Take My Breath | Catnipz

one

"A box." Mason answered. "What is it?" She took the box and held it in her hands. "What for?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mara questioned. The latter shook her head, earning a chuckle from the older girl. "I bought this gift as a thank you. A token of my appreciation. For the book and the letter."

Mason looked down at the gift in her hands. She wasn't used to receiving gifts that were spontaneous or out of the blue. Mason had only grown accustomed to the gifts that were tied to a specific holiday; take birthdays or Christmas as an example. Mara had always been the gift giving type of friend; be it a holiday or 'just because'; Mason just wasn't used to being the person on the receiving end of it. It felt somewhat strange. But it made her heart warm. She felt the corner of her mouth turn up and curve into a small smile.

She couldn't believe it; Mason was breaking character. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of Mara going out of her way to give her something—even as a thank you. Mason didn't feel deserving of it either. All she did was something nice; something that would make her best friend happy. Wouldn't everyone else do that for their best friend too? It was all so new for her.

"Thank you." The words came easy. Mara's doe eyes had soon turned to crescent moons. Mason felt her heart flutter at the sight of it. Her best friend was feeling happy; over the moon even. And that's all she really wanted; for Mara Kim to be happy. The most deserving of happiness.

⌗

THE BELL RUNG for third period. The sound of feet shuffling against the cold floors was as maddening as the masses of people pushing and shoving themselves past to get to their classes.

Mason held her head up against her palms. She could barely keep her eyes open; she spent a majority of her afternoon trying to tutor a junior who seemed to have his head on a planet far from here. It took several attempts to get even merely the concept itself past his head. Mason didn't want to leave her student without an idea of what  the concept of his assignment was.

As tiresome as it was, Mason felt proud. Tutoring was a lot more strenuous than she had once thought. Take this for example—she had gotten home quite late last night; much past dinner time. Her parents were out on a business trip—leaving her home alone with the opportunity to cook or get take away. She didn't seem to have the energy for either. Mason was more than ready to hit the hay and call it a night; to finally rest her head on her pillow and get a good nights sleep.

She had barely gotten out of her school uniform before she heard the doorbell ring downstairs. She hurriedly changed into some checkered pants and an oversized basketball shirt before heading downstairs in haste. When she opened her front door she was taken aback. There stood Mara Jace Kim with her dinner and a bouquet of flowers.

"You look dreadful." Ellie took her unassigned seat beside Mason. "Did tutoring not go well yesterday? Or did you pull another all nighter?" She unzipped her Louis Vuitton backpack and took out the contents for their next class.

"Uh," Mason pinched the bridge of her nose and swallowed the emptiness in her throat. "What if I told you it was a bit of both?" Mason rubbed her eyes and turned to face the girl next to her. "I didn't see you this morning. Where were you?"

Ellie twirled a pen between her fingers. "I couldn't get my car to start. It was a whole process." She huffed loudly. "I'm surprised I even made it to third period. What happened? Anything new?"