The Village

Chapter 2:

When I wake up I find a muscular, and slightly hairy arm draped over my midsection. 

I find Peeta the way I've found him so many times before and I laugh a little bit. 

"Peeta, get up!" I shove him and he falls onto the carpeted floor with a thud. 

"What was that for?" He shouts, tossing his head out of his eyes.

"You were in my bed." I shrug. He pouts. 

"You were having a nightmare. I could hear you screaming from my house." He argues. 

It's true. Hundreds of times before, Peeta's heard me screaming in one of my fanatic night terrors and he's crawled into my bed and held me until I stopped turning. And it works everytime. 

Peeta and I are unusually close for a boy and a girl who are just friends. 

"Don't you think it's weird how often we sleep together?" I ask, sitting up and pushing my arms out from under the covers. 

"We're not sleeping together." He corrects. "It's more of a comforting exercise in which we sleep at the same time in the same bed."

"If that's what you call it." I scoff at him. 

"Look, are we going to talk about yesterday or not?" He says out of nowhere.

"What? With Jace?" I ask. "Come on, Peeta. It wasn't that big of a deal."

"Well me and you-" He furrows his brow. "What happened wa-" He sighs and rubd hid temple. "Is that all you remember?"

"What else is there to remember?" I look at him like he's insane. 

"Katniss! how can you not remember!" He looks shocked. "It was less than twelve hours ago!" 

"I don't know what you're talking about. But it's Saturday and I promised my mother I would go to the Justice Building and pick up her mail from the Capitol."

He sighs again. "Katniss, we kissed yesterday." He blurts out and my head jerks back toward him with wild eyes. 

"What the hell are you talking about, Peeta?" My heart starts racing.

"After the whole Jace thing! We kissed. I don't  know how you can just forget that!"

I don't know what to say. 

Me and Peeta?

Peeta and I?

Katniss and Peeta?

Peeta and Katniss?

How in the hell did that happen?

I've never once thought it would be like if Peeta and I got together. 

And now that I'm thinking about it, I can't picture it.

Or can I?

.

***

.

 The next day at school I get into quite the stand off with Clover Touri and it starts drawing a crowd.

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" She spits. "I bet Everdeen's never even been kissed." 

"That's not true." A deep voice musters from behind. 

I feel a strong rough- yet familiar- hand on my shoulder. 

Jace.

"What are you saying?" As big as any of the Mellarks are, people like Clove and her band of giants could take them any day. So she won't back down.