Fragile

Chapter Eight: Talking to Her

It wasn't even twenty-four hours later when all hell had broken loose.

As soon as Gale had woken up, he went to the bathroom and found Peeta in a heap on the floor, a bruise on his head from the impact of the InStyler. His shirt was missing and on the floor, next to Katniss' jumper. That's when Gale knew something was wrong. He ran to Katniss' room and begged her to open the door.

Katniss opened it after a minute or two. She was fragile and pale, her eyes bloodshot from crying so much. As soon as she had locked her door, she had gotten sick and vomited in her trash can. She hadn't stopped shaking since Peeta's attempt. Gale coaxed her into telling him what had happened, and through sobs, she eventually did.

Gale then went and woke Peeta up, dumping water on him and cursing him. Peeta got up, held his head, and stumbled to the living room to just flop onto the couch and fall back asleep. Katniss followed Gale to the living room, looking more fragile than ever. Her jumper was much larger than her last one, and she had changed into sweatpants, hoping that they wouldn't give off her figure. Gale grabbed his phone and turned on an alarm, setting it off and waking Peeta up again.

"Dude...can you not be so loud?" Peeta muttered, covering his ears.

"You have no freaking clue what you did!" Gale screamed. "You tried to rape my sister!"

Peeta's eyes shot open and he glanced at Katniss, who couldn't even look at him. She stood behind Gale, looking downwards.

"K-Katniss, I--"

"Shut up!" Gale screamed again, yanking him up by his throat with a strength Peeta didn't know he had. "You listen to me--"

Madge opened the door and walked in like she normally did, a box under her arm and Gale's expression softened slightly. "M-Madge--"

"Here's everything I borrowed from you and/or you left at my place," Madge said, sitting the box down on the couch. Articles of clothing and a couple of movies were in the box. She then noticed how Gale was holding Peeta by his throat, Peeta coughing and gasping for air as Katniss stood silently, tears rolling down her cheeks. Madge gave Gale a look.

"Gale, put him down."

"Madge, he tried to--"

"I don't care what he did, put him down," she said sternly. Gale refused to do it. He wouldn't. He was ready to kill Peeta, and then throw him out of the apartment with all of his stuff. Gale rammed Peeta into the wall, knocking what wind was left in him, out. He then let go, letting Peeta slide to the floor, wheezing and gasping for air.

Katniss was now in the corner, crying. She initially didn't want Gale to hurt him, but then again Peeta somewhat deserved this in her eyes.

"You always think you have to kill somebody when they do something wrong!" Madge exclaimed, glaring at Gale.

"He tried to rape Katniss!" Gale exclaimed back.

"He didn't kill her though!" Madge retorted. "She's over there, still breathing! Meanwhile, Peeta's on the floor struggling to live!"

"He deserves it and hope he rots in hell--"

"I hope you rot in hell, Gale," Madge said coldly. As much as it didn't seem like it, Madge was a preacher's daughter, and he was also the mayor, but when that came from her, you knew she genuinely meant it.

This was the first time Katniss ever saw Gale's hard, outer shell break and he was this new, emotional person. "M-Madge, I-I--"

"Gale, I can't stand you! You lose you temper over the littlest things! Katniss, did Peeta actually rape you?"