“Will coos, “Jo.” I pretend he’s saying my name. I pretend he’s calling me back.”

“No Layla, I couldn’t. I won’t ever think he deserves you. I will always think he’s wrong for you and I willforever wish it was me in his place. But if being civil to him and pretending that I’m not completely obsessed with you is what it takes to keep you inmy life, I’ll do it and maybe, someday I won’t have to pretend anymore. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. I even promise to stop calling him names.”

“We could go back to the way things were before, him accusing me of stuff and me pretending like I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about.Right.I’m not that good a liar, even when I’m lying to myself.”

“A kid under a tablecloth insists he’s a ghost. A tableunderneath a tablecloth is, I guess, like the rest of us,only pretending to be invisible.”

“Have you met my boyfriend? He thinks running around in the middle of the night pretending he’s an elf is a good time. If that’s not fucked up, I don’t know what is.”

“But what was it Haymitch said when I asked if he had told Peeta the situation? That he had to pretend to be desperately in love?“Don’t have to. He’s already there.”