Chapter 14

The complaint had been filed and the police officers were now gone. 

According to the police, some teenage troublemakers were probably the ones responsible for the act. They assured us that they would find the ones responsible soon enough but from the looks of it, it did not look like the police took the incident seriously at all.

"Ready?" I asked. 

Kol looked up and his eyes fell on the box of cake that I was holding. 

Hurt flashed in his eyes at the reminder and he stood up, nodding dejectedly. 

Since his car was not in the condition to be driven, I was going to give him a ride home. 

I told him it was fine if I left work a little early, but he insisted that I completely wrap up everything. He waited patiently all this while for my work to get done. 

We walked out of the cafe, and I led him towards my car.

He took the cake from me, much to my surprise, and let me unlock the car and get in without any hassle. 

"Thank you," he said, getting into the passenger seat. The cake box sat on his lap.

"You don't have to thank me," I said, "you said we were friends, remember?" 

He smiled but the smile did not reach his eyes.

I started the car and he told me his address. 

The drive was filled with silence. Kol only spoke up to give me directions. 

The silence was neither awkward nor suffocating. There was understanding and a sense of reassurance mixed in with it.

"That white one," said Kol, pointing to the house ahead.

I nodded and pulled into the driveway. 

None of the lights were on. The house was wrapped in darkness.

Kol unbuckled his seatbelt but did not get out. 

He glanced sideways at me. "Zuri." 

"Yeah?" I said. 

"Do you want to come in?" he asked.

His question took me by surprise. 

I hesitated, unsure of what to say. 

"Just for a bit. I live alone. We can eat cake together and then you can leave after that," he said.

I could not say no when he sounded so upset. Even when I knew that it was going to be awkward, I could not bring myself to make him sadder than he already was.

"Yes." I smiled. "I'll come in." 

Kol nodded and got out of the car. 

I sighed and then took in a deep breath. 

I took the key out of the ignition and got out, thinking how bad I was at handling these situations.

Kol walked up to the front door, and I followed. 

He handed the cake to me and took out a key from his pocket. 

His movements were robotic and lifeless. The key turned in the lock and the door opened. 

Kol walked in first and switched on the light, then he welcomed me inside.

I stepped inside and he closed the door behind me.

He led the way to the den, and I found myself admiring the cozy, little house. 

"I'll bring plates," he said and left me in the den. 

I placed the cake on the coffee table and sat down at a couch. 

The walls were lined with bookshelves that housed hundreds of books. The atmosphere was comely and comforting.

The family photo on the wall caught my eye. Kol and Liza with their parents. The smiles were wide, crinkling at the eyes. They seemed like a genuinely happy family.

I wondered about his parents. Had Kol moved to Emberhill without them?

After Blake's death, I found it impossible to even think about doing something without my parents. It was difficult to imagine that Kol had gathered enough courage to move without his'. Maybe he really was stronger than I had given him credit for.

Kol came back and sat down next to me.

He took in a deep breath and started to open the cake box.

Seeing how hard he was finding it, I offered to do it, but he refused my help. 

Finally, the box opened, and the cake was revealed. 

I had already seen it after Ira had completed it, but Kol was seeing it for the first time. The image in his mind had materialised. Ira had taken care of the smallest of details and the cake had turned out to be a beautiful marvel.

Kol's eyes misted. He sat back, his eyes still on the cake.

"She broke up with me," he said, "his voice cracking." 

My heart dropped. Although I had already predicted that it was what had happened, I was not expecting him to confess it to me. 

"Three years together and she just ended it like we started dating yesterday. No heads up, nothing. A lame reason and it all ends," he said, his jaw clenching, "she said she didn't love me anymore. She didn't feel that spark these days." 

"I'm sorry," I said, biting my lip.

She hadn't told him that she had already found someone else. She had cheated on Kol. Of course, she did not tell him that.

"Why do I still love her then? We could have worked out our problems together, right? There's always a solution to every problem. How can she end things without a single attempt to mend our relationship? She could have at least talked to me." He rubbed his eyes. "Why didn't she want to try?" 

The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I could not bring myself to tell him that. The truth would completely shatter him. He was heartbroken enough already.

He sighed and moved forward to cut the cake. 

"Some kind of a birthday it is," he mumbled, cutting out two pieces and placing them onto the plates.

He handed one to me and I accepted it without a word. 

I ate a bite, quietly watching him stabbing the piece of cake into smaller and smaller pieces. 

"She was with me through my worst times. I don't understand what went wrong. We were going strong, weren't we? She cared so much about me," he said, his voice thick.

He finally took a bite, chewing slowly.

I cleared my throat and sat up straighter. "You will get through this, Kol. Sleep over the matter, okay?" 

"Are you kidding me?" he said, his eyes flashing with disbelief. "You think sleeping is going to mend my broken heart? No, Zuri. You don't know anything. You don't know who I really am as a person." 

My heart somewhat curled up inside. His words, although true, hurt considerably.

I shook my head. "No, I probably don't know you very well. But I do know that you've gone through much worse. Pain makes us momentarily forget how strong we are. It brings us to our knees and makes us surrender. But once that time period passes and we begin to get used to the absence and the pain, we start to see that maybe we really can get through this bad time." 

He sighed, keeping the cake down. "You know, it was my fault that Liza died."