Chapter 4

It can't have been long, maybe an hour, when an old man walked past and saw what I'd done, and me sitting there. "Son, when you smash a place up, it's usually a plan to get out quick." Which forces a hard bark of a laugh from me.

"I wish it was that simple."
"Got a girl in your mind, but not your arms, eh? Well, this won't woo her. You need to get romantic, son."

"I wish it was that simple, I don't know, I just, don't know." My voice falters at the last words and my fist clenches again.

"Well, the furniture don't know either, so beating it 'ain't gonna help. Son, you need to find the girl and tell her, get her to take a walk or summin'."

I sigh as I look up at him. "There're two girls, one I've loved for a long time, and one I wouldn't be here without. And it's not like I can ask either of them to come for a walk with me."

"You know, this 'ain't as new as you think, when I was your age, I had my eye on a pair of girls, and you know what my father said to me? He sai-"
"I don't care what your fa-" I see the look on his face and try to keep a lid on it, "Sorry."
"Well, he said 'If you truly loved the first one, you wouldn'ta fallen for the second now, would ya?' and I went and found my Elsie and I told her, to keep it short, we been together for around fifty years now."
"Fifty years? Through a rebellion . . . through a war . . ." I look up at him. "I'm sorry I broke your city, and this house, but now I have to go." I get up and offer him my hand, which he shakes, before I walk off towards the hospital.

As I walk back towards the hospital, I can't help remembering all the time I've spent with Katniss, the days spent hunting, that time in the Hob, the day she told me about her name, the katniss plant, I'd always known she was a survivor, that day I found out that her father knew it so long ago. After all that, I couldn't have just fallen for some other girl, could I? But if it wasn't like that, then why did what that old guy had said feel so right? As I had this thought, I walked into the plaza with the hospital, and the first thing I know is Julia running towards me "Gale!" she calls, "We couldn't find you. They want to know where you want to go, you're out in three days." My mind stops on a memory of myself and Katniss, hunting around District two during the war and I turn to her "What about Two?"

"We can get you here, if that's what you want." Her voice is laced with concern.

"Then I'll live there and hunt, come up and see Madge when I can."
"Gale," She pauses for a moment, "I'll sort it out for you." And she turns and walks back into the hospital, after a few minutes, I follow her.