Let's all thank the guest that told me I put up a chapter from the first book!
I have a pounding headache, someone's arm is thrown across my naked body and I'm laying in a bed in a house that is not Finn and Annie's.
I sit up and almost scream, but then I see the man who is next to me in this strange bed is Peeta. My hair is wild and the light is so bright. I feel like I'm going to be sick, and I do on the side of the bed.
I hear a loud gasp after a few minutes of me just sitting there, and then Peeta sits bolt upright and looks around, looking pained and panicked before he looks at me and relaxes.
"Did we..." He stares at my bare chest
"Um...I think so." I whisper, wincing at the small noise. Peeta gets up and stretches, and I stare at him dick. "I love you."
He pulls on his boxers and his jeans and plants a kiss on my lips, cheeks and forehead. "I love you too."
We get dressed and go downstairs. There's a ton of garbage and shit all over. Finn, Annie, Jo and a couple other people I don't know are here. All of them look at me, smirk and shake their heads. "You two." Johanna cackles and I wince. "Hung over?" She asks. She hands me two Advil and a bottle of water, and Finn gives the same to Peeta.
"What about us?" I ask.
"Well after you got drunk at our hour we came over here because there was a wild party. We were all really drunk when we drove here and I don't really remember who's car we took-"
"It better not have been mine!" I rush to the huge window and stare. "Oh my holt fucking shit Dad is going to fucking kill me."
Everyone crowds around me and we all stare. I rest my head on the glass. People are asleep on the grass.
"How old are you? If you were underage drinking at my fucking party-"
"I'm twenty two." I snap.
There in the grass, halfway in the fucking ocean sits my brand new Jaguar. It's keyed all over the place and shot with bebes, there's a fire on the fucking hood, the top is cut with a knife and the engine is on fire. It's far enough away that nothing bad will happen if it explodes. I rush outside and downstairs. The keys are sitting on the front seat.
There is no saving this car.
...8...
We sit at Finn and Annie's for a week in pure boredom. We don't want to go to the beach because we lived in California and it's not fun at the beach anymore.
"I wonder what it's like there." Johanna says. We're watching some 9/11 thing.
I can tell she's completely forgotten that I grew up in New York City. I remember 9/11 very well.
"I remember that day." Peeta says. "My teacher turned on the news."
"I was in like forth grade." Annie says.
"We all were. I remember my teacher crying." Finn says.
"Mine too."
"Do you remember, Katniss?"
"I was three blocks away from the twin towers. I remember the world outside went dark and all I could hear was screams. The fire alarm started going off and we were ordered to go home. I was stumbling around outside with people rushing past. I remember seeing people jump from buildings and screaming and crying. Prim was with me. Someone picked Prim and I up and ran. I passed out from all the smoke and woke up in a hospital the next day."
"You don't think that was something we should know about you?" Johanna asks.
"I like to avoid talking about it."
"We should go somewhere outside of Florida." Peeta says.
"Let's go to New York. We can stay with you Kitty." Finn says.
"I don't have a place."
"So let's go with your Dad."
... ...
I don't bother knocking, I just walk right in. "Dad?" I shout. Finn, Jo, Ann and Peeta are in wonderland. Haymitch/Dad walks out of his room.
"Why are you here? You aren't supposed to be home for another week." I have never called him Dad before and I can tell from the look on his fave that I made his day.
"We got bored. I need a place to stay. We, actually."
He shrugs. "You can stay here."
"Awesome, thanks."
"You can park your car in the garage. It's too expensive not to be." I freeze.
Shit he's going to fucking kill me. "Kay." I hope he didn't notice the pause. I scurry past him and he grabs my wrist.
"Katniss," his voice goes deep and frightening and...fatherly? "What happened to the car?"
I let out a forced laugh. "Nothing."
"Katniss." He says.
"Fine..." I look down. "We kind of got really drunk and and we...we drove and...shot the car with bebe's and we made a fire on the hood and we keyed it..."
His eyes go from gray to black and I take a step back. When Ethan does that, it means he's about to kick my ass.
"Who's we?" He growls, releasing my arm.
"Me. I meant me."
He starts to pace.
"Do you realize...that fucking car...it was 94,734 dollars! It was only just shy of a million fucking dollars that you destroyed." He takes a step closer to me and I wince.
"I'm sorry."
When he sees me wince, his eyes soften and he shoves his hands in his pockets. "Where's the car?"
I stay silent.
"Katniss." He hisses.
"We pushed it into..."
"In what? The ocean?"
"Yes."
"Oh my god." I covers his face with his hands and sighs.
"I'm sorry. Please don't...do what Ethan does."
He looks at me in shock. "What? It you? Are you kidding me? I'm not going to hit you because you made a mistake!" He's outraged.
"I'm just really sorry." I whimper.
He's silent for a long, long time. "I'm not getting you a new car." He says. "I'm just..." He sighs. "Never mind. I'll get you a new car but you are going help pay it off."
"You don't have to get me a new car."
"I'm not going to let you get a shit car. Fall is just around the corner and if you get a bad car you'll get into an accident with the snow."
I let out a long breath. "Okay. Well I have to go to Juilliard."
"For what?" Peeta asks.
"I need to get the rest of my shit from my dorm."
"Awesome, can we come?" Finn asks.
"Sure."
We go outside and start to walk. It's a long walk but I like walking.
"My feet are killing me." Annie grumbles.
I turn to her. She does look in pain.
Peeta panics when I step into the street to flag down a taxi. It stops. "Get in."
They all seem to hesitate. I get in the front seat and they squish into the back.
"Where to?" The driver asks.
"Juilliard."
He speeds off. Horns honk and people flip us off. Typical New York.
"You new here?" He asks me.
"No, I grew up here."
He snorts. "That was a stupid question. What about you four. Are you guys new here?"
"Yes. We are from California."
"I can hear that she's from here and you guys are from there in your voices."
He pulls up in front of my college; a huge triangle building. The four of then gape at it.
"How much?" I ask the driver.
"Did you just graduate from here?" He nods at the school.
"Yes."
"Free of charge. I graduated from there, too."
I almost ask him why he drives taxis if he's a Juilliard graduate, but instead I thank him and get out. The four of them follow me up the large stone steps into the front office.
I'm just opening my mouth to tell the secretary all my info, but she grins when she sees me and tosses me
the keys.
"I wish you still went here. You were the light of this school, Katniss." She smiles. "Actually," she stops me. "There was a man in here looking for you."
"A man?" I repeat.
"Yes. He said he knows you. He said in you ever visit Malibu to stop by room 271."
Cinna!
"Cinna was here?" I ask.
"Yes." she says.
"Aw." I frown. "I wish I was here."
"Katniss," she laughs. "He was at your graduation."
"He was?"
"Yes. He was hoping to see you but he didn't. He said he understood."
"Okay. Thanks Patricia." I walk onto the actual property. The four of them follow me. I walk quickly around the corner and smash right into no other than Josh.
He scrambles to his feet, and Peeta helps me up before he can even offer.
The four of them know this is Josh because I showed pictures and Josh knows this is them for the same reason.
"Hi Katniss." He says.
"Bye Josh."
"Wait." He grabs my hand.
I hear someone come up behind me. I don't know who it is. "Please Katniss. I'm in love with you. This could work."
I shut my eyes. "Let go."
His grip tightens and I start remembering Ethan doing something along the lines of this to me. "Let go." He can hear the fear.
He can hear the fear and he likes it.
"Why should I? You know what I want. I intend to get it."
Clearly, he didn't see the other four.
"Let go!"
Johanna decks him in the face and he releases. "She said let go you cunt!"
Peeta is being held back by Finn. He releases him and then Peeta punches Josh in the stomach.
"Don't touch my girlfriend." He puts his arm around my shoulder and walks alongside me to my dorm. I shakily unlock the door and when they're all in, I slam the door and lock it again. Peeta is about to say something when I begin to rant.
"Why can't he jus understand that i don't want his dirty ass dick in me. He's a disgusting asshole, Josh is. He needs to back the fuck up and leave me the fuck alone. I can't stand the fact that he gets all up in my business. I don't like him. I don't love him. He's not being very fair-"
"Well that's not very nice." I stop short and snap my head to the left. It's just Megan.
"This is Megan, Megan, you know them."
"Oh, your Megan." Peeta shakes her hand.
"You must be Peeta. Katniss never shuts up about you guys." She smiles.
"She does?" Peeta asks.
"Oh hell yes. All the damn time she always says something about you guys."
"Does she ever cry?" Jo asks.
Megan smirks. "Yes. She really missed you guys."
We are going to be here for a while. I haven't even begun to pack.
"I remember this." Peeta taps a picture on my side of the room. We decided to be stupid cheerleaders on the beach. We make a pyramid successfully. Mom took the photo. I'm on the top, Annie and Prim in the middle and then Jo, Peeta and Finn on the bottom.
Of course, Finn purposely gave out and made all of us fall. I hit the ground on my arm and I thought that I broke it because I couldn't use it for three days.
"I didn't do it on purpose." Finn says.
"Bull shit, Odair." He snickers. We begin to pack up everything. Peeta's going through my clothes.
After thirty minutes, I catch Peeta staring at me.
"What?" I ask.
"Your such a lil' shit."
"What'd I do?" I ask. I know he's just messing with me and doesn't mean that I'm a lil' shit.
"My favorite shirt? Really Kat?"
Oh shit. I bite my lip. "I'm not sorry."
"I'm taking this back." He says.
"Okay." I say. I go back about my business, and when he isn't paying attention, I slip his shirt right over his head. He jerks back, startled.
Then he turns around to face me. They're all watching us, Megan included. "I'm taking this."
He grabs the place where my knees bend and pulls. Before I can hit the floor he grabs my back and pulls me onto his lap. "You aren't going to ask? Don't be greedy." He smiles.
"Why should I ask? Your going to say yes anyways."
"Maybe I won't." His lips are moving close to mine.
"Which is why I'm not taking that chance." I whisper. He's teasing me and he's doing it on purpose.
"Ask." He says. I giggle.
"Nope."
"Ask." He has his hand on the shirt.
"Nope."
"Ask."
I let out a long sigh like I'm going to give in, and then I place a kiss on his lips. "No." I stand up.
"We'll just have to fight for it." He stands up too.
"Winner gets the shirt." I smirk.
"No, if I win, I get your shirt."
"Fair enough." I grin.
"This is gonna be interesting." Megan says.
"I'm taking a video." Johanna says.
I manage to get Peeta on the floor.
"How do you win?"
"Holding the other down for a minute straight so they can't move at all." Finn says.
I pin Peeta to the floor and he just rolls over. "I'm gonna win." He says. He pins me to the floor and I thrash around beneath him.
Then I bite his arm. "What the fuck?" He jerks away and I break free, push him down and sit on his back. Then I pin his arms and legs by laying on top if him.
"I'm gonna let you win,"
He decides.
"Hey! That's not fun! Play with me!"
"I'm not going to because-" he flips me and pins me down, his arms tight and painful on my arms. "I'm hurting you." He releases me.
"Fine!" I giggle and he rolls his eyes.
"You are too cute."
"You guys are too revolting." Johanna mutters.