Breathe (Mates Saga #1) *Wattys2015*

Chapter 1

        "Ella, did you hear the news?" My best friend, Akira, was leaning against the fridge, grinning at me as she waved a newspaper around her head.

        I shook my head as I covered my mouth, yawning loudly. "Haven't heard nothing," I muttered, reaching for the carton of milk.

        It was wrenched out of my hand and a newspaper was thrust into my face. "Read the article! Read it, read it, read it!"

        I looked away from the offending piece of paper and fixed Akira with a glare. "I can't read it if you're jumping around."

        Akira froze mid-jump, hurtling back to the ground. She gave me the puppy-dog eyes. "Sorry," she murmured.

        "It's fine," I said calmly as I took the newspaper from her hand and read it.

        'Superstar Melanie Kirkwood has disappeared once again, supposedly having left with a handsome man who claimed to be her "soul mate". Friends of this well-known singer say that the man nearly had Melanie on her knees, begging for the man to take her. The man then led Melanie away, leaving the club. Reporters are calling it the biggest scandal of the pop-star world since Harriet Mendal had an affair with married Nicholas Neal. More details to follow as we receive them.'

        I looked up from the article and stared at Akira with wide eyes. "Another pop-star?"

        Akira nodded, her face pinched with worry. "They're saying that it's not going to be very long until all of the good singers have left and gotten hitched to their supposed 'soul mate'."

        "This is alarming," I muttered as I peered at the paper, noticing Fai Fearwood was the one who wrote the article.

        "Tell me about it," Akira said, nodding. She took the paper from me and set it on the counter, handing me the milk carton. "And did you notice that Fai wrote it?"

        "I did," I said between gulps of milk taken straight from the carton.

        "She never gets involved in the celebrity media," Akira continued, not noticing my waste of her 'pancake milk'. "This is obviously becoming a really big deal in Hollywood, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten involved at all."

        "Yeah," I said, gulping down a rather large sip of the creamy liquid I was addicted to.

        Suddenly Akira turned to face me, yanking the milk carton from my hands. She gave me a disapproving look and stuffed the milk back into the fridge, closing the door with her heeled foot. Instead of the milk, she handed me a glass of water, which I started guzzling. "I bet they're going to target you next."

        Eyes wide, I spewed the water out of my mouth, completely drenching Akira. I stared at her like a puppy that got caught chewing on something it knew it wasn't supposed to as she wiped the liquid off of her face, making sure her eyeliner wasn't smeared or running. I was tensed up, ready to run, but I relaxed when I saw the mischievous glint in her brown eyes.

        Even so, my mouth was flapping like a fish. I had no idea what to say. I was speechless. "What-What makes you think that?" I finally managed to stutter.

        "Come on, Ella," Akira whined playfully, prodding me in the side. "You're gorgeous, have a great body, plus you're really sweet! What guy wouldn't want to tap that?" She made a wide gesture to my body that had my cheeks heating up to the point where you could probably boil water for ramen noodles on them. "If I wasn't straight, I'd totally be wanting to tap that!" She winked and I winced.