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Chapter 2. Lies

Katniss: "What the heck is going on?!" Peeta shouts angrily. I look up at Peeta and a chill surges through my body. "Oh crap, were screwed" Gale whispers to me. "Peeta… It's not what its looks like" I say, my voice sounding squeaky with guilt. Gale was yanked from my arms. "What have you been doing with my girl?!" Peeta hisses. "I-I nothing happened" Gale tried to convince Peeta. "You better not have just been kissing Katniss or I will personally rip out your vocal chords and choke you with them" Peeta growls. He grips Gale tightly by the throat. Gale tries to fight back but he is still too weak from recovering. He might have healed from the whipping incident but he is in no shape to be fighting. We were totally unprepared for something like this to happen. "Peeta calm down" I shriek. I jump on him to try to help Gale. "Let him go". I pull on his arm with all my strength, trying to pry his arms open. Despite my lack of energy I manage to get Peeta to release his grip on Gale's neck. Gale falls to the ground struggling to take a breath. It takes him a minute to stop coughing and compose himself. Peeta approaches him and I can tell he's going to hurt him again as a punishment for kissing me.

I do the first thing that comes to my mind. I dash to Gale's side and throw myself over his body, using my body as a shield. I came just in time to protect Gale but not enough time to stop the fist coming my way. His fist and my temple collide. Abruptly my mind wanders back to the whipping scene and I realize this is exactly how that went. I used my body to protect Gale from another lash of the whip, but in this case, Peeta's fist. Except because of what I did to save Gale there were consequences to my actions. I took the blow of the whip and now Peeta's fist.

I collapse to the ground; my temple throbbing erratically. It was the punch that brought Peeta to his senses. Immediately he regrets his actions. Peeta soon forgets about what happened before and helps me to my bed. Gale is by my side now, holding my hand. "Oh my gosh, Katniss are you okay?" he asks genuinely concerned. "I'm so sorry Katniss. Please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm so sorry" Peeta rants on as he sits beside me, on the bed. "I'm fine guys. Really! You two don't need to worry about me. I'm strong enough to take a punch" I say sitting up.

I don't know why but the first thing that comes to my head when I sit up is the secret I've been keeping from Peeta. That's it. I can't take it anymore. For weeks I've been lying to Peeta and keeping a big secret from him. I am just so fed up with doing this to him. "I'll tell, right here, right now, he needs to know" I decide. "Peeta, you aren't the one to be sorry here-"I was cut off by another apology from Peeta "Yes I am Katniss. I went too far with this. I let my anger get to me. I will never ever hurt you again. I promise" I catch Gale rolling his eyes at Peeta's words. It hurts to tell him but he deserves to know the truth. He doesn't deserve me. He deserves another girl who's better than me. Another girl that will treat him the way he's supposed to be treated. Any other girl would be better than me for him because I am a terrible person and a liar.

I have to touch Peeta's hand to get him to shut his mouth long enough so he'd listen to me. "Peeta, I have to tell you something. You may not like this news and you'll probably hate me for this…" I trail off, afraid to continue. Both guys are looking at me with wide eyes and rapt attention. But never the less he's got to know so I slowly continue my sentence. "It has to do with Gale", Gale gives me a quick look asking if I'm sure I want to do this. I hesitate briefly and nod. I can tell by the look in Peeta's eyes and the slow inhale and exhale of his breath that he's nervous. I take a deep breath, close my eyes and prepare for his reaction.

"Peeta…Gale and I are… together"

"What do you mean together?"

"Peeta, I think you know what I mean"

"You mean you're dating?"

I nod as tears form at the surface of my eyes but I hold them back, forbidding them to escape my eyes. All the blood drained from his face, leaving it as pale as a ghost. Peeta's blue eyes are dilated and are staring straight into my grey ones. There's a short pause of silence until Peeta manages to choke out a few words. "How long?" he asks. I give him a puzzled look. "How long have you two been dating?" he says through clenched teeth. My heart is hammering in my chest and the lump in the back of my throat is threatening to make me cry. "We started dating a little after we came home from the victory tour. So around a month and a half." I look down and wait for Peeta to get angry again. Moments go by and there's only silence. When I was look up to see his response, Peeta storms out of the room.

I hope you liked it! I tried my best to leave the story off with a cliff hanger. Read and Review if you want more!