I put my last bag in my car and shut the trunk. Sometimes I wonder how well it is really working out for me. I was smart enough to get into this college and I left my high school early for it so I'm getting a head start in my life. But being away from Prim, my mother, and Gale. It hurts sometimes. I sometimes wish I hadn't taken this opportunity but I know my father would have wanted me to do it, if he were still alive. I shake that thought from my head because every time I think of my dad I want to cry. I can't cry though. I get in my car and I start driving towards the highway. Still a 15 minute drive until I'm actually on the interstate and it will seem like forever. I turn on my radio one of mine and Gale's favorite older song comes on. I can't help but sing it.
"Sadie Hawkins dance. In my kaki pants. There's nothing better. Oh oh oh. The girls asks the guys. It's always a surprise. There's nothing better baby do you like my sweater?" I laugh at the though of him in my passenger seat sings an hitting all the wrong notes. In fact, that little distraction causes me to miss seeing the on coming pick up truck since I swerved into the next lane. I try to turn but his truck hits my back end and I go spinning. I'm on an over pass but luckily the guard rails keep me from going of the edge of the bride. Startled, and very dazed, I slowly get out of my now damaged car as the driver of the truck gets out of his.
"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry are you alright?" He asks and he looks familiar.
"I'm fine. My car isn't though." I mumble the last part. He stands beside me.
"The police are on their way." He says. He had blonde curls on his head and a pair of ocean blue eyes. I'm not sure where I have seen him, but I know him.
"Do I know you?" I ask. He laughs.
"I just hit you with my truck, your care is completely totaled, and you are worried about if I'm familiar? Katniss, I work at the café at the college." He says. So that's where I have seen him. He is a waiter at the café his parents own at college. He is their son I believe.
"You are right. I should be thinking about how I'm going to get home." I say more to myself.
"I can drive you." He offers.
"Not the college. My actual house. I was on my way there for Summer Break." I say.
"I can still take you." He says and then, we hear the sirens of the police cars that start showing up. They all get out of their cars and an ambulance comes too.
"Hey, um, you are bleeding did you know that." He says. I still haven't leaned his name.
"Where?"
"The back of your neck. Looks like a long cut going down your shoulder blade." He says and I lift my hair out of the way. A paramedic comes over and starts looking at the cut, deciding it would need stitches. He takes me to the ambulance where he gets to work. Other than that though I'm fine. He starts sewing up my would which I noticed had started hurting. I can't lift my arm above my neck without wanting to yelp in pain. When I'm all finished, I try to listen to what he is saying about cleaning it but my mind wonders to the blonde boy. He is still standing there, close to the ambulance after they checked over him.
"Mam?" The paramedic says.
"Huh? Yeah what?" I ask because I didn't catch what he said.
"Don't lift your arms and make sure to clean it out every time to take a shower okay?" He asks and I nod my head. I look over at him and he is talking to a policeman. I watch as try talk back in forth and it looks like he is trying to take the blame for it. It hear a few key words like "not paying attention." And "full responsibility." And "my bad." When I finally feel guilty and I walk up to them.
"Officer, this is my fault. I got distracted thinking of home and I swerved to the other side of the road." I say.
"No, I was talking on my phone and went into a daze." He says.
"Well if neither of you chose to press charges against the other, we can all get out of here a lot faster." He says.
"I don't want to." We say at the same time.
"Alright. If there is nothing else to do here, we will get your car towed to the nearest engineer." He says and walks away.
"Why did you say that?" I ask.
"Say what?"
"That it was your fault. It was clearly mine." I say.
"Because. You car in completely totalled and mine only has a dent. And if its my fault, my insurance can pay for your car to get fixed." He says and even though it is a very selfless thing to do, I feel angry at him giving me pity. As if he knows my family will have problems getting my car fixed.
"I don't need your insurance Mr...." I trail off because I don't know his first name let a line his last.
"Mellark. Peeta Mellark." He says and extends his hand. I shake it.
"Well Peeta, I don't need your insurance. I will get my car fixed myself." I say.
"That will take awhile Katniss." He says and it bugs me that he knows my name but I shrug it off since I do go into the Café a lot.
"Where are you headed? Where is home for you?" He asks.
"Upstate New York." I say.
"Wow. That's a few days trip isn't it?"
"Yeah it is. I will only get like, half the summer at home." I sigh talking to myself again.
"That's not fair to you. I was planning on stay home this summer but what do you say to a road trip?" He asks. A road trip, with someone I just met because of a car accident. Someone who wants to drive me to upstate New York. For all I know, he could be a creep who is only doing this to get me in a bed with him, so I will have to be on full alert.
"When do we leave?" I ask and he smiles.
"When we get the stuff from your car."
The only thing that is making me say yes is the fact that I will be able to see Prim.
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