and turns on the sink, tripping over his own feet, laughing so hard he's crying. He gets the spray nozzle and sprays the microwave till the fire goes out, and then he gets the fire alarm from the ceiling and pulls out the batteries.
"You can't put tin foil in the microwave!"
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"Because you had to learn one way or another!"