that's what he knows. he's not the boy from district 12 anymore, and he shouldn't be here. he gave all this up, the kind of betrayal that people ( katniss ) won't forgive. on the worst nights, he thinks that maybe katniss betrayed him first, the minute her lips met peeta's, but he knows that isn't fair. he knows she did what she had to do to survive, the same as anyone else, and he knows that she picked peeta because peeta was what she needed to survive.
it doesn't make it hurt any less.
it doesn't make it any easier to come back, even with johanna. johanna who doesn't look at him with some grotesque intermingling of pity and hatred, the way the others of his district look at him. at least she looks at him, because there are people whose gaze skips right over him, or goes through him. the boy with the bombs, they say. the boy who killed all those children, they say, and does anyone care that it had been an accident? would anyone listen if he screamed that at the top of his lungs? ]
I didn't know you had a brother.
[ he probably had. she'd probably mentioned it in one interview or another, but gale never paid so much attention to those things. they'd happened, the aftermath of celebration, of fawning over children made into murderers and gale had always hated it.
but johanna--maybe he should have paid attention. ]
I LIKE IT ANYWAY.
that's what he knows. he's not the boy from district 12 anymore, and he shouldn't be here. he gave all this up, the kind of betrayal that people ( katniss ) won't forgive. on the worst nights, he thinks that maybe katniss betrayed him first, the minute her lips met peeta's, but he knows that isn't fair. he knows she did what she had to do to survive, the same as anyone else, and he knows that she picked peeta because peeta was what she needed to survive.
it doesn't make it hurt any less.
it doesn't make it any easier to come back, even with johanna. johanna who doesn't look at him with some grotesque intermingling of pity and hatred, the way the others of his district look at him. at least she looks at him, because there are people whose gaze skips right over him, or goes through him. the boy with the bombs, they say. the boy who killed all those children, they say, and does anyone care that it had been an accident? would anyone listen if he screamed that at the top of his lungs? ]
I didn't know you had a brother.
[ he probably had. she'd probably mentioned it in one interview or another, but gale never paid so much attention to those things. they'd happened, the aftermath of celebration, of fawning over children made into murderers and gale had always hated it.
but johanna--maybe he should have paid attention. ]