"What was that about?" Rory asks the minute Madge is out of earshot.
"She's mad at me. Or upset. Or something. I don't know." I grumble as we continue to the elevator.
"Yeah she looked pretty hurt when she found out what you were doing." He says and I turn to him.
"Did you talk to her about it?"
He nods. "She said that she was pretty upset about it, considering you told some people but didn't tell her at all."
"I guess I'll just give her a few days to calm down and then apologize for it." I know I screwed up, yeah I know that. I just.. I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing. That it will taint our relationship. More than anything, I just need to talk to her and apologize, but I can't do that when she needs time to cool down.
It hasn't even been twelve hours and I'm already thinking about going back to talk to Madge. The whole night I was up trying to sleep, but I just couldn't. I keep getting irritated with myself and the guilt is setting in. I know now that I should've told her from the beginning, I should've known that it would've ended up with her finding out anyways.
Thom voices his concerns over this during training. "Man, Gale, you're going to end up blowing yourself up later."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You're really distracted." He mutters, shooting another dummy.
"Do you think I didn't realize this?" I grumble angrily and he sighs.
"Just go talk to her, you're going to drive yourself insane."
"She said that she wanted some time to herself, and I'm going to respect that." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.
"Bristel told me that she's been muttering to herself a lot now. About trust or something." I groan and rub my eyes. "Just.. just go get her some flowers or something."
"Yeah because District 13 has a wide expanse of flowers, Thom." I whack him upside the head, and he curses at me.
"Just use your special badge or something to get them." He grumbles and my eyes widen.
"That's actually a great idea."
"Oh god." Thom starts, "You're actually going to?"
"I dunno, maybe. In a couple of days, maybe."
"You're crazy." He murmurs under his breath and I give him a look at he chuckles.
"You know, this isn't actually very funny, Thom." I sigh, putting my gun down and staring at him. "What if you and Bristel were fighting?"
"Well I wasn't the one who hid something from my girlfriend. That was you." I groan. He's definitely got me there.
"I'm done. I can't concentrate on this right now." I grumble, setting my gun down and stalking out of the room. I know Thom is probably rolling his eyes at me behind my back, but frankly, I don't care. I need to get out of this damn district but Coin discontinued that for Katniss and I after she got shot in 2.
Traveling back to my house, I run into Bristel.
"Gale," she starts, but I cut her off.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I screwed up. I should've told her about it, I know."
"Well I'm glad that you realize this." Bristel pauses and pulls me to a different hallway. "She's so upset about this, Gale. You lied to her. You do understand that it's going to take a lot to gain back her trust, correct?"
"I know, Bristel, and it's killing me too."
"Well then go talk to her!" I glare at her.
"She said that she wanted some space, so I'm going to give it to her."
"Do you honestly think that she wants some space?"
"That's what I assumed she wanted," I start quickly, but I'm cut off by Bristel.
"God you're an idiot. She doesn't want space, she just wants to talk to you. She really does. So I would say that you should probably get your ass over there and apologize to her."
I swallow and then nod. "Is she at her place?" Bristel nods her head.
"She should be. Said she was gonna go sleep until next week." I have to stop myself from grinning. That is something Madge would say. "Just go Gale." Bristel finally prods me and I scowl at her before I hurry on my way.
I try to delay from going to see Madge as long as I can by hurrying back to my house. Posy grabs onto my leg as soon as I'm in the house and I trudge around with a five-year-old clinging onto me. I can see her laughing so that's fine. Vick jumps onto my back. "What is this, Attack Gale Day?"
"Yeah!" Posy giggles and I grin before dropping Vick onto the couch and Posy releases me.
"Oh you think that's funny?" I ask the two giggling children and they nod. "That's funny." I pause, and cross my arms over my chest. "But it'll be even funnier when I do this." I reach down and throw them over my shoulders like they're sacks of potatoes. I grunt a little under their combined weight. Now that we're in 13 and they get full meals every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they're both definitely growing. Posy was always small for her age.
They're both laughing and screaming and pounding on my back as I spin around. I'm actually laughing myself.
"Gale!" Vick yells, but his words are interrupted by some more giggles. "Put us down!" He continues yelling and Posy laughs some more. It's good to hear them laughing. District 13 isn't the brightest place in Panem, I'll say that. I finally drop the two of them onto the couch and they collapse into more giggles.
"Again!" I laugh as Posy jumps onto me again.
"Posy, I really have something to do now." She pouts for a second and I grin at her. "I'll be back soon and then I'll do it again, okay?" She still doesn't look satisfied, so I quickly come up with a lie that Vick will tell her a story for now and she's happy. Vick gives me a look and I grin.
"Gotta take some of the weight of making her happy, Vick." I ruffle his hair and he frowns at me before flattening his hair.
I quickly walk into the small kitchen to find my mom and I am completely surprised when I find Madge in there with her. My eyes widen and I immediately back out of the room as both of the women stare at me with eyes wide. Hurrying back into the living room, I get out of the house as fast as I can and lean against the wall. I don't expect Madge to walk out quickly after me.
"Madge," I say, but she ignores me and continues to walk away. "Madge." I say again, following after her, but she quickens her pace. "Madge!" I call after her, jogging to catch up with her before the reaches the elevator.
"What?" She hisses, turning around and glaring at me. She looks tired. Extremely tired. There are bags under her eyes and she just looks exhausted.
"Please listen to me, Madge." She doesn't say anything, just continues to stare at me. "Please." After a minute of silence, she nods.
"Make it quick."
I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Madge."
"Sorry won't cut it, Gale. You lied to me. You lied to me and you knew you were doing it." She forces out, not dropping her gaze. Hell her eyes are determined.
"I know, I know, I just... I thought you'd look at me differently when you found out that I was making bombs.
"If I love you Gale then I wouldn't look at you differently. I thought that you of all people would know that." She hisses again and swallows thickly. I know she's biting back tears. I've seen this face before. It's the face when she's trying not to crack and break into tears. It's the face when she doesn't know what to do. When she has no clue what's going on.
"Madge, I," I break off and swallow. Hell I'm biting back tears too. I try again. "Madge, I'm sorry. I'll understand though, if you never want to see me again, though. I don't deserve you anyways." I finally say, and I know it's true. She's so pure, and amazing, and then when you see me you wonder 'Why is she with him?'. I'm nothing special. Just for some reason she fell in love with me. And now the one thing that I'm sure about is breaking away from me in front of my eyes.
"Gale, I can't do this right now. I can't. I'm sorry." She croaks out and turns away.
"Wait." She turns around and stares some more, eyes unreadable. "Tell me when you can talk to me about it." She nods slowly. And then walks away, leaving me standing there alone.
I haven't seen Madge in a couple days. She hasn't been over and she hasn't been at school. I ask Bristel about it and she shrugs, saying that the last time she saw her was with me a couple days ago.
Quickly, I hurry into the woods and pick some strawberries for her. Maybe she's sick. That's the only logical explanation I can think of, and I'm not that great when it comes to thinking.
When I finally get back to town, it's oddly quiet. No one's stirring. Maybe it's because all of the children are at school. I should be at school, but I'm leaving in a few weeks to go to the mines, skipping now won't kill me.
Slowly, I trudge to the back door of the Mayor's house, and knock slowly. I'm praying that Madge is the one to open the door. I stand there for a couple of minutes before I ring the bell. There's some stomping of feet down the stairs and finally the door opens. Madge is a mess. Her hair is thrown up into a really messy bun and it kind of looks like she hasn't showered. Her eyes are puffy and red and there are bags present under them.
She immediately plows into me and buries her face into my chest.
"Well hello to you too." I chuckle, and she doesn't respond. I pull her into the house and set the strawberries onto the pristine kitchen counter before sitting her down on the couch. She sniffles a couple of times and I cup her cheeks. "What's wrong?" A couple of tears leaked down her face and I quickly wipe them away and kiss her now. "Sh, don't cry. Tell me what's wrong." Pulling her onto my lap, I wrap my arms around her waist. "Talk to me."
She takes a shaking breath and then finally talks. " A couple days ago, I came home and my father told me that my mom had gotten worse. She's dying. She's dying, Gale." She buries her face into my chest and I sit there shocked for a few moments before tightening my grip on her.
"I'm sorry. Madge, if there's anything I could do about it, I would." I murmur, smoothing her hair as her hands fist into my shirt. "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault. Don't apologize." She mumbles, looking up at me. She has no clue what to do. None at all.
"If you're in pain, I'm in pain, Madge." I press a kiss to the top of her head. The front door opens and I look up to see Mayor Undersee entering the house. He gives a double take that I'm here and then sees why I'm here. He gives me a curt nod, and then mouths thank you to me. He disappears up the stairs and I sigh.
"He's never here for me. Never. He's always too busy working. He never has time for me, his own daughter."
"Madge," I start but she cuts me off.
"And when she dies, he's going to completely cut himself off from me. She's the only thing that keeps us together anymore. I'm not going to have anyone!" She chokes and I quickly press a gentle kiss to her lips.
"I will still be here. I'm not going to leave you." Her chin quivers and she buries her face again into my chest. I lean back and lay us down onto the large couch. The rest of the day I just hold her. Hold her against my chest and don't let go. We don't move most of the day, unless it's the shift our position, or to get food. Finally, Madge falls asleep.
Carefully, I carry her up the stairs and into her room. She's very light. I take it she hasn't eaten it much, plus she's already so skinny anyways. It can't be good for her. I gently put her down on the bed and pull the sheets and covers over her body. She looks so peaceful and carefree when she's asleep. But I know she's not. Underneath her exterior is a girl who has so many secrets and so much to unravel that it's almost impossible. But I don't mind. I'd like to know about her, figure everything out.
I press a kiss to her forehead and hurry out of the room, turning off the light and shutting the door.
A/N: I'm sorry. I've literally had no idea what to do with this story. I know where I want it to go, but I just don't know how to get it to where it needs to be, if you understand. Anyways: If you have any ideas, tell me, I'll try to fit them in to it! I know the beginning of this chapter probably sucks, but I couldn't think of anything else! Sorry if you hate it!