Coming Home

Chapter 3:Painful Memories

I spent one of the worst nights of my life. It was plagued with nightmares, about my parents accident, their pale lifeless faces. Me, unable to land a decent job because I couldn't finish my studies. The bank kicking us from our home. The gray-haired Ms. Coin taking Prim away from me and into a Community Home. Everybody pointing at me with disappointed faces, accusing me of having failed. And most of all, HER, laughing at me in the arms of that asshole, telling me how she had foreseen how worthless I was.

I woke up startled and bathed in sweat. It kept repeating itself for the rest of the night. After a few hours of restless sleep, the alarm on my mobile woke me at six in the morning. My hand already moved to turn it off when everything flooded back into my consciousness.

My parents were dead.

My sister.

My responsibility.

I couldn't permit myself to fail. So instead of turning it off and going back to sleep, I turned it off and got up. I took a quick shower and then went to the kitchen to check if I had everything to prepare breakfast for my sister. I decided to let her sleep in a little. At seven thirty I called the school and spoke to the principal. She accepted that I would keep my sister at home today but convinced me that it was better for her to come to School again the next week because the routine would help her adapt to the new situation.

I was about to call my father's employer when the doorbell rang. The last thing I expected was to run into the person who knocked on the door. There, dressed in an expensive suit and jacket, briefcase in hand was nobody else than Gale fucking Hawthorne.

"Damn it!"— I cursed to myself. But of course, I forgot that asshole Hawthorne had just graduated from law school and started working as a junior partner in the same firm as my father. Mother had told me about it the last time I was in Panem. I had neither time, nor patience to deal with the asshole that screwed my life, and I wasn't going to try and be polite, so I spoke with all the contempt I felt for the guy in front of me.

"What the hell are you doing here, Hawthorne, didn't you already know that my sister and I are mourning the death of our parents? —I'd be surprised if you didn't, knowing how fast the news run around here— so I'll be very grateful if you just leave my porch. The last thing I need is to have to deal with you."

Hawthorne gave me a serious look and let out a sigh. "I'm very sorry about your father Mellark, Graham was a great mentor to me during this last year at the firm."

I raised my eyebrows and leaned back in a gesture of surprise. —"Graham?"— I said sarcastically— "Since when did my father give you the confidence to call him by his first name? As far as I knew, he was your boss."

Gale twisted his eyes impatiently, but I did not give a damn. This idiot was not going to end up ruining the little pride I had left.

"Yes, Mellark, your father was a great man, and unlike you, he did believe me when I told him the truth of what really happened between her and I. So much that he confided with me his instructions for you in relation to the house and the inheritance that both he and your mother left you in case anything happened to them. Whether you like it or not, I am your lawyer, and the executor of your father's will, so if you want to keep custody of your sister; because don't even think that that harpy Alma Coin will make it easy for you to keep her. Even less when you have not finished your career and don't have a job. Believe me when I tell you that she will do everything in her power to take her away from you and into foster care, so I regret to inform you that you are stuck with me."

"Now that was a low blow. Asshole."

I felt a bucket of iced water spill on my head. How my own father had been able to betray me by associating with the one person guilty of all the pain I have carried with me for almost four years and worse, naming him as the executor of his will, forcing me to deal with him?

I looked at him with hatred and stepped aside to let him pass. I was going to have to swallow my pride again for my sister. Because I was willing to negotiate with Satan himself in order to keep her with me.

I motioned for him to sit in the couch when Prim appeared through the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. When she saw Gale her face split in a smile.

"Gale!" she screamed jumping into my nemesis' embrace. I couldn't believe my eyes. It hurt almost the same as when I saw them together all those years ago.

I heard her telling him how scared she was that the Social Worker was going to take her away to foster care and that she wanted to stay with me. Hawthorne surprised me with his gentleness towards my little sister.

"Don't worry honey. I promise you to do everything in my power to ensure you stay with your brother. But first, I have to go through a few details with him."

"Primrose,"— I said sounding a little harsher than I would have wanted "—I already spoke with Principal Paylor. You are off the hook from school for a couple of days. I got you some fruit and cereal for breakfast; it's already on the kitchen table. I will be with you in a few minutes."

My sweet sister threw her little arms around my waist and smiled. "Don't be so mad at Gale, he's a good guy, I like him."

I chuckled at her and nodded and she ran to the kitchen.

I turned my attention back to Hawthorne. "It seems your sole purpose in life is stealing from me the love of the people who matters the most for me."

"Mellark, I never took anything away from you. The only reason why..."

"Save it!" I cut him. "I don't want to listen to your lies." I was so angry because in addition of the pain of losing my family, now I had to deal with the reopening of wounds that I thought were deeply buried.

Memories of her.

I had started dating when I was in sophomore year in high school and at fifteen and a half, the night of the Homecoming dance; I lost my virginity to a girl named Leevy. It was a disappointing experience for both of us and the relationship didn't last much longer.

That spring, six months after I broke up with Leevy, a new girl came to school. She was from Seam County, a miner's town 40 miles north. She came to live with her uncle, the owner of the only pub in town, old drunk Haymitch Abernathy, after her parents were killed in an accident. She was shy and reserved. She practically didn't talk to anyone except Madge Undersee, the only daughter of the mayor —with whom she had a strange relationship, since they always sat together, but barely spoke to each other— and Gale Hawthorne, who apparently knew her from before, since his family came from the same place. She became famous at school because of her permanent scowl, which made her unapproachable. It was said that she used to hunt with her father and that she was very good with the bow and arrow, and that made her even more intimidating. However, she was absolutely beautiful, with an exotic mixture of olive skin, long straight jet black hair, striking molten gray eyes, fine features and a lean athletic body, although she was shorter than most of the other girls and maybe a little less endowed than many. I didn't care; I was attracted to her from day one. I was quite popular at school and had a lot of friends, so making friends used to come easy for me, but inexplicably, I lost my ability to speak in front of her. My best friend Finnick used to tease me because I had a death wish, pinning for the school's "Ice Queen". So I kept my crush to myself and settled for admiring her from afar for the whole summer. But one month after school started again, my luck changed. I was passing through the empty music classroom to take a shortcut to the gym since I was late for wrestling practice when I heard the most angelic voice singing to the strings of a guitar. I felt hypnotized from the sound of the song. When I looked inside the classroom, my heart skip two beats and clutched at the sight of my siren, and from that moment, I knew I was a goner. Sitting in a stool in the lonely room, with a red plaid button down shirt, black slacks and her hair braided to the side was the girl who caught my eye the first time I saw her, and from that moment, held my heart too.

The stunningly beautiful Katniss Everdeen.

When she saw me, she stopped singing, but I asked her not to. Her eyes locked with mine, and with a soft timid smile, she started singing again, just for me.

After that day, we became best friends, and slowly, 7 months later, I found the courage to confess my feelings for her, and after a magical first kiss under the stars in front of the lake the night of her 17th birthday, I asked her to be my girlfriend.

At that time, everything was wonderful. We were perfect together. We fit seamlessly while studying and we had fun all the time. We enjoyed the same activities, had a similar sense of humor and could have lengthy discussions without saying a single word. She even gave me her virginity during a summer camp we had that July which was the most incredible experience of my life, and we added lots of great sex to our relationship. Haymitch approved of me and my father and Prim adored her. Her bond with my sister was really special. My mother…well that was a different story. I never understood why she disliked Katniss so much. At first she welcomed her to our house, but after one dinner everything changed. My mother asked her questions about her family, and after she named her parents, my mother's attitude changed. She never told me why, but regardless of that, she just kept her distance and didn't interfere in our relationship. I knew my mother loved me, and I was happy so that was all that mattered to her.

I felt that I had found my soulmate.

Or so I thought.

Obviously, she felt different. After thirteen months together, out of the blue as far as I could tell she broke up with me three days after Prom, "because she wasn't ready for a committed relationship". Not a week later, I found her lips locked with Gale Hawthorne, the guy who had been looming after her for the entire length of our relationship. All thoughts of trying to remain at least friends and try to win her back vanished into thin air. I stopped dating after Katniss and remained single for the remaining last month of High School. I still went to parties but only if I had reason to assume that she wouldn't be there. If she showed up nonetheless, I mysteriously disappeared through the back door. In the school corridors, I ignored her the best I could. The short time span between her dumping me and the hook-up with Gale led me to believe that she had already been seeing him when we still were together. She was still with him when we graduated so I took the opportunity the switch from High School to College offered to cut her out of my life in an attempt to move past her. It wasn't hard to avoid her since she went to a fancy College abroad, with her new boyfriend and I stayed home for a year before going to the Capitol. I couldn't bear the thought of seeing pictures of her with her beau enjoying life in Europe while I was stuck at home, feeling miserable and not able to move on. So I kicked her out of my friend's lists on all social media and blocked her for good.

Next year, I went to College in the Capitol and tried to move on, burying my feelings as best I could. The new environment and meeting new people who didn't know or remind me of her helped, a lot. In my attempts to move on from Katniss I resumed my dating activity, but nothing ever came out of it. No other girl could measure up to Katniss or rather the feeling of completeness I had felt when we were together. Not with Cressida, Enobaria, Foxface or even Glimmer. None of them made me forget the only girl I have ever been in love with.

But then last year, my mother told me Gale Hawthorne had returned from England...alone. Apparently his relationship with Katniss was over, because as far as I knew, he started dating Madge Undersee. I was curious—and stupidly hopeful at first— so I search for her in social media, only to have my idiotic heart crushed again at the knowledge that she apparently was dating the spoiled son of a rich European businessman, a guy named Cato Snow. It was clear that she was moving up in the ladder, and none of us were up to her standards.

But for all the disappointment I felt, I still loved her. I hadn't been able to forget her. And here I was at the mercy of the guy who took her from me. Without even a completed College Degree to show him I didn't need his help. But I pathetically did. Without him, I will surely lose my sister, the only family I have left.

And that would destroy me.

Hi there everybody! Here with a new Chapter. Here we have Peeta's memories of Katniss after Gale surprised him.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Chapter 4 will be posted next Thursday.

XOXO Lizzyvb