A/N: 3rd chapter guys! Please tell me if I'm doing something wrong/ have not made sense of something. I don't want anyone to be confused. So here it is, review if you'd like me to continue!
(Katniss' point of view.)
He walks up and is staring at me with what I think is a smug grin. I think he's going to attack me, or something. I tense up, and I think he notices. His softens a bit and looks towards the crowd. Effie motions for us to shake our hands. "Seal the deal with a kiss maybe?" She says into the microphone, smirking.
Why me?
"No, we're fine, thank you though." Peeta saves the day. He probably just wouldn't want to kiss some seam slut. We make our way down to the couples section and I begin walking towards Annie, and when I turn, I see Peeta following me. He smiles.
"Can I help you?" I hiss.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you, we're just…"
"Don't apologize." I turn and continue to Annie.
Why am I being rude to Peeta? This isn't his fault. It's the capitol's. I should apologize to him.
"Hey Mrs. Mellark!" Annie shouts to me, smirking. I glare at her.
" I see you've been reaped to a District 4 boy, just like you and Madge have gossiped about. " I smirk at her and she blushes. Finnick laughs. "Annie and I's parents were…quite close." he says.
I take the hint from his facial expression that I shouldn't ask anymore questions. "Where's Peeta?" Annie asks somewhat out of the blue.
"I don't kn-" I'm interrupted by Effie.
"Madge Undersea!" she pauses for a second. I look to the boys pile and realize there are but two boys left.
1. A boy who looks like he could be related to that Johanna girl.
And
2. My best friend. Gale Hawthorne.
Effie stands there and just holds the paper in her hands, obviously trying to cause suspense. She leans in and says, "How does Madge Lemrit sound?" we all look at her confused, then realize she must mean the other boy. Madge's mouth opens slightly, a little confused.
"If you think it sounds good, well, sorry. Gale Hawthorne to the stage! And last, but certainly not least. Alice Werthawk and Marcus Lemrit!"
Both of my best friends will now be married. At least the odds were in their favor.
"Katniss?" I turn to meet bright blue eyes. It takes me a second to answer because they're so bright.
"Uh um, yeah?" I manage to get out. What is wrong with me?
"It's sort of like a tradition for the boy to take his fiancé out on their first date sort of thing after their reaping and uh I was just wondering if you still wanted to do that with um me?"
He's talking quickly so I hardly understand him. Since it is tradition, I guess I'll go with him. I guess I must have had a hesitated look on my face as well, so he adds, "Your friends and their fiancé's could come with us, if you'd like." he smiles shyly.
Maybe I misjudged him.
"We'd love to Peeta," Madge apparently has walked to us, with Gale by her side, a huge smile plastered on his face. "Right Gale?"
"Right," I don't think he was listening, he's just looking at me with a smug smile.
"The chances of us were quite slim," he lips to me, obviously imitating what I had said yesterday.
I look to Peeta, "I'll have to ask my mother." I lie.
"Alright you little lovebirds, go make beautiful babies!" is the sentence Effie uses to conclude the reaping. I shudder.
The second I had approached my mother, she insisted I go out with Peeta.
"Everyone ready to go?" Peeta asks. Annie, Finnick, Madge, and Gale all say something around "yeah." and I just nod.
"Where are we going?" Annie asks.
"There's this small diner like place a few streets down, it's really nice." Peeta answers politely leading the way.
We all follow him, I listen to Annie and Finnick babble on about 'the old days.' Gale and Madge are holding hands and walking. I look up at Peeta, there's a small smile on his face. He looks down for a second and meets my eyes. I look down quickly and blush, embarrassed he caught me looking at him.
I hear Gale snort behind me. I turn and glare. "Katniss, stop acting like Peeta has cooties, eventually you guys are going to be in bed together and hav-" Madge elbows him in the stomach. I mouth "Thank you." to her and she winks at me.
I look up at Peeta again, he's blushing. It's kinda cute. Did I really just think that?
"We're here," he says opening the door for us.
"Thank you," I say to him. He just smiles.
We're directed to a large round booth, and we're sat in this order. From right to left around: Gale, Madge, Me, Peeta, Annie, and Finnick at the end. Everyone is holding hands with their fiancé, except for Peeta and I. They're using their other hand to look at the menus.
"The salmon sounds good, is the fishing business still doing well Finn?" Annie asks Finnick.
"Yeah it's doing pretty well, especially shrimp" he tells her.
"Oooh shrimp! I heard that was delicious!" Madge exclaims.
"Want to order it?" Gale asks her smiling.
"If you want to, then yeah." she smiles, looking into his eyes.
I nearly gag. "What are you getting?" Peeta asks me.
"Oh uh, I don't know. I've never been out before." Peeta looks surprised.
"Well then we'll just have to get the best thing on the menu. Have you had steak before?" I shake my head.
"Then you'll have that? Could we get some help over here please?" Peeta calls out. A young waitress, probably a couple years younger than me, approaches. "What can I get you?" she asks.
"Grilled chicken for my fiancé, and I, please." Finnick flashes an award winning smile and the girl nearly faints right there. Gale clears his throat. She turns as if just noticing him, "and for you?" she asks writing down on her notepad. "We'll have the shrimp."
She turns to Peeta and I. "Steak please, well done, and could we have the sauce on the side?" Peeta smiles. I just look down at the table. "I'll have it all in a few moments." she says, making her way to the kitchen .
"So, Katniss, how has your day been?" Gale asks smirking at me. He's trying to piss me off.
"Just great, Gale, you?" I kick him under the table, or at least I tried, I end up kicking Madge. She yelps in pain. "Katniss, Annie, shall we head to the bathroom to… powder our noses…" she says through clenched teeth.
"My nose is perfectly fine." I say.
"COME." she basically growls at me.
I hear Annie do the cat sound "RIAYUR" and make the clawing motion. We follow Madge to the bathroom.
"Pay back is a bitch, Katniss." Madge says smiling. "Oh c'mon Madgey Wadgey, you won't have time for payback with all the time you spend making googoo eyes at Gale." I smirk.
"We'll see Katniss." Madge says walking out with a wink. I'm not scared of her though.
"Why did I have to come?" Annie asks confused. I just ignore her and walk back towards our table.
I scoot back into our booth next to Peeta, and Madge begins talking immediately, "Oh Gale! Aren't Peeta and Katniss just the CUTEST!" she exclaims. I look down, and hold all my anger in.
"You're so right Madge! Look at them, with their red cheeky weekies! They even blush in unison!" They both stare into each other's eyes and go "AWWW" and stare back at us.
"Um, Katniss?" Peeta whispers to me.
"What?" I whisper back to him.
"I'm sorry they're doing this to you. I promise I wouldn't have invited them if I knew they would tease you like this." he looks at me with puppy eyes.
"Why do you care what they say about me, I'm a seam slut."
Peeta's eyes get angry, it's a bit intimidating, "Don't say that about yourself."
"It's obvious you don't want to be with me. You think I'm a seam slut. Stop trying to hide it. I know what your mother says about me when my sister and I look at the cakes."
"Seam brats, too poor to even afford a slice of cake, yet come and get their paw prints all over my display. Ugh"
"What makes you think that?" he asks me.
I don't answer, I just lay my head down on the table.
"You mimt homme jess he," I murmur into the table.
"What?" he says.
"YOU DIDN'T WANT TO KISS ME." I basically shout. Everyone's looking at me. Even people at other tables. I smack my hands onto my face. I can't believe I just said that out loud.
"He wanted to kiss you, obviously, brainless." I turn and recognize the girl who said it. Johanna.
"Anyone with eyes could tell. He only said that because he knew you didn't want to, well at least not in front of the whole district."
"Probably wanted to do more." the guy next to her murmurs, the one who looks like Finnick. "Garret!"
"Hey Finn, matched with your old middle school crush I see?" he smirks.
"Yeah, everybody, this is my cousin, Garret Scott. Garret this is Gale, Madge, Katniss, Peeta and Annie. You're Johanna, right?"
"Yeah," she says, smiling at me. I don't like this. How would she know what Peeta wants to do. I'm about to ask him if what she said is true, but the lady walks up with our food. She notices Johanna and Garret standing next to our booth, "Do you guys want me to pull up a small table?" she asks.
"No we've already finished eating, your other waitress helped us out, we've got to go to the Justice Building and sort out or housing agreements, thank you though. See you all later," Garret waves to us, and Johanna winks at me as she walks out the door.
I just eat my food as everyone else talks with each other.
"So Annie, where are we going to stay?" Finnick asks her.
"Um well, I haven't thought about it. There's an apartment above the flower shop, I guess we could stay there, if you don't want to we can get a new house or something." Annie says, slightly unsure of what she's saying. "I'd love to stay in the apartment, Annie." he smiles and she sighs relief.
"Gale, we don't need to worry about anything, there's a house my father built the day I was born so I could live there if I got married. Since the wedlock reaping was announced, he had it remodeled and we'll be staying there, is that okay?" Madge tells Gale, her eyebrows raised.
"Perfect," he says smiling. Everyone looks at Peeta and I. Peeta clears his throat, "Um well, there are a couple of rooms above the bakery. My father had them cleared out so I'd be able to live up there with my wife. We can stay there, but if you're not okay with that I can try to start building a house near the bakery, I plan on working there full time after the end of school, if uh that's okay." I think he was going to say more but he stops and just looks at me.
Gale and Finnick burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" I hiss at them. They both continue laughing, until Finnick stops, "Katniss, Peeta is basically bowing down to you," he continues laughing and adds, "he's a lovesick puppy, ain't that right Peeta?" Madge starts laughing too, and Annie is smiling.
"You guys are so immature." I duck under the table to get out, and when I do, I throw a handful of cash onto the table, "That's for the food. Goodbye." I run out the door.
I'm close to my house, running through the seam, when I finally hear footsteps behind me. I turn to see Peeta. "Katniss," he says breathing hard. "I'm sorry." he's holding something in his hand, I look closer and see it's the money I threw.
"Is what she said true?"
"What?" he says, obviously confused.
"What Johanna said. You wanted to kiss me."
"Yes." he mumbles.
I look up at him, and realize how close we are. Suddenly, my head isn't thinking for me, my lips are. Our lips meet, and all I can think about is how soft his are.
A/N: Oh dang guys. Katniss' and Peeta's first kiss, and Katniss is the one who initiated it. Saucy. Please tell me if something is confusing, or annoying, or bothering you. Review if I should continue, please?