11

Kiara came back with a fork hugged against her chest. She sat on her edge of the seat again and looked down at her plate not daring to look him in the eyes.

When she was done with her dinner she wiped her mouth before saying. "Let's cut the cake now, " to which Oz nodded and picked the knife.

Kiara clapped her hand and sang the birthday song. His cheeks flushed slightly and he continued to cut the first slice and picked it up to feed it to Kiara. She opened her mouth just a little and bit into the sweet creamy mass. She giggled and ate it. Oz didn't seem to be satisfied with just that so he put the remaining cake in his hand on her cheek and pursed his lips to avoid laughing. "That's much better," he said.

Kiara's eyes widened as she didn't expect him to do such a thing.

"Did you just put the cake on my face?" SHe asked with disbelief and touched the cream on her face to confirm. She pouted and decided to take revenge on him, she looked at the cake and scooped a handful in her hand. But Ox seemed to have predicted her movements and ran away towards the kitchen.

Kiara wasn't going to give up easily on her revenge so she followed him and tried to catch up on him. After struggling to catch him she finally cornered him in the sitting room, She giggled before slowly approaching him. "You have been cornered, Surrender already." She had the cake in both of her hands and crept closer with an evil grin. Oz laughed while trying to find a way out but before he could do that Kiara charged at him with a loud laugh and her hands extended forwards to put all the cream over him. Oz's eyes widened and he reflexively held onto her hands and forced them upwards causing her body to swing forward and their noses to bump into each other. Her hands clenched into fists and she sucked in all the air her lungs could hold. Kiara thought her heart had paused for a second as a tingling sensation ran through her nose and down her body causing her to shudder all over.

Oz was petrified and so did Kaira who seemed as if life had been sucked out of her. Oz gulped in his saliva nervously and let go of her hands.

"I didn't mean to do that." he lowered his head and said in a flustered manner. Kiara took a breath and looked away.

"Yeah! That's alright, it's good that neither of us got hurt." She gave an awkward laugh before hurrying up to the kitchen to wipe off the cream from her hands. She was hiding her gaze and couldn't look up at him and so did Oz, He seemed a little flustered.

"What time will you be leaving? I will drive you there." Her voice was a little shaky out of nervousness. She had decided to change the topic as the house had suddenly grown silent.

Oz walked into the kitchen with the dishes from the dinner table. "I need to be there before 9,"

"Oh! Then it's about time! Go get your stuff." She said and patted her hands on the kitchen towel before heading into her room to grab her bag and keys.

They walked out of the door and into the elevator. Kiara then unlocked the car and Oz loaded it with his bags. He then took a seat and Kiara drove out of the building. They didn't talk while they drove. Kiara hadn't noticed it before but it had been cloudy all day long and now small droplets of rain had started to pour down the dark sky. Oz was looking out of the window while Kiara was concentrating on the road. It seemed as if the awkwardness had still not faded away. She tapped her finger on the steering wheel while occasionally glancing out of the window to see the thin lines of rain falling. The journey ended soon when she stopped in front of a barred gate. It was a dormitory.

"We are here." She said while looking out of the windscreen to confirm that it was the right place.

Oz nodded and got out of the car, Kiara opened the trunk from the inside and pulled out the umbrella in the back seat, and got out of the car as well.

"Here, Take this,"

"What about you?" HE asked.

"What about me? I have a car, why would I need an umbrella?" SHe said.

"Oh yes," he realized that he was talking nonsense so he took the umbrella and walked away after saying a brief thanks, Kiara stood in the rain watching him walk into the gates. The cold crept up her skin but she couldn't get her eyes off his back. He vanished making Kiara snap out of her thoughts and she decided to leave as well. She started the engine with a heavy heart and drove away in the rain. The sound of the rain hitting the car grew louder and louder and so did the racing of her uneasy heart. She couldn't help but think about Oz and that made her angry. She held herself from turning around and driving back to him. After fighting herself for a long time she parked the car at the roadside and placed her head on the wheel and punched it. "Stop it! Just stop it!" She growled at herself. "It was enough! Even if you go back, what are you going to say? What is your excuse going to be?" She took a deep breath knowing she had nothing to say to him until she lifted her head. In front of her eyes, she saw a huge billboard on which a guy wore a glamorous watch. Her eyes shined and her lip curled up. "I haven't given him his gift yet."

It didn't take her long before she bought a watch for him as a gift and packed it up with a card wishing him a birthday. She picked up her phone and dialed Oz. Surprisingly he picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?" HE said. "Did something happen?' He asked nervously.

"No! Nothing happened. I just bought something for you, Your birthday gift. I wasn't sure if we would meet again so I thought to drop off your gift today." SHe said.

"Now? It's raining so hard you shouldn't be doing this it's dangerous!" HE said with a concerned voice.

"It's okay, Just come down, I am almost here." She said,

"Okay, " He said worriedly and ended the call.

Oz hurriedly placed the phone back in his pocket and got up from the bunker bed that he was sitting on just now and grabbed the umbrella before he rushed outside the room. His friend who was about to enter the room noticed him run desperately so he grabbed him and asked. "Where to?"

"something important, I will be back as soon as possible." He said and freed himself from his grasp.

When he reached the gate of the dormitory she called Kiara once more but her number was busy. He frowned and opened the umbrella she had given him and walked a little further with the phone against his ear.

Wee-woo Wee-woo

The sounds of sirens made it hard for him to hear the ringing, the sharp sounds had started to take over the neighborhood. He didn't pay attention to it and kept on waiting in the pouring rain, "WHy isn't she picking up? She has never done this before." He frowned and looked around before walking a little more. In the distance, he saw blue and red lights and the loud sounds of ambulance and police sirens. People slowly started to gather. HE walked closer to it curiously not that he had any light suspension that might have been Kiara's car. He moved in through the crowd and dialed the phone number again and took it to his ear before looking up at the car that had been in the accident.

HE paused, and suddenly he felt like his eyes had some problem, he blinked a few times to adjust his gaze in the rain, his heartbeat slowly becoming a mess, all the sounds slowly grew numb, His muscles became flaccid causing the umbrella to slip out of his hand. And there was one sound he could hear through the speaker of the phone. "The number you have dialed is currently on another call.'

In front of his eyes, there was Kiara's car hit by a truck with no sign of the body except for the red ink that had dissolved into the rainwater.

Oz gave out a weak breath before falling to his knees.