A/N- Hello, this would be theeShadyLady again, continuing this series of letters. This letter is from Gale to Katniss, about a week or two after he received her letter. Please R/R! :D Now, back to my story!

((DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games, and I'm pretty sure I never will.))

Ch. 3: "Memories"

Dear Catnip,

To put things simply, I am mad, because I love you. I love you more than you will ever know. I am pretty sure I have always loved you, but it just took that day in the hob with Darius for me to realize it… When you were at first Games and you teamed up with Peeta, it made me so angry and every time you kissed him… I couldn't stand to watch, I wanted to shut the TV off and never turn it back on. But at the same time, I couldn't because I had to make sure nothing bad happened to you.

If only I had stepped in for… him at the Reapings, everything would be a lot less complicated. I could have protected you, and we could have won so easily… we could have just sat in a tree shooting arrows and we could have won, together. Except, I know if I had done that, you would never have forgiven me. Because in doing this, I would have left your our families, alone to fend for themselves.

This is tearing me apart; I can't stop thinking about you… Everything reminds me of you, I can't even go hunting anymore because there are too many memories… I can't come back to District 12, because that's where you are… Every girl I see just reminds me of you… And, every time the television comes on, there you are on the screen…

I hate this, Catnip, I miss you…

And, I don't think there is anything wrong with a little fire. Fire is a thing of wonder. It can destroy, but it also can create life that was better than the life before it.

I keep thinking of the day I met you in the woods and thought that your name was Catnip… I couldn't believe somebody would actually name their child that, but then you corrected me with your real name. And, when that one lynx wouldn't stop following you around, I thought that could actually be a fitting name for you. And ever since then I just thought that you would always be my Catnip.

We have so much history. I just can't figure out why you chose him over me… We knew everything about each other, what did he even know about you? That you could sing? That you were poor? He had never even spoken one word to you before the Games. I just don't understand…

We helped each other out after we both lost are fathers in the accident… We saved each other, we needed each other… and what I don't see, is when did you start needing him more than you need me?

Sometimes I think of the morning of the Reapings, how it was so easy for us just to talk and be with each other… Now, it's almost like we were never even friends… It's almost as if we don't even know each other anymore. Like on the morning of the 74th Reaping, when we talked about running away, but we couldn't because we had all of our "kids?" I still wonder what would have happened if we would have left.

Thank you for not saying goodbye to me, it doesn't really help, but it still means a lot. And even though the whole thing about pretending it's not over and pretending that we will always be friends isn't really working, I'm still not going to give up hope… because I guess the only thing we really have in this world is hope, and once you give that up, what do you have left?

So, I will never say goodbye to you.

And Catnip, I still love you.

-Gale

~theeShadyLady~