Disclaimer: I'm trying to update this more.
Three days pass. Three entire days. Madge doesn't even try to contact me to talk about anything. Whenever I see her in the hallways, we completely ignore each other. I'm giving her space, even if it's killing me. I can't stand not talking to her. I tell her nearly everything. And there definitely a lot that I need to tell her. Thom and Bristel are fighting as well now. Something that's really bad. Thom won't talk to me about it, and if Thom won't then Bristel is definitely out of the question.
It's reflection, and I'm sitting on the small couch when Posy crawls into my lap.
"Gale?" She asks, snuggling closer to me. God I love my sister.
"Yeah, Pose?"
"Where's Madge?" And there's the catch.
"I-well, Posy, we're-" Oh the fun of explaining stuff to a five year old. She asks so many questions though. Almost too many. "We're taking a break, Posy." I finally decide on and she looks puzzled.
"Why? Did you fight?" Sometimes, I swear she understands what the rest of the family is talking about.
"Yeah, a little." I tell her.
"Why?"
"I lied to her." Posy's eyes widen.
"But lying is bad! Mama always tells us not to lie."
"I know, Pose. I shouldn't have lied. But I did, and I know now that I shouldn't have lied to her." I tell her and she crosses her arms and pouts. "Now what are you pouting about?" I poke her side and she cracks a smile before poking me back. Yes, we definitely need to be more careful with what we say around her. My mom tells her that it's time for bed and she takes her from me.
I'm just waiting for her to come back out and talk to me about Madge, but she doesn't. I know she's thinking about it, though.
Eventually, I'm one of the last ones up. Rory finally disappears into the room he shares with Vick, and then I stay up for another hour. I slowly trudge to my room and collapse onto the bed. I don't even know why I try to sleep anymore. It doesn't happen. Either I can't sleep, or I have a nightmare. Madge was usually the one to console me when I woke up in the middle of the night screaming, at least since she made it here on foot.
I do finally fall asleep, only to be woken up about three hours later by a harsh knocking on the front door.
I decide not to move. It's too much work to move anymore. Plus since the war is approaching, our trainers have been pushing us harder and further in training and it sucks. I hear my mom go to the front door and there's a couple moments of talking. Then padding of feet down the hallway, and some whispering. A knock on my door. I groan and stand slowly before opening reluctantly.
I'm not expecting what I see outside of my door in the hallway.
Madge.
Madge, with a tear-stained face, red and frantic eyes and a shaking body. "Madge? What're you..." I trail off sleepily before looking at my mom who's standing in the hallway. She shrugs a little before disappearing into her room. "C'mere." I say, and Madge quickly follows me into my room. I sit on the side of the bed and she sits next to me. "What's wrong?" I ask and she quickly crawls into my lap. While I'm welcome to her touch, it's odd that she's touching me when we haven't spoken in three days. "Talk to me. What's wrong?"
"Nightmare." She mumbles and I can feel her tears soaking through my shirt already.
"What was it about?" I ask, tangling my fingers in her hair.
"D-district 12 and t-the bombing." She chokes out. "Y-you were trying to get me a-and the house c-collapsed on you and.." She trails off and buries her face further into my chest. My heart aches for her. I've had that dream thousands of times. Except I was about to get to Madge when the house collapses on her. Not fun.
"It's okay, Madge. It's fine. They can't get me here." I murmur to her and she just holds onto me.
After a little, she finally calms down. She stares at me and I stare back. I'm the first the break the silence.
"I'm sorry." For two ways actually. "I'm so sorry, Madge. You have to understand that."
She's quiet for a really long time. I'm beginning to think that she didn't even hear me and I'm about to say it again, when she says something.
"I know." She pauses and plays with her fingers. "Gale, listen to me." I nod and she continues. "If you ever lie to me again, you will not get another chance. I will end it right then and there, even if it hurts."
"Okay," I start, so I can finish my apology but she keeps talking.
"Gale, I love you so much. If you're going to keep doing this to me, then I don't know what I'm going to do." She stares at me, and it seems like she's done, so I start.
"I'm an idiot. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I know it's cheesy, but it's true. Madge, all my life everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. You're the only thing that's made this worthwhile. Do I deserve you? No. Do you deserve better? Yes. But you've stuck with me. I have no clue how, but you've done it. And now I'm rambling, so I'm just gonna get to the point. I'm so sorry for everything that I've done to you. I've never meant any of it. If you want to walk away right now, go ahead. Find someone who can actually provide for you. Someone who you can start a family with, have a better life."
The thing is, since a little before the bombs dropped, the only person I could imagine starting a family with is her. I've always pictured Madge, holding a little boy. That's what I've pictured as family.
She stares at me for a moment before she tightens her grip on me. "But I want to have a family with you. I don't care if you can't provide for me, screw that, we'll figure it out. Gale, you of all people should know that I don't care."
In that moment, Madge is the only person that matters. Our lips collide in a clash of passion. I love this girl so much. After a few moments of our mouths running over one another, her tongue begs permission to enter my mouth. I let her. Her nimble fingers pry at the bottom of my shirt and I sit up so she can pull it off of me. My mouth slides down her neck and I suck on her collarbone. She squeaks and I grin into her shoulder. I tug her shirt over her head and her fingers grip onto my waistband. Goddamn, she's beautiful. My hands want to be everywhere at once.
"Hell, I love you." I mumble against her lips and she grins. She somehow manages to flip us over so she's straddling me. I'm pulling her down towards me when she suddenly starts laughing.
"What?" I ask, completely puzzled. "What are you laughing at?"
"What are we doing, Gale?" I raise an eyebrow at her as she sits up.
"We're kissing?"
"No duh, but.." She trails off and just laughs. Eventually I join in and we collapse back on my bed, laughing. I roll so I'm facing her and I smile. I'm trying to pay attention to her face, but with the amount of skin that's exposed right now, it's kind of impossible. "Gale," she teases, tugging me to her, "Another time," she murmurs, "Not now. When we're alone." I smirk, and she smiles.
"Am I forgiven?" I ask softly, and her smile falters for a moment but she nods.
"For now. Don't ever do that again, okay?" I nod quickly. If Madge is known for anything, it's being able to never forget anything. She'll mock me about this until the day she dies.
Madge crawls across the bed and grabs my shirt before pulling it over her head. Then, kicks her pants off and crawls back over to me.
"Hell, Madge. You're gonna drive me crazy." She grins and I tug her to me. "I gotta get up early tomorrow morning, but I'll see you at breakfast."
Her blonde eyebrows furrow. "Where are you going?"
"I have some last meeting about the war." My stomach drops and I sit up. My head immediately goes into my hands. "I leave in two days." I force out and turn back to her. She's in disbelief. So am I, really. I've been so caught up with figuring out how to fix the mess with Madge that I didn't think about when I was leaving.
"No. No, no, no." She says softly and I rest my head on her shoulder.
"I have too. I don't want too, but I have too." I tell her gently, and she takes a shaking breath.
"So does that mean that I leave too?"
"No, you're in the second wave. You have about three days after I leave before you do." Her face falls. Trust me, I don't want to have to leave my family for who knows how long. I just hope that the war isn't long enough to cause a lot more trouble than I need.
"Oh." She says quietly, before snuggling closer to me. "I'm not letting you go until you leave." She wraps her arms around my chest and I twist mine around her back.
"I'm fine with that." I mumble and she falls asleep pretty quickly after that. I don't though. If I'm not going to see her for weeks, months even, I want to memorize her face. The curve of her nose, the pink of her cheeks, everything. I don't want to forget a thing.
I fall asleep as well, and it's literally the first night in a really long time that I haven't had a nightmare.
The next morning, we receive our uniforms. They're basic gray things. As usual. We're the only district that will have uniforms, unless we have enough to pass around to the rest of the Rebels. We're assigned a military backpack to keep things in. A canteen, some bandages, and a map are some of the items we receive. We all get a gun and a knife to strap to our belt.
Coin tells us all to put our bags in the hovercraft that will transport us to the Capitol. We're assigned hovercrafts by squad number. Since I'm on the "Star Squad" we're in the front of the line of hovercrafts. Katniss gives me a grim nod. She must also understand that we might die.
"You ready for this?" Finnick asks as he hangs up his backpack.
"As I'll ever be." I reply and we head out of the hovercraft.
"Listen. The zones that we're going to are wired like the Hunger Games." Finnick says, staring at the hovercraft. "It's like in the Games. Each area is stuck with something else. Something that could cause a disaster."
"Oh." I reply. Leave it to the Capitol to do this.
"I'm not telling Annie." He mumbles bitterly.
"What? Why?"
"Because if she knows that I'm going into another thing that's basically the Hunger Games, she'll panic more than she already is. I don't want that." I nod. I know that I have to tell Madge. Partly because she needs to know what she's going into, and because I'm not keeping anything from her anymore.
A/N: Okay, I'm back on track. Next chapter is the last chapter before the war. I have most of it planned out. Expect a few more chapters, but I'm not sure yet. As I'm coming to the end of this story, kind of, I'd like some feedback on what I'm writing. I don't know if y'all like it or not, and I want to know. Thoughts?