Steal Your Heart

Chapter 9

-----Recap-----

We just stand there for a few minutes, looking into each others eyes, just like we did the day we met. The sound of my phone ringing is what breaks or eye contact. I go over to my nightstand, where it sits, and pick up my phone, hitting the answer button.

"Hello?" I say.

"Katniss?" I hear the voice on the other end of the line. It's my mother. She sounds worried.

"Mom? Is everything alright? You sound kinda funny," I say.

"It's...... It's Prim," she says.

-----End of Recap-----

I start to shake.

"What is it?" Peeta asks, worried. I shrug my shoulders. He takes the phone from me, and walks in circles around my room as he talks. "Hello?" he says. "Oh my.......... Okay.............. I'll tell her......... We're on our way," is all I hear from this side of the conversation.

Peeta hangs up the phone and sits it down on the night stand where I got it from. He walks over to me, takes me by the hand, and takes me to sit me on my bed. He kneels in front of me on both of his knees, so we are eye level. He takes my face in his hands.

"Katniss, I need to tell you something important now, and I need you to listen very carefully. Okay?" he says. I nod, and he continues. "Prim, it seems, has been in a car accident-" He doesn't get any farther than that when I start to hyperventilate. "Katniss, I need you to stay calm. Do you want me to tell you the rest or save it for later?" he says, but I am shaking uncontrollably now. I wrap my arms around my knees and rock myself back and forth, sobbing. Peeta scoops me up in his arms and rubs my back in circles. "Do you want to go see her?" he asks. I slowly nod. "I'll pack your things. You just lay down, okay?"

He sits me down next to him on the bed, where I was before, and stands up to go, but I grab his hand. He comes and hugs me tightly. When I finally let go, he helps me to lay down and I sob into my pillow as he gathers my things. Within about 10 minutes, he comes back.

"Come on, Katniss. It's going to be a long drive," he says, picking me up.

He walks us to his truck, and sits me in the passenger seat. After he loads my stuff, he calls Finnick, telling him to pack a bag for him to pick up on our way out of town. He starts the car and heads off. I am still sobbing, but not as heavily, and I feel drowsy.

"You can go to sleep, Katniss. It's okay," Peeta says. I turn my body so I can lay down and still have my seat belt on. Peeta stretches his arm over and gently brushes the hair off my forehead and begins stroking my hair until I drift off to sleep.

When I awake, I begin to wonder why I'm in the car. Then, everything comes flooding back to me, and I start to shake. Prim was in a car wreck. She could be dead. My Primrose, my everything, could leave me. I begin to cry, and my crying eventually turns into sobs. Peeta looks over at me and takes my hand. It is then, that I realize that Peeta hasn't told me anything like 'She'll be okay' or 'It's going to be okay'. I never gave him the chance to tell me the rest of what has happened. I try to control my sobs enough to ask him.

"Peeta," I get out with a shaky voice. "What happened?" Peeta glances over at me and sighs. He pulls the car over to the side of the road, and slides to the middle seat. He pulls me to him, and I wrap my arms around him tightly. He kisses the top of my head.

"Katniss," he says, "when they got hit-"

"Who's they? Who was she with?" I interupt him.

"She was with Thresh and Rue. When they got hit, all of her ribs broke and three of them punctured her left lung," he says quietly, choking back his tears. "They don't know if she's going to live. They said the chances are extremely slim. I'm sorry, Katniss." He has tears streaming down his face right now.