Troubled One

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hey, honey," Iris Mellark stood at Peeta's door, peeking her head in. "Can you come downstairs?"

Peeta looked up from scrolling through Twitter.

"I've had dinner, thanks, Mom." Peeta offered.

"This isn't about dinner," Iris fidgeted. "It's about Katniss."

***
"Your brother told us something this afternoon when we came by the bakery," Simon Mellark, Peeta's father, beginned. "You had a little quarrel with Cato Ludwig."

"You told them?" Peeta's eyes darted to Rye.

"Dude, it doesn't really matter, does it?" Rye shrugged, taking a sip from his soda can.

Peeta slumped back in the chair, arms folded.

"Cato Ludwig was accusing you of killing Katniss 'that night'?" Simon questioned.

"Yeah, so?" Peeta said. "Why would I even try to hurt Katniss?"

"Something must've happened," Rory Everdeen, Katniss's father, cut in. "There was something that occurred and one thing led to another, right, Peeta?"

"Katniss was cheating on me," Peeta confessed. "She was kissing Cato Ludwig. I got angry, that's all."

"Just tell us, honey," Iris grabbed Peeta's hand. "Did you kill her?"

Peeta wrenched his hand away from his mother's abruptly, shocked she would even ask him something like that.

"No!" Peeta yelled, infuriated. "I would never ever hurt her!"

Everyone fell silent, probably startled by Peeta's yelling. But it was true, he would never ever try anything terrible on her. That night, he was drunk, and the only thing he had done was push her down that tiny little slope. It left her leg bleeding a little, but Katniss could carry herself back up. It was something she had always done when they hung around there.

Maybe that's why it hurt so much, besides the fact that Katniss was kissing Peeta's nemesis.

Because that spot was theirs. The spot where they did everything.

Talk, kiss, make love.

And that had been ripped from them by Cato, and Katniss.

"Did you love her?" Primrose's voice echoed around the Mellarks' silent living room.

"More than anything." Peeta whispered.

No one else spoke. Peeta scraped his chair back loudly and headed upstairs, his heart sinking every step he climbed.

Now his and her families were suspicious. Peeta hadn't even done anything that horrible to her. Peeta sighed. If only Katniss hadn't kissed Cato that night and stayed home like she told him she would.

Then maybe things wouldn't turn out like this.

Peeta looked up when he heard a door shut. Perhaps the Everdeens -or what was left of it- had went home.

But then something caught his eye. Peeta turned his head slightly to see what was it on his window. He saw a piece of paper flapping around in the wind, only one side of it taped to his window.

He got up and crossed over to his window to take a closer look. He stuck his hand out, took off the paper and flipped it over, as the other side was blank.

Peeta's heart clenched and his stomach did somersaults when he read the content.

And the signature.

If we really were in love, you wouldn't have done what you did. Regretting it yet?
-A

💖✨🙌✖️
ohmygod

peeta has got another note from A 😱 this time in the form of a note 😬

who do you think is A, and who do you think is guilty? ;)

let me know! :)

im kinda feeling stressed rn bc something happened with my 3 friends and i, and it was between the 4 of us and this guy that i like. its terrible, hes upset at us and i have no idea how to deal with this. 😔

• Chapter 3 •
word count: 518 words 💬

Screaming, "Is it worth anymore?" ⚓️

-A 💓