You Again?

Part 19

It was finally Christmas, and all I had been thinking of was that tattoo. I was determined to find out why it made him sad. But not now, not on Christmas Day.

I woke up to Near excitedly shaking me to get me up.

"Lizzie it's Christmas! Wake up so we can open our presents already!" He sounded like a little boy, but I got up anyway.

We let each other open presents in turn. Mello opened his from me first.

"A chocolate fountain?! Now I can cover chocolate with chocolate sauce! This is awesome!"

"Ah you got me the rarest collectibles! hahah thanks Lizzie!"

"A lollipop holder? Interesting. I guess you got fed up of the lollipops lying around everywhere.... Thanks Lizzie"

I got a long distance micro robo-cam from near, a new game from Mello, and a phone widget that had lots of useful technology installed from Ryusaki. I spent about half of the day with them and decided to open my presents with Matt for the rest of the day.

I knocked on his door. A few seconds later he answered it and greeted me inside.

"Hey Lizzie. I can't wait to be a child again!" He said as he sat cross legged on the floor.

"Open these ones first" I instructed and passed them along to Matt. He opened them both and smiled.

"You must have noticed how my jacket is in such a bad state" He said and picked up the box with the watch inside.

"Can I open this one now?" He asked.

"I-I don't think you'll like it anymore though.." I said quietly and looked away, scared about his reaction.

"Don't be silly!" He said as he opened the box. He hesitated for a moment.

"It's really nice Lizzie..." Matt said.

I touched his shoulder.

"No it's not. It's not nice for me to do that to you! That tattoo... it obviously means something, and it obviously brings you sadness so just give it back and I'll return it!" I blurted all at once. He sighed and then smiled.

"I guess now's the right time to tell you huh." He muttered to himself.

"Huh?" I gave him a confused look.

"Lizzie, I used to have a girlfriend before I met you... she had the same personality as you and even looked a bit like you. She adored wolves and couldn't stop talking about them... One day she asked me if I'd get a tattoo with her, a tattoo of a wolf. It took some time to get me convinced but I've never regretted getting it at all..." Matt explained.

"What.... What happened to your girlfriend?" I asked quietly.

"Well one day we were walking together when we crossed this park. We looked across to see a boy playing football with his friend. Suddenly one of the boys kicked the ball in the middle of the road by accident. The boy didn't see the truck who was speeding in his direction, but my girlfriend Ella did, and jumped out to push the boy out of the way. I was dumb and useless and Ella got killed in front of me. It was like seeing road kill on the side of the road. The boy survived, but Ella didn't"

I looked down.

"I tried to move on and dated lots of girls in attempt to forget about her... but it was useless. Meeting you... meeting you has helped me move on from the past and live life to the fullest. Which is why i'm giving you this... " He said slowly. He picked up one of the presents he got me and presented it to me. Without a word I opened it up. Inside was a small handmade teddy bear. It looked like it was stitched out of lots of different stuffed toys, just to make one.

"It was all that was left of Ella, except a piece was missing. I never got the courage to stitch together the last piece until last night. I hope you'll respect it.." He said and held my hand.

"It's really cute! What's its name?" I asked as I held the teddy bear.

"Its name is Stitch. I got you other presents too, don't worry" He said as he passed the rest of the gifts on.

I carefully placed Stitch to the side and opened the rest of the presents. inside the others were a pure golden bracelet and a new game.

"These are such cool presents! Thanks so much Matt!" I said and hugged him.

"Oh, there's one more present but I guess it's more of our present" He tried to explain but stopped when I have him a confused glance. He took my hand and we went outside.

"Where are we going?" I asked. He zipped his lips and walked down the road to an animal shelter.

"No way! you're allowed pets in your room?!" I asked him. He nodded.

"I really want a kitten" We both said at the same time. We high-five-ed each other and went to the kitty corner.

"Aww they're all so cute! I don't know which one to pick!" I said. We both looked at a ginger kitten that had black spots and a black tail tip.

"That one's weird but I kinda like it" I said. We both agreed.

We found out the cat's a female and we were picking names on the way home.

"What about Kiwi!" I said.

"Aw that's an adorable name!"

"Your name's now Kiwi!" I told the kitten I was holding. She kept squirming every time I stepped and I was worried I might drop her.

When we came back home, Matt opened up the litter box, cat bed, cat food and cat food bowls. He even got a scratching post.

Kiwi was roaming around the room and exploring while we got everything set up.

"Kiwi, this is your new home!"