Chapter 126: Kiss

They sat on her front steps side-by-side, their knees were touching because their stairs were narrow. His friends were somewhere down the road continuing on their quest to get every 12-year old in town kissed by someone. He sat alone with Madge, and her not so sneaky father who was watching them through the window.

"It's just a kiss, it doesn't mean anything," Peeta explained. "Do you want to possibly die without being kissed by someone?"

She shrugged and smoothed down the front of her plain white dress, "A kiss means nothing if you don't like the person." That was a bit blunt, Peeta knew that was one of the reasons the others never socialized with her. But he didn't mind it, at least she was being truthful and not hiding her true feelings. "I thought you would have kissed Katniss," she stated.

He flinched and looked away from her gaze, wondering how she knew. As if reading his mind she continued, "Katniss and I are always paired up, I notice you looking over at her a lot. She's never noticed, or I suppose she doesn't care enough to notice."

"You're not going to tell her, right?" Peeta asked.

Madge sighed, "I don't really care about all of that. I won't say anything."

"Why don't you ever hang out with us?" Peeta wondered, "You're always alone. Wouldn't it be nice to have more friends, you're not so bad to be around."

"It's okay Peeta," She had a hint of a smile on her lips, "I don't need you to feel bad for me or anything. I like being alone. I don't particularly care for most of what girls my age talk about anyways."

"You like being around Katniss," Peeta realized, "You sit with her at lunch, and you two partner up even when the teacher doesn't make you."

She laughed, making some of her wavy blonde hair fall into her face, "You watch her more than I thought." Peeta blushed.

"So, are we going to kiss?" Peeta asked after some silence had passed between them. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him, thinking in her own mind while Peeta felt more embarassed with each passing second. This had been a bad idea.

"Sure, I suppose I would feel somewhat regretful if I missed this experience and had my name drawn tomorrow," Peeta felt relief but also more fear because of her decision, "But I'd suggest you run after we kiss, because my father probably won't be happy about it. I think he might break the glass from leaning on the window already."

Peeta took a deep breath and leaned over, pursing his lips. Madge didn't move forward at all, making him do all the work. He pressed his lips against hers. And frankly, in that moment, he didn't see what all the fuss was about, he may as well have kissed his own hand and called it a day.

Pulling away he saw Madge with a similar let down expression. "I guess you were right," Peeta said before standing. The door opened and the mayor's face was red. Peeta took that as his reminder to rush away.

Prompt: Kiss

Thanks for reading!