Sorry for the long hiatus. I've been busy with work but fret not, next week I will be on leave for a week. This means I have more time to write this story.

I would like to say thank you again for the continuous support. You have no idea how happy I was when I read your feedbacks. Please do write in more as it gives me more inspiration to write better. I am still improving, and would like to apologise if I made any mistakes.

Not sure if this is a boring chapter cause I was pretty exhausted while composing this story due to my work.

Chapter 6

As Uncle Haymitch was asking Katniss about her experience on her first day of university, Madge's mind drifted away while looking outside the window.

"Can I trust you?" Peeta asked Madge quietly.

"Good grief, are you just weird or just … weird?" Madge answered him sarcastically but as she saw Peeta looked even more hurt, she felt guilty.

"Why you'd ask me that? It's like, we just talked and here you are asking me this serious question."

"Just because you are Katniss' friend…" Peeta's words just disappeared towards the end of his sentence.

"Yes you can trust me as long it does not hurt Katniss or me," Madge answered in a stern tone to make sure he gets the message that she meant every single word.

"You know the reason why I am here although I was supposed to inherit my family's business?" Peeta's blue glassy eyes were staring at Madge. They looked as if the tears were about to spill over.

"Erh, I don't know… like I said, maybe I just talked to you only? But if you ask me to take a wild guess, you're here cause you want to be a stalker?" Madge giggled as she managed to pull out another sarcasm moment on Peeta.

"I am here for Katniss…" Peeta stopped his words when he felt vibration in his pocket. It was actually a reminder for him to attend the next class. He apologized to Madge as he needed to excuse himself.

"Please keep it a secret for the time being," Peeta winked at her and hurriedly left the table, leaving Madge stunned at her seat after hearing Peeta's revelation. It certainly made her mind raised thousand of questions but they were unanswered as Peeta left for class.

As Madge was pretty caught up with her own thought, she did not realize Katniss was calling her name a few times.

"Madge, Madge?" Katniss was moving Madge's right shoulder.

"Wh-at?" Madge stammered as if she was being awaken from a dream.

"Uncle Haymitch was asking you whether you want to stay with us for the night." Katniss gave her a bright smile.

"Wh—at? Stay? Huh?" Madge slurred.

Katniss was pretty annoyed at Madge's blurriness, so she just said, "You are staying over at my place for the night. This is an order!" Katniss folded her arms and rested her back on the seat.

"I am? …oh yes I am!" Madge squealed as she came back to her senses.

Madge leaned in closer to Katniss and crossed her right arm to Katniss' left arm while enjoying the ride back to Uncle Haymitch's house.

"Even I felt dumbfounded with Peeta's revelation… what about Katniss? Her head is pretty messed up already with Cato's sudden appearance, and now with Peeta's revelation, it might just lead to her volunteering to another place to study as she mentioned all she wanted is a peaceful life and strictly no relationship. Although Peeta did not admit that he has feeling for Katniss, but heck, the way he stared at her… So to tell or not to tell…" Madge thought to herself and was fighting with herself.

"Tell? No? Yes? No? Yes?" she was thinking to herself while looking at Katniss at the corner of her right eye.

"I can't wait to catch up with you when we reached. I will make us some coffee and you can watch me pack too!" Katniss suddenly broke the comfortable silence.

With that, Madge decided not to tell Katniss for the time being as she did not want to ruin the fun session. So, she nodded in agreement and excitedly clapped her hands, "Yes, can't wait for it!"

In the campus, Peeta was back in his room already. He was feeling restless as he thought about his first day of university. So, he started to unpack his boxes to retrieve his painting equipments. After setting up the easel by the window, he sat on a wooden stool and started to work his magic away.

Every stroke he took, he will think about the different memories he had with someone …someone that meant so much to him.

"She doesn't know, she just couldn't recognise me anymore." Peeta stroked his brush on the drawing board while thinking to himself.

"I am not surprise with that because I did not even talk to her since the first day we met when we were 6. All I did was just stood at the corner and looked at her. The only thing that we might share the same thing was just we exchanged looks, and most of the time she was the one who caught me looking at her," he sighed while continue to paint.

"I should have just said hi to her and things could be different, maybe she and I will be good friends now," his mind was interrupted with a ringing tone buzzing from his phone. It was his eldest brother, Josh.

"Hey, Peet! How's everythin'?" Josh said with a heavy Texan accent.

"Everthing's fine here…" Peeta answered his brother's question. Peeta did not have a heavy Texan accent as he always practice his speech in front of the mirror to avoid developing the accent.

"Good to know that. Ah'm just wonderin', have you met Katniss?" Josh asked.

"Yes, Josh. I did. I think I kinda screw it up," Peeta's voice showed that he was slightly devastated.

"Peet, all your life you've been waitin' for her, tryin' to find her and ya know, God is great. You found her over the net and saw her success being all written up in the bulletin, aye. You followed her news and stumbled upon the award of her scholarship in Capitol University. You said no to dad to help him up just to be near her. So, don't screw it up," Josh advised.

"Easier said than done," Peeta was still feeling pessimistic about the encounter with Katniss earlier today. He felt he gave a negative vibe with her.

"Like I said, God is great. Ya know, He will see your patience and answer ya prayers. Without knowin' it, y'all will be closer than ever. Anyway, I better get goin' aye. Cheer up little bro!"

After the call ended, Peeta just stared at his phone, thinking of his brother's words. His eldest brother had always been supportive. His brother was the only person who understands him the most. All the secret attraction with Katniss, his brother knew about it and helped him through to search her whereabouts. Although Peeta came from a wealthy family, his life was not a bed of roses. His mother would beat him and his brothers up for every mistake they made. Even the slightest mistake would grant them a beating from their mother. Sometimes their father would try to stop her from hitting them but the beatings were too frequent. That was how the he and his brothers grew very close to each other.

"Katniss…" Peeta said her name aloud.

"Huh, what Katniss?" Gale interrupted from behind.

"What the hell, Gale!" Peeta startled and somehow felt exposed. He did not realise Gale came into the room when he was talking to his brother on the phone.

"Since when you're here?" Peeta asked intently.

"Hmm, let me think…" as Gale raised his eyebrows as if he was really thinking seriously.

"Maybe, that time when you said you have a thing for Katniss over the phone?" Gale shrugged his shoulders upon answering Peeta's question which led to Peeta's eyes widen.

Peeta felt his pulse quicken and started to have sweaty palms after hearing that from Gale. He started to have flashback on his conversation with his brother. He did not recall any incidence where he said he had a thing for Katniss.

"Hah! Gotcha!" Gale said while punching Peeta's stomach lightly and started to burst out laughing.

"Dude, you should have seen your face. It was priceless!" Gale continued laughing while pointed his index finger at Peeta's direction.

Peeta felt instant relief after realizing Gale was pulling his legs but it lasted for few seconds only when Gale asked him a question where Peeta thought he would let it slide.

"Why did you call out Katniss' name?" as Gale took a step closer to Peeta.

Peeta gulped and without realizing it, he dropped his paint brush as his palms were sweating. Gale picked the brush up from the floor and handed the brush to him, "So? Why?"

Peeta was still silent as he could not find the right words to answer his question.

"Oh c'mon, as I told you before don't worry about Katniss' outburst back in the cafeteria. Lighten up dude," Gale grinned and had Peeta in a headlock.

He let go of Peeta while Peeta let out small cough as if he was out of breath due to the headlock. Gale heard his own stomach rumbles and he looked at Peeta, "Let's have dinner outside, I'm starving."

Peeta nodded and packed his drawing kits. This time he knew he was definitely off the hook from Gale about Katniss. He changed to a solid burgundy kangaroo hooded sweatshirt as he saw the weather was gloomy and khaki cargo short pants. As he exited his room, he saw Gale was already waiting for him by the door.

"Since we are having dinner nearby our campus, let's just go with my bike?" Gale asked while turning his key with his middle finger.

"I don't think it's a good idea. I looked at the window just now and it will rain anytime. Why not you just follow my car?" Peeta suggested while looking at the window to reaffirm his weather prediction.

"Sounds like a plan, let's go!" Gale gripped Peeta's shoulder and they headed out from their room.

They went to a nearby pizza place called Patsy's Pizzeria. It was a pretty decent pizzeria where there was mix of crowds which consists of working adults, families, young couples and students. As they were seated on their place by the bar counter, they flipped the menu and decided to order each pizza on their own. Gale ordered the Patsy's Alla Vodka which has creamy vodka sauce with grated mozzarella, and added meatball as his additional topping while Peeta ordered Macellaio which has pepperoni, sausage, meatball, tomato sauce and grated mozzarella.

As they were waiting for the food to arrive, they had conversations while gulping their Budweiser. However, something caught Peeta's eyes, he spotted a familiar figure who was sitting at the corner of the bar counter. As he scanned thoroughly, he realized it was Cato.

"Cato, why is he here in New York? The last I checked he was selected as one of the scholar in one of the university in Chicago," Peeta thought to himself.

Gale was observing Peeta's behaviour, "Dude, are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Why'd you ask?" Peeta startled.

"Erm, maybe you just bent the metal fork when you were looking at something or someone," Gale explained while pointing to the bent metal fork.

Peeta did not realize his action because he was too caught up with his own emotions and thoughts. He just moved the fork away, "It was already in that condition when we seated here."

Before Gale could ask further, the pizzas were being served and he seemed to forget about his question to Peeta. They exchanged conversation between their meal and laughed at any random jokes they made. As Peeta finished his last bite of pizza, he excused himself to go to the washroom.

Peeta entered the washroom and he stumbled upon Cato. Both of them just stared at each other. It was not just a normal stare, but they both had angry stares planted at each other. The atmosphere in the washroom was pretty tensed. At the corner of Cato's eyes, he could see Peeta was clenching his fists. Moments later, Cato did the same to return the gesture. However, Peeta exhaled deeply to calm himself and made his way to the loo.

After he was done, Cato was still standing at the door while watching Peeta's movement. Cato's action made Peeta's anger erupted but still tried to stay calm. As Peeta was about to exit the washroom, Cato blocked Peeta's way on purpose.

"What do you want?" Peeta broke the silence but Cato continued to stare blankly at him. Neither of them moved from where they stood.

"From the way you looked at me in the bar, I'm guessing you are curious to know why I am in New York judging from my popularity back in high school where everyone knows I was offered scholarship in Chicago for my achievement in sports," Cato leaned in closer to Peeta but Peeta did not back away.

Peeta was fuming at Cato's action, as if Cato was threatening him. Peeta challenged him by moving one step closer to Cato. Now, their foreheads were almost touching. "You know what Cato, I am not afraid of your little threat," Peeta growled and pushed Cato aside as he wanted to leave the washroom. But what Cato said next stopped Peeta in his tracks.

"What if I told you, I am in Capitol University?" Cato shrugged his shoulder and stood menacingly while looking at Peeta's back.

The statement made by Cato made Peeta turned to face Cato. He grabbed Cato's collar and pulled Cato closer to him and said, "Don't you ever try to do anything funny!"

He let go of Cato's collar and stormed out from the washroom. As he was approaching Gale, he saw Gale was flirting with a stranger. Gale was distracted with Peeta's presence and saw his face was red. He could sense anger in Peeta. He quickly exchanged numbers with the stranger and left the restaurant with Peeta.

On the way back to the campus, they did not exchange any words to each other. Gale looked uncomfortable as he was trying to shift his position in his seat every minute. Peeta could sense it, "Gale, if you are wondering what happen just now, I really do not want to talk about it. All I need is to sleep my anger away."

Gale cleared his throat, "Okay dude, whatever it is, you can always talk to me. I got your back."

Peeta continued to drive while the rain was pouring heavily.

Back in the pizzeria, Cato was sitting by the bar and thinking to himself, "How dare Peeta? How could he just pulled my collar and acted bossy with me."

Then suddenly, he felt someone hand on his right shoulder, he turned and saw Glimmer. "Great, look who's here. An annoying bitch." Cato thought to himself and rolled his eyes.

"Hey handsome, want to join me for a drink," Glimmer gave a seductive smile while touching Cato's chest.

"I'll pass," Cato shoved her away which angered Glimmer as she was never rejected by any guy in her entire life.

"Ah, alpha man. You are playing hard to get with me," she paused while looking at him up and down. "Loosen up, lemme teach you how to have fun," Glimmer's right hand was on his thighs while her left hand caressing his back.

Her persistence made Cato felt agitated. "Would you please stop it," he told her off but tried to remain calm but Glimmer did not stop, "Oh c'mon, I know you are trying to resist me. Just unleash the beast in you with me."

"You don't understand English, don't you?" Cato snapped and put some money on the table. He stood up and left the pizzeria. In the background, he could hear Glimmer was asking him where is he going but he ignored her.

It was raining outside, so Cato pulled up his hood and braved through the rain to reach to his car. As he entered his car, he started to curse, "Brainless bimbo, she made me soaked with rain."

He started the car engine and played with his radio. He took a Guns N Roses cd from his dashboard and played it in his radio. After feeling comfortable with the whole set up in his car, he headed back to the campus. As the Knocking on Heaven's door played in the background, his mind wandered on the selection for the Athlete team. He was curious to know the time clocked in by the girl with the braid. He knew she was pretty fast and it worried him even more that she might even beat his time. He is a very competitive person and the thought of a girl being faster than him, annoyed him a little. After a long thought, he chuckled, "She never changed…"