TRIGGER: Intimate partner abuse in Dahlia's POV

Dahlia Redwood, District Seven female (18)

I really shouldn't have been so patient with Jay. Sometimes he was a good boyfriend but so often he just didn't measure up. I prided myself on my high expectations for myself and my life. I was planning to do great things and I was well on my way. I needed someone who could keep up with me and sometimes Jay just wasn't there. He forgot things. He neglected me. Worst of all, he accused me of things I never did. I couldn't hardly express my disappointment in him without him saying I was "shouting". He needled me until I lost my temper and then tried to make me the bad guy. If he could just be a good boyfriend we wouldn't have all these problems. But he'd been a very bad boyfriend indeed recently. After what he'd done he entirely deserved my little payback.

It wasn't anything he needed to whine about. It was just some no-strings fun. I'd known Ashley for years and I'd always wondered in the back of my head what it would be like to spend the night with her. If Jay tried to get self-righteous he didn't have a leg to stand on. What he'd done to me was unforgivable. It was a miracle I was able to look past it. And yet when he found out he still had to make it all about himself.

"How could you do this?" Jay asked, tears in his eyes.

"It was nothing. I can't believe you're being so dramatic," I said. We were back together. Everything was fine. Why he had to keep digging up the past was beyond me.

"Nothing? You cheated on me!" Jay cried.

"You took me to court!" I fired back my ace in the hole. "Told lies about me. Got a bunch of your friends to call me a monster. And for what? To have everyone see that it was nothing but lies and false accusations. I can't believe you could be so ungrateful. You're lucky I found a way to forgive you. If it wasn't for me you'd spend your life alone. No one else could love you but me."

"Well, lucky me," Jay said, rolling his eyes.

"What was that?" I asked.

Jay's face went pale. "Nothing. Nothing," he said.

"Did you just roll your eyes at me? I don't believe you," I said. I made a fist and punched him in the arm. Not hard enough to hurt, of course. I was just venting my frustration. But of course Jay got all cringey and fake scared like I was going to beat him. Like I would ever do something like that. I was a nice girl.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Jay said, holding up his hands in front of him.

"Whatever. I don't want to argue. Let's just get past this and get on with our lives," I said. "We're going out tomorrow, remember? Because we're a happy couple." It seemed like Jay was getting the message, as slow as he was. I asked for so little of him. I was going to do all the heavy lifting myself. All he had to do was stand there looking pretty and supporting me. I didn't see how he could screw that up so often.

Timber Faldun, District Seven male (17)

Robin Woodard was the prettiest, smartest girl in the whole world. As I worked on the wind chime I was making for her, using little bits of glass discarded from my mother's shop, I thought about it hanging outside a little house all our own. It would be small and cozy, like my family's house now, but I thought I would like to add one separate room so we'd have the big room and a bedroom. Only the best for my lovely wife. We'd have one of those silly signs over the door that said something like "live, laugh, love" or "happy spouse, happy house". And there would be two little sprouts running around the kitchen table. Twins, I hoped- one boy and one girl, so I could get both all at once and then me and Robin would be happy empty nesters. I'd make a wooden porch swing and we'd sit out there at night and whisper to each other.

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed Robin before. I'd seen her around the lumber yard, of course- it was always the same people in the same spots. I just hadn't really looked at her. I'd been too busy mooning after Ashley Rybeck. For weeks I'd slaved over the carved owl I was going to give her, only to see her arm-in-arm with Filbert Brown just two days before I was finally going to ask her out. I'd thought Ashley was the prettiest girl in the world then. I still thought she was very lovely, but surely she couldn't hold a candle to Robin. I loved her cute freckles and the way she wrinkled her nose when she laughed and how she would tease you but at the same time she'd give you the shirt off her back. A girl like that deserves the best mosaic glass wind chime.

Butterflies tangled in my stomach as I worked alongside Robin the next day, waiting for a good moment to make my move. The wind chime lay heavy in my backpack. It was awkward with all the work we were doing. Once Robin even asked why I was wearing it and I had to stammer out a lame excuse.

As we sat down for lunch I counted the moments, waiting for enough to pass that it didn't feel like I was rushing things. I took a seat near Robin and listened in as she chatted with her friends.

"And yesterday I saw a white squirrel- oh!" Robin's face lit up as she looked at something away from the table. I followed her gaze and my heart sank. Robin's face had lit up right after she looked at Woodrow Cartwright. Time to cut my losses and go home. I couldn't compete with a guy like that. I felt that same crushing disappointment in my stomach that I had the last two times I'd had an unrequited crush. It hurt just as much as the first time but at least by now I knew it would pass.

It would just be weird now, I thought of the wind chime poking my shoulder through my backpack. I guess it was nice this happened before anything even really started. I hadn't had time to make a real connection with Robin. I'd mope for a few days and then I would start feeling better. Then a thought crossed my mind I started feeling better already.

"Sequoia!" I said as I approached the table my little sister was sitting at. She jumped up and ran to me, giggling.

"Guess what! I got you something!" I said. I reached into my backpack as Sequoia hopped back and forth excitedly, her almond-shaped eyes tilted up and her pudgy hands balled. I pulled out the windchime and she squealed as she reached out and took it.

"I love you!" she said as she squeezed me tight in a hug.

"I love you too," I said as I hugged her back. Crushes come and go but my little sister would be my best friend forever.