I stood there, unmoving, frozen with confusion. After a second, Peeta quickly pulled away and walked across the room, running his hands through his hair. His curls ruffled up messily. He looked anxious and scared.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, "I shouldn't have done that." As if his words had unfroze me, my hand reached up to touch my lips. The confusion took over.

Why had he…? He kissed me.

"I have to go," I mumbled. Peeta turned quickly, hands raised like he was surrendering to someone.

"Please, wait! I'm sorry! Don't leave!" he begged.

"It's okay. I'll come back later." My voice sounded distant and not normal; it was a few pitches higher than I remember it being. His face reddened. I opened the door and walked down the stairs. I stood by Gale for a little while, watching him sleep with his teeth gritted. Mrs. Everdeen came in and gave him another shot of morphling. I didn't want to stay there any longer, so once Gale's face go slack, I left.

Just as I was walking out of Peeta's house, Katniss walked in. Her eyes held mine with a desperate gaze, and she reached for my arm. I walked past her without comment. Did Peeta know about her plan? I forgot to ask. The door was still open from when she came in, so I exited.

"Ivy!" she called out, rushing to the door.

"Sorry, I've gotta go. Talk to you later," I said with fake cheerfulness. I walked slowly back to my house. Once I was home, I plopped down on the floor in my kitchen and stared at the wall. Was it starting again or was this different? Why did he apologize after kissing me? It was such a different kiss. It wasn't harsh or rushed. It was tender and soft. It was almost… sincere.

I heard the back door slam open. I pulled myself tightly into a corner and tried to be as small as possible. My head set itself on my knees, and my hands grabbed my feet. Haymitch came barging into the kitchen.

"Where have you been?" he asked. I looked up.

"Here…" I said. Where else would I have been?

"You've been sitting here for a day?" he asked.

"No, just a couple minutes," I answered. I tried to stand up and found that my legs were numb. My hands grabbed onto the counter, and I looked out of the window. The sun was rising.

"Oh, sweetheart. Just as confused as he is," Haymitch muttered with a short, still angered chuckle. He started to go through my cupboards; I didn't bother to tell him that I didn't have an alcohol.

"He?" I asked. Though, I knew who Haymitch was talking about.

Haymitch gave me a grin, "I talked to Peeta. He told me that you told him about Gale."

"Great," I sighed. Haymitch turned back to the cupboard and began to rummage through what little food I had in there.

"What? You didn't get the reaction you hoped for?" he sniffed.

"No. I didn't know what to expect from telling Peeta. But," I gripped my head with both hands, "I'm just really confused right now."

Haymitch stopped messing with my cupboard. "You both are," he turned to face me. "Maybe you two should talk about it."

"No, no, no. I don't know if anything he says is real anymore," I whispered. My eyes squeezed shut, and Haymitch gave a loud, angry sigh.

"Ivy! Look at me," he shouted. I turned to look at him. "Now listen to me," he said, sounding only a little nicer. I gave a nod, and Haymitch continued, "This boy doesn't want to hurt you. The Games are completely over now, and Snow obviously wasn't convinced. What reason would Peeta have to hurt you anymore?"

"I don't know," I mumbled.

"Then, trust him!" Haymitch said. I shook my head.

"I just need some alone time to think, Haymitch," I told him cautiously. Haymitch clapped his hands together.

"Fine, sweetheart. Fine. But you can't run from this boy forever," he said.

"I wasn't planning on running forever," I said with a small smile. Haymitch returned the smile, said goodbye, and left.

I thought about just sitting on the floor again but then thought better of it; I had wasted a day thinking about nothing, why waste another? So I went upstairs, showered, and slid in bed. I stared at the ceiling for a long time, before I fell asleep.

The arena looked different. There was water and trees with barely any branches. All the other tributes were faceless. I was pushed from behind into the water, and I sunk to the bottom. All the air was sucked out of my lungs. My feet pushed off the ground. My head broke the surface, and I gasped for air.

I swam to land only to find a large, faceless tribute had a spear ready. It flew through the air and pierced my stomach. I saw my insides begin to fall out of me. I pressed my hands against my stomach, trying to hold myself together. A tall, female tribute pushed me back in the water. My eyes stayed open. The water began to turn red, then black.

Suddenly, a face emerged from the black.

"Shh. It's okay," Peeta said as his hands pressed themselves against my stomach. I looked to see that my stomach was completely healed.

But I was dying a moment before?

Something was moving around in my stomach. I felt something kick my head, and everything went black.

My eyes shot open to see three familiar faces looking down at me.

"Surprise!" Flavius cried. I sat up and stretched.

"Aren't you exited?" Venia asked.

"We're here early!" Octavia squealed. I shrugged.

"Early for what?" I asked. The three looked at each with shocked expressions. I pushed them out of my way and walked downstairs to get something to eat. They followed behind in a little line of three, like puppies.

"We're going to pick your wedding dress today!" Venia cried out.

"What?" I asked, utterly confused.

"The president has lowered it down to 6 choices," Octavia squeaked. She grabbed my hand and began jumping up and down, "How will you ever choose?"

"Um… I don't know," I muttered. The wedding was still on? I thought it would've been off considering we hadn't convinced Snow. But, still, I began to wonder what the dresses looked like. If they were Cinna's, there was no doubt in my mind that they would all be beautiful.

"Alright everyone. Stop bothering Ivy. Let's get to work," Cinna said. As he walked in, he directed two large men with a couple of huge crates. They set them down in the living room.

"Cinna, I didn't know you were coming," I said, giving him a hug.

"We figured you wouldn't," he said with a laugh. Seeing him was like a breath of fresh air because I had missed him so much. I wasn't aware of how much I missed him until I saw him again.

I tried on 6 dresses. Each one had different makeup, hair, background, and lighting. It was stressful, but Cinna helped me through it. In the end, we had 6 pictures of me. The prep team packed up and brought the supplies out to the car.

"Are you leaving already?" I asked. Cinna took my hand and gave it a small squeeze.

"I'm afraid so," Cinna answered. He held up the pictures, "We have to show these to the Capitol so they can vote on their favorite."

"So, I don't get to choose," I smiled. Cinna nodded. "That's good though, I wouldn't have been able to pick."

Cinna said his goodbyes and then left for the Capitol. I wished Cinna lived nearer; he was easy to talk to. And right now, I needed someone to talk to. Sighing, I went upstairs to wash my face from the multiple layers of makeup.

I didn't want a wedding right now. It seemed unnecessary. But, I guess even though we hadn't convinced Snow, we had still convinced the Capitol citizens. And they thought there was going to be a wedding, so we may as well pretend there is going to be one still.

Maybe it wouldn't be all bad being married to Peeta. He could act like he loved me, and I could pretend it didn't hurt. Yet, part of me kept trying to say that maybe Peeta actually loved me. He had kissed me, without cameras or a need to. But most of me just thought it was a game or staged. Haymitch was probably putting him up to it.

I sat on my bed, looking out the window. The tree was starting to make me angry as it just stood there, dead and covered in snow. Snow or not, I was going to cut it down today.

I grabbed a quick lunch before heading outside in a thin jacket with a hatchet in hand. The tree wasn't too big, but it was big enough that I couldn't just cut it down all at once. My legs pushed me up a couple branches so I could begin chopping off some of the top limbs. Then I cut down the limbs I had climbed up.

Sweat was beginning to form on my forehead and hands. So I threw my jacket on the ground, hoping it would stop the liquid from making the handle of the hatchet slippery. I wished I had worn a sweater under my jacket; all I had on was a tank top. But I worked harder, and soon I only had one large trunk sticking straight up into the gray sky.

I hit the trunk over and over again with the hatchet, but it wouldn't fall down. After a while, I got tired. I put the hatchet down and leaned on it, taking deep breaths. Sweat was collecting on my forehead again, but I wiped it off with my arm and got ready to start chopping again.

In the middle of the swing, a voice called out, "Hey, need some help."

I almost threw the hatchet at Peeta, but ended up just getting it stuck deep in the trunk.

"You scared me," I mumbled, trying to get the hatchet out by pulling with all my might. I braced my foot against the tree and pulled harder, but it wouldn't come out. After watching me struggle for a couple minutes, Peeta began to laugh. I turned to him, my hair clinging to my face with sweat. He stopped laughing when he saw my glare. Once Peeta's smile was gone, I continued trying to tear the hatchet out of the tree. A few curse words escaped my lips as my hands slipped off the handle. Angrily, I wrapped my fingers around the hatchet again and took a deep breath.

Then I felt a pair of hands on top of mine. "Let me get it," Peeta said. Suddenly determined, I kept my hands firmly grasping the hatchet handle.

"I can get it myself," I answered, angry that my voice was quivering. Peeta chuckled. The sound was right by my ear, and it made me shiver. Peeta was so close to me, his arms wrapped around me so his hands were still set on top of mine. I wanted to lean back into his chest, but I didn't know where things were for us right now. Were we friends… or more?

"Really, because I just watched you 'get it yourself' for the past 5 minutes," he joked from behind me. I smirked.

"I wasn't trying then," I lied nonchalantly.

"Oh, you weren't?" he asked mockingly.

"Nope," I said, biting my lip to not smile. Peeta's arms only tightened around me.

"How about we both pull on 3?" he asked, knowing I was lying. I blew a strand of hair out of my face and nodded.

"One," I said. Peeta's hands tensed over mine.

"Two," he whispered. I stopped for a moment, remembering the last time we counted to three was before we won the Games. I shook my head, clearing the thought. I didn't want to remember the Games; they were over now. No more.

"Three," I shouted. We both pulled back. The hatchet came out easily and went flying into the side of my house. I laughed, before realizing I had fallen back on Peeta. I scrambled to get up, and then I offered my hand to Peeta. He took it but didn't use my weight to lift himself up. His hand stayed in mine, and I wished my hands weren't so sweaty.

"Did you try that time?" he laughed. I gave an embarrassed laugh too, taking my hand out of his.

"Yes, I did," I said, looking away. Peeta came up closer to me.

"Are you cold?" he asked. I looked up at him, shocked.

"No. Why?"

"Well, you're shivering so I assumed," he said, walking over to pick up my jacket. Just as I was about to deny this, a shiver ran up my back. He came over and set the jacket on my shoulders.

"Thanks," I mumbled. He laughed.

"You wanna go inside?" he asked. "You can cut down the tree stump later."

I nodded and allowed Peeta to lead the way inside; he walked around my house like it was his. He brought us to the living room, where he sat down on the floor. I smiled and sat down a couple feet away. Peeta began staring at the space between us, like there was a problem with it.

"I tried on wedding dresses today," I said in an attempt to start a conversation. Peeta seemed amused.

"Any good ones?"

"I honestly don't remember much of what happened," I laughed. "But Cinna made them. So, they were most likely gorgeous. Everything he makes is."

Peeta looked like he was going to say something. He had his mouth open and everything. I gave him a nod, encouraging him to speak. But he just closed his mouth and looked at me with wonder in his eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable. Peeta shook his head.

"There's apparently some TV special on tomorrow. You think it could be the dresses?" he asked. I looked out the window, shaking my head.

"I doubt it. Even by train it takes longer than a day to get to the Capitol," I smiled, remembering the few days I used to get to know Peeta on the train. "The pictures wouldn't get there in time to be put on a TV special. It must be something else," I answered.

"Yeah, I guess so," Peeta mumbled. I turned to look at him. He turned to look at me, with raised eyebrows. It seemed like he was waiting for me to say something.

"I guess we'll find out what it is tomorrow," I replied softly with a small shrug. Peeta nodded and stood up, a faint smile playing on his lips.

"I'll go take the hatchet out of the side of your house," he said, "and then I'll finish cutting down the tree for you." He began to walk out, when I rushed up and grabbed his arm. He couldn't cut down the tree. It was my project. That tree was all I had.

"You can't cut it down! It's all I have to do," I cried. After staring at me in shock for a moment, he burst out into laughter.

"Well, then let's do it together. Because I have nothing to do either."

Peeta grabbed my hand and rushed outside. He ripped the hatchet from the side of my house and handed it to me. I weighed it in my hand for a second before looking up at him embarrassed.

"On second thought, you can cut it down," I said, handing him the hatchet. As Peeta cut down the trunk, he talked to me. About random things. He told me more stories and asked me questions and asked about my thoughts on things. He asked me about the new piano in my living room, and I promised to play for him someday. Nothing we talked about applied to our lives right now.

What I really wanted to ask him about was the kiss.

The tree finally tipped over and slammed to the ground. Peeta threw the hatchet on the ground. "Finally," he breathed out. I realized he was out of breath.

"Are you okay?" I laughed.

He turned to me with fake hurt on his face, "I'm glad to know that my well-being is funny to you."

"No. No, it's not that. It's just you won the Hunger Games. Shouldn't we be in better shape?" I asked, flexing my skinny arm that couldn't pull the hatchet out of the trunk as evidence. He laughed.

"Well, I hardly think strength is necessary anymore," he replied. "Well, not a lot of strength anyways."

I smiled as I lowered my arm. Peeta shoved his hands in his pockets. We stood on opposite sides of the yard after that. It was the perfect chance to ask about the kiss. But I didn't want to spoil it. This day wasn't pressured; it was natural. And asking about the kiss would ruin it.

"If that's all…" Peeta began.

"Yes, I guess… that's all," I answered, looking up at Peeta. My eyes began to water. Why were they watering? This wasn't sad. I would see Peeta again. I would see him tomorrow, wouldn't I? I had the rest of my life to see Peeta Mellark.

"Goodbye, Ivy," Peeta said. He jumped over the fence and walked back to his house.

Why did he say it like that? Like we wouldn't see each other again for a long time. I looked up into the sky and saw stars. When had it gotten dark? They were shining brightly tonight. As I pulled my jacket closer to my body, I took one last glance towards Peeta's house. Seeing all his lights were off, I turned and walked back inside. I threw my jacket on the floor and walked slowly up the stairs.

As I walked up, I straightened the paintings on the wall. If Peeta ever came over again, my house would look like a house. Did I want Peeta to come over again? I smiled to myself at the thought that he had come over at all today. Maybe it meant a friendship wasn't completely impossible between us. But I knew that the only way that friendship would happen would be if I stopped shutting him out whenever something bad happened.

I crawled into bed and glanced at the stars again. Courage and hope swelled up in my chest, and I really, truly thought that things were going to be okay. For once in my life.

*A/N I just wanted to say Happy New Year! My new year's resolution is to actually finish "I've Missed Your Muchiness" by the end of the year! Don't forget to leave a quick review! ;)*