"Hi Peeta," I got out, voice surprisingly steady. I wasn't expecting my voice to have a sound at all, my throat felt so dry. He looked up immediately, jumping a little. His eyebrows rose, appearing genuinely surprised to see me. I wondered who else he could have been expecting.

"Oh, hey Katniss," he said, somewhat warily, as if he were expecting me to snap at him or something. Reassured with the knowledge that he wasn't giving me the silent treatment, I slowly made my way closer, before sitting down next to him on the steps, careful not to touch him. I let out my breath, and it came out as a sigh. He glanced at me. But he said nothing, appearing to be waiting for me to speak first, which was fair enough.

"Peeta, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shut you out like that. If you don't want to talk to me anymore it's fine."

When he stayed quiet, I looked at him to check his expression. He was looking down, so his face was temporarily cast in shadow.

"It's OK. Remember how I said I could never be annoyed with you? I was telling you the truth," he said, the corner of his mouth tilting up into a little half-smile. Then he turns to me properly, looking at me full in the face, smile fading away. I pull back further, not expecting this. But his eyes were locked with mine, searching them, and I couldn't look away.

"What's wrong, Katniss? I've hardly seen you these past couple of days. You haven't talked to me at all. It's like we're back to being strangers again. Have I done something wrong?"

How can I think of an answer when he's looking at me like that?

"I-I don't know. You've done nothing wrong. I have a lot on my mind," I stammered.

"That makes two of us," he agreed.

I still couldn't believe he didn't know what I'd heard him say about me to his brother. He had no idea what I knew. I hoped what he felt for me really was just a crush and nothing more. It couldn't be love, could it? I hadn't encouraged him. That much, I knew. I just had to hope he wasn't talking about anything deeper than infatuation. Because I knew I didn't feel the way a girl should when she's sitting beside a boy who's in love with her.

"Talk to me," he whispered to me, still looking into my eyes.

I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out, so I shook my head. Not tonight. I would tell him another day.

"I'm just afraid that you... never mind." I said.

"Afraid of what? Hey, what is it?" he asks worriedly, frowning.

"I don't want you to hate me for how I am with you." I said under my breath.

"Don't worry, that would never happen. Never. That's impossible," he said.

"I don't want to hurt you, Peeta."

"Why would you hurt me?" he asked, searching my eyes again. I noticed he did that whenever I was vague about something. As if he could receive extra insight from my gaze. He was probably getting tons of information from me that I wasn't even aware of. There's only so much you can hold back, and sometimes holding back words isn't enough. I was going to give myself away one way or another. I almost felt guilty. I was surprised he hadn't figured it out already.

"Look, I could never hate you. I don't know where you got that from. I care about you too much to feel anything like that, not even for a second. I just would really like it if we talked more. I like you so much, Katniss, and I miss you. I miss you a lot." said Peeta.

A boom sounded above us before I had a chance to take in his words and we both looked up to see a huge red firework explode in the sky. We stared in wonder, until it faded to smoke. I was still staring at the sky when I saw in the corner of my eye Peeta looking back at me. When I finally met his eyes I was struck by their intensity. I saw desire. Hunger.

I didn't know what I was doing, but my hand reached for his, covering it with my palm. A delayed response to his words a moment ago. I only meant it as a friendly gesture. And I knew I would be lying to myself if I said I didn't miss him too. I missed his friendship.

What I still didn't get was, why? Why did he care? Why did he like me so much? Ask him yourself, I thought. That was the only way to find out, after all. But I would worry about that later. He looked down at my hand resting on his, and he turned his hand over in response, twining our fingers together. Even though it felt nice, after about fifteen seconds I tugged it away, almost tossing his hand away carelessly. I was doing the opposite of what I planned - I was supposed to be friendly, not string him along! I folded my arms across my chest in an effort to stop myself from doing something like that again.

"Come here. How about this instead?" he asked, putting his arm around me. I gave in and rested my head on his chest, letting my worries drain away. He wrapped both arms around me, holding me close. I felt safer than I had in a long time. It took too much energy to think of what I was doing, or what it all meant. I was tired. I just wanted us to be friends again, and for now we were.

After a while, he slowly loosened his hold on me, as if he wanted me to stay there longer. I turned in his arms and for some reason it was hard to look at him directly. But I did anyway, and he smiled. His eyes, darkened by the night sky, twinkled back at me. His hand reached up to my face and softly stroked my cheek, before brushing the hair out of my eyes.

"Shall we head back? Or do you want to stay here?" Peeta asked.

"Let's go, my sister's probably wondering where I am," I said, even though I wanted to stay here longer. But if I did, I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull away. And I didn't want to give him the wrong impression. Then again, I probably already had.

He took my hand and helped me to my feet, before letting it go. For a moment it felt strange not being in his arms anymore, not holding his hand or anything. Like a part of me had been disconnected or something. But the sensation soon passed and I returned to myself. We walked side by side towards the festival, me scrunching up my stomach to kill the fluttering. This just made me feel sick. When we reached the crowd, Prim spotted me and ran towards us.

"There you are! I was looking for you." she said, slightly out of breath.

"I'm right here," I said, putting an arm around her and kissing the top of her head.

"It's OK, I knew you wouldn't be far," said Prim.

Someone called Peeta's name, and we all looked up to see Paul waving him over a short distance away.

"I've gotta run. I'll see you both at home," said Peeta before he headed off to meet his brother.

Then Prim turned back to me. "Have you seen Gale anywhere?" she whispered, sounding worried.

"No, I haven't seen him. I wonder where he is," I replied, looking around for any possible sign, glad she saved this conversation until after Peeta was gone. To tell the truth, I didn't expect Gale to be around, considering what happened at the woods.

We both jumped when another firework boomed above us.

"Come on let's go back, I'm starving." I suggested, taking Prim's hand as we made our way towards the table of food.

When we settle down with sandwiches, I'm in such a daze that I end up gobbling the lot in just a couple of minutes. I can't help thinking about Gale and how hurt he must be feeling and about Peeta. How I was practically stringing him along what with all my mixed signals. I was supposed to be avoiding him. That worked out perfectly, didn't it?

When I looked through the crowd of people, my stomach churned. No, it couldn't be, could it? Not only could I get a glimpse of Gale, but he was talking to Peeta. My eyes flicked back and forth between them, wondering what on earth they could be talking about. I couldn't think of a single reason why Gale would be talking to him. They weren't friends. Unless they were joking around about the little episode the other night when Gale walked in on me and Peeta talking in the garden. Then again, Peeta was very good at making friends. I wasn't. But I needn't have worried; Gale was already walking away from him.