Reread those books, if you read them.
The point is that she doesn’t WANT either of those two boys. She’s forced out of a friendship with both due to their feelings, and she has to play the part to keep some kind of normalcy for both the capital’s cameras and for her partner’s mental sanity and safety while in the ring. She’s never happy, never CHOOSES Peta, and is the result of trying to cope/maintain sense of self while constantly shoved into roles constructed for her (the Volunteered Tribute, The Girl on Fire, The Mockingbird all being personas she takes on behalf of someone else’s needs/desires and often just survival for her/her family)
I remember it being unclear if the professed feelings for her by Peta were genuine or also manufactured for the cameras, and while the ending implied Peta had genuine feelings for her by that point, he likely was also thrust into a position he didn’t necessarily want either
Peta expressed genuinely loving her from day one. On the train, when he’s holding her he even tells her about how he felt and why he threw the bread, feeling it was selfishly motivated.
Hers were confused, and she remarks that maybe, had life been normal, she could have developed feelings for him or gale for real, but because she didn’t have the chance she’s never sure which part of the show she even believes in. She accepts by the end that he loves her and that she loves him as much as she feels she’s capable of after all the trauma
Sounds like you’ve read the books much more recently than I have because I simply can’t remember much of any of those details, just my takeaways from the books
