Baby of Panem

Suprises at Home

We climb under the fence and being the walk to our spot in the woods. He doesn't speak the whole time we walk, the silence between us feels different than it did before, more heavy and more awkward. Gale checks the snares as we walk along the path. I try to help him, but he is quicker than I am and is already finished by the time I check a couple, but I'm also not trying. More so just doing it to fill the space between us. We approach the clearing, which is closer than our usual hunting area and Gale stops, a few paces ahead of me. Standing in the middle of the field here, we could be visible to anyone who decides to look just the right way between the trees at the bottom of the hill, the dirt road leading into Twelve is visible from here as well.

"I thought we would go to our usual spot," I look around, anxious about if someone would see or hear us.

"You know as well as I do that no one uses this road often. Besides, I figure this won't take long and that we won't be hunting afterwards."

"Gale... we have to go. It's time."

"What are you talking about?"

"We have to leave Twelve. It's not safe anymore."

"Just where are we going to go?"

"The woods. Just like we've always talked about. You said it yourself, before the reaping, we could make it. We need to go now. We could be far away from here by tonight." Gale scoffs and looks away from me.

"Yeah, well who's we? You, me, and your fiancé? Some act you put on by the way, was really great to hear the cheers echoing through the mine when you said yes to him, hearing just how beautiful it was."

"Are you really going to start this right now?"

"Yeah. You didn't have to get engaged to him Katniss!"

"It doesn't matter," We would come back to this conversation later, "It's not just Peeta and I anymore." He turns to face me, his eyes widen as he looks at me.

"You really did it then, you slept with him. That's why you're so willing to leave all the sudden, you're pregnant."

"I'm not pregnant," That is the only statement from his sentence that I'm able to deny, "Snow threatened to have you killed."

"Great. Why didn't you tell me this sooner? Anyone else?"

"I mean he didn't exactly hand me a copy of his list but a good guess it includes both of our families, and Peeta's."

"Unless what? You actually go trough with this marriage?"

"No. Unless nothing now... what do you say?"

"Do you love me Katniss?"

"Gale," I don't know how to answer his question truthfully, yes, I love him, but something was different between Peeta and I, there was more than just an act there. I felt something toward him too, and I'm not sure how it compares to what I feel for Gale. It's best to avoid the question and give him the usual answer of not being able to think about relationships, "You know the way I feel about you, but I can't think about anyone like that right now. All I can think about is how afraid I am. But maybe, if we were somewhere safe, things could be different."

In a world without the games, in a world where I didn't need Peeta to survive, in a world where I never was dragged into this star-crossed lovers act with him, maybe things could be different. In a world without Snow. If things were different, if Prim's name was never called, if there were no Hunger Games, if there was nothing but normalcy, things could've been different. But that's not real life, and that's not this time, the odds of anything being different if we leave, are just about as good as the odds were of Peeta and I both surviving the games, nonexistent.