Broken (Peeta Mellark Fanfiction)

Chapter 2- Stubborn

One night, instead of the usual nightmare, a memory resurfaced in my dreams.

Late in the evening, a dark and filthy girl was searching through the bakery trash cans, the mother of the house was livid, she screamed at the girl, even threatened to call the peacekeepers, but the young boy beside her didn't see the point, she only wanted food. So what if she stole from our trash? She was just a poor girl from the Seam, but that wasn't the reason he'd purposely dropped the loaves of bread into the fire, it was because he had an unbelievable crush on this girl.

"What are we going to do with BURNT bread? What a waste! Do you want us to go broke? Do you want to live in the worst parts of the Seam because that's where you're headed! Can you do anything right? You worthless piece of-"

"I'm s-sorry Mom! I won't do it again I s-swear!"

"You sure as hell won't!"

The woman with her angry stare swung a small rolling pin high in the air and whacked the little blonde-haired boy hard across the cheek. The boy tried not to cry at the aching pain that sprouted on the left side of his face, surely this will result in an ugly black eye and bruise down his cheek. His mother shoved the two steaming burnt loaves of bread into his hands, then pushed him outside into the heavy rain, screaming,

"Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!"

The boy began tearing off chunks of the burnt parts and tossed them into the trough, the bakery bell rung and the mother hurried off to help a customer. Once she was out of sight, the boy glanced behind him just to make sure she was gone, then threw one of the still-steaming loaves at the soggy creature that lay out in the mud. It was the girl, starving and helpless.

The next day at school, the boy's left eye and cheek were swelled up and sore. "I fell face-first on the sidewalk." He told his friends. It was the end of the day, they were walking out of the schoolhouse. The little boy saw the girl pass by, he thought he saw her glance at him, but when he tried to catch her eye, she immediately looked away. He watched her kneel down and pick out dandelion from a patch of grass on the ground. She didn't acknowledge him again, so he walked away.

When I woke up, I spent hours ruling out this memory. I knew it was real, for some reason I just knew. That was the one moment we first had real connection before the Hunger Games. This might be the answer to a lot of Katniss' intentions. I saved her life, she thought she owed me. That's why she played through the act and saved my life in the Games. But I still don't know how to feel about her, owing and caring are different things. What type of person is she really? Looking back at everything I remember, I can't seem to think of one simple thing. Maybe if I saw her again, I'd know for sure, and if she really cared, maybe she'd somehow explain.

Right now, all I know is that I would've spared myself a whole lot of suffering if I'd just given the bread to the pig.
-

During he next therapy session, they told me that the next best thing to do was to communicate with friends and family. I grimly reminded them that besides Delly, all of my friends and family are dead.

"That's not true, there are many people who still worry about you." Dr. Salvo said.

"Really? Who?"

"Haymitch Abernathy, Johanna Mason, Finnick Odair... Katniss Everdeen."

"But-"

"Just because they, besides Johanna, weren't captured with you doesn't mean they betrayed you or abandoned you, anything the Capitol said was a lie. Believe me when I say they were worried about you the entire time you were gone, they felt scared and guilty for what happened."