Chapter 20

Annie Cresta POV

Maeve is taking me to school today, I actually want to talk to her about Finnick. I didn't think he was serious about me being his girlfriend, I honestly expected it to be some kind of sick joke. I hate that high school has made me this way.

I walk downstairs and Maeve is standing by the door, texting. "Are you ready?" She asks when she sees me.

I nod. "Yeah," I say. "Let's go."

We get into the car and start heading that way. "Have you formally decided that you're quitting cheer?" Maeve asks me.

"I am yeah," I say. "I'm talking to the coach and turning in my uniform today."

"I'm sorry it didn't work out," she says. "I know how hard it was for you to branch out and try something new."

"It was, but I'm still proud of myself for trying," I say. "I'm hoping swim will work out better for me."

"I'm sure it will," she says. "You've always been great at that."

"If you say so," I say. "I think it'll be a lot better than cheer."

There's a long pause of silence, I can feel Maeve glancing at me. "Is something on your mind?" She asks. "It seems like you're thinking about something."

"I did want to talk to you about something," I say. "Something happened recently, and I wanted to know your thoughts."

"What is it?" She asks. "Is everything okay?"

I take a deep breath. "Finnick asked me to be his girlfriend," I say. "He asked me after we went rollerblading, but we confirmed it in person on Monday."

"What?" She asks. "This happened 3 days ago, and you're just now telling me?"

"I was honestly shocked," I say. "Plus, we've both been busy and haven't been seeing much of each other."

"That's true," she says. "I just wish you would've told me."

"I said yes," I say. "I was convinced he was joking until he told me he wanted to be my girlfriend in person, and then he kissed me."

"And you were okay with that?"

"Yeah," I say. "He asked me first, which meant a lot to me."

"Isn't Finnick Odair known as a ladies' man?" Maeve asks.

"He is," I say. "But apparently he said he wants more of a real relationship than a friends-with-benefits thing."

"Are you worried he'll pressure you?"

I take a deep breath. "I am," I say. "I'm so far on the opposite end of the spectrum, he was my first real kiss."

"I don't know if this is a good idea, Annie," she says.

"If what's a good idea?"

"You dating Finnick," she says. "He doesn't have a good reputation, from everything I've heard. Maybe that isn't something you should get involved with."

"I like him a lot," I say. "He's been really sweet to me."

"How do you know he's not just playing you?" She asks.

"I guess I don't," I say. "But he's been nothing but sweet to me, I have no reason to believe he's playing me."

"Hasn't he played a bunch of girls?" She asks. "Didn't he hook up with Johanna?"

"Once," I say. "And that weirded me out too. I asked her about it, and she said every girl he's hooked up with was aware of what he wanted out of it."

"It's your choice," she says. "I just don't want you to get too swept up in a guy's pretty eyes to look after what's best for you. I know all too well what that's like."

"I won't," I say. There's a pause. "His eyes are really pretty, though." I smile and blush, Maeve chuckles.

"You can always talk to me," she says as we pull up to school. "You can tell me anything, you know that right?"

"I know," I say, grabbing my bag. "Thank you, Maeve."

"I'll see you later," she says. "Have a good day."

"Bye." I get out of the car and start to walk into school.

This discussion didn't make me feel much better. I'm glad I can open up to Maeve, but I feel like she doesn't always reassure me how I'm hoping she will. I know she's looking out for me, but I guess I was hoping for a different response. I get out of the car and walk into school. Not long after I go up to my locker, Finnick walks up to me.

"Hey babe," he says, kissing my cheek. That catches me off guard, and I think he can tell. "Sorry, did I scare you?"

"It's okay," I say. "I just didn't expect you to kiss me, that's all."

"I'm sorry," he says. "Can I walk you to class?"

"Of course," I say. He grabs my hand. "How was your morning?"

"It was okay," he says as we keep walking. "I'd rather not be up this early." I see Glimmer, Cashmere, and Clove giggling and looking at us. They must think it's hilarious that we're dating. Whatever, I hope it blows over.

"I'm turning in my cheer uniform today and telling the coach I'm quitting," I say. "Wish me luck."

"I really hope it goes well," he says. "Tell me how it goes, I'm sorry cheering didn't work out."

I shrug. "It's fine," I say. "It wasn't for me, it never was."

We get to my class and stop outside the door. "Bye Annie," he says. "Can I come see you during lunch?"

"Of course," I say. "But I might want to spend part of it with my friends."

"Absolutely," he says. "We'll talk later."

He kisses my cheek and I walk into class. I'm very conflicted about my relationship with Finnick. I really like him, and he's doing and saying all the right things. I just don't want to be naive, and I guess it's hard for me to believe that a guy that popular and attractive would actually like me.

I want to listen to Maeve since I look up to her and trust her, but I don't want to assume he has bad intentions because of his repitation when he hasn't done anything to break my trust. I think I'll just tread lightly, which is what I do with everything in life. Sometimes it just gets exhausting.

Katniss Everdeen POV

Gale and I are heading to the bakery for our Saturday morning shift, I feel like I should tell him that I talked to Peeta the other night. I haven't gotten a chance to tell him, and I feel like he'd want to know. I know I don't have to tell him anything, but I don't want to get into a fight with him if he finds out at a later point.

He picks me up and I get into the car. "Hey," he says. "How did you sleep?"

I shrug. "Okay, I suppose," I say. "I didn't sleep all that well."

"Why not?"

"I never sleep well when I know I have to be up earlier than usual," I say. "I'm too worried about oversleeping. Plus, the cat was being super loud."

"Prim still has the cat in the house?" Gale asks.

"Yeah," I say. "My mom doesn't care enough to tell her to get rid of it, and I know it makes her happy."

"Do you still have to take care of it a lot?"

"Prim's been pretty good about feeding it, and it does go to the bathroom outside for the most part," I say. "But I do have to help when it does make a mess in the house, which is annoying."

"I'm glad she has something to make her happy," he says. "She deserves it, she's a good kid."

"She is, and she does derserve it," I say. "We get so few luxuries in life."

There's a pause, and I'm starting to get sad so I want to change the subject. "Oh, by the way," I continue. "The weirdest thing happened to me the other night."

"What's that?"

"Peeta called me," I say. "He just wanted to talk."

"What about?" Gale asks.

"Nothing really," I say. "He just wanted to talk. It was weird, he asked to call me but it didn't seem like he knew what he wanted to talk about."

"Katniss, I told you getting mixed up with him wasn't a good idea," he says. "Maybe working at the bakery wasn't a good idea."

"Gale, he's never done anything for me to think he's a bad guy," I say. "What am I supposed to do, say I can't talk to him because my friend told me not to?"

"I worry about you," he says. "You don't know what guys are like."

"You've said that before," I say. "I starting to wonder if you assume that about everyone because you know that's what you're like."

There's a pause. I can tell that pissed him off. "How can you say that about me?" He asks. "You know I'm just looking out for you."

"I feel like you're controlling me more than anything at this point," I say. "I just talked on the phone with someone, and I was scared to even tell you because I knew how you'd react."

He takes a deep breath. "I'm not trying to control you," he says. "I just don't want you to accept kindness from someone who has bad intentions, especially now that Annie is dating Finnick."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Maybe Peeta thinks he can get to you now that Finnick got with Annie," he says. "I'm not convinced Finnick has good intentions with Annie."

"You know me, Johanna, and Madge would kill Finnick if he did anything to Annie, right?" I ask. "Hell, forget me and Madge. Johanna herself would skin him alive."

"I know," he says. "But I still worry about you guys."

"Annie isn't helpless," I say. "And neither am I."

"Katniss, I never said that," Gale says as we pull up to the bakery. "Am I allowed to worry about my friend?"

"Yes," I say, getting out of the car. "But you're not allowed to control me." I slam the car door behind me.

"Katniss!" He calls out to me as I start to walk towards the door.

I walk into the bakery before he can start saying anything else, luckily Peeta and his dad are already working inside. Gale wouldn't dare start arguing with me in front of them. I don't know why he feels the need to control me, Annie and I aren't helpless. I'm definitely not, and I know Annie hates when people think of her that way.

I'm wary of Finnick's intentions too, but Annie has us to turn to if something happens. We can take care of ourselves, and I'm not sure why Gale is so intense about knowing who I'm talking to. I don't even like Peeta that way. I know I snapped at him, but I'm done with his questions about things that aren't his business.

Peeta Mellark POV

Gale and Katniss show up at the bakery while I'm already there helping my mom and dad. Katniss is clearly upset about something, Gale starts working while she sets her stuff down. I can feel tension, it's honestly pretty awkward.

Katniss comes back from setting her stuff down and opens the register with the key. She's using a considerable amount of force, so I walk up to her. "Hey," I say. "How are you?"

"I'm good," she says, not looking at me. "Just kinda tired."

I look over at Gale, who's taking a tray of croissant dough out of the fridge. He's glaring at me. "Oh," I say. "I'm sorry."

Katniss is counting the 10s in the register. "It's fine," she says, quickly. She pauses for a second and stops counting. "Shit, I lost count."

"I'm sorry," I say. "I'll stop bothering you."

"No it's fine," she says, starting to recount the bills. "I like talking to you." She raises her voice a little at that last part, I wonder what's going on.

We finish opening up and start tending to customers. A little while later, Katniss steps outside to go on break. I decide to follow her to see if she's okay since she still seems a little upset, and I honestly want to know what's going on. Maybe it's bad to want the gossip, but I can't deny that I'm curious.

I walk outside and she's sitting on a bench out front with her soda. She's eating a turkey croissant from the bakery that my dad let her have. "Hey," I say, walking up to her. "You okay?"

She pauses, looking a little confused. "Yeah," she says, going back to eating. "Why?"

"You seemed a little upset when you came in this morning," I say. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

She sighs. "Just something with Gale," she says. "It's stupid." She takes a sip of her drink.

I sit down next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?" I ask.

"I don't want to burden you," she says. "It's not worth it, honestly."

"It wouldn't be a burden," I say. "But I understand if you don't want to talk about it."

"He got upset when I told him that you and I talked on the phone the other night," she says. "I guess he doesn't think I should be talking to popular guys."

"Why not?"

"I think he thinks that all of you guys are jerks and fuckboys," she says, taking another sip of her drink. "He said he's worried about me."

"Well I can't deny that some of us are jerks," I say. "I try not to be, though."

"He said he's worried that Finnick has bad intentions with Annie," Katniss says. "And that maybe you have bad intentions trying to get to know me."

I sigh. God, he pisses me off. He has no right to control her like this, we had one phone conversation. I pause so I don't show how much this is irritating me.

"I can promise you that Finnick doesn't have bad intentions with Annie," I say. "All he does is talk about how much he likes her."

"Really?"

"Yeah," I say. "He says he's fine with taking it slow with her, he just really likes her."

"That's really sweet," she says. "I hope he's telling the truth."

"Trust me, he is," I say. "I've known him since we were little. He's a lot of things, but he's never been a liar."

"I'm glad to hear that," she says. "Annie's super sweet, but she can be naive."

"Well I'll put Finnick in his place if I need to," I say. "And I know Johanna will."

Katniss nods. "Oh she definitely will."

There's a pause of silence. I decide to be the bigger person and not stoop to Gale's level. "I'm sorry that us talking caused a rift between you and Gale," I say. "We don't have to talk unless it's about bakery stuff if that's what you'd rather."

"No, I like talking to you," she says. "Gale can't tell me who to talk to."

"Are you sure it won't cause trouble between you two?"

"It won't," she says, shaking her head. "His family needs me too much to let me go over something so stupid."

I'm not sure what she means by that, but I don't ask. It's not my business, and I don't want to insert myself too much into her life too soon. "Okay," I say. "I know you'll tell me if I need to back off."

"You're right," she says, smiling. "I will." I smile back at her and head back inside the bakery so that she can finish her break.

I hate that I caused a fight between Katniss and Gale, I never want to be someone who caues drama. I've always tried to fill the role of peacemaker, but I also feel like Gale way overreacted. She's allowed to talk on the phone with other guys, especially since they aren't even dating. She's right, he is being really controlling. I'm glad she's seeing it, even if it means he hates me more now.

I want things to keep progressing with her, but I'm honestly just glad we're getting closer in general. Even if we just stay friends, I'd be happy with that. I would be lying if I said I wasn't hoping to date her, though. I just don't want to come on too strong and push her away, though. She has a right to be closed off, and I want to be as respectful as I can be.