The Star-Crossed Lovers from District 12 (Wattys Finalist 2013)

Chapter 31

He starts to kiss my neck. “Did you miss me?” he asks.

“I…thought…you…got…shot,” I say crying.

“I’m right here. I fine and I don’t have a scratch on me.” He sits me down on the couch and gives me a kiss. I’m still crying and I wrap my arms around his neck. He puts his strong arms around me. I feel safe, not like I did with Eli. Eli. What am I going to tell him? My husband is back and I was just using you because I was depressed without him? Peeta. What am I going to tell him? I don’t want to hurt him and lose him again. I can’t just say I thought he was dead so I needed someone to replace him just for comfort. This makes me cry more. I don’t want to hurt either of them. I am just going to have to tell them both as soon as possible so less damage will occur. I pull away from Peeta and give him a kiss.

“I thought you were dead. How can you be alive?” He grabs my hands.

“Well once you left, you left the door open so I could hear your conversation with Gale. It really made me feel bad about how I was treating you. Those words that came out of my mouth I never meant. I have always loved you and I always will but I said that because I was blaming my depression on you. I know it wasn’t your fault, you were just giving me what I asked for and I thank you for that. I know you were trying everything to keep our relationship but I kept pushing you away. I was blaming that on you also. It made me mad that you weren’t giving me my space that I wanted, but now I realize that you were just doing that to try to make me happy. Nothing was your fault.” I wrap my arms around him. How could I tell him about Eli? He just poured his inner most thoughts to me and I can’t just break his heart. I just smile.

“How are you alive though? Right after I ran out of the house I heard gunshots.”

“Yeah, so did I. So I got up and I limped down the stairs to see what was going on and I saw two dead Peacekeepers at the bottom of the steps. I look around the corner and I see two rebels heavily armed. They tell me that those Peacekeepers came here to kidnap you and that they broke in through our back window. They got me here as fast as they could. I got here about midnight because the hovercraft almost crashed so we had to switch. I wanted to see you right away but they said you were getting up at five to do some training with I think the name was Eli. So they put me in this room and told me to wait.” He laces his fingers with mine. “I was waiting for you all night. I can’t wait to lay down next to you tonight and fall asleep with you by my side and my daughter close.” He kisses me. I. Can’t. Tell. Him. I would hurt him and I feel like I’ve been doing that a lot lately with Eli. I felt guilty the entire time with him. But I hate seeing people not happy, and Eli looked happy with me. I could’ve just asked him to be with me until I fall asleep. I didn’t have to kiss him and give him the wrong impression. The only reason I kissed him was that I thought he would comfort me at night. I am so stupid. What was I thinking?! For Peeta right now all I do is smile then begin to cry again.

“You should’ve came to me. I didn’t sleep at all last night. I didn’t have you with me.”

“I know. But at least we will be training together. I requested we have the same trainer so I could be with you.”

“Wow, you didn’t need to do that.”

“I wanted to. So is Eli nice?”

“Yeah, I was crying the first time we met so I told him about you and how stressed I was and we basically became friends instantly afterwards.”

“Almost like Cinna?” I nod my head.

“Almost like Cinna.” He reaches for my hand.

“Well, let’s go.” I grab his hand and we walk into the elevator that brings us to the target range. I have no clue how I’m going to tell Eli about Peeta now that Peeta is in the same training session with me. I will tell him tonight. I will just go back to his room after training and I will tell him. I don’t know how I will break it to Peeta though. I know that Eli will understand but I don’t know if Peeta will. When we get there I can tell Eli’s face is in shock when I bring In Peeta and we’re holding hands.