I can’t believe this, how? He’s dead. How could his delicate fingers had made the same dress I wore in the interview for the 75th Games.

“I don’t understand how, did you get that?” I say.

“After the one you were in at the Quell interviews he knew it wouldn’t be usable so he made an exact replica so you could wear it on your wedding day. It’s almost like he knew you were going to get married to Peeta because he knew how much he loved that dress on you,” says Veina.

“How did it make it through everything?”

“Well the prep room didn’t get destroyed,” says Flauvis.

“Also if the prep room did get destroyed Cinna had it in a safe under lock and key,” says Octavia.

“So how about we get this on you, and see how we are going to do your hair and makeup for your wedding,” said Veina.

“You can do the makeup but not the hair.” I have heard the voice that said that before. I know exactly who it is.

“Mom?” I ask suspiciously.

“I came for your wedding,” she said. I couldn’t believe she came. She moved to a different district because she couldn’t stand Twelve. I thought I would only be able to see her if I visited her. So they get me into a bath, and wax my legs. They sit me down and tell me to close my eyes during the hair and makeup process. Once I feel that the makeup is done I feel my mother’s hands go into my hair. I know exactly the hair style she is doing. It’s the style that I wore to the reaping to the 74th games. Once she is done I feel the veil that matched my dress go into my hair. They told me to open my eyes, and right when I saw myself I was speechless. Who was this girl I was looking at? This girl who looks perfect with her hair up and a light pink lipstick and a little blush. This girl with the perfect eyebrows and dark eye lashes. Topped off with the perfect veil. Then I realize that it is me. This girl from The Seam is now unrecognizable. But I look amazing and I am going to marry the love of my life looking like this.

“Here have these,” said Octavia while handing me a bouquet of flowers that match my dress. But these aren’t any ordinary flowers. These are white and sunset orange roses.

“Why roses?” I ask curiously.

“We thought it would be nice to include Snow in the ceremony to remember how you changed Panem,” says Flauvis .

“And we put orange in since the bridesmaid dresses and the groomsmen vests are going to be your favorite color we thought the bouquets and the flowers on the jackets should be Peeta’s favorite color,” says Octavia.

“Well I love it, you guys did a wonderful job and I hope to see you all at my wedding,” I say. I dismiss the team to go home so I could talk to my mother alone.

“Why are you here?” I ask her.

“Well I came to see you get married,” she says.

“Tell me the truth why you’re here, my wedding isn’t for three months.” She’s silent for a moment, as if to come up withan excuse, which I know she is.

“It is because I want to live with you again, and love-” I sharply cut her off.

“No, you don’t love me. And you are not going to live with me because this is where Peeta and I live. Also if you loved me than you would have never gone to Four, and you would have helped my take care of Prim. If you would’ve done those things than I would think that you loved me because family takes care of each other. I had to take over your spot, and now Prim is dead! Peeta and I have been living on our own and we are fine without you. You abandoned me after the Rebellion and now you think you can just come back and think I will forgive you?” I yell at her. I run upstairs and take off the dress. I put my regular clothes on and I run out the door. I catch a glimpse of my mother as I run out the door sitting on the couch just staring at the ground. She looks the way she did when my dad died. I need someone to comfort me. I run as fast as I can to the bakery. I run right through the doors and I see Peeta kneading some dough.

“Katniss, what’s wrong?” he asks. I just run into his arms. He puts his arms around me and starts to stroke my hair. I lock my arms around his neck, bury my face into his shoulder and cry.

“Everything is alright Katniss,” he says. He kisses my head. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want my mom at the wedding,” I say.

“Why?” I explain everything and his face is in shock. He never knew my mother could be so selfish.

“Well, why don’t we go back and work this out because you need to have your mom at your wedding to walk you down the aisle. It’s an opportunity every parent should have, to at least see their daughter, get married.” I look up at him because we both know none of his family is alive, but all he has is some tears welling up in his eyes. He wipes them away before I can say anything.

“She probably left,” I say.

“Where do you think she would go, we didn’t hear a hovercraft. So let’s go back and work this out,” he says pulling away from me. I nod my head. He looks me in my eyes.

“Everything will be alright.” He kisses my forehead and grabs my hand. We walk back and find my mom sitting on the couch with a blank, confused look. Tears were running down her face. I love her but I feel like she doesn’t support me. We sit down directly across from her. She wipes her tears, but looks shocked that I came back. I guess she thought that I was going to run off in the woods with Peeta or something.

“Hello Mrs. Everdeen,” says Peeta.

“Hello Peeta. How are you?” she asks.

“Actually, I’m not happy.” He squeezes my hand, telling me that everything would be okay. That he will take care of it. So I won’t have to talk unless I want to.

“Why?”

“Because she isn’t happy, and if she isn’t happy then I’m not happy.”

She chokes out a “Oh.”

“That’s why we are here, to make all of us here happy again.” It stays silent for a while. “So who wants to start?” he asks. I just want to say I’m sorry but I feel that I have been doing too much talking. That I’m the one always doing apologizing. We sit in silence for a few minutes when my mom starts to talk.

“The hospital in Four shut down because no one ever came in anymore because Panem is safe. I lived in the hospital, so I didn’t have a house in Four. I tried to buy one but none were up for sale around where I was. There were only a few more hospitals in Four and they were on the verge of shutting down. I only had enough money to get a hovercraft here because I thought you two would be grateful hosts for me. I know I left both of you in Twelve when you were both only seventeen and I feel bad for that but I had to get out of Twelve. But now I’m back, please let me stay with you,” she says. I look at Peeta he begins to say something when I cut him off.

“No, you can’t be here mom. You left me more than once and I took you back more than once. You can’t just come in here and think that I will let you in my life again. If I do you will just walk out once you have the money to.” I get up and I run upstairs into our bedroom. I don’t know why I’m up here, running away from my problems again. What am I becoming? A coward? I lay down on our bed and I feel one tear go down my cheek. A few moments later Peeta comes up and lays down next to me. He puts his arm around me and kisses my head.

“Why did you leave? You love your mom and you just walked out on her,” he says.

“Now she knows how I feel.”

“But she is your mom. You need her at your wedding because she’s your mom and she loves you. Someday she won’t be there for you anymore and this is not helping by pushing her away. Go get her before it’s too late.” I look at him. His face looks hopeful. He wants my mom at the wedding because when she came back for a day to visit it was the day Peeta moved in with me. She treated him like her own son, which even his mom never did. My mom is his mom that he never had, so he hates me pushing her away. He knows what I’m thinking. “You know I love your mom but don’t do this for me, do it for you. But if you really don’t want her at your wedding then you are not going to go after her. I will support you either way, but this is your call if you want you mom there. But know that she loves you and she is doing her best.” I get up and head towards the door when I hear a hovercraft arrive. I’m pretty sure she’s gone. I go downstairs to see that she is not down there. Peeta comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist and puts his head on my shoulder.

“She lied again, she had enough money to get another hovercraft because she probably knew that I wouldn’t let her live with us.”

“I’m so sorry Katniss. I really just wanted to help. You have no idea how bad I feel.”

“I know,” I say. He kisses my cheek.

“I’m going to take the rest of the day off to be with you.”

“No Peeta, I can’t let you do that. I’m fine.”

“I would rather be with you than at work. And who will turn me in for not working, my invisible co-workers?” he says. I laugh.

“I’ll just work a little harder tomorrow. Plus you need me right now and I need you.” I wrap my arms around his neck and he wraps his arms around me. I love him so much. He really didn’t lie when he said he’d be there for me. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me and the love of my life.

“So what do you want to do?”

“Let’s go on a walk to our place.”

“Where is that?”

“The lake.” I just freeze in his arms. When did that become our place? That was mine and my father’s place. When he died it became mine and Gale’s place. But the thing that is really bothering me is that that became my father and mine’s place and Gale and mine’s place without words. I would love the lake to be our place but I wanted it to be our place without words. I wanted us to just go there to be there. “Katniss, are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine.”

“Do you want to go there? Because if you don’t we can go somewhere else.”

“No, it’s fine.” He takes my hand and we walk towards the woods. We talk about the wedding and about how nervous Peeta is. We finally get to the lake and sit on the rock that Gale and I would always sit on to skin our animals. Peeta puts his arm around me, and I put my head on his shoulder.

“You’ve changed.”

“Changed?” I ask curiously.

“You used to be a strong, independent, tough person. Indestructible. You used to be the person that would go after the challenges and leave what’s important to you in the dust. Now I’ve seen you cry. You come to me all the time. Sometimes what you come to me for is really important like your problem with your mother. But other times it is just to see me. I mean you used to never be this romantic.” I don’t even hesitate to answer.

“I only did all of that because my family was starving, we had a dictator as a president, and the Capitol was hunting me down and wouldn’t stop hunting me down until I was dead. So I sort of had to throw myself into challenges and leave what was important to me behind so I could protect it.” I pull away from him and look at him right into his light blue eyes. “You were one of the things I needed to protect. And if you or anything else that is important to me is in danger I will turn back into the girl that is strong, independent, and I will be indestructible. But right now this is the first time I can actually be myself and I’m sorry if you don’t like the real me but I’m still getting used to it to because I was only like this in the woods. This is the longest I’ve ever been happy. And the biggest difference is that when I was the old me I didn’t love you, which was another reason why I acted like that. Towards the end of all of the chaos I started to love you and I could tell I was getting soft.” Peeta’s face will never get out of my mind. His face is…is…I can’t even explain it.

“Katniss,” he grabs my hands. “You shouldn’t get mad about something like this. You didn’t even let me finish. I was going to say that I love the new you. I love the old you to. Heck, I loved the old you for thirteen years. What I was saying was its still taking some adjusting to. Katniss, I love you with my entire heart. I love the new you and the old you, don’t you ever doubt it,” he says. He puts his hand on my cheek and kisses me. I smile. He puts his arm around me, and I put my head on his shoulder.

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Katniss is a SOFTY????? Anyways, vote if you liked it and comment what you liked and disliked

Love, Bookjunkie001