It's A Jungle Out There

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Mellark is once again in the library before me. I’m not surprised by this, I purposely procrastinated even arriving. Thankfully it’s a lot emptier than the first time we tried this and there are only a few pairs of eyes staring at me as I limp over to Mellark’s table. He’s hunched over a book again, not to hide any bruises this time I’m guessing.

I slap my books onto the table hard enough to make a loud bang. Mellark jumps in shock and looks at me in alarm. “Was that necessary?” he demands.

“I don’t know, was it?” I ask back, easing myself into the seat across from him and throwing my crutches onto the floor. I expect a snide comment from him. Something about karma or comeuppance, that since I made fun of his black eye on our first study day, fate has bit me in the ass in the form of a broken leg. Or maybe something about my alleged suicide. Maybe he’s going to say something like the world’s better off without me or whatever. Nothing I’d take to heart, since he is such a dweeb.

Except nothing comes. Well, nothing concerning my broken leg anyway. Or my ‘suicide’. I eye Mellark sceptically as he slips his book underneath the huge ass algebra text book and wonder if he’s making fun of me by not saying anything. Maybe he makes jokes with the other twerps from Loser’s End when my back’s turned? Typical. Coward won’t say it to my face.

It’s difficult to concentrate. My thoughts are distracted with images of Glimmer and Gale. I worry that Gale will think I’m not interested and give up, maybe actually trying to become serious with Glimmer. I’ll have to find someone soon, and something tells me it’s going to have to be Marvel. The guy who seems to have a vendetta against the squishiness of my breasts.

“Are you even focusing?” Mellark brings me back to earth by asking.

I focus my eyes on him and cock my head in interest. “You’re a smart guy, do you think Glimmer and Gale’s relationship will last?”

Mellark stares at me with an expression I can only decipher as disbelief. “Excuse me?” he asks.

“Glimmer and Gale. Do you think they’ll last?”

“And this has what to do with Algebra?”

“Nothing,” I say. “But I’m asking anyway.”

Mellark rolls his eyes and directs them back to the textbook. “It is not my place to comment on the romantic status of others. Especially not Gale Hawthorne’s.”

“Yeah but you must have an opinion,” I insist.

“And what if I said I did think it would last?”

“I would say you’re a lying fucker.”

Mellark pushes his glasses up his nose and sighs. “Put like a true lady,” he says.

I scowl. “Just answer the damn question.”

“Katniss, if you honestly believe that anyone thinks that the spontaneous getting together of Glimmer and Gale is anything but fake then you’re obviously paranoid,” Mellark says. “Why would a guy whose eyes have always been glued to your ass ever since freshman year choose one of your best friends when you disappear for a week? It’s hardly a feasible decision.”

A smirk curls onto my face. “His eyes have been glued to my ass since freshman year?” I ask. There’s a possibility that Mellark could be lying but out of all the things to be untruthful about, why would he bother with that? Besides, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gale’s eyes had been glued to my ass since we were freshman year. I always had a feeling he had been attracted to me for that long. Maybe even longer.