Pure Torture: a Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 84

Katniss

"When you cry a piece of my heart dies, knowing that I may have been the cause. If you were to leave
Fulfill someone else's dreams, I think I might totally be lost." -City and Colour

"It's going to be a hot day. It's almost August. Are you sure you want to wear that?" Peeta asks upon seeing me in my long sleeved shirt.
"Yeah, I'm sure." I reply. "If I get too hot, I'll just change."

After I feed Willow, I sit down at the table and eat my own breakfast. The anxiety I've been having for the past week has been weakening my appetite, and Peeta already says he can see I've lost weight.
"You need to eat." He says, the same way he begs every day.
"Yeah, okay." I reply dully, accepting my plate of eggs and bacon.

I never gained much baby weight, and whatever I did gain is now long gone. I know Peeta's worried about what's going on with my eating habits and my weight, but I make sure he knows I'm okay.
"I'm just nervous." I tell him as he watches me eat.

"Nervous for what? Gale?" He asks.
I nod, embarrassed.
"We talked about it, Katniss. I doubt he's going to start anything, and if he does, I promise I won't retaliate. I know how much he means to you." Peeta reassures me.
"And," He says, standing up and planting a kiss on my forehead. "There's no way he can take you from me. I don't have a problem with him."

I let out a shaky breath and repeat Peeta's words over and over again in my head until I hear a knock at the door. My heart beats fast, but I long to see Gale again. I take a deep breath, throwing a glance back at Peeta, who sits on the couch, and face the door.

I have my fake smile already prepared, and all of my fake greetings and my forced, small hug all planned out before I even reach the door. But when it opens, and I see the familiar face of my old best friend, all plans go haywire.

"Gale," I say quietly while we stand, taking each other's presence in.
A smile creeps across his face and suddenly I'm wrapped in his arms. Not the kind of hug I had planned; the forced one that children give their grandmothers when they don't want to hug, but the one that you give your best friend after you haven't seen them in months.

"I've missed you..." He says, hugging me back.
I feel Peeta watching us, but I know he's not suspicious or uncomfortable or anything of the like.
"Come in." I say after we hug, holding the door open for him as he walks in.
"It's, uh, it's a nice place you got here. Who's house is it?" Gale asks, trying to make small talk.
"It's mine," I say. "You don't remember that?"

He shakes his head no and that conversation ends.
"Would you like some breakfast, Gale? We're eating lunch in the meadow in a few hours." Peeta offers.
"No, thank you. I ate before I came." Gale says.

I feel the tension begin to ease a significant amount once I find Willow, who had been taking her morning nap, awake in her crib upstairs and figure that I should introduce her to Gale. I bring her downstairs and immediately, Gale's eyes light up.

"Willow," I say, placing her into Gale's arms. "This is mommy's old friend, Gale."
"Gale," I say, looking at him. "This is Willow."
He smiles at me and then down at the baby.
"She's beautiful." Gale says.

I reach my hand out to Peeta and he gives me a high five.
"Good job, babe." I say to him.
All three of us laugh, which, I'll admit, is surprising. If there was a way I could go back and tell my old self that there would come a day that Gale would hold Peeta and I's child and laugh with us at a joke I made, my old self would surely not have believed it. And to be perfectly honest, I can't believe it myself.