The Photograph
A first letter between Katniss and Peeta after months. It's been so long since they have seen each other. How will their meeting be?
Major life change in this chapter.
P.S. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games Trilogy.
25 June
Dear Peeta,
I thought it would be harder to see you again after eight months. I've rehearsed this encounter over and over again in my head many times that I've lost count. Every instance would be to my great satisfaction. I practiced what I would say to you, lining up my chosen words meticulously to hurt you perfectly. I don't think I've ever imagined myself yelling at another person so much and so willfully. I have every right to do so - to raise my voice that you become like nothing in front of me.
There is a list in my head of all the painful truths I am justified to say to you. How much you hurt me, how disgusted you made me feel, how regretful I am for asking you for a coffee, how much I hate you and my mother - so, so much. You wouldn't have a chance to rebut at all because I won't let you. You don't deserve to talk to me after the truth is out. I wanted to catch the pain in your eyes when I saw you again. How little you have become to me and how much I wish to forget our time together. It would all be remarkably easy. So, so easy to hash everything out. What you did was wrong, Peeta. You were a selfish man.
Looking at you now in this hospital bed, unconscious and attached to machines keeping you alive, I am angrier than I have ever been. Why did you have to make things so complicated? Why does it always have to be about you?
Damn you, Peeta.
Why do you have to be the one to save that young boy from that drunk driver? Did you know that your heart stopped at the operating table? You were dead! Finnick and Prim revived you!
This is all just so stupid! I want to move on from all of this! I'm so exhausted.
Peeta, that child is alive because of you. He breathes and lives in the other room because you pushed him out of the way. Why did you do it? You've never even met him.
That boy, Julian, is alive and you are here fighting for your life.
I hope you live, Peeta.
I cannot take any more than this.
Katniss
You might be curious why Prim is suddenly here. After graduation and upon her Aunt Amelia's request, she moved back to Virginia and is now at the same hospital where Dr. Finnick is.
Annie gave birth a week and a half ago, and Peeta is helping the Odairs out.
Everyone is back in the district now, including Katniss. She's not supposed to stay long, much less see Peeta in such a state. Will she leave again, or will she choose to stay?