GALE'S Pov
Katniss climbs the rock wall with break-neck speed. She's pushing the rock with all her weight (which isn't much), but it still won't budge.
"No, no, no, no, no…" Katniss is murmuring. This has to be a nightmare for her. Just like during the flooding, Katniss is probably freaking out right now. I put my hands on her shoulders and force her to look at me.
"Katniss, it's okay. There's probably another way out. There can't just be two exits to a cave," I reason with her. Katniss nods, and wrings her hands.
"There has to be another exit…" she whispers, thinking it over. I nod.
"Yes, Katniss, yeah. We just have to find it," I say, taking my hands off her shoulders. I help her down the rock wall, and I lead her to the kitchen where everybody else is.
"Um, guys, we have a problem," I begin, "Uh, both exits of the cave is blocked by, I think, meteors from outside. The only way to get out is if we find a new exit." Nobody says anything.
"How much food do we have?" Katniss asks quickly. The moms check the supplies, and Katniss's mom answers.
"Uh, about enough food for all of us for… today and tomorrow," she answers. Katniss's eyes bug out.
"What? How? I thought we had more than that!" Katniss exclaims.
"Okay, I forgot to tell you guys something, but somebody didn't put the fresh meat back in the fridge, so it spoiled," her mom explains. Katniss doesn't say anything.
"I think we should start looking for another exit before it's too late," I propose. So, we split up and start feeling cracks, knocking on walls, and tapping on the floor.
TIME PASSES
Nobody has found anything. However, Katniss has found a suspicious crack in the wall, which she's poking with a stick.
We've been searching all day, and so now, at a little after sunset, I tuck Timmy into bed.
We say our prayers then Timmy asks, "Are we going to die?"
"Timmy! There's no way we're going to die. We're going to find a way out," I say convincingly.
"I don't believe you," he says, "I heard Katniss crying in that one room with the cave stuff."
Katniss was crying?
"Timmy, no, we are going to find a way out of here," I say, standing up. He rolls over and falls asleep immediately. Meanwhile, I try to find Katniss. I check Room 4, the cave room, first.
There she is. Katniss is hastily searching a corner surrounded by boulders. She's at the top of the pile, checking the wall.
"Hey," I say, standing at the bottom of all the boulders. She turns around to face me and sits on the boulder.
"Hi," she uttered. I climb up to her boulder and I sit next to her.
"You okay?" I ask. Katniss sighs, and says nothing. Then at the same time, Katniss leans against me and I snake my arm around her waist. She sighs again.
"I don't know. I'm worried we'll never get out of here," she mumbles, her face in my shirt.
"I know, it's okay. We'll get out, Katniss, you'll see," I tell her, and I look up at the cave. There's a pretty good view from here. I see a tiny bat hanging from the ceiling.
"Hey, Katniss. Katniss," I whisper. But she's already asleep. Wow, that was quick. I scoop her in my arms, and stand up. Her arms wind around my neck and hold on. I carefully walk from rock to rock until I've reached the bottom. I walk Katniss to her bed and lay her down. But she won't let go of my neck.
"Katniss?" I whisper.
"don't leave me, okay?" she whisper-asks, groggily. Hmm, that was the exact same thing she said to me when she first slept over at my house. I bet she's too groggy right now to remember, though. So I climb into her bed in my pajamas and she curls up next to me.
TIME PASSES
"Oooohhhhh," I hear the next morning. I open my eyes. Prim is standing at the foot of the bed, staring at me and Katniss. I look at Katniss. She's sleeping.
"You slept in Katniss's bed?" Prim immediately asks, whispering.
I chuckle. "Well, good morning to you, too," I say, also whispering.
KATNISS'S POV
I wake up to hear whispering. My eyes hurt, so I keep them shut a bit. I pick up the voices -- they belong to Gale and Prim. What are they whispering about?
"Do you love her?" Prim asks, probably referring to me. God, Prim, shut up would'ja?, I think. But I want to hear what Gale has to say in response.
There's a hesitation from Gale. Hellooo?, I think, Yes or no?
"Well, I that's kind of-" Gale begins.
"Ahem. That's a yes or no answer," Prim demands. I would have laughed at her bossy tone, but I'm supposed to be asleep.
"Yes," Gale whispers.
"What?"
"Yes!" he whispers louder.
"Are you getting marri-" Prim starts to ask, but I yawn, alerting them I'm waking up. I don't want Gale to feel too awkward having to answer all of Prim's stupid questions. Well, not stupid. Gale told her he loved me, but even though he told me that himself, it feels almost even more special because he's telling other people how he feels about me. Wait, does that even make sense? Whatever, I'm still half-way asleep.
Gale kisses me on the temple, and my eyes flutter open. I just barely see Prim running away around the corner.
"Morning," I say to Gale. He kisses my jaw, right under my ear. I smile and blush. Why does Gale make me smile like an idiot like that? He's, like, my best friend. He is my best friend.
"Good morning," he says back.
"Good morning to you guys, too," says a voice that sounds like Gale's mom. We jump out of the bed, blushing, as we get dressed. Gale's mom laughs, which makes me blush harder.