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Madge propped herself up on Katniss's spare pillow. Elbow bent to aim, eyes steely and focused; she crumpled up the bag of chips they'd polished off and tossed it toward the end of the mattress where Delly sat, blessedly unaware of her pending assault.
Katniss snorted when Madge's aim rang true, the empty bag bouncing off Delly's fluffy hair before landing unceremoniously on the bedroom floor. She guessed that was what Delly got for ignoring Madge's throat clearing too long.
"Hey!" Delly cried, craning her neck at Madge. "What was that for?"
"What do you think? You're making her uncomfortable," Madge said, gesturing to Katniss, sitting on the floor in an old bean bag chair, a relic handed down from her dad.
Katniss got up, scooped up the trash, and tossed it into her waste can for something to do. "It's fine," she murmured, ignoring the heat in her cheeks and wishing Madge had kept her mouth shut.
Delly turned wide eyes on Katniss. "Oh, god, I'm sorry. You know I talk too much. I just didn't know you were so, you know, not interested in that stuff."
"It's not that. It's just it's never come up. I mean," Katniss shrugged, avoiding both of her friends' gazes. It wasn't that she wasn't interested in sex stuff. She just didn't want to discuss it with Madge and Delly. Mostly Delly, who was big on girl talk. Her problem was that she didn't mean to spill secrets; she couldn't help herself. Madge could and did keep her mouth shut. But the whole situation was mortifying, displaying her ignorance of a topic her friends knew all the ins and outs of.
"Don't you kinda want to know what you're doing when it happens?" Delly said, apparently pressing on with the conversation despite her apology just seconds ago. "Boys don't have some magic radar honing them in on your happy places. If the time comes when you want to have an orgasm, you've got to show them where to go and what to do."
Katniss wished a hole would open up in the floor she could fall through.
"Stop right there," Madge said, hopping up from the bed. She grabbed Delly's hand and dragged her to her feet. "Obviously, this one doesn't know when to stop, so I'll stop her myself. You're starting to make even me uncomfortable."
"I said it was fine!" Katniss said while Madge grabbed her backpack and Delly slid on her flip-flops. "You guys don't have to leave. Peeta's already on his way over. I thought we would watch a movie once he got here."
"Delly forgot. She has something she has to do for her mom. Right?" Madge said as she headed for the bedroom door.
"Oh. Yeah, I forgot about that," Delly said, meeting Madge's eye and avoiding Katniss's.
Katniss frowned at them. "Sounds weird, but whatever."
That didn't explain why Madge was leaving. They didn't drive over to her house together. Before Katniss could remind them, they were out of earshot. Easy laughter floated up from the front door, followed by heavy footsteps on the stairs.
Prim must have let the girls out and Peeta in already.
"Madge and Delly were in a hurry to leave, huh?" Peeta asked, dropping heavily onto her mattress.
Katniss shut the door behind them. "Yeah, they were being weird," she admitted.
He unzipped his backpack. "What were they doing?" he asked, digging around inside of it.
"Asking me stuff," she said, dropping into the bean bag chair. "Laughing at me, I think."
He glanced up, tossing the bag of Reece's Pieces he'd brought her. "I doubt if they were doing that. Delly wouldn't say shit if she had a mouthful of it."
She snorted, and he grinned at her encouragingly. "Why don't you tell me? Let me be the judge."
Heat climbed into her cheeks. "No, god, no, I can't tell you."
"Awe, come on. We don't keep secrets from each other."
She studied him thoughtfully. That was true. He's been her best friend since kindergarten. Truthfully, why couldn't she tell him? Yeah, he was a guy, but it was Peeta. He'd probably never thought of her and something like sex .
"Fine," she relented, looking at a spot on the floor. "It's so stupid. They were talking about sex stuff. And I didn't really know what to say."
He cleared his throat. "Like what?"
"I don't know." She did know, but it was hard to say, even with him. "Obviously, I've never done that, which isn't a big secret or anything. They just couldn't believe I don't, ah, self-explore."
"You've never even touched yourself?"
"No."
He didn't have an immediate reply to that. Katniss glanced up from her twisting hands to see him picking at a string on his backpack. "You probably don't want to hear about that," she murmured, guts twisting on the tension between them, clueless about why it was there. She felt foolish for telling him any of this.
Peeta shrugged. "It's fine." He wasn't looking at her.
"Do you do that?" Katniss asked, getting some of her nerves back. She really wanted to know.
"Me?" he laughed, scrubbing a hand through his hair before glancing her way again. "Well, I'm a guy, so yeah."
"Oh," she said breathlessly, heat flooding her body in a way it never had, warming her all over as her imagination gave her an idea of what that might look like. Peeta. Touching himself. Her mouth went dry, thinking about him unbuttoning his pants, pushing them down past his hips-
Maybe this was why sex wasn't part of everyday conversation. Maybe it was dangerous to bring the subject up. She cleared her throat. "Sorry, yeah, of course you do. Stupid question."
"Nothing you ask me is stupid," he said, sounding shy. "Don't think that. Um, is it that you don't want to? I know some people don't feel, ah, desire."
"No. Sometimes I do," she said.
Like right now, apparently. Not that she was going to tell Peeta.
"It's just that I don't really know what to do about it," she admitted when he locked eyes with her.
She realized he was breathing hard now, and her eyes dropped to his mouth, wondering what it might be like to kiss him.
"Well, I sure can't give you any pointers," he said, laughing weakly. "I haven't done that with anyone, either."
"Oh," she said.
"I should probably go-" he began once the silence dragged on an agony-inducing time.
But at the same time he said it, she asked her own question just because it was ringing in her head, consuming every thought. "Will you kiss me?"
"Oh," he said stupidly.
She cringed. "Sorry; god, that's probably the last thing you want to do."
He shook his head, his fair skin turning red. "No! No, I mean yes. I do."
"You do?"
"Yeah."
"Okay," she said, like one-syllable words were the only ones in her vocabulary she could come up with.
Peeta nodded like he was answering a question inside his head. "Come here," he said softly.
"Well, here I am," Katniss said, plopping on the bed next to Peeta without giving herself a heart attack. Not an easy task with the onslaught of nervous excitement. She was grateful Morning Katniss remembered to make the bed before leaving for school. Touseled sheets would have been way too suggestive for kissing him there.
At least, she thought it would be too suggestive. She had to be reading way too much into this. It was just a kiss. Not that big of a deal, right?
Oh god, she was panicking.
"Hi," Peeta said. His eyes met hers, teeth digging into the corner of his mouth, biting back a smile.
Had she ever paid attention to his mouth before today?
"Relax. Make yourself at home," he added, gesturing across her bedroom invitingly.
His dumb jokes broke the tension enough for her to roll her eyes. "You sound like a talk-show host."
He huffed. "Okay, I'll make myself comfortable if you won't play along. You're not making it easy on me, trying to seduce you like I am," he said.
"Peeta---".
Man, she might be uptight, but he was going to kill her saying things like that. Her imagination was way too active.
He took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "Kidding. I'm just trying to get you to laugh. You look like Buttercup when he realizes it's time to go to the vet."
"Don't compare me to that cat." Blowing out a breath, she tried to relieve the tightness in her chest. "Is it that obvious?"
He nodded. "If you hadn't asked me to kiss you, I'd think this was the last thing you wanted to do."
Her eyes dropped to her feet. My, what ugly socks she was wearing. She definitely wasn't avoiding his gaze. "No. I, I want to," she said.
"Alright." From her peripherals, she sensed him moving closer.
"Katniss?"
"Hmmm?"
It happened fast. One moment, he was on his side of the bed, and the next, he was kissing her. Fingertips on her jaw, gently turning her face toward his. Lips pressing against hers, soft and a little dry. She sighed. Her hands needed somewhere to go, so she grasped his shoulder. At one point, she thought he was going to pull away, so she leaned in further, tilting her face so their lips met fully, each parting a little.
When he leaned back again, she carded her fingers through his hair. "Don't stop," she said, kissing him again. She couldn't get enough of him.
"No?"
"Please." Why hadn't they been doing this with each other all along?
Her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest, and he sucked in a breath as she moved closer. She couldn't get close enough. Sitting up, she climbed across his lap and lowered herself to sit on his thighs.
"Oh god," he whimpered.
"Sorry?" she paused, embarrassed now, wondering if she had read the situation wrong. "I don't really know what I'm doing. We can stop."
Weakly, he laughed, pressing his forehead into her neck. "Are you trying to turn me on, or are you really that oblivious?"
"Uh," she began. It was weird knowing she affected Peeta that way. Him making her feel like this. Wonderful. Enthralled and unafraid. It was like someone unlocked her body and set a live wire to her nerves.
"Never mind," he wrapped his arms around her waist.
Katniss checked the time on her phone for a second time, too distracted to register what it said the first time she got it out. 4 p.m. She stuffed her phone inside her back pocket and sighed.
She shouldn't have left the house in such a hurry. Peeta wasn't due to meet her here for another ten minutes, so she was in limbo outside the movie theater, avoiding eye contact from Haymitch Abernathy, maintaining his post at the ticket window. He tended to glare at loiterers. All was forgiven once you had your tickets in hand.
She had to get out of the house, though. Their mom was at work, and she wasn't ready to face Prim alone. Her little sister already knew something was afoot after coming within seconds of catching Katniss and Peeta making out in her bedroom. Ever since finding them both red-faced---and Peeta strategically covering his lap with a spare pillow---Prim's been eyeballing her in a way that scared her a little. Katniss had enough on her plate.
She thought of going to the dollar store across the street to grab some candy for the movie, but her bag was at home, and those boxes were hard to hide if you weren't wearing a sweatshirt or something bulky. Everyone in town knew the movie theater struggled to stay open, and she'd feel like a real asshole if she strolled past Haymitch with a prominent box of Reece's Pieces poking out of her pocket. Plus, she wasn't hungry. The only thing she was was nervous. She scuffed her foot along the ground. It wasn't like her to fidget.
She was ready to pull her phone out to recheck the time when she caught a glimpse of him coming up the street from the city lot, where he must've parked his car. When he saw her, her hand shot up in a wave.
"Hey, how long have you been standing here?" Peeta asked, reaching her side.
"Not long," she said
"I should have picked you up," he said as they headed towards the theater.
"Nah. It's nice out. You know I like to walk."
Peeta ran a hand through his hair when they stood at the ticket window. He stepped up first, and Katniss was still reaching in her pocket for the twenty she'd grabbed when he asked Haymitch for two tickets for the movie, quickly shoving his debit card through the opening at the bottom of the plexiglass window.
Haymitch studied the two of them behind the curtain of shaggy grey hair hanging in his eyes before taking the card and swiping it through the ancient card reader. The machine beeped two or three times before slowly printing out a receipt. Katniss found herself fidgeting again. She felt like something was going on that she couldn't quite grasp.
Finally, Haymitch slid the card and the yellow copy of the receipt back out. "Enjoy the show."
"You didn't have to pay; I brought money," Katniss said as they walked away from the counter.
"I wanted to. Do you want any snacks?"
"I'm alright."
"Awe, come on. I know you want some popcorn, at least," Peeta said. He placed a hand at the base of her spine to herd her in that direction. Warmth flooded through her body. Her thoughts immediately went to the other day and the way his hands felt on her hips before flipping them over on her bed.
They were standing at the concession stand when a thought came to her. "Is this a date?" she blurted out while the worker behind the counter squirted butter on their large popcorn.
Peeta started laughing, and the concession girl paused mid-squirt to look at them. He still hadn't gotten himself under control when she handed him the bag, letting kernels tumble out of the box and onto the countertop. Katniss snatched the box of Reece's Pieces he bought her, embarrassed. It wasn't a dumb question.
"Let's talk when we get inside. They always show like half an hour of previews anyway," he said.
Katniss held her tongue until they were settled in the back row (weird because they usually sat mid-theater) against the wall. The theater wasn't packed. They mostly had it to themselves.
"So?" she asked.
Peeta smiled. "I don't know. Do you want this to be a date?"
Katniss frowned at him. "Why are you putting this on me?"
"I don't know. I'd just like to hear you say what you want."
"You didn't ask me on a date," she stared at the candy box in her hands. "I guess I just want to know what this is."
Peeta fixed his eyes on her. He leaned in close. When she looked up, he tilted her chin. And then he kissed her. It began soft but steady and then heated, just like the other day in her room.
She sucked in a happy breath before drawing him in deeper.
He never did answer her, but the popcorn got cold, and the Reece's Pieces went uneaten. She couldn't remember a thing about the movie after. And she definitely wasn't ready to face her sister. Peeta was just too damn distracting.