California Love

Chapter 16: I'll Stand By You

"I'm just shocked that Peeta is dating someone like her." She snaps. Rye moves forward so he is also standing in front of me.

"Peeta is dating Kat because she's a beautiful girl and he loves her, now go mind your own business." He glares at her and she turns around and keeps working on dinner.

"It was nice meeting you." Andrew says as Peeta takes my hand and pulls me out of the kitchen.

"I am so sorry Katniss, are you okay?" I smile at him. "Yeah, I'm fine." I lean up and give him a kiss.

"Thanks Rye." I say as we walk out the door.

Peeta drives us back to his apartment and we walk up and into the kitchen. He turns around and pushes me against the bench with his hands on my hips.

"There's another beach party on tonight that we are going to after dinner." He says and I nod. I lean up to kiss him but he moves his head out of the way. "Hey!" I say and scrunch up my nose. He laughs and kisses my lips so softly I can barely feel it.

"Stop teasing me and kiss me already!" I say and he laughs and leans in but pulls away at the last second.

I give him a death stare as he starts to prepare dinner.

I take a minute to calm down and then start to feel usless just standing there.

"Can I help?" I ask and he shakes his head. "No I'm fine thanks, you just sit."

I walk over to the vegetables and pick up the knife. "I can cut the veggies," I suggest. He turns to face me and his eyes widen in fear when he sees me holding the knife.

"No, no, no! You just sit down!" He says frantically as he takes the knife out of my hands and guides me over to the bar stool at the kitchen counter and makes me sit.

I stand back up again, eyes narrowed. "Have you been talking to Prim?" I ask and he turns slightly red. "Uhhh, um... maybe." He admits and I sigh.

"Peeta, I'm not that bad in the kitchen." I say, more trying to convince myself than him.

He raises his eyebrows. "I'm not!" I protest, "At least let me do something. I can set the table." I say, picking up knives and forks from the drawer.

"No, Katniss, please." He says, taking the knives from my hands. He looks around.

"Okay, how about you wash the veggies, you can't get that wrong." He says and I nod, thankful that he gave me something to do.

I pick up the veggies and put them in a bowl and then fill the bowl with water and soap.

Peeta glances at me quickly and then does a double take, his eyes widening in horror.

"What?" I ask as he stares at me with a shocked look on his face.

"Katniss, you're not supposed to wash them with soap." He says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, I didn't know." I say as he puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes me out of the kitchen and into the living room.

He disappears back into the kitchen and I sigh and sit down at the table.

"You know what who cares about dinner! I'm not hungry, let's just go to this beach thing!" I call out to him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, let's go"

5 minutes later, Peeta comes out of the kitchen with my phone and his and we walk down to the beach hand in hand.

When we get there, people are up on the stage singing. We spot all our other friends and walk over there. I see that Prim is with them.

"Hey Kat, sign up to sing a song!" Prim says, jumping with excitement.