Chapter 34
(Gale POV)
I leave her house a little before sunrise and head home. I can't shake the feeling that something bad is coming to 12 soon. When her guy called and practically begged her to come stay with him so that she wouldn't be in 12 during the rest of the games, it was like a gut punch kind of feeling. She may think it's all nothing and hopefully she's right, but something tells me she's wrong. I even asked her to go and stay with him, as much as I hate him, as much as I do not trust him, but at least if she were with him, she'd be alive. Staying here could be dangerous, especially if Katniss does anything else in the games that causes issues.
At home, I put together a bag like I did at Madge's house last night. It's not as top quality as the one we made for her but it's still got all the basic stuff we could need to survive out there if it came to that. Hers has more food and better first aid supplies and instead of an empty canteen, hers has actual bottled waters. But it's got what's needed and that's all that matters. I hid hers under her porch. Mine i just slide under my bed. Too many people come in and out of her house for her to keep hers hidden in her room. Plus, if it comes to needing the bag, she can get to it faster probably if it's not all the way upstairs in her room. I need to help Prim make one too.
I go to the butcher shop, expecting to be needed for a couple hours again but when I get there he tells me he doesn't need me anymore. Apparently the influx of orders he was having because of all the Capitol guests coming to watch the games have been cancelled. No guests coming to watch the games here means no special orders which means no bag of scraps for my family to eat. I understand but it still sucks. It also adds to my fear that something bad is headed our way.
I swing by to see Prim but she isn't home and neither is Mrs. Everdeen. It's strange that both of them would be out but I figure I can talk to Prim at the viewing about coming by and helping make her a bag. I head home and let my mother know that we need to really ration our food since I don't have meat scraps coming our way anymore. She tells me not to worry about it, that we'll manage but I know I'm going to worry. I can't wait for these games to be over so that I can get back out in the woods and hunt again.
At the viewing I look everywhere for Prim and but don't see them anywhere. Even once the viewing begins, they never show up. My stomach sinks and I know it's not good that they aren't here. Something is not right at all. I glance up at the stage and make eye contact with Madge after a few minutes. She looks uneasy and then shifts her gaze back to the screen. I'm not certain if she's nervous about the Everdeens not being here or if it's something else. I'll have to talk to her as soon as I can. As soon as she's alone and off that stage. Luckily, the viewing ends without any real drama. The baker kid is better and so is the cut on Katniss's forehead. They're now the only couple left in the game and if they can both stay alive until the end then they both get to come home. I'm not worried about the girl from 5, she's harmless and surviving by hiding out mostly. It's Cato and Thresh that are a danger to her now.
I wait for her at the end of the viewing and I've just walked up and said hi when we get interrupted.
"Hi!" A voice calls and we both turn around. And there stands her guy, suitcase in hand. I know she wasn't expecting him so I also know this was a surprise ambush. Probably because she refused to come to him.
"Oh my goodness, what a surprise!" She exclaims with a fake smile on her face. I"m actually getting pretty good and telling the difference between her real smiles and her fake smiles.
He comes over and kisses her, handing her a single white rose. "I thought you might want the company with your father being out of town and all."
"How thoughtful of you!" She replies.
He smiles at her and then turns to me, holding his hand out. "Andrew Whitney, I don't believe we've met."
"Oh, how rude of me. Drew this is Gale Hawthorne, Katniss's best friend." Madge interjects before I can answer.
His jaw stiffens at the mention of Katniss's name. I don't know if she notices it or not but I do. This guy does not like Katniss, that's clear.
"Well, it's always nice to meet those close to the tributes." He says in such a politically correct way that I almost gag.
"You two have a nice evening." I say, nodding my head at them as I turn to go knowing I can't talk to Madge at all now.
"You as well." The guy calls after me. I glance back and see Madge mouth the word "sorry" to me.
I ask around the Seam if anyone has seen the Everdeeens and finally their neighbor across the way tells me that they left. Says a peacekeeper came and got them and put them on the train. Said it didn't look hostile or anything and they assumed it'd been because the games are close to the finish and Katniss is still alive. I thank her and then head off on my own.
I know Madge isn't coming tonight but I go and sit at the tree anyway. I really hope that Prim and her mother were summoned to the Capitol for a normal reason, like interviews with the final 5 tributes families or something. Unfortunately, I feel like it could be that they were summoned for negative reasons. Otherwise, wouldn't Madge have known ahead of time? Or wouldn't Prim have told me ahead of time?
I hate that I can't talk to Madge right now. I really wish that was possible. I also hate that she's stuck with that guy spending the night with her in that house alone. And then I have to push thoughts from my mind that I don't care to think about. Thoughts of the two of them alone in her house all night. God, I hate him so much.
(Madge POV)
I'm sitting at the viewing when I notice that Prim and her mother are not here. I scan the entire audience from the stage and I don't see them. That most likely means they've been taken to the Capitol for some reason, though I'm not sure what exactly. It could be normal protocol since the games are nearing the end or it could be in regards to the problems Katniss has created by how she's played the game. I pray that it's simply normal protocol. Gale and I make eye contact during the viewing and I can tell he's concerned about them too. Even without words, I know what he's thinking.
As soon as the viewing ends, I head down the stairs of the stage to go talk to Gale and just as we've said hi, I get a huge surprise. Drew shows up. His way of surprising me because he didn't want me to be all alone while my father was out of town he says. Honestly though, I know he's showed up because I refused to come stay in District 4 with him for longer than was already planned. This also really stinks because now, when I take the train to District 4 for our movie date, I won't be alone which means I can't try to talk to Martin. I awkwardly introduce Gale and Drew to one another and then Gale tells us to have a good night and he heads on his way. When he glances back, I make eye contact and mouth the word "sorry" to him. And I am sorry. I know this is the last thing that either of us wanted to have happen.
After Gale is gone, I look to Drew.
"Do you want to go have dinner at the cafe?" I offer, knowing he's probably expecting dinner but unlike his house, my house doesn't have a full time staff of Avox ready to cook and clean for us. All we have is Bethany and she will have just left a reheat-able plate of dinner in the fridge for me. Since we weren't expecting him to be here, there won't be anything prepared for him. And I refuse to ask Bethany come back into work just to cook us dinner.
"We can do that. Or I could cook for us." He suggests.
"Oh yes, I forgot those cooking skills you mentioned. Let's do that then."
We head towards the house and along the way I give myself a mental pep talk to remember to seem as Capitol supportive as possible. I also want to see if I can get him somehow talking about childhood friends and see if Martin comes up.
In my kitchen I sit at the counter and watch as he looks through the fridge and sees what we have so he can decide what to cook for us. He settles on a chicken stir fry dish.
"So how did you manage to come visit? I thought your schedule was pretty full." I comment as he gets started with dinner.
"I did a little rearranging and I'll still have some business to attend to but I can do it from here. You aren't mad that I've come and surprised you without asking are you?" He asks.
"No, no, not at all. I just don't want to be the reason your work goes unfinished."
He leans across the counter and gives me a little kiss. "You are worth rearranging my schedule for."
I smile back at him. It feels very awkward having him kiss me now that I know he and Martin once knew one another and that there is some part of the story I don't yet know about what happened with them.
"How long are you able to stay?" I ask, attempting to make it sound as if I hope he can stay for awhile.
He shrugs. "I can stay until the games are finished."
"What about our pool movie date? Are we not doing that anymore?" I ask realizing that him intending to stay means I am not leaving anytime soon which means I won't get to talk to Martin.
"We can have a movie night here. I'll set the whole thing up for us. Don't worry, I may still have some work to do while I'm here but you and I will get plenty of alone time too." He says with a grin.
I cringe a little inside. Great, just great. This is not at all what I wanted. Thanks to Drew deciding to come visit, I've now lost all my time with gale, I've lost my chance to try to talk to Martin and now I'm stuck pretending to be happy he's visiting until the end of the games.
"When my father comes back he'll probably want to steal all your time and show you all the things you'll get to do as mayor." I joke.
He looks up and seems surprised. "Your father isn't coming back until after the games are over. Didn't you know that?"
"No, I didn't. How is it that you knew that?"
"I wasn't kidding when I told you that the things Katniss is doing are irritating the Capitol. Your father, as well as a few other mayors were all summoned for meetings and told to expect to stay there for the duration of the games."
"But how did you know that?" I ask again because he really hasn't answered me. How does he always seem to know things like that?
"I'm in training for a position that will require me to know things like that. It's my job."
"I see." I say, still not actually seeing because he still hasn't told me how. I mean, does he get a message from the Capitol? Is there a data base he frequents that has all this information? Did his father share it with him? Why can't he just give me a straight answer?
"Is there a specific movie you'd like to watch?" He asks as he cooks our food.
I shake my head. "I'm not picky. Besides, I haven't seen many movies anyway so whatever you pick for us, I probably haven't seen it."
"Well that makes it easy to pick."
He plates our food and we sit at the table to eat. The food is actually really good and I'm quite impressed with his cooking skills. We chat about a whole lot of nothing as we eat. When we're finished, I take our plates to the sink and start to clean up but he stops me.
"What are you doing?"
"Cleaning up. I can't leave this mess for Bethany."
"You shouldn't be doing housework, that's what a household staff is for."
"Oh I don't mind. Besides, aren't we a team? You cook and I clean." I say with a happy smile.
"I'm serious. You should leave this for the help to handle. No future wife of mine is going to be stuck in a kitchen scrubbing dirty dishes. Come on, let's go relax." He says taking my arm and leading me out of the kitchen.
I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying that I'm not his wife yet and that it's just common courtesy to not leave a mess for someone else if I'm capable of cleaning it up myself. I fully intend to come back downstairs and clean this up later after he's asleep. We go upstairs and I show him to a guest room. And I may be imagining it but I could swear he seems disappointed when I do it.
"I'll just let you get settled in." I tell him as I step towards the door to leave and go to my room.
"You don't have to leave. Stay." He says taking a step towards me and taking my hands, pulling me gently towards him for a kiss.
I kiss him because I know I don't have a choice. If I don't he'll know something is wrong. So I decide to use this quality time for some good. If he's going to be around, I'm going to ask as many questions as I can and get to know as much as possible about him until I can figure out his connection to Martin.
"Let me go change into pajamas and get out of this dress. Then I'll come back and hang out with you."
I go to my room and get changed and then come back to find him also in pajamas. "So I want to know more about you. I tell him. I feel like you know so much about me and there's so much I still want to learn about you." I tell him as I plop myself down at the foot of his bed.
"Well, ask me something." He says, happily playing along with my game of questions.
"Okay, um, childhood best friend? Who was it and are you still friends?" I ask as I prop myself up, resting my elbows on my knees.
"Probably August. And I wouldn't say we are friends still but we will always be brothers so there's that."
I make saddened face at him. "Your best friend was August?"
He shrugs. "Not much time for friends. What about you?"
"I'm friendly with lots of people but I'd say Katniss has been one of my best friends."
"And that boy from the viewing? Are you friends with him?"
"Gale? I guess you could call us friends." I say nonchalantly before changing to a new question. "So do you have a favorite season?"
"Season?"
"Yeah, season. Like, my favorite is definetly Fall. What's yours?"
"Oh, summer I guess. I never really thought much about that before."
"I could see how living at the beach makes for a good summer. Around here they're pretty hot and sweltering as you can see."
"But Fall is good?"
I nod. "It's the best! All the trees start changing colors and the air gets all chilly and crisp."
"When we're married, we can take trips to all the different parts of Panem and find out where all the best places for each season are." He suggests.
"I like that idea." I tell him. Then I get an idea for another question stemming from that. "You know, at the matching of the heirs week, I felt a little disconnected having not spent too much time in the various districts. I barely even knew who most of the people there were much less where they were from. Did it feel like that for you or am I alone in that?"
"I knew quite a few people."
"You're lucky. I felt like a stranger to everyone. Must be nice to have friends from so many places."
"I suppose."
He's not offering up the info I want which is to know who his friends were at the matching. "I didn't even know my roommate." I say, laughing at myself.
"Natasha, right?"
I nod and smile. "You know her?"
"Sort of. She and Ellison are good friends."
"Ah." I say. It makes sense though given what their father's do. "Did you know your roommate? Or did they put you with August?"
"I knew mine a little." He admits but doesn't say who it was so it doesn't help me much. Then he changes the topic. "My turn. What's your favorite color?"
"That's easy. Blue. What's yours?"
"Blue."
"Something we have in common, I like that." I say.
"Is that important to you? For us to have things in common I mean?"
"Of course silly. Isn't that why they have the whole matching week anyway? To make sure that we are compatible? After all, it's what lasting relationships are built on."
He bobs his head slightly but doesn't say anything. There's a long silence and his eyes look disappointed for some reason.
"What are you thinking about?" I ask reaching over and placing my hand on his, hoping it will encourage him to be forthcoming about it. The more I know what he's thinking, the better.
"Nothing. I think I'm actually feeling a little tired." He says quietly but I know he's lying. He was thinking about something and now he's not telling me what it is and he's suddenly ready to go to sleep.
"Oh, I'd better go then." I say getting up from the bed.
"I'm sorry. It was just a long day of traveling. I didn't realize how tired I was until it just hit me." He apologizes.
"Don't worry about it. We'll have plenty of time to just hang out this visit." I say with a smile as I lean down to give him just a quick peck of a kiss and then head for the door.
"Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning." He says as I leave the room.
In the hallway, I stand for a moment trying to figure out what made him suddenly act like that. Everything seemed fine until the topic of us being compatible came up. I don't get it though because why would that matter to him? He was my second match so we know we have common ground somewhere. Does it bother him that he was my second match instead of my first? That doesn't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. It's a points system. For all we know, there could've been just a single point difference between my score in matching him and in matching Martin. He knows this so why does he seem to be worried about us having things in common? And last time I saw him he was so serious about wanting to know if I thought I'd be happy married to him. Something is definetly bugging him and I need to find out what exactly it is.