So, the amount of readers for this fanfiction is increasing heavily, and I just want to thank you all for taking the time to read this. I think it's the first Prato fanfic on Wattpad and the second on , if I'm not mistaken, so I hope it becomes popular.
Happy reading! x
Prim's POV:
Last night, I didn't dream.
I opened my eyes, squinting at the bright white sunlight that peered through the window of my temporary room high up in the sky. Waking up today was like waking up a completely different person, although I don't really know why.
Oh yeah, I remember.
I kissed Cato.
Who would have thought? Him, out of all people! He's just so dark and.. and.. tainted. Cato was definitely a polar opposite to me, but I just couldn't shake the burning desire in my chest to be with him. It's impossible though, because of the obvious situation that we are in. Things just won't be positive for us in the end. As we all know..
Only one person gets out of these Games. And they don't win.. they survive.
As if Cato and the Games couldn't make my life even more difficult than it already is, Peeta kissed me too.
But why did he kiss me? I was completely under the impression that he was in love with Katniss, definitely not me. He is the same age as Cato, yeah, but really? Peeta?
Maybe there is something going on with him. I mean, we are preparing to die, basically, so there could possibly be a chance that he is trying to understand everything in life before we go, and kissing me would help him understand something..?
No, that definitely couldn't be true. He had been acting weird lately, and I guess that's because somewhere deep inside he realized that he may have had a crush on me. I just don't think that I feel the same way about him. Don't get me wrong, I think he's extremely sweet and caring, and he is attractive, I will not lie, but I have a feeling that he belongs with Katniss, not her little sister.
Plus, my feelings, my positive charges, are pulled towards Cato's negative charge. What's the old saying..?
Opposites attract.
Cato and I were like magnets that just couldn't be pulled apart, no matter what. At least, that's the way that I see it.
I wonder how he sees it.
Maybe he's just as confused as I am, and just as confused as I think Peeta is.
I threw my hands down on the sheets of my bed in frustration. This has been the most complicated time of my life. Honestly. I'm still young, yet I'm experiencing things that I only imagine an adult would have to withstand.
It makes sense though. Since my dad passed away, Katniss and I have had to mature way more than our age group can even attempt to manage.
I pulled the blanket of my bed higher onto my body, hoping that I can just crawl under them and stay there for an eternity, not having to deal with boys, think about my family, or the Games. Just to relax, for once in my life.
I stayed there, drowned in my thoughts before I heard a knock on my door. My breathing hitched at the possibility that it could be Peeta wanting to talking.
Oh no.
"Prim! It's time to get ready and come to breakfast! We have a busy schedule that we must attend to before we do anything else!" I heard Effie screech through the door.
Ugh. Looks like my dream of being a bedbug has been ruined. At least it wasn't Peeta. I've dodged one bullet today.
I snatch the fluffy blanket off of my body and stretch, standing up and straightening my clothing. I walked to a dresser, pulling out a pair of long yoga pants and a white sweatshirt with a hood, along with undergarments, and went to take a quick shower and brush my teeth.
While peeling off my clothes, I scanned the options in the shower, thinking about what smell I wanted. They're pampering us for killing us, so I may as well take the opportunity. There was vanilla, rose, mango.. so many to choose from.
I decided to go with warm vanilla sugar, a calming scent to loosen my nerves. I chose my option and quickly washed up, doing my body and my hair.
After my shower, I quickly threw on my clothes and took a brush through my long wavy hair, getting any knots out of it. I threw on a hairband and a pair of shoes, really comfy shoes, before walking out to the dining area.
Before stepping in, I took a huge breath. I'm about to face Peeta after last night's encounter, but I'm just going to act as if nothing happened. There's no need to prolong the discomfort.
I took one more breath before I stepped inside the dining area.
"SURPRISE!" I heard people yell.
I jumped back, slightly scared, and opened my eyes and see more clearly.
Peeta, Haymitch and Effie were standing around a huge pink cake, one with layers that said 'Happy Birthday Prim' along the top. There were sparks coming from the candles.
Oh, I forgot. Today is my birthday.
I told Cato that today was my birthday as well. I wonder if he even remembered.
"What is this?" I ask, quite surprised. I had no clue that they even knew that it was my birthday. I only told Cato, and I don't think anyone would even care, even him.
"It's for your birthday, silly! What, did you think we wouldn't know?" Effie asks, her hands plastered together. She has a huge grin on her face, her clothing stitched with little primrose flowers, along with her hair. That's definitely an extreme way to celebrate my birthday.
Obviously not, I thought to myself, answering her question. Why would anyone care here in the Capitol? They don't care about us any other time.
"Uh, no actually. But thank you guys so much for this." I smile at them all. Peeta looks at me, his eyes full of sadness and guilt, completely contrasting the huge grin that he has on his face as well.
"Don't thank me, it wasn't my idea." Haymitch says bitterly. I roll my eyes at him. It's my birthday, and he still acts like a prick.
Well, that is Haymitch for you.
He's so bitter.
I understand that though. He's had to train kids for a long time just to die.
I'd definitely be upset.
"How did you guys know it was my birthday anyway?" I ask. It could have been the Capitol since they know anything and everything about everyone in the districts, but it could have been Peeta too. Maybe he knew and told someone..?
"Oh! This was all Peeta's idea!" Effie says.
I look at Peeta with a frown. Why would he do all this for me? I had no clue that he even knew when my birthday was. However, everyone in District 12 was pretty close, so we all knew everything about one another. It's funny though, I have no clue when his birthday is.
"Thanks Peeta." I say quietly with a smile.
"Yeah, well, you should get to celebrate your birthday, at least now." He says. I nod.
This just makes me question him even more. Why would he want to do this after what occurred last night? Probably as an apology. I would've just went for a simple explanation, but I guess this is better. I mean, it does have cake. And I love cake.
What if Peeta decorated my cake for me? That would be extraordinary.
"So, let's open some presents!" Effie squeals. It literally takes everything in me not to cover my ears. Oh, the voice on this woman.
"Wait, I have presents?" I ask. Why would they give me presents? What could I possibly do with presents?
"Of course, silly. Here, take mine first." Effie says, handing me a small box plastered with multicolored wrapping paper, along with sequins and string, and anything else you could imagine Effie would put on a birthday present.
"Thank you Effie." I smile and take the box, sitting down in a fluffy chair in the middle of the room so that I can open the present.
The wrapping looked like it took a long time to do, so I carefully unwrap the paper, not wanting to ruin the hard work someone put in to make it.
I got the wrapping paper off to be introduced to a small white box. I opened the box to find a beautiful bracelet. It was gold, and it was in the shape of my name, wispy letters with little flowers engraved in each letter. Where the 'i' is in Primrose, there was a little primrose flower. It was honestly so beautiful.
"Wow, Effie, I love this so much. Thank you." I manage in one breath. It was so beautiful. Effie helped me attach it to my wrist, and it fit perfectly.
"And, I had it cleared by the Capitol so that you can wear it in the Games."
"Great. Thanks again." I smiled.
"Alright, now my turn." I heard Haymitch's gruff voice say. I turned to see him holding another wrapped box, this one in plain purple paper, not as intricate as Effie's. Haymitch is definitely not a man for detail and intricacy.
Duh.
"Thanks, Haymitch." I say quickly, taking the box out of his hand.
"Again, this was not my idea, Effie wanted us to have 'coordinated' presents, so I thought this would be.. pleasant for you." He says as I unwrap the present.
There is another small white box, and I open it to find gold earrings, shaped as the number '12'. In the '1' the name 'Prim' was engraved. They were beautiful as well, just like the bracelet.
"Thanks Haymitch. I really love them." I say, as Effie pulls the earrings out of the box. She moves my hair out of the way of my ears and carefully attaches them into my ears.
"You're welcome." Haymitch says quickly, turning to the bar and pouring himself a drink. He really should get something done about his extreme drinking problem.
"And now, me." I hear Peeta say. I turn to him, my face feeling extremely flushed, as he hands me a small box as well, his with pink and blue paper, and much more thought in the wrapping than Haymitch's box but not as much as Effie's.
I take the box and slowly unwrap the paper, anticipating what he could possibly get me. Effie wanted them to be coordinated, so it's possibly another piece of jewelry. I've never gotten this much jewelry in my entire life.
I finally get the paper off and open the box to a gold locket, shaped as a heart, and opened up. Inside, there were two pictures, one of me with Katniss, and another of me with my mother. I closed the locket, and on the front, there was a small primrose engraved into the front of it.
Beautiful.
"Thank you so much Peeta. But, where did you get these pictures from?" I ask him.
"Effie was able to find them through the Capitol." he says, taking the necklace out of my hand. I move my hair to one side as he clicks it onto my neck.
Of course the Capitol has these. They spy on everything that we do. I roll my eyes at the thought.
Peeta's fingers brush along the back of my neck softly and I feel a small jolt. I widen my eyes as I feel my face flush.
"Well, thank you all so much for these presents. I really do love them." I say, glancing at them all quickly. Haymitch clicks his teeth while the other two nod.
"Now that we've gotten that portion of the day over, it's time to explain what is happening today. It's the day for your individual assessments." Effie says, taking a seat at the dining table.
Peeta, Haymitch and I follow her, taking a seat as our food is brought out to the table by the red haired people and sat down in front of us. I thank the girl and she walks away.
"Now, you will be in a room alone with the Gamemakers to show them your best potential. You must remember.."
I drown Effie's voice out, not really caring for what she had to say. I couldn't stop thinking about Peeta planning this small birthday celebration for me. Did he plan it before or after last night?
I was extremely confused. I looked at him, and he was staring at me, but when I looked, he blushed and turned away quickly. I stared down at the food on my plate, trying to avoid any more eye contact.
I have no idea what is going on in my life right now. It's like one of those really old sitcoms that the Capitol plays once and a while that aired before the war started. I just didn't know how to understand and process this turn of events that had no way of escaping my mind.
How on earth could two boys, older than me, feel this certain way, when I didn't get any of this type of attention when I was at home?
And more importantly, why?
I hadn't done anything to provoke them, or force them to feel a certain way about me. All I do is try to stay away from as many people as possible, but it only turns out that now, it just pulls people toward me instead of pushing them away.
How am I going to handle this situation? Do I have to choose between Peeta and Cato, or will it just slowly go away? I really hoped that I would find my answer, and fast, because I did not need any more stress-
"Do you understand?" Effie asks me. I jump slightly and nod, even though I didn't listen to a word that she said.
"Good. Now finish eating and get prepared for the assessment. We will eat the cake after dinner tonight." She says, and finally shuts her mouth.
I quickly eat my food and drink my orange juice, trying to get away from Peeta so that I have more room to think.
After I finish eating, I quickly get out of my seat, saying goodbye to everyone before I scurry to my room. I stepped into my door and closed it quickly, blocking out anything and anyone, especially Peeta.
Something caught my attention when I stepped in. Each room has a messenger pod, where we can send each other things without even leaving the room.
On my messenger pod, there was maybe 2 or 3 dozen flowers sitting there.
I walked up to the flowers to examine them. They weren't just flowers, though. There was some assortments of fruits and chocolates strategically set in between the flowers. One dozen was of pink roses, another dozen was of white roses, and the last was of primroses. They were so beautiful.
On each type of flowers, there was a note. I read the first note on the group of flowers, the pink ones.
This color represents the color of your cheeks every time I look at you. Honestly, it's the most beautiful color I have ever seen.
I smiled at the note. There was no name on this one, although they could only be from either Peeta, or even better, Cato. But Cato doesn't have access to the messenger pod that connects to my room, so it couldn't possibly be him.
That only means that they had to come from Peeta. My heart sunk a little. I wish they were from Cato.
I looked to the white roses and read that note.
White, it represents the innocence that you have, even though it's probably going to be taken away once we enter the Games. And that's the worst thing the Capitol could ever do, take away someone's innocence.
I smiled at that note. It's true, whether I want to deny it or not. The Capitol steals the innocence of young children that don't know anything else in this world but agony. I don't want them to take mine away, but it's going to have to happen if I want to survive.
Finally, I read the last note.
Rose,
I know that it's pretty obvious that I'm not one for sappy love poems or romance, so it may come as a surprise that I sent you these. But for some reason, you make me want to do these types of things. Since our kiss, I can't help but feel that there is something pulling me towards you without me being able to control it. I can't stop thinking about you, and what might happen in the future, and even though I know it's impossible, I want to protect you, to save you from these Games. Even if that means something completely different for me.
Um yeah, so I'm done now. I'm cringing just writing these words down for you so you can imagine how I feel thinking about them. But you're worth it, I hope. You'd better appreciate me expressing my feelings like this because it will never happen again. Maybe..
Happy birthday, yes I remembered.
Cato
Oh my gosh. I grinned from ear to ear. So he did feel the same way about me.
My heart was fluttering, jumping down into my stomach and back up to my chest over and over again. It felt like the butterflies in my stomach were going to fly me away. I literally could not be any more happier.
I started dancing around my room happily.
But wait, how did he get them sent here? No other districts can access the pods. How on earth was this possible?
I turned around and around, trying to think about how he possibly sent the roses, to see a black jumpsuit sitting on my bed with my name and District number on it. I was just walking to put it on when someone knocked on the door.
"Prim?" Peeta's voice rang out. Shoot! Just when I thought I could avoid him.
I took a deep breath and walked to the door, quickly opening it to find Peeta leaning against the door.
"Can I come in?" he asks. I gulp and nod, motioning for him to step inside. He walks in slowly and I shut the door, bracing myself for what was to come.
Peeta looks around my room for a moment, not really saying anything at all. It was quite awkward in that moment.
"Hey, nice flowers. Who are they from?" he asks, walking up to them and attempting to grab one of the notes. I quickly take the note out of his hand and place it under the flowers. Peeta furrows his brows at me, but doesn't say anything about me snatching the note. Imagine if he found out that they were from Cato. He would go insane.
"Um, Effie. She just had them sent to my room." I lie.
"Oh, cool. They're nice." he responds, glancing at them once more. It goes quiet again.
"So.." I start, trying to loosen the tension. "What's the matter?" I ask.
Peeta takes in a breath and shuts his eyes for a moment. He opens them again and I am welcome to his big blue eyes.
"I just wanted to explain what happened last night." He says. I stare at him, waiting for his explanation.
This better be good.
"Okay, so, I don't know what's going on with me, but I had this dream about you one night, a dream where we were in love, and I just couldn't help but like it. After that, I developed feelings for you. I tried to keep them inside, but I just couldn't let them go. I'm sorry for kissing you last night, and I know that it was wrong to do because I'm supposed to be in love with Katniss, but it's just that I can't shake these feelings that I have for you. It's like they're pulling me closer to you even though I'm trying to stay away." he explains.
I take in a breath. "Peeta, I don't know, I don't want to force myself to feel anything. I understand how you feel, but I don't know if we would be the right pair." I explain.
"I know that, but I.. I just don't know what to do about these feelings."
"We're going into the Games. Do you think it would be healthy to get into a relationship at a time like this? In our situations?" I ask him. I had been questioning myself about that whenever I thought about Cato. It just wasn't right, not right now.
Not ever.
"I know that. But I don't care. I want to try."
"I understand that Peeta, but I just don't know what to do." I tell him honesty.
"You don't have to know what to do, but can't we just try something out? Just to see if there is any way that you can feel the same way?" he pleads.
I furrow my brows. There is no way that I can force feelings for him.
"How would we try something? I can't just force myself to like you." I tell him.
"I know that, but, I just wanted to try something, at least once, for real." he says, taking steps closer. My eyes widen with every step that he takes.
"What did you have in mind?" I ask him shakily.
"I wanted to kiss you again. Just to see if there was anything there." He says. He finally makes it directly in front of me and I stare up at him.
"Are you even sure about how you feel about me though, Peeta? Maybe you're just confused.. maybe it's too much to have me here as a constant reminder of Katniss?"
Peeta shrugs once. He turns his head down and squeezes his eyes shut. "That's what I am trying to figure out through doing this. Can we at least try?" he asks.
Should I try it? My heart was beating out of my chest, and I could hear it drumming along with my nerves. What if there was something between us, but I just couldn't see it until now?
It just doesn't seem right..
"Umm," I let out a shaky breath, biting my lip, "sure." I say quickly. I just want to get this over with.
Peeta smiles lightly and places his hands on my waist. My heart beat increases even more as I stare into his eyes. He leans in slowly, making his nose touch mine.
"Are you sure?" he whispers.
I nod quickly.
In a second, Peeta's lips brush against mine softly, and I stop to register what just happened.
Did I feel something? There wasn't much contact so I'm not sure.
Peeta brings his lips down onto mine again, closing them over my bottom lip, and I feel a small jolt of electricity, but it's just not as much as what I felt when I was with Cato.
Although that could be because of this sudden opening to my feelings.
But it just wasn't enough.
Or was it?
Oh shut up brain! You're only making me even more confused.
Peeta pulled away, blushing furiously, and probably mirroring my face as well.
He looks at me expectantly, blue eyes gleaming and lips upturned slightly at the edge.
"So..?" he whispers.
I frown and pout.
"Umm, I.."
What do I say?
"I felt something. Did you?" he asks.
How do I feel?
A/N
So, I have been getting so many readers for this fanfiction, which I did not really predict since this is a Prato fanfic and not very many people would agree with it because it seems demented, but surprisingly, a lot of people have come to enjoy it, which definitely makes me happy to know that you guys enjoy my writing.
There is a lot of tension in this chapter and the chapters to come! I want to see what people think..
Do you ship Prato, or do you ship Preeta (or Pim, idk)? Let me know who you guys want Prim to end up with!
Thank you to everyone that reads, votes and comments on this book! I love answering your comments and seeing compliments! They brighten my day! Literally!
And let me know if you want to be a character in this book! I am in need of names for tributes!
Vote, comment, share, follow, and thank you so much for reading! It means so much!
Cheers.
Myesha xx