August 8th, 2012
2:48pm

Peeta was kind enough to wait for my interview to be over. I shook mayor Undersee's hand once more after he told me it was glad to see me again. It was sort of weird, knowing him as much as I do. But it comes with being Madge's friend. I walked out of his office to meet Peeta out in the receptionist's room.

"You didn't have to wait," I told him with stuffed my notepad and recorder into my messenger bag.

"I told you," said Peeta, "I wanted to see you." It was stupid but when he said it, it made my stomach do these weird flips and my heart to skip a beat.

Trying to be smooth, I smiled at him gently and began walking so he would follow me out. "Well," I spoke, "now you've seen me. What do you want to talk about?"

Peeta looked stumped for a second and opened the doors for me to let me out first and exited right after me. A few minutes later and he chuckled nervously.

"I honestly have no idea; I just wanted to see you." Again, my stomachs did flips and I wanted to jump up and down and cheer. But I didn't, of course.

"Peeta," I say and turn to face him so I walked backwards, "just why exactly do you want to see me? Did I appeal to you in some way, do I intrigue you with my amazing abilities to embarrass myself or is it just because I'm fantastic?" Personally, I thought I was being funny and so did Peeta with the way he has laughed.

Turning to walk the right way, I smile and feel really light with Peeta walking right next to me. It's really kind of dumb to be honest because I don't know him. I know his name but not who he is, what he likes to do in his spare time or even what his favorite color is.

"Peeta," I say and he looks at me so I know I have his attention. "What is your favorite color?" It's out of the blue but now that I thought about it, it's bugging me.

"Why?" He asks and arches his brow at me.

"So I can't get to know you?" I question, my tone verging on playful. Part of me wants to choke and just curl up because I'm never this way with anyone but it doesn't seem to matter to Peeta.

"It's orange."

My face crinkles at disgust and the first thing I think of is jack o'lanterns on Halloween.

"Why would you choose that as your favorite color?" I ask and my tone has completely taken a 180 and is now torn between sounding ambivalent and repulsed.

Peeta laughs and shakes his head at me then puts his hands into his pockets.

"It's not a bright orange but more like a… soft orange, like," he stutters, tripping over how to explain this to me, "uh… like sunset!" He finishes and crosses his arms like he just achieved something worth anyone's while.

My head tilts a little as I try to picture it but I shrug at him and wave my hand. "I still don't see why you'd choose orange, though. It's such a weird color."

He laughs and nudges his elbow into my side lightly before returning the question.

"Well," I say and look at him, "that's easy. It's green."

His fake mocks my previous look of disgust and I smack the back of my hand into his chest. We both end up smiling and I turn to the right as we walk aimlessly through downtown Panem.

"What do you like to do besides bake at a bakery?" I ask and he looks at me.

"Are we playing 20 questions?" He questions back.

"I don't know," I shrug a shoulder, "are we?"

"Do you realize if you keep this up then you're wasting all your questions?"

"Peeta, do you realize that you're just doing the same thing?"

He laughs and replies casually. "Irony has a way of doing that, I think."

"You're turn to ask me something," I says and flick my hair over my shoulder.

He bites his lip, eyes wondering around the area pointlessly and taps his four fingers along his chin like he was thinking hard.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" He asks and I let out a humorless laugh.

"No," I shake my head at him. "I do not." Then I know it's my turn to ask something so I think about it before I return the question to him.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Peeta takes a deep breath and looks away from me uneasily, filling me with dread immediately. He does. He has a girlfriend.

"No, I don't have a girlfriend." Relief washes away the dismay and I smile at him, rolling my eyes away.

"Okay, my turn then." Peeta states and asks me another question straight away. "I have yet to figure what color your eyes actually are. So, what color are they?"

Creases furrow my forehead and I arch a brow at him this time. "What do you mean what color are they?"

"I mean what I say, what color are your eyes? They look grey but sometimes they look silver."

Does he usually pay that much attention to me? I ask myself and avert my eyes as I try to answer this because sometimes it's either or.

"It's both," I state. "Sometimes it's silver and sometimes it's grey."

Our arms brush and I try not to pull my arm away immediately; instead I put my hands into each another and exhale slowly.

"Okay, Peeta, my turn." Pointing to a bench, somehow we found ourselves in the town park and we sit onto the black bench.

"Is Riker your brother?" I ask, not too sure whether they were or not.

Peeta snorts and nods his head like my question was the world's easiest thing to point out.

"Excuse me for not seeing it right away," I say and roll my eyes for the second time, or was it third?

"Do you have any siblings?" He asks, ignoring my snarky comment.

"One," I tell him. "A sister named Primrose, but I, and pretty much everyone else, call her Prim."

"Did you mean Primrose Everdeen?" He asks and I nod at him, my eyes looking at him with plain confusion. Does he know her?

"Oh, she pops into the bakery every now and then to see Rory." He nods and my face contours into more misunderstanding.

"Rory works in the bakery every other day or when either I or Riker can't show up. He's a good kid, lucky to have Prim as a girlfriend."

My face drops into straight up baffle and I feel cheated. When did Prim start dating Rory?

"They're dating?!" I ask, not exactly yelling but not exactly whispering.

Peeta's mouth opens then closes multiple times before he shrugs and looks away awkwardly.

"Peeta," I say, placing my hand onto his shoulder and turning him to face me. "They're dating? My baby sister, Primrose, and Rory Hawthorne are girlfriend and boyfriend?"

He doesn't answer but only looks sorry. When we make eye contact, I try not to get mad over this. Gale and I joked about it when they were twelve but we were never really serious about it all. Still, I guess it does kind of made sense, the two were always so close and we never saw anything wrong with it because Gale and I were close like that, still are. Only we didn't end up together.

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew." Peeta apologized and shook his head. "I honestly thought you knew—"

"You say sorry too much." I throw his words back at him making him pause then smile slowly.

"You're not mad?"

"Well, I am, kind of," I tell him, "but not at you."

"I think this game isn't fun anymore."

Nodding in agreement I try to think of other things to talk about but can't. I've never been good at this, talking and having a conversation and getting to know another person while I'm sober. Pills and alcohol usually back me up at this point but seeing as how it's a weekday and Peeta has seen the drunken side of me, and I can't manage to control myself then, I don't think it's an option.

"How about we play truth or dare?" He asks and smirks at me. The challenge is set and I nod at him, the previous topic completely thrown off the board now.

"Okay," he says, "truth or dare?"

Not up for anymore truth, I say, "Dare."

"I dare you to kiss me,"

I am about ninety nine point ninety nine percent sure that my jaw just dropped. His cheeks redden and I just stare at him, my stomach fluttering and my heart beating right against the ribs that contain it. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and it's really fast that I can't keep track after a few beats.

"You… want me to kiss you?" My voice was low, quiet, almost like I didn't want anyone nearby to hear.

"No," Peeta shakes his head and my stomach drops. "I dared you to kiss me. Whether I want you to or not is completely irrelevant."

Bringing my hand up to bite at my nails, his hands come up to pull it away from my face and then he touches the ends of my hair. My breathing hitches just a little when he leans in and I'm frozen. Part of me is screaming to just hold the sides of his head and to plant one straight onto his lips but the other part is telling me not to, he's just going to use me like all the other guys, like Cato.

Then I remember that he beat Cato up last year and Cato hasn't given me that payback he promised. Maybe Peeta is who and what I need. Maybe he can protect me, tell me I'm actually worth something, worth more than the alcohol, the cigarettes and more than the pills I take.

My eyes shut and I lean in until I could feel our mouths hover each another, so close our breathing matches. He smells like cinnamon, something like sandalwood. It's actually really attractive.

"Katniss," he whispers and I raise my brows like he knows he has my full attention. "You don't have to kiss me, if you don't want—"

Almost hesitantly, I connect our lips and cut him off midsentence. When he kisses me back, Peeta places his hands onto my neck and I deepen the kiss, my tongue trailing over his bottom lip until he gives me what I want, access.

Our tongues swirl, my hands placed gently onto his shoulders and I feel all warm, light and I just want to give him more of me because this feeling is extraordinary. It's a feeling I've never felt with anyone before, the feeling of wanting more and wanting my hands all over him at once.

There a heat in my belly, growing more as the kiss goes on. Pulling away, I sigh and do not dare open my eyes because I don't want to ruin the moment.

"I guess you wanted to then." Peeta comments and I laugh, opening my eyes finally. He's still so close, his eyes staring into both of my eyes.

"They're silver," he adds and I'm confused. "Your eyes, they're silver now. Not so grey, but shiny."

I look away and blush; pulling my hands away from clutching his shirt, I wasn't even aware I was doing that.

"Uh," I stutter. "I have to go," I tell him though it's a lie.

"Go where?"

"I have to type up this… interview," standing off the bench, I tug at the bag's strap self-consciously.

"I want to see you then," he tells me and takes my hand into his like one of those big romantic movies where the girl tries to run off and the man insist on seeing her because they love each another deep down—except I don't love him because I like him, I think.

Pulling a pen out of my bag, I scribble my cell number onto his palm and look up awkwardly. His hand comes up and pushing a few locks behind my hair and I look to his chest.

Tilting my head up with his thumb and index finger, Peeta leans down and kisses me again. I let him because like I've said before, the feeling is extraordinary like nothing I have ever felt before. I want to feel it over and over again. It's the feeling of desire and lust.

"I'll call you," he tells me and I nod then turn away, feeling too light and airy for my own good.

I'm a few hours late but I still updated on a Monday! Reviews are welcomed. I'm so happy you guys are liking it so far! It makes me happy when you say the chapter was great and when you tell me you love the story. 3

Just so you know, the dates are on the chapters so that you'll see it'll lead up to the present day. :)

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