You Said Always

Chapter Twenty One

Katniss POV

I pull back from the kiss as quickly as I can.

"You have to explain everything before you starts kissing me, Peeta!" I yell at him, wiping my arm against my mouth.

"Why can't you trust me anymore?" He asks me softly, hurt filling his eyes.

"Because you made a lot of promises that you couldn't keep, Peeta," I whisper, tears falling down my face. "I loved you, and you left me. I came home and you were going to marry another girl. I thought that you loved me to. But I'm just a stupid girl with enough luck to survive. My family is dead, Peeta. Prim and . . . You were the only people I knew that I loved."

"I had family too, Katniss!" He yells. "They're dead, and they're not coming back! You have to understand that Prim is gone, and you have to get over it!"

"I can't get over it," I yell at him, tears clouding my vision. "I can't because I have to live with the fact that I could've saved her! The only person I knew that I loved is dead, and I killed her! I killed the only person that loved me back!"

"I didn't mean it." He whispers, making me chuckle.

"Yes you did," I hiss, tears pricking in the backs of my eyes. "You meant every word of it."

"I don't even know why I started loving you." He spits, but it doesn't faze me.

"I know why I started loving you," I say calmly, looking him straight in the eyes. "The first thing that got me was your eyes. Then your hair, your smile, your voice, your laugh, your kindness, your confession of fake love, your selflessness, your generosity, your hugs, your kisses, your paintings, the way your tongue sticks out and you furrow your eyebrows while you bake, how you fought back to me during your hijacking. Those are all the reasons I love you, Peeta. But now it means nothing because the biggest thing is gone."

"What is it?" He asks me, taking a step closer.

"Your love." I whisper.