Oh crap. Her plan to make Gale pay was off to one heck of a start. Madge sighed. Where had all the flirting techniques she had learned from Delly gone? She was supposed to be confident, and she had run away from him yet again. Her most recent interaction had been anything but seductive, and had accomplished nothing but giving her a sore bottom and a bruised elbow.

Madge closed her eyes and took a deep breath. From her perch on the back porch of the house, the music and chaos of the party was nothing but a muffled thumping bass. Why did I even think I could do this in the first place? She opened her eyes and released the breath in a frustrated sigh.

"Finding that parties aren't really your thing, Undersee?" Madge jumped at the sound of Gale's voice. He came over and sat down next to her, close enough that she could feel his body heat radiating off his legs, but not so close that they were actually touching. She smelled the sharp scent of alcohol as he spoke.

"It helps if you're not so sober," he handed her a red solo cup. Madge accepted it warily. She felt him watch as she simply cradled the cup in her lap, not taking a sip.

"It's just sprite and vodka, nothing too strong. I didn't put anything in it, look," He reached over and took the cup from her and took a gulp of the concoction. He replaced the cup next her. "Totally fine."

"I didn't think you put anything in it, Gale, I just….don't want to have anything at the moment." Gale looked bit confused, before realization seemed to wash over him.

"Oh, God, I didn't mean to pressure you to drink or anything, crap," He ran his hand over his jaw. "Recently, I just can't seem to do anything right when I'm around you, Undersee." He looked up sheepishly at her, and she felt her stupid traitor of a heart skip a beat. "I'm really sorry about earlier. And about harassing you and Katniss at lunch." He smiled that crooked grin she had always reminded her of Danny Zuko in Grease. "Forgive me?"

In that moment he looked so innocent and repentant, so cute yet unbelievably sexy, that Madge almost forgot about what she had heard him say to Katniss not too long ago.

Almost.

She's a creep, just thinking about her eyes gives me chills. I'm not interested. Madge's anger at his going behind her back to Katniss, while treating her in a friendly manner to her face boiled back to the surface. If he had been so unsettled for so long as he claimed, why couldn't he have told her to her face? Sure it would have hurt her feelings at the time, but it wouldn't have made her feel like such a fool, pining after a guy who considered her a creepy borderline stalker. Why was he apologizing now, now that she was "normal" in his eyes? Nope, no matter how cute and genuine he looked now, Madge was not ready to forgive and forget.

She was a politician's daughter, not a saint.

So Madge pasted on her best politician's smile and pushed her shoulders back.

"It's totally fine. It was mostly that girl you were dancing with's fault anyways." Gale cringed at the mention of the girl. Madge wondered why for a heartbeat before suddenly she was on her feet, enveloped in Gale's arms. His shirt smelled of alcohol and sweat. It was kind of gross, but just as quickly, Gale backed away, his hands on her shoulders holding her at arm's length.

"Great. I'm glad we've cleared it up. Friends?"

"Um...yeah?" Gale must have been more inebriated than she had thought since he didn't seem to notice the question in her response. He grinned brightly at her and released her shoulders.

"I'm gonna head back in. Come find me again later, we should dance!" He jogged back into the house, towards the thumping bass.

Madge grabbed the drink that Gale had left, stupefied. She took a sip and nearly choked. The vodka was nothing like the wine that her parents allowed her to have with dinner on special occasions. It smelled like sprite-scented glass cleaner and burned down her throat. But it made her feel pleasantly tingly and warm, and she hesitantly took another sip.

Her mind was almost as traitorous as her heart, since she couldn't help but think about how she and Gale had shared an indirect kiss.

Katniss arrived at the party slightly after Madge, since she had dropped Madge off before looking for a place to park along the crowded neighborhood street. When she got into the house, the party had been raging, but Madge was nowhere to be found.

Figuring that she wouldn't be able to hear her phone anyways, Katniss texted her, hoping that Madge would check her phone soon. Madge wasn't a wild one so Katniss wasn't too worried yet.

"Katniss!" Katniss turned around to see Bristel, Finnick, and Annie. They talked and danced for a while. But, when Katniss next looked down at her phone, she saw that nearly an hour had passed and Madge had not texted her back.

"Ok guys, it's been great catching up with you all, but I need to go make sure my friend's alright," the three of them made noises of agreement and waved goodbye as Katniss turned away to more carefully scan the crowd.

She retreated to the kitchen where things were quieter, but there was no sign of Madge. She ventured back into the family room and was about to panic, when a flash of blonde hair caught her eye.

Katniss drew closer to the blonde haired girl. Yup, she's wearing a black dress, she thought as she got a bit closer. Oh my God she's drunk, Katniss thought as she heard Madge's thunderously high-pitched laughter over the music. Madge was dancing with a dark-haired guy, if you could call their out-of-sync thrashing dancing. Katniss saw the guy reach out and grab Madge's waist, pulling her close to him, and saw Madge drunkenly loop her arms around his neck, laughing hysterically the whole time.

Katniss pushed the remaining people between her and Madge aside and roughly pulled Madge away from the guy.

"KAAAATTNIIIIISSSSS!" Madge squealed, throwing her arms around Katniss. "YOU'RE HERE! I LOVE YOUuuUuU!" Katniss gently pried Madge off her and finally got a good look at the guy.

"Gale?" Katniss could not believe her eyes.

"Hi, Catnip," Gale waved a bit, but then used his other hand to put his waving hand down. Yup, they're both drunk.

"I think it's time I took you both home...Gale how'd you get here?"

"I don't wanna go home yet." Madge pouted and wrapped herself around Gale's arm and buried her head in his shoulder. "Gale tell Katniss to let me stay."

Gale smiled goofily at Madge and said "Let Madge stay 10 more minutes? Pretty please?" Madge giggled.

Katniss rolled her eyes. If they could see themselves now. "Gale. How did you get here?"

"Thom gave me a ride."

"THOM!" Madge jerked away from Gale. "Thom is SO NICE. I LOVE Thom. He asked me to formal! Where is Thom?" Gale frowned.

"Where is Thom now Gale?" Katniss was losing her patience.

"I think he took Delly home a bit ago?"

"WHAT?" Madge pouted. Gale's frown deepened. "I wanted to say hi."

"Okay, then you're both coming with me and we're leaving now." Katniss had had enough so she grabbed Madge and gave Gale a you'd-better-follow-me-out-of-here look. She managed to shove both of them into the backseat of her car, and she headed towards Gale's house.

When she pulled up in Gale's driveway, Gale and Madge had quieted down. Madge was no longer giggling and instead looked quite sad. Gale just looked sleepy.

"Oh. This is my house." He said as he registered what was outside the window. "I guess I gotta go."

Katniss heard quiet snivelling from the backseat. What now?

"Don't leave me! I'm sorry!" Madge wailed.

"Sorry for what?" Gale said.

"I'm sorry!"

Gale laughed and grabbed Madge's face. Oh no, Katniss thought. She cringed as Gale planted a slobbery kiss on Madge's forehead.

"Don't worry; I'll see you!" Madge nodded ruefully, tears still streaming down her face as Gale stumbled to his front door.

Finally, Katniss pulled up in front of the Undersee home. She stopped the engine and got out of the car. Madge was half out of the car by the time she walked around to help her.

"Woah, easy there," Katniss said as Madge pitched forward before regaining her balance. Madge smiled at her and patted her on the head.

"I'm fiiinnnneee." She smiled and wobbled to her front door. She pulled out her keys and fumbled with the lock. Katniss grabbed the keys from her and opened the door.

"Thanks," she smiled loopily as she walked into her house. Katniss remembered that Madge had said that her parents were out of town for the weekend, so she followed Madge in and up to her room. Once Madge was safely in bed, Katniss headed out to her car.

A lot had happened between Madge and Gale, just during the time Katniss had taken care of them. Katniss didn't want to think about what might have happened when she wasn't there, and she didn't want to think about what tonight would mean to Madge or to Gale. No matter how she looked at it, things were about to get even messier than they already were.

Hopefully neither of them would remember much of what had happened in the morning.