No Games Left to Play

15: An Unexpected Visitor

Gale opens his mouth but I cut him off.

"I'm not finished," I shout. "I don't care if you didn't know she would be out there helping the wounded. It was your plan. Your bomb. And as much as I didn't want to see you after that last time we talked in the presidential mansion, I wished for you to check on me. Whether that was a small visit or a phone call, I didn't care. I just wanted my best friend. I didn't have anyone. My father and sister were dead, my mother couldn't bare to come back here, my mentor went back to his alcoholic ways, and my best friend couldn't even bother to contact me. You didn't get to see how bad I was. I didn't shower, I didn't eat, I didn't care if I died and I started to think nobody else cared either. But then Peeta showed up. He took care of me even though he was still trying to get better himself. It didn't matter to him if I was a threat to his safety. He couldn't bare to see me in pain, and that's when it hit me. What I needed was not more fire, but the promise that life can go on no matter how bad our losses are. That it all can be good again and Peeta was the only one who could give me that."

"Catnip—"

"You don't get to call me that anymore," I snap. "You're still a child. Grow up, Gale."

"Please, just—"

"No!" I yell. "I don't want to talk to you ever again. Go back to 2."

I stare at someone I once called my friend, my old hunting partner. I don't recognize the person he's become. They say that war changes you and I couldn't agree more.

"Let's go, Peeta," I say turning my back on Gale, leaving him to fend for himself in the woods.

Peeta and I walk in silence back to our home in the Victor's Village. He knows he couldn't have done anything to make that situation turn out any differently. I can tell something is off about Peeta because it's like he's walking on eggshells.

"Im sorry," I apologize once we get in the house.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Peeta says. "You had no idea he was going to show up like that."

"I didn't do anything to upset you?" I ask.

"Of course not," Peeta says, pulling me into a hug and kissing my forehead. "That really put a damper on our date though, didn't it?"

"You could say that again," I laugh, still wrapped in Peeta's arms.

I rest my head on his chest and close my eyes, breathing in Peeta's scent. He starts to sway us from side to side, picking up on how much that argument really drained me. I noticed myself dozing off as he pulls away.

I look up at Peeta's eyes and I can tell he's trying to find the words to ask me something, but instead he just says, "I'm going to go put this stuff away."

"Ok," I smile. Peeta starts to head to the kitchen. "Do you want help?"

"I should be ok but I'm not going to stop you from helping if that's what you want to do," he says.

"Well If I help you, it'll get done faster and we'd have more time to do whatever you'd like."

"You better get in here then," Peeta smiles.

Peeta and I take turns grabbing something from the basket and putting it away in either the fridge or the pantry. I snatch the last cheese bun and shove it in my face when Peeta isn't looking. I struggle getting it chewed up before Peeta turns around and see's my cheeks plumped out because my mouth is stuffed full of the baked good.

He chuckles, "How are you still hungry?"

"They're just so good," I mumble, my mouth still full and crumbs falling out.