After Mockingjay

Chapter 15

I go back to concentrating on Finnick, but all I see is Gale staring at me the entire time. I finally get tired of it. "Peeta, I don't want him in here." I say staring at Gale. "I know you don't. Neither do I. But what can we do about it?" he says looking at me. "We can make him leave. That's what we can do!" I say with anger. I'm so mad at Gale right not. I'm mad at the fact that he came to the hospital in the first place.

"Gale, would you please leave?" Peeta asks nicely, turning around to him. "Sure. I'll be waiting outside." he says as he opens the door. "Thank you." I say to Peeta. I turn to look at Finnick and see that he has fallen asleep while I was angry with Gale. "Let's go wait outside." Peeta says opening the door for me. I hold Annie's hand and walk out with her. We go and sit in the waiting room this time instead of the hallway. Gale isn't here anymore. "Hopefully he's gone." I think in my head.

We spend the rest of the day sitting at the hospital. Finnick had been sleeping the whole time, but I don't want to leave him and neither does Peeta. The nurse walks into the waiting room and calls out "Finnick Mellark's Family" We stand up and walk over to her. "Is everything okay?" I ask concerned. "Everything's perfectly fine. You should all go home and get some sleep." she says to us with a smile. "No, I'm fi-" the nurse cuts me off. "Go home. He'll be fine, I promise." she says smiling at us. I nod my head to her. We go into Finnick's room one last time to say goodbye to him, but he's still sleeping. Peeta and I go over and kiss him on the forehead. I pick up Annie and we start to walk out the door, but something stops me. Gale.

He puts his hand on my shoulder and turns me around. "Listen Katniss. Can we talk about this is private?" he asks me. Peeta has stopped and walks back over to me. "There's nothing to talk about Gale." I say to him. "Please Katniss. Five minutes. That's all I need." he says to me. I look at Peeta and he nods. I hand him Annie and he walk outside. "Five minutes. That's it." I say to him.

"Katniss, I was drunk that night. That girl gave me drinks and I drank them. I didn't know about Finnick and I truly and sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I really need you to forgive me!" My eyes are watering after he's done. "I don't think I can this time Gale." I say sadly. "Katniss please! I still love you! I have never stopped loving you! You are the one I want to be with! You shouldn't be with him! We are meant to be together!" he says looking me in the eyes. I look down at the ground, not saying a word. He lifts up my chin, which forces our eyes to meet. "Katniss, I love you." he says. He leans in and he kisses me. 

I can't pull back because his hands are on both side of my cheeks holding me. I have no choice but to kiss him back. Our lips meet and I immediately get a flashback to the night when I kissed him. It was the night that he got whipped. I kissed him when I thought he was asleep, but he really wasn't. He hold me there for another minute. "Katniss! How could you?" I hear behind me. Gale lets go of me and I slap him on the face in the same spot I did before. "Gale! Why did you do that?" I yell at him. "Because I love you Katniss!" Gale says to me.

He starts leaning in again. I want to pull back, but this time I can't. I want that warm rush through me again. He kisses me and our lips meet again. Only this time, he isn't holding me there. His hands are on my waist and mine are on his cheeks. Our lips go in perfect syn like they were meant to be put together. 

I can't help but feel guilty! I love Peeta! Not Gale! Gale killed my sister and let my son get whipped. Sure, we were best friends once, but that was 15 years ago. I love Peeta! Peeta has always been there for me! His strong arms wrapped around me at night keeping me safe. 

I pull away from Gale and run outside. Tears are flooding my eyes and I can barely see where I'm going. I keep running anyway, regretting kissing Gale. Tears are running down my cheeks by the time I get to the house. I push open the door and I can hear crying. It's Peeta. I run up into our room and see him face down on the pillow crying. I walk over to the bed and sit next to him. I stroke his head. He turns over and looks at me. "What do you want?" Peeta says. His face is completely red and his eyes are puffy and have lots of tears in them.