The next morning I woke up with puffy eyes and absolutely no desire to get out of bed. As I laid on my stomach moaning and groaning about how early it was Peeta rubbed my bad and made promises of cinnamon rolls, eggs, pancakes and anything else he could think of as enticements to help me get out of bed. None of it worked. Eventually he gave up and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day. I closed my eyes again and woke up to Peeta kissing me on the cheek and reminding me that Vick would be over soon to go with me to the market. I winced at this reminder and dragged myself out of bed.
When I got downstairs I was greeted by silence as Vick sat uncomfortably at my table and Peeta tried to ask him what he liked on pancakes while he made a large stack of them. I gave Peeta quick peck on the cheek, hoping Vick would notice it, and sat down next to him asking how his evening had been. He didn't speak much but gave a few short answers. We ate in silence and finally when we got up to clean the dishes, Peeta's voice cut the air.
"How's your brother Gale doing?" he asked as I nearly dropped the dish I was scrubbing. What was he doing?
"Uh… He's.. He's okay. Thanks for asking." Vick responded, a bit surprised by the question. "Good, I'm glad to hear it. I never got to thank him for getting me out of the Capitol and keeping Katniss alive the whole time I was… out of it." You could tell the words were hard for Peeta to say, but he was sincere in his tone as well. "I'll let him know that, Mr. Mellark," Vick responded. We soon finished the dishes and Peeta was headed out the door after a quick kiss.
Vick and I packed up the meat and headed out towards the market. "Did he really mean that?" Vick asked. "Who, Peeta? Yeah. He's not a bad guy, you know. You might actually like him if you got to know him," I said defensively. I felt bad instantly. It wasn't Vick's fault that he felt that way about Peeta. My anger was really meant for Gale. How dare he let his own feelings ruin other peoples' opinions of Peeta! As I fumed as little to myself we entered the market and began setting up for the day. After getting set up we stood in silence waiting for customers to come by.
By the middle of the afternoon we had sold almost all of our meat and were cleaning up shop. Hazelle came by to see how things were going and to take a picture of Vick at work. "To send to Gale," she said with a smile. I awkwardly posed with her son and offered her some free meat. When Vick began cleaning himself off I told him he could leave his apron and to be at my house early the next morning. He quietly nodded and I pulled him aside before he left with his mother, "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. I am just defensive of Peeta. He really is a good guy though." He looked at me and nodded again. "I'll try to be nicer to him." I squeezed his arm and smiled before letting him leave.
That evening when Peeta came home he had a lot to share from the day. There were twenty new students for his baking class, most of which were teenaged girls, and four people asked about his art class, mostly little kids twelve-years-old and younger. I smiled at the idea and gave Peeta my sincerest congratulations. "How was your day?" he asked. "Was Vick more talkative than yesterday?" he continued with a chuckle in his voice. "Hardly," I answered with a bit of frustration in my voice. As I sat there thinking about the entire Vick/Gale situation I grew more frustrated and voiced it to hear Peeta's take.
"It really is pretty stupid how they're acting. It's like Gale's a 15-year-old girl gossiping about his competition so that no one else likes him. And Vick just believes it because it's coming from Gale who is apparently infallible in his family's eyes! His mom even came by to take a picture of me- well, us—at the market today to send to him. It's like they can't move past the fact that I will NOT be a part of their family!"
Peeta looked down with his eyebrows close together like he usually did when he was thinking of what to say so as not to set me off. "I'm not saying I agree with the idea that I'm a bad guy, but can you blame him Katniss? I nearly killed you before. He's just trying to be a friend. And yeah, he's probably still jealous, but…" I cut him off before he could continue. "Are you on his side then? Seriously? They all probably think you beat me up on a regular basis!" I huffed upstairs and slammed the bedroom door shut behind me.
I paced back and forth in our bedroom thinking about what Peeta said. How was Gale acting like a friend? Does a friend really lie about the person you care about? Does a friend leave without a word for more than two years? How is he being a friend at all? I lay down on the bed and curled up, pulling the blankets above my head as I continued questioning Gale's actions. A few hours later Peeta came up for bed. But instead of letting himself in like normal he knocked lightly on the door.
"Katniss, can I come in?" he said softly. I turned to him and nodded yes. He came in and sat down on the bed next to me. "I appreciate your frustration with him," he said with a faint smile. "Honestly, I do. I've never had as loyal of a friend as you. Shoot, you're angry enough for both of us," he laughed as he pushed my hair out of my face. "But don't take it out on his family," he said as he lay down beside me. "And Katniss," he continued, wrapping his arms around me, "don't take it out on him. He is acting like a friend should." I pouted wondering if he was able to read my mind. "He's making sure that no one hurts you. You would do the exact same thing if anyone you cared about was in the same situation." With that we kissed a little until we grew tired and kicked our shoes off, sleeping in our regular clothes.
The next morning we were awakened by the sound of knocking coming from our bedroom door. "I don't mean to interrupt anything," Haymitch started, "But there's a Hawthorne kid here and he said he was supposed to meet with you early this morning. He's been sitting on your porch for the last three hours until I came over to let the poor sucker in. It's freezing out there." I bolted out of bed and asked Haymitch what time it was as I ran downstairs. "Ten o'clock, sweetheart!" he yelled back.
As I arrived at the bottom of the stairs I saw Vick red-faced and shivering. "I'm so sorry!" I said. He shrugged and said it was okay. I quickly filled a kettle with water and set it on the stove. Peeta and Haymitch followed me shortly and Haymitch invited Peeta and me to dinner that night, "it's Sadie's birthday. I get to dress up as an elephant," he said with a disgusted look on his face. We laughed and said we would be there and he left.
Peeta pulled out a chair for Vick at the table and motioned for him to come sit down as he got up to make some eggs. "Vick," he started, "I understand your brother wants you to keep an eye on me and Katniss," he laughed. I was afraid of how this would go. "uh…." Vick answered. "I completely agree with him," Peeta said. "You're bigger than me and I know you could take me down in a second. Would you please keep Katniss safe?" I expected him to laugh at his own statement but he was dead serious. Where was this coming from? "Uh… sure, Mr. Mellark," Vick answered. "It's Peeta. I'm only three years older than you Vick, you don't need to call me Mister. My dad was Mr. Mellark," he said as he smiled and patted Vick on the shoulder. "I don't have flashbacks very often these days, but I'd feel safer knowing that if anything happened there would be someone in better condition than Haymitch to fight me off if necessary." We all laughed at the idea and for once Vick had a sincere smile on his face.
Vick was quiet the rest of the morning and because of the newly fallen snow, when we went into the woods our quest for meat wasn't carried too deeply into the woods. We ended the day with about a dozen rabbits, some squirrel, and a couple of birds. The rest of the day was spent with Vick practicing his shooting skills. If he was going to be my helper he needed to at least learn how to shoot better. As the day wore on he smiled a bit more and I felt more at ease around him. While I was still upset with his brother, Vick meant well. And I guess Gale did too. But the least I could do is be nice to kid I'd just hired.
At the end of our hunting and shooting practice we went home and skinned our meat, preparing it for the next day's market. When he came home, Peeta headed outside to the shed where we sat skinning the meat to see how we were doing. Vick voluntarily spoke up for once, discussing his practice shots. Peeta congratulated him on his improvement and acknowledged his lack of ability with pretty much any weapon. This made Vick laugh a little under his breath and we quickly finished our preparation. The air felt a little more at ease when Vick left and I told him when to be here the next morning- this time promising I would make him wait outside in the snow.
As Peeta and I got ready to head over to Haymitch's house I remembered what Peeta had said to Vick earlier. "Do you really want Vick to be my bodyguard?" I asked, throwing a pair of socks at him. "Yes," he laughed, dodging my poor throw. "I mean it, Katniss. I know you can defend yourself and that my attacks are less frequent and less intense. But they do still happen. I meant what I said. I would feel safer knowing there was someone else looking out for you." I felt his answer was a bit patronizing, and tried to understand where he was coming although it was a bit difficult. I'm not a child; I fought just as hard as anyone else in the rebellion.
As we went to Haymitch's and ate dinner with Sae, Sadie and the elephant Haymitch I thought of everything Peeta had said in the last day. Maybe Gale wasn't too far off. Both he and Peeta knew I could defend myself. But as a friend you make sure you look out for each other. Hadn't I planned Peeta's return from the Quarter Quell with Haymitch even if it meant I wouldn't return home? By the end of the evening I didn't hate Gale or resent Peeta's patronizing ways. They were looking out for me just like I had tried to look out for them.
That night as we climbed in bed Peeta held me close. "I hope I didn't come off like a condescending jerk earlier, Katniss. I know you can take care of yourself. Shoot, I know you could take me just as quickly as Vick could. I just-" I cut him off with a kiss before he could continue. "I understand, Peeta." And for once that day I really did.