Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.
Just Friends
Madge carries a tray to the table, several coffees, all black, no sugar, no cream.
"Thank you, young lady," Jefferson grins.
The other wranglers all murmur similar sentiments.
They were in from a long drive, moving a herd from the northern tip of District Ten down to the Stockyards. During the summer it was hot and miserable, but during the winter, it was bitterly cold, though they treated both seasons the same, drinking mug after mug of coffee year round.
She'd just finished getting away from them, they constantly joked with her, laughed about the time they'd tried to teach her to ride, when the bell over the door jingles.
Madge paid it no attention, it was getting close to time for the kids to come, so she took her empty tray to the counter and began restocking the cupcakes.
She'd bent down, begun adjusting the display, when something tapped her on the shoulder.
"Katy-Jo Lewes, I'm busy." Whatever it was she could do it herself. All she was doing was flirting with that burly wrangler, Wyatt.
The tap came again.
Katy-Jo Lewes was the boss but did she have to be so bossy? Frustrated, Madge stands and turns, "Look, just do it your-"Someone thrust a large bouquet of purple irises in her face.
The flowers dip a little and Gale grins back at her.
Madge's mouth drops. He wasn't supposed to be in until the next day. She lunges at him, throws her arms around his neck and laughs.
"You're early."
Gale nods into her hair, "They cancelled one of the meetings so I decided to catch an early train, spend an extra day with you." He whispers conspiratorially, "Think Crazy-Jo Loon will let you off early?"
She doesn't know. She's already off for the next few days, already had plans to spend them with Gale, it might be a bit of an overstep to ask for the end of this shift too.
Madge lets go of him and shrugs. He looks so hopeful, so excited to take her with him early and not have to immediately go to some stupid gala or a meeting, she at least has to ask.
"Go outside and wait."
Once he's out, standing like a lost puppy on the sidewalk in front of the coffee shop, Madge makes her way back over to the table of wranglers, where Katy-Jo Lewes is laughing and cutting up. She holds up a hand, "I already know what you're gonna ask."
"You psychic now Katy-Jo Lewes?" A dark skinned wrangler, Jessup, laughs.
"I'm not blind," she gestures over her shoulder to where Gale is, just outside the window.
"That your boyfriend, Madgey?" Austin, ash blond and brown eyes, stands to get a better look.
Jefferson grins, begins cackling, "He's a General. Fancy suit and everything."
Madge rolled her eyes. The men were such gossipy hens sometimes. "He isn'tmy boyfriend." They were friends. Period. End of sentence.
They exchange looks.
"He just brought you flowers."
"You looked pretty excited to see him."
"That wasn't a sisterly hug, not by the way helooked anyway."
Jefferson leans toward her, "Boy's smitten."
He is not. These people watched too many Capitol programs, saw romance in every interaction, all the wrong places. Gale wasn't her boyfriend.
"You all need to lay off the coffee," Madge crosses her arms. "Gale is just my friend. We've know each other a long time. We're…comfortable with each other."
Katy-Jo Lewes gives her a sly smile before nudging Jefferson, "They share the bed."
"Oh?" Jefferson's eyes widen. "That kind of friends, huh?"
What? Oh, for pity's sake…
"No!"
"It's okay," Jessup raises his hands. "We ain't judging."
The ancient woman that ran the District Community Home, seated at the table behind the wranglers, leans back, giving Madge a nod of approval. "If I was younger, I'd be that kind of friend with him too, darlin'."
Katy-Jo Lewes and Jessup cringe, audibly gag.
"Oh my lord, Mama Muetter! I don't want to think about you doing that kind of thing. Keep your mouth shut and eat your damn muffin." Katy-Jo Lewes shivers, "I'm gonna have nightmares."
Jessup swallows hard, "I think I threw up."
"Gale and I are friend friends, not whatever weird kind of friends you all are thinking of."
Madge needs new company.
She turns and looks over her shoulder at Gale, he's watching her through the window, still with that hopeful little smile on his face.
They're friends, just friends.
"So," Katy-Jo Lewes smirks, gives her a knowing look, "what's it your 'friend friend' want you to ask me?"
Madge feels her face heat up as they all look at her with expectant, shrewd expressions.
"Um," she has to make this sound casual, "we're going to District Eight, and he got off sooner from his last trip, so he wanted to know if maybe we could leave early. Get an extra day…"
"Together?" Jefferson arches his bushy white eyebrows, "Yeah, that doesn't sound like anything a boyfriend would want to do."
Jessup points to the counter, where the bouquet of irises set. "He needed flowers for that?"
Austin shakes his head, "Nope. Not like a boyfriend at all."
Madge gives them all her best glare. They're making more of this than it is. Friends give each other flowers. Friends spend extra time with each other. Friends hug.
Maybe most friends don't share a bed, she'd give them that, but it was perfectly innocent. They just needed each other, comforted each other, innocently. As friends.
Katy-Jo Lewes clicks her tongue, "Madgey, child, you in deep and you don't even know it." She jerks her head toward the window, toward Gale, "Get out of here with your 'not boyfriend'."
After giving the group a hard look, which only served to make them laugh, she goes to the back, up the stairs, gathers her things, her bag, then snatches her flowers from the counter, and leaves.
Gale puts his arm around her shoulders, "Got out, huh?"
She nods, takes her flowers and bops him on the head, "Obviously."
He leans into her a bit, rests his cheek against her head, and lets out a little sigh.
"I missed you."
Madge wraps her arm around his middle, inhales his scent, detergent, earth, his latest travels air, and smiles, "I missed you too."
Friends missed each other.
And they were friends.
Just friends.