"I think this is my personal hell."

Katniss grinned at me, taking a sip out of her stereotypical red solo cup.

"Shouldn't you be dancing or something?"

"Definitely something, because I do not dance." She paused. "At least not to this kind of music."

"I'd dance if there was someone I could trust not to feel me up, or if this wasn't the fifth time they played Skrillex."

"Fil really likes Skrillex what can I say."

"Fil is a joke." Both of our eyes settled on the blonde playing beer pong and missing almost every shot. "He's too sober to play beer pong."

"I told him that, he said he was talented enough without alcohol."

I rolled my eyes. All that talent and yet he couldn't make a single shot. I could hear him cursing loudly over the music.

"It's obvious that you guys hate house parties just as much as I do." Gale Hawthorne, Katniss's best friend stood beside us. "It's amazing to think that this is our nation's future, the best and brightest, if you consider the US a world superpower than the world's future. We are so fucked."

"You sound so pessimistic," Katniss noted, smiling at her oldest friend.

"I am. This is the reason our country is going to shit. Instead of learning all these kids do is drink their asses off. Stupid fucking kids who waste their parents money just to party. Our education system is in chaos, complete ruin. This just exemplifies it."

I rolled my eyes at him. "What are you even doing here then?"

"Thom has his lady over and I really can't read Ayn Rand in those conditions." His hand made its way into his back pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.

"Couldn't you have gone to the library then?"

He grinned at me. "It really sounds like you don't want me here, Undersee."

"I'm just saying."

Peeta came over to us, throwing his arm over Katniss's shoulders. "Hey guys. I fucking hate beer pong." He smiled at me. "Fil's been talking about you all night, Madge."

I widened my eyes, looking around for the blonde.

"Fil has the hots for you?" Gale asked, smiling cheekily.

"Shut up."

"He said he had a surprise for you."

"It's probably his dick," Gale commented, still grinning like an asshole.

"Shut up!" I pushed him this time for emphasis. "Do you have to be so crude?"

He nodded. "You're twenty years old you shouldn't blush when I say a dirty word."

There was a short block of silence between all of us. Peeta and Gale grinning at me though I'm sure for different reasons.

"Oh no." I murmured upon hearing the next song. "I have to get out of here."

"Where are you going?" Gale asked, grabbing my arm.

"He's going to look for me and I-I can't say no to people."

I rushed out of the house, ducking my head the entire way. I went to prom with him just because I couldn't reject him, couldn't stand to disappoint him like that. I was not going to get groped on a dance floor by Fil Mellark if I could help it, not again.

Once I finally found my way out of the house I took a breath of night air, so fresh it stung my lungs. It was so stuffy in there with all of the packed bodies.

I heard a lighter snap open to my left and watched a flame appear lighting Gale's face. "Are you okay? I was just fucking with you in there."

"I'm fine. I just get really nervous around guys that like me."

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I was better able to make out more of his features. I could just make out his jaw line move as he took the cigarette in his mouth, the cigarette between his lips and his fingers grasping it.

He inhaled deeply, the smoke escaping out of the side of his mouth. "You seem fine around me." He smiled softly. "Sorry if the smoke is hitting you in the face, this fucking wind. I can put it out if you want."

I guess we were just going to ignore what he had said. Okay.

"It's fine."

He nodded, taking a drink out of his cup. "God this is shit beer."

"I know."

"What made you leave during this song?"

"I think Fil had it played for me. I can only assume he was going to ask me to dance."

"Oh," he let out a chuckle. "Cute." He brought the cigarette back to his mouth, inhaling. "What you were saying in there, is that why you took Fil to prom?"

I nodded. "Not my best moment."

His mouth stretched into a grin. His arm came up, throwing his cigarette into the grass, blowing out the smoke in his mouth. He leaned over me, one arm to the side of me. "What if I were to like you? Would you tell me if you didn't return the feelings? Or would you just pretend?"

My eyes found his. In the darkness they looked charcoal grey, almost black.

"That would depend."

"On what?" His face leaned in closer to mine, the smile still playing on his lips. He was maybe seven inches away from me now. Guys that liked me made me really nervous, but guys I liked back made me even more nervous. My heart was literally beating out of my chest.

"If I'm one of them."

Three inches.

"One of those stupid fucking kids."

Two.

One.

"Never."

Zero.