Broken Winged Birds that Cannot Fly

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

There's something wrong.

I sense it as soon as I enter the school building. It's almost as if every head turns my way, similar to how my entrance had been when I returned after I broke my leg. My hand is interlaced with Peeta's and, judging by the way his fingers tighten around mine, I know he senses it too. Has one of the sex rumours gone too far? Is it all anyone can talk about now that all students feel the need to stare at us as we pass them?

People whisper as we walk to my locker. I try to blot them out, ignore them like I do every time a ridiculous rumour surfaces about me. There's something that feels different about this time. Something that sits uncomfortably with me and makes me feel ill. And the fact that we're greeted at my locker by a pale faced Clove confirms my assumptions.

"What the hell is going on?" I demand to know, throwing an angry glare at a group of students who usually gather by the locker across from mine. I could practically feel their eyes burning into the back of my head, like everyone else's seemed to be doing this morning. "What rumour have they spread around about us this time? I swear, if it involves anything to do with the canteen and the low hygiene rating it received somebody is going to lose a tooth."

Clove is silent. She shakes her head, green eyes ping ponging between both myself and Peeta. Her expression is so grave it makes me feel uneasy. Clove is usually so put together, only a very select few things could throw her off point.

"Come on then!" I exclaim. "What could possibly be that bad?"

Clove moves away from the locker and directs her gaze to Peeta before speaking. Maybe it's because she knows he won't flip his lid like I will and will have a sense of calm about the situation. "It's Glimmer," she says.

"What about her?" Peeta asks, putting his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to shimmer me down.

"She . . ." Clove sighs and closes her eyes. "She's telling people that you had a threesome with Finnick. That you're gay and are trying to cover it up by the 'bi sexual' excuse, leaving Katniss so desperate for a screw that she laced Finnick into it with you guys."

My face twists with disgust. I place my hand on top of Peeta's and say, "That's vulgar!"

"It's not the worst," Clove says.

I frown. "What could possibly be worse than that?"

I catch on a millisecond before Clove answers me and my heart stops in my chest before she has even spoken. "She says that that is how you got pregnant."

My hands fly to my mouth in a mixture of horror, anger and fear. I burst into tears, unable to control myself. This is what I had been scared of since day one. This is what I had been worried about. I didn't want people to find out until I was huge, I'm not ready to face it now. And the fact that Glimmer thinks that she can dirty the conception of my baby makes everything so much worse.

I gravitate to Peeta and he hugs me without question. I sob these disgusting, ugly sobs in the middle of the school corridor, not caring who sees or what rumours become of it. What else could they possibly say about me? About us? They've not only ruined me, but they've destroyed Peeta too. Glimmer has outted him as gay, even though he isn't, and basically told people that he fancied Finnick.

Finnick! There's always been rumours about people he's screwed, even when he left the football jocks and started openly dating Annie. They were trying to convince Annie that he was still a whore but she knew better. Even though Annie is too clever to believe the rumours that we had a threesome, it won't help Finnick's reputation get mended.

Clove decides that the best thing for us is to get a cup of tea before classes start so we head to the canteen together. Peeta walks with his arm around me and I stay nestled into his side, sniffling like a broken child. I want to have my hand on my stomach because that never fails to comfort me, like the security that my child is safe and well despite everything is an aesthetic of sorts, but I can't because that would just seem like I'm playing up the rumour.