Falling For You

Chapter 23

Peeta holds the peppermint up to my mouth and I stick my tongue out, allowing him to put it in my mouth, just as the door opens. Peeta and I both turn towards the door to see who it is. I suck on my pepper mint and look down at the counter. It's Gale. We haven't seen each other since that day in the woods, but I know he comes by here often. He still hunts every Sunday. He's been teaching Rory. Not that it matters much, there's no way I could fit under the fence now. And even if I could my clumsy footsteps would scare away game. I can feel his eyes on me, seeming to examine me for a while. I feel too exposed. There's nothing I can do to hide though. Now that the weathers gotten warmer I've been wearing less clothes and I've had no reason to need to cover up when I'm here or at my house. Prim and my mother aren't even phased by it and Peeta does notice but I choose to ignore that. It's not like I'm too terribly indecent, I'm just wearing summer clothes like most people would this time of year. But with the less clothes I wear the more obvious my pregnancy becomes. You can clearly see my growing bump and much bigger breasts under my tight tank top. "Rory! C'mon, mom's making dinner!" Gale yells at Rory, loud enough for him to hear it from upstairs. "Just a minute!" Rory's voice echoes through the house. Rory and Prim are always together now. It's going to be more than a minute. Gale sighs and stands by the door, waiting. When Rory doesn't come downstairs he turns to me. "Can I talk to you outside for a minute?" Peeta looks at me, clearly not approving, but I ignore him and stand up. Giving Peeta a reassuring glance, I follow Gale outside.

He glares at me. "What?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. "You're pregnant." I nod, slowly. "Why do you care?" I don't know why I said that. I know he cares about me, but something in his tone sets me off. With no warning, He shoves me into the side of the house and holds me against it, both of his arms on my shoulders, not hard enough to hurt me, but enough to scare me. "What the hell?" I scream trying to shove him off, but his hold on me is too strong. "What did he do to you?" He screams, getting right in my face. "Who? Peeta?" I ask, still trying to squirm away from him. "Snow." He says, quieter now. This isn't something we should be discussing. Definitely not outside where anyone can see us. He has to know how dangerous this is. "Because the Katniss I knew wouldn't want this. The Katniss I knew didn't want kids or a marriage and she definitely wouldn't let anyone make her choices for her." Before I can answer, Peeta rips him off me. With all the yelling I didn't hear the door open. He must've seen us through the window. "Are you okay?" He asks, pushing Gale aside and wrapping his arm around me. "I'm fine." I assure him, stepping out of his embrace. "Are you sure?" I hate when he looks at me like that. Like I'm a wounded animal, even though I know he's just worried about me. "I'm sure. Go back inside. I'll be in in a minute." I brush him off, staring at Gale. "What? No, I'm not leaving you out here with him!" He tries to argue. "Gale's not going to hurt me, right?" I watch Gale, waiting for an answer. "Right. Go back inside bread boy." I roll my eyes at Gales mocking tone. Peeta goes inside, but I know he's standing, pressed to the window, watching us. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to get us all killed?" I yell, looking him in the eyes. He doesn't say anything. "And for the record I didn't let anyone make these choices for me. I love Peeta. And I chose to marry him and have his baby because I love him. Not because someone else made me." I say, my voice filled with anger. He looks like I've just smacked him in the face. He walks past me towards the door and I follow him. "What are you doing?" I ask, when he opens the door. He puts his hands up, walking past me, into the house. "I'm just going inside to get Rory, alright. Then I'll leave." I nod and he walks further into the house. I walk inside too and straight over to Peeta, whose standing by the window, watching Gale intently. My anger fades completely when I see Peeta. "He's leaving." I say, not sure of what else to say. He nods, looking down at the sink. I hear Gale and Rory's footsteps as they walk to the door and I turn around. I watch Gale leave, he looks drained of all emotion. Both of our fires have gone out. I turn back to Peeta and rest my head on his shoulder. "Do you wanna start dinner? I could go see if Prim wants to help." I offer, hoping to forget everything that's happened tonight as quickly as possible. "Yeah. Go get her." I walk into the living room and see my mother sitting on the couch looking towards the kitchen. "What happened with Gale? He looked upset when he left." I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Of course she's concerned about him. "Nothing. We were just arguing. It's fine now." I walk up the steps to Prim's room. "Hey, little duck. Wanna come help with dinner?" I ask, turning my frown into a smile. "Yeah." She hops off her bed and follows me downstairs, walking at an overly slow pace to match mine.

Prim and I slice potatoes, while Peeta puts some bread in the oven, and starts boiling some water for the stew. Eventually my mother comes to help too and we all cook dinner together, like a family.

A/N: I wrote this a while ago and I cant really look over it that good with the phone i have but I hope you liked this chapter please comment and tell me how you feel