Hellooo! x

So I know I took a little longer with this one. That's because I've been DORM SHOPPING! So excited! 3 Anyway so nobody gets freaked out or anything: Gale is sorta like a brother figure to Katniss in this story instead of a love interest :) Enjoy!

As soon as I am able to see through my tears, I am on the road again. I can't wait for Prim to get home. I can't let her see me like this, so I decide that I will tell her as soon as I get back. To be honest, the only person I really want to see right now is Peeta, but I know that his mother would go berserk if I showed up at the bakery especially if he's telling them today. So I decide to go to the other person who will really be able to help me through this. It doesn't take long to get there. When I reach the small, dingy house at the end of the street, I park and turn off my car. I walk up the short dirt pathway and knock on the door. It opens a few seconds later, and Hazelle smiles at me.

"Katniss!" She steps out of the doorway to give me a hug. "How are you?" She pushes a piece of hair out of my face and frowns. "Your eyes look a little red. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," I lie. "I was just looking for Gale. Is he here?"

"You just missed him. He went down to the market to get some food for us. You could probably still catch him there!"

"Yeah." I sigh exhaustively. "I'll meet him there. Thanks, Hazelle."

"Not a problem, Katniss." She places a hand on my shoulder and smiles sadly. "I hope you feel better."

"Thank you," I say because arguing would take too long. "I'll see you later."

She nods and waves at me as I return to my car. I hear the clunky door close behind her right before I get into my car. I can't help but smile at how caring Hazelle is every time she sees me. Before Posy was born, Hazelle treated me like the daughter she never had. Even though she has Posy now she still treats me as such. She is probably more motherly toward me than my own mother.

As I pull into the town area, I spot Gale at one of the food carts and park my car nearby. I get out and walk toward him, but he doesn't seem to notice until I am about ten steps away from him. He looks up from the food and gives me a small smile.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

"Nice to see you too." He rolls his eyes as I stop in front of him. "I really need to talk to you."

"You came all the way to the market to talk to me?" He hums inquisitively as he looks through a stack of green vegetables. "This must be pretty important."

"I mean it's not really important. I just don't know what to do."

He finally looks at me with a frown on his face, more concerned than I've seen him in a while.

"What is it?"

I look around to make sure nobody is listening. Of course, nobody is. Everybody is too busy looking through all the food choices, complaining about prices, or asking their children if they're really going to eat that if they buy it.

"Do you know the baker's son? Peeta?"

"Yeah." He nods thoughtfully. "He was in my gym class last year. Why? Did he do something to you? Tell me the truth, Katniss. You know I can take him down."

"No," I chuckle at the serious look on his face. "He didn't do anything. Actually, we've kinda been dating secretly. I mean, I guess you could call it secretly because- you know- nobody knew about it."

"Wait." He shakes his head and looks away. "Shit, Katniss. That's a lot to process. What are we talking here anyway? Months? Weeks?"

"Years..." He raises his arms dramatically and turns away before looking at me again. "Gale-"

"I can't believe this was going on for years and you never even thought to tell me!"

"I did think to tell you! But I couldn't tell anyone until we were ready to tell our parents; I didn't want them to find out from someone else by accident."

"You really thought that I-"

"Gale, please!" I say as loud as I can without drawing attention. "My mother is already pissed off and she practically forbade me from seeing him ever again. I just need my friend right now. Please."

He stares at me for a moment and sighs.

"What did she say?"

"She pretty much reiterated how much she hates the Mellark's and how she wants me to stay away from them and their son." Her warning about Peeta leaving me returns to my mind. "The rest isn't really worth repeating."

"I know why she hates the parents." We move to the next cart and he looks through each item before picking one out. "Why does she hate the son?"

"Because he's their son." I roll my eyes. "She doesn't even know him. He's so much better than his parents. He's polite and generous, he practically gives out food if someone doesn't have money. He's always nice to everyone and..." I look up and see him smirking at the bag he is holding. "What?"

"You really like this guy, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know." He shrugs and finally looks right at me. "I've never seen you like this. I've never seen you upset because you can't date a boy or rambling because your mom doesn't like him. I always thought you never grew out of that 'boys have cooties' phase, but it looks like you're all grown up now!"

"Thanks, Gale." I push his arm and he chuckles. "But I'm serious. She doesn't realize that he's different than them, and she won't even listen if I try to tell her. I don't know what to do."

"Are you gonna keep dating him?" he asks. "You know, secretly?"

"Yes," I answer without hesitation. "But I hate that we have to do this."

"I can see why." He puts all of his food down on one of the counters. "Look. we'll figure something out."

"We?" I smile hesitantly. "You're gonna help me?"

"On one condition." I nod. "You have to tell him that if he breaks your heart, I'm gonna break his legs."

"I think I could do that myself." He chuckles. "But you can have the arms."

"Deal."

I smile as he holds out his arms and hugs me. He pats my back as I rest my head against my chest and sigh.

"Sometimes I feel like you're the brother I never had."

"The very same to you, Katniss."

MY eyes widen and I pull away from him.

"Dammit, Gale!" I smack his arm and he snickers at me.

"God, I was kidding!"

"Whatever," I mutter. "Listen. I should probably start heading home so I get there before Prim."

"Okay. Remember to call me or come over if you need anything, okay?"

I nod and say goodbye to him as I start walking back to my car. Of course, it makes me feel better that I have somebody to support me in this. But I still wish that my mother would understand why I like him so much. Things would be so much easier if she would support me. By the time I get home, my mother has left for the hospital to work the night shift. I breathe a sigh of relief because I don't think I'm quite ready to face her yet after our fight. Prim is sitting at the table though, so I walk into the kitchen and sit next to her.

"Hey, Little Duck." She smiles at me because her mouth is full. "When did you get home?"

"A few minutes ago."

I look down at the plate in front of her.

"Did Mom make that for you?"

"No." She shakes her head. "Mom was seemed pretty annoyed when I got home. She pretty much stayed in her room and then the only time she came out was to go to work. Did something happen?"

The longer I stay silent, the more she stares at me waiting for an answer. Finally, I sigh and tell her everything. I watch as her face slowly changes from confused to surprised to excited to conflicted. When I finish telling her everything, she gapes at me and looks at her food.

"Oh my god, Katniss." She looks at me and smiles again. "You have a boyfriend."

"Well-"

"You have a boyfriend!" she squeals. "That's so cute! I can't believe it! I always thought you hated guys! But you have a boyfriend!"

"Prim, calm down." I chuckle as she bounces up and down in her seat. "I have a boyfriend, but Mom isn't too happy about it."

"I can tell." She sighs and pokes at her food. "I don't get it. Peeta's always so nice. Remember that time when he gave me a free cookie?"

"Of course." I clasp my hands together and rest my chin on them. "But that's not enough to make Mom like him. The only way she would like him is if she found out he was actually adopted. As long as he's a Mellark, she'll hate him."

"That sucks." Prim shakes her head and I can't help but smile at her.

"It's okay. We'll figure it out. I'm just glad you like him." I reach out to ruffle her hair lightly. "So how was school?"

She smiles at me as she starts to tell me about her day. I nod and listen to her, and the entire time I think about how much I love talking to her.

The next day, I can tell that my mother is awake but she doesn't come out of her room until after we leave. So we leave the house without a word. I drop Prim off first before I drive myself to the high school. As I park my car and start walking into the school, I start to worry more and more. I didn't want to text Peeta yesterday because I wanted to talk about this with him in person, but now I just keep wondering how it went with his parents. That question is answered when I walk in and see him standing at his locker. My heart drops as I see the mark around his eye. I start running toward him, no longer caring who may be watching.

"Peeta!" He instinctively looks up but drops his gaze to his shoes as soon as he sees that it is me. "What happened to you?"

"Katniss, it's nothing." He fakes a smile but lets it go as I examine the darkness under his eye. "Really."

"That's not nothing." My voice shakes in anger and he seems to notice. "Did your mother do this?" He looks around to make sure nobody heard me. But everybody knows. "Because of me."

"No! Katniss, don't-"

"Peeta." My eyes are becoming blurry as they fill with tears of anger. "Don't lie to me."

"Alright." He sighs and looks down. "Yes. She did this after I told her about us. But I promise- it's nothing."

The bell rings, and throngs of student shuffle past us as we just stare at each other. The longer I stare at the mark, the more my eyes water. Finally, one tear pushes through. I duck my head to hide it, but he gently places his hand on my cheek and wipes it away anyway. I let out a gasp as more tears fall.

"Oh my god."

I look down in shame as he presses his forehead to mine.

"Katniss, don't cry." I look up at him only to see that his eyes are watering as well, but he fakes a smile as soon as I look at him. "It doesn't matter, okay? It doesn't matter what she does. I'll never stop loving you. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I mutter.

He wraps his arms around me, and my arms circle around his shoulders. I rest my head in his neck. He rubs my back gently as I clutch onto his shirt. He holds on for about a minute but it seems like it was only seconds when he pulls away. He tells me that he doesn't want me to be late for class. I let him go even though I couldn't care less about being late for class anymore. Maybe if I start getting detentions, my mother will realize just how much her attitude is affecting me. Then again, she would probably end up blaming it on Peeta.

The bell rings about sixty seconds before I stroll into my class. I made sure that my face was dry, but there is no way of telling if my eyes are back to their normal color yet. Judging by the looks on the other students' faces, I would say that my eyes are still pretty red.

"You're late, Ms. Everdeen," my teacher says as if I didn't already know. "Do you have a pass?"

"No," I mutter.

"I don't think you've ever been late before. Have you?" I shake my head and she sighs. "I'll let it slide. Just this once. Don't let it happen again, understand?"

I nod lazily as I walk to my seat next to Madge. She turns to me- as the teacher continues to talk- and gives me a look to ask me what happened. I shake my head and look away. Minutes into the lecture, I rest my head on the desk again and close my eyes to think. My blood begins to boil every time I think about the mark on Peeta's face. Not only because that witch he calls his mother hurt him. But also because I am the one that caused it. I'm sure that his mother would have been much happier if he had brought home some pretty blonde girl with bags of money at hand. And even though I know it's wrong for them to treat him this way, I know that it's wrong for me to provoke them. My eyes close even tighter at the thought. I've always known that our relationship wasn't exactly perfect, but I never really took the time to think about how much it would affect Peeta until today.

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