The whisper with which Prim responded to him was probably more telling than she meant for it to be. Peeta thought he heard shame in it, or perhaps he was making his own conclusions based on his own experiences. Something told him that Prim wouldn't have ignored a message from Katniss the way she had the one from him. He would never really be a part of their family and he knew that, mostly, but it still stung from time to time. Times like this, for example. Peeta looked down.
"You owe Chloe, Oliver, Natasha, Clint, and Dr. Moore apologies, too," he pointed out. "They were just as worried." Peeta bit his tongue not to point out that simply sending him a text message would've sufficed. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he made the effort, finally looking back up at her when she promised not to do it again. "Okay. We're a team, Prim. All three of us. We can't look out for each other if we don't keep one another in the loop. Understand?" he asked in a softer tone.
At Prim's insistence that it wasn't his fault and she'd make sure Katniss knew it, Peeta let out an incredulous huff. "You have met your sister, right?" he joked, cracking the first smile since he'd gotten home from work. He shook his head and the smile fell away. "She won't care. It'll be my fault, Prim, and it's better that way, anyhow. But, if we can avoid it all together, that would be preferable. I'll talk to them," he said, knitting his brow just slightly and looking away from her for a moment, squinting against the sun. It was better for them both if Katniss never found out, but it was especially better for him. Part of Peeta was sure that made him a selfish person.
Looking back at Prim when she spoke again, Peeta nodded, a sympathetic frown on his face. "It's okay to not be all right with me, Prim. I know it's harder for Katniss to see us upset, and I certainly don't like seeing you like this but...it's okay," he told her. "I won't tell," he added with a ghost of a smile that didn't reach his eyes tugging at the corners of his mouth. Prim said that she was bothered by the reactions from last night and he nodded. It hadn't been and still really wasn't his place to say, but he felt the same way. Katniss was right about the fact that, under the right circumstances, Clark was probably a ticking time bomb, but he couldn't help that niggling thought in the back of his head reminding him that if the group could turn that quickly on someone, why not him someday, if he said or did the wrong thing? Or if Prim or Katniss did? He'd defend them — both of them — to the bitter end; he'd go down before either of them did, if he had anything to say about it. He didn't like it, either. "Between me and you, Prim...it bothers me, too," he said quietly. "What other things? You wanna talk about it...?"