Falling For You

Chapter 11

I crawl underneath the fence and enter the woods. The woods usually would calm me the second I enter the fence, but even being here can't seem to calm my nerves today. On my way here, I saw a wedding cake in the window of the bakery and almost started crying. I don't know what's going on with me. I'm never this emotional. I breathe in the damp woodsy scent, As I walk along the path towards the lake. It rained late last night, leaving everything, including the air, moist. I pick some fresh berries and shoot a few squirrels, before finding Gale. I put my game into my bag, along with most of the berries, as I approach the small cabin. I left a few berries out for me to eat myself. I can tell it's Gale because all his snares nearby are emptied, plus it's Sunday so I was counting on him to be out here. I walk through the threshold and he looks up at me not surprised in the least by my presence. "Hey." I put the last berry in my mouth and bite down, making it explode with sweet juice. "Hey, Catnip." He mumbles, looking me over. He seems like he's looking for something on me, but I can't imagine what it might be. I start to feel guilty, thinking that somehow he can tell what Peeta and I did just by looking at me. I'm relieved when he gives up and sits down next to the fire. I sit down next to him and place my bag between us. "I missed you. I didn't know if things would be okay after last time...." He trails off looking at the fire. I can see he's hurting, but I can't do anything to make him better. "Hey.." I grab his face turning it towards me, so he has to look at me. "We're okay. It's okay. What happened last time..." I'm at a loss for words as I stare into his eyes. "It doesn't matter." I say, hoping that will make him understand. In all honestly I hadn't thought much about it. I've had plenty of distractions with the wedding and honeymoon, Gale hasn't really been a priority. "It does to me." He mumbles, making me feel guilty. "That's not what I meant." I look at him, but he just stares at the floor. "I love you." He says. "I know." Tears begin to form in my eyes and I blink them away. This is too much. I need to get out of here. I get up and grab my bag and walk as fast I can outside. I feel like I might throw up and that definitely wouldn't help the trying not to cry plan. "Wait...Katniss." He follows me, as I walk as fast as I can through the woods. I walk towards the fence, tears now streaming down my face. I finally stop, realizing that he isn't going to just give up without talking to me. When I turn around to face him, I see that there's tears in his eyes too, threatening to spill over at any moment. "Katniss calm down, it's okay." He tries to comfort me by wrapping his arms around me, and I let him without complaint, leaning against him.

I wipe the tears off my face and take a deep breath, steadying myself. "We could still leave, you know. Go off into the woods." He suggests. I shake my head in response, looking down at the ground. There's no way we would make it out in the woods with me, Gale, his family and mine, even if I wanted to go. "We can't." He sighs, looking down at me. "Do you love me?" He asks, taking me off guard. "You know how I feel about you." I dodge the question again, because right now I really don't know how I feel. "Then why can't we?" I take a step back, looking away from him. "I can't leave Peeta behind." I glance back at him. I couldn't live with myself If I left Peeta here to be killed or worse. There's no doubt Snow would do something awful to him, and Haymitch too. The thought terrifies me. I swallow hard and stare down at the ground. "You love him?" I flinch at the anger in his voice. I can tell he's getting angry now, by how much louder his voice is. Every time he's hurt it turns to anger. It's his way of dealing with things, the same way I run, he fights. "Katniss!" He grabs my shoulders, making me look at him. The force behind the gesture makes makes my shoulders ache. I know Gale would never intentionally hurt me, but I can't stop the fear from bubbling up inside me, even if only for a moment. He seems to sense that he's hurting me and he instantly lets go. "Katniss. I'm sorry." He tries to grab my hand, but I pull away. "I need to go." I say, emotionlessly, not looking at his face.

My legs burn as I run as fast as I can towards the house, ignoring the weird looks I get from people in the streets. I don't want them to see me cry. I run into my house and straight to the sink. I splash cold water on my face to wash the tears off. I don't want to have to explain to Peeta why I'm crying. I walk upstairs and change into some comfortable clothes and crawl into bed next to where Peeta's laying, drawing in his sketch book. Washing off the tears doesn't take the puffiness away from my eyes, or the red tint to my cheeks, but if he notices he doesn't say anything. I curl up next to him and he sets his sketchbook and pencil down, directing his attention towards me. He wraps his arms around me and I close my eyes. Drained both physically and emotionally, I fall asleep within minutes, safe and warm in his arms.

A/N: I feel weird not having an authors note even though some of the chapters I've posted previously don't have one. Mostly because I've posted them so close together because I finished them the same day. Anyways... Vote and comment please :) I love attention.