Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, I have a lot going on right now.
Disclaimer: I don't own the hunger games or it's characters. All credit goes to Suzanne Collins.
Katniss's POV
He wraps his arms around me and lets me cry on his shoulder. He whispers soothing things into my ear until I calm down.
I sniff and he says in a soft voice, a while later," I'm sorry that happened to you."
"It wasn't your fault." I say in a hoarse voice. He doesn't say anything.
"Are you ok?" He asks.
"Yeah." I mumble and pull away. I'm suddenly embarrassed for hugging him." Sorry, I didn't mean to get on you like that -"
"It's fine." He gives me a sad smile.
I stare into his blue eyes and ask nervously," What happened to Thom?"
" He got arrested." His eyes darken in anger a bit. I nod.
Moments later, I ask him," Why did you do that?"
"Do what?" He asks confused.
"What you did at the grocery store." I say. No one, not even gale, has stood up for me like that. Gale would usually laugh at the way his friends would treat me, saying I deserved to be taught a lesson.
He looks me in the eye and says," You don't deserve to be treated that way."
I look away and focus on a shampoo label.
"Annie and Finnick are probably outside with the food, I'll bring it in." Peeta gets up and leaves.
...
We watch T.V. in silence. He was trying to start small talk but I gave him yes and no answers. Suddenly, I don't like the awkward silence.
"Can we just stop this?" I ask him.
"Stop what?" He asks.
"This awkward silence. I hate it. Can we just pretend the grocery and bathroom incident didn't happened for a while?" I ask him.
He nods and says," If that's what you want."
I in relief and sit back against the couch.
The movie is suddenly interrupted with a breaking news report.
"This just in, the victim of the stabbing incident, drops charges." The news anchor says. What does she mean the victim?" Weeks ago, a young female named Katniss Everdeen stabbed her boyfriend. Gale Hawthorne, the boyfriend, was found by their neighbor Alma Coin. She called for help and they managed to save Mr. Hawthorne from death. When he woke up he told us exactly what happened and his wishes."
No. No. This isn't real. He's dead.
I feel my heart start to beat faster as Gale's face pops up on the screen. He's dead. This isn't real. It's just your imagination Katniss.
"It was an accident. We were trying to cook some stew and I turned to get some carrots but I slipped and fell. The last thing I remember is Katniss trying to get the knife out of me." Gale chuckles. What is he doing?" I don't know who came up with the rumor that Katniss stabbed me because those rumors are false. She would never hurt me."
"Then why do you think she ran away?" The interviewer asks.
"She was scared. Katniss runs away when she's scared." Gale says and looks at the camera dead on in the eye." Katniss please come back to me. I'm ok. I love you. I'll be waiting love."
The screen changes back to the news anchor.
"Mr. Hawthorne will be released from the hospital in two weeks." The anchor turns to her co- anchor." What a big misunderstanding John."
"Indeed Linda, I just hope that Katniss Everdeen doesn't keep her boy waiting." He says and the screen goes back to the movie.
He's alive. He dropped charges because then he won't have close enough to the point where he can hurt me. Doing prison time sounds better than spending another day with Gale.
"Are you ok?" Peeta asks me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Uh- Oh yeah, Fine." I say a bit too quickly.
"How about we start dinner?" Peeta asks, probably suspecting the news report upset me.
"I'll start dinner." I get up.
"But-" He begins.
"You're always cooking, I'll cook today." I say and head into the kitchen, not waiting for him to respond. I guess I need a distraction from what just happened.
I go into the kitchen and search the fridge. Annie and Finnick brought back our groceries hours ago.
I take out all sorts of things and close the fridge door. I jump a little when I see Peeta plugging in a radio.
"Do you ever dance when you're cooking?" He asks me.
"No." I say and he turns on the radio, playing some catchy song.
He grabs a knife and starts to cut potatoes.
"Peeta, I said I was going to-" I begin but he sets the knife down and starts to spin me around the room.
"Pe-" I laugh but he dips me. I shriek and wrap my arms around his neck.
He sets me back up and says," Dance with me?"
"I don't know." I mumble.
"It'll be fun!" He turns the music up louder.
I laugh at his cheesy dance moves. He sticks out a hand and I shake my head. Should I take it?
"Come on, trust me." He encourages me.
"What if I do something wrong?" I ask him.
"Then we keep going." He says.
After debating for five seconds I take it and he spins me around some more.
I laugh and forget everything bad that happened in my life. The only thing I can really focus on is what's happening now.
He dips me one more time and looks into my eyes while saying," That wasn't so bad now was it?"
"No." I allow a small smile to play on my lips.
He returns it and sets us back up.
We dance while cooking and I admit it's really fun. However that all ends when a familiar song starts to play. The song that was playing when Gale and his buddies were at the house, hurting me.
My hands start to shake as the memories flood back.
" What's wrong?" I hear Peeta's voice. It sounds so far away.
I can hear their laughter; it's cold and cruel.
"Hey." Peeta turns me towards him and lifts my chin up." What's wrong?"
I open my mouth to talk but a tear slides down my cheek. I quickly wipe it away and pull away from him.
"I'm tired." I say and head towards the room.
"What about dinner?" He follows me.
"I'm not hungry." I mumble and slam the door and lock it.
Gales alive and he's going to hurt me again. There's no point trying to ignore the thought because it's going to happen sooner or later.
Author's Note: I hope you all liked this chapter. Sorry for not updating in a long time, I got really caught up with school and other things.
Half credit goes to me the other half goes to Awesomegirl2656.
R.I.P. Philip Seymour Hoffman.