Chapter 33:
-Katniss-
Two days later, Prim was sent back to our mother in New York. I was right, she insisted that she fly here to see Prim but I convinced her otherwise.
“So it’s just us both again?” Clove says from beside me on the couch.
I opened a tub of ice cream and replied “Yeah”
We share the tub, watching television after school. The heat was getting to us. Another container of ice cream later, we decided that we couldn’t take it anymore.
“It’s too much” Clove says, fixing the fan so that it faced us. I fanned myself with a notebook and nodded in agreement.
“Let’s go out” she suggested.
“And be under the sun directly? No thank you” I say.
She rolls her eyes “Fine but at least let’s go somewhere less hot”
“And where is that?” I ask her
“Finnick’s place” she says nonchalantly
“Of course” I say and switch off the TV. I got Finnick on the phone seconds later.
“Hey, what’s up?” he answers. He sounds busy and I could hear noise in the background.
“Is it cold in your place?” I ask
“Yeah. The others are coming over. I was just about to call you guys”
“We’ll be there in 5” Clove says, after taking the phone and keeping it. And minutes later, we both ended up inside Finnick’s air-conditioned house.
“Thank God, it’s cool in here” I say.
Finnick grins and tosses us packs of pastries. So there we were, eating pastries on Finnick’s couch. Later on, the rest of the Victors arrive. The boys decided to take on a video game while we girls just sat and ate more.
“It’s almost Fall, why the hell is it this hot?” Johanna complained, shoving another mini cake in her mouth. I shrugged.
“Which reminds me, we’re Seniors next year” Glimmer grins.
“That’s great but sad at the same time” Annie says
“How?” I ask
“We’re leaving for college. I mean I don’t think we’ll all be in the same university” she says, picking at her nails.
“It is sad” I say.
Occasionally, I steal glances to see Peeta with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. The girls notice me and Clove bumps my shoulder.
“Aren’t you two together?” Glimmer asks quietly so that they won’t notice.
“No” I reply “After the Delly incident, no”
“But you still-?” “Yeah” I nodded quickly.
“It’s sweet” she gushes.
“That? I find it annoying. How I can still care after what happened” I say.
“It’s still sweet” she decides.
I roll my eyes at her and glance again. He has this wicked smile on, seeing that he was winning. I shake my head lightly and return my attention to Annie and Johanna’s argument on raisins and grapes.
I was about to head out of Finnick’s house when Peeta stops me
“Hey” he says
“Hey” I reply.
For a moment, we just stood there without saying anything. “Are you going to say something?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. Um. Do you… want to grab lunch tomorrow?” he asks.
I smirk now “After everything, I consider my answer as the stupidest reply yet” “Which is?” he asks. “Yes”
The lunch bell rang and I gathered my things. I dropped by my locker to put my books in. I met Peeta at the school’s entrance
“We’re going out for lunch” he says.
Shrugging, I say “Alright. Where?”
“Pizza place” he mumbles as we walk out the doors.
The Pizza Place was full. So were other fast food restaurants and that left us with the local Chinese restaurant place.
“Of all places” Peeta muttered as we got off his car for the –nth time today.
“Don’t you like Chinese?” I ask as we walk through the door and get a table. We sat down, opposite each other. He looks at me and smiles
“No”
My eyes grow wide “How can you not like Chinese?” I almost gaped at him.
“Er.. I just don’t?” he offers.
I shook my head. “Poor you…” I say.
The waitress gives us each our menus yet I surprise them both when I take Peeta’s and mine and hand it back to the waiter immediately. I instantly started ordering food for the both of us.
“Don’t I get to order?” he teases after the waitress left.
“Nope. I figured you’d order the wrong thing which would probably explain your lack of love for Chinese food” I grin after.
He rolls his eyes and we get talking. After our lunch, we took our time driving back to school. And after classes, we all just decided to hang at Finnick’s.
After the standing up to Delly … I’ve decided that it’s a bit rough to get together with Peeta. So at Finn’s, I was more withdrawn from him. And apparently, he noticed. He took a seat beside me on the couch.
“What’s up? Did I do something wrong?” he asks gently and firmly.
“No. Not at all” I muster up a smile.
“I’m just -God, how do I say this?- You really do want to be with me?” I ask him.
“Always Katniss” he smiles at me.
“You do know, it’s hard to ignore Delly and everything that’s happened since” I tell him.
“And that’s what’s bothering you?” he asks. I nodded slowly
“I just can’t help it. I mean, after all that happened, it’s hard to look at you without replaying you and Delly kiss” I frowned and exhaled the breath I held in. He looks at me with such intensity till he finally tears his eyes away and leaves me on the couch.
A/N: Hey! Sorry for the err absence? If you can call it that. I just had a rough time patching this story up. Thanks so much for still being here if you're still interested, though I reckon not. So anyway, next chapter is the last. Hope you all enjoy it :)
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Trouble In Paradise (Hunger Games)
Fanfiction(Sequel to 'HG High') It's summer and the Victors have a whole lot of fun ahead of them. There's lots of things bound to happen with this crazy group in a big city. Especially when criminals are waiting to jump on them.
