"Her smile lies in him, his peace lies in her smile."
❣
She changed her perfume. It's peach. The scent of fresh peaches merged with antiseptics, cuddled the aura in his car. He peeks at her only to see her engrossed in reading something on the phone. Her long chocolate curls were loosely intertwined leaving few strands to trifle with her chubby cheeks. Her beauty seemed so enticing to him that Kaiser couldn't look away.
"We both will get killed if you stare more," she says without darting her eyes off of her phone.
Kaiser shifts his gaze to the street, "Bellona, truth or dare?" He feels her eyes watching him strangely but she replies, "Truth"
Kaiser doesn't miss a beat and shoots the question, "Did you love Chase?"
There was silence for a second or two. Kaiser bit his upper lip, silently cursing himself for asking it so abruptly. But he needed to know. He knew she didn't love him, her eyes tell the story her lips could never. He just wanted to confirm if he read her accurately or all was just in his head.
"No," she says, after what seems like thousands of years.
The relief washes every cell of his body, his eyes flicker to her then back to the street. He halts the car at the corner. Her query eyes watch him as he unfastens his seat belt. He slowly leans over her, making her enthralled eyes enhanced but it doesn't deter his slow glide like water.
"Ocean Eyes," she murmurs sticking to the window, keeping her hand on his chest. He stops when their faces were inches away, he could feel the heat illuminating from her body.
It was too tempting. Everything about her was. He can just look at her the whole day and not get tired. He wonders if her heart is pounding just like his.
"It's Kaiser. Kaiser Collins," he drops his voice, letting it embrace the husky excellence. Fastening the seat belt around her, he lingers close. His blue eyes hew on her plump lips then back to the warm pools of honey that flushed his face. But what almost burst his heart was a tiny mole on her upper lip. She was scrutinizing his lips, making his heart leap but Kaiser pulls back.
He didn't want to treat her like a one-time thing.
Bellona composed herself and licks her chapped lips before sowing her face in the phone. Without an utterance, Kaiser commenced steering unaware of the destruction he caused to her.
Her heart hammered in her ears running to reach its destination. Destination nor does she know nor did her heart know. She endeavors hard so he won't catch sight of her trembling hands. Stunned that she fingers never shake during the hardest of hardest surgery, but they trembled just by his closeness, just by looking in in orifices of the cool ocean. He was so close and she didn't even push him away.
He is just pitying me.
She heaves a sigh and stares at the invitation to the reunion of her school, thinking how in the world now she is gonna show up without Chase. Her posts on social media were jammed with their pictures. Her school friends even declared that they were anticipating her with her boyfriend on who dumped her and on who she dumped her heels. Not showing up is an option, but Bellona was never a coward. She never turned her back cause of some silly problems and that ability of her would mostly land troubles. She did want to go and meet her school friends. Yeah, she is a person who holds the strings of relationships close, especially friendship and school friendships are always precious. It's an innocent and pure friendship, not the one we initiate in our adulthood just for some specific reasons.
Kaiser curtails the car in the driveway. It was already quarter past three and not a single soul was around them. To avoid the moment of awkward silence, Bellona immediately get off and glance at him, "Oce-
"Kaiser," he firmly amends, turning the engine off.
"We are still strangers," she tells him and he whirls his eyes with a slight smile.
"You are so mean"
"Just because I smile, doesn't mean I am nice," shrugging she seals the door of the car, "Don't die on your way back"
She hops inside her house and eyed his car disappearing from her driveway, through the peephole. "Why he has to be so handsome?" she mumbles, taking her shoes off.
"So he is handsome," a low chilled voice makes her jump in fright.
Ariel laughs and switched on the lights, looking at the drained face of her daughter.
"Omma!" Bellona draw a deep breath, walking inside, "Why are you wandering in the house like Anabella?"
"I was waiting for you," she pours a glass of water.
"I told you not to be up for me. Don't ruin your skin or else you won't get any dates," Bellona gulps the water and pour another glass for herself.
Ariel cups her face and bats her eyes lashes, "No one can ignore this face."
Bellona rolls her eyes, "Do you have a date tomorrow?"
"Darling don't try to distract me. Spill the tea, who he was?" She dangerously narrows her eyes.
"Just a random guy"
"Why didn't you told me about your breakup?"
The chubby girl stops unbuttoning her shirt, "Who told you?"
"Lexi," Ariel sighs, rubbing her temples, "You should have told me."
"Sorry, I just didn't want to make you upset," Bellona glance at her barren middle finger feeling embarrassed. Just in a year, six failed relationships were not something she could brag about. Chase planted the ticking bomb of shame in her heart, which would burst if another fail relationship crawls in her life.
"You are my daughter, you can upset me, Bellona," Ariel walks behind her daughter and massaged her head, "Stop striving to be perfect. Just upset me once in a while, it been so long that you haven't let me down even once. So upset me when you are tired of all the shit."
Bellona titters with a laugh, "You must be the first mom on the planet that is soliciting for such an absurd thing."
"Imma unique you know. Now if you are not that tired, let's grab soju and lasagna," Ariel suggests.
"All right! I will choose a movie," the duo high-five each other.
"You have to tell me about this Mr. Handsome," she flicks Bellona's forehead then strolls into the kitchen.
Bellona shakes her head with a smile, but the feeling of not being enough settles in her.
❣
"Hey beautiful"
Bellona rolls her eyes at James who grins like a Cheshire cat and checks his IV shot.
"James! She is older than you, stop flirting with her Kaiser will kill- I mean Kaiser will kill you for not respecting her," Alex scolds the younger.
*Age is just a number," James scrunch his nose.
"I don't date young boys. I like men," Bellona says, examining his fractured leg.
"Ouch, I am a man," he puffs his chest out, keeping his hand on his heart, "I am 21."
"We will see that when this syringe gets shoved inside your skin," Bellona smiles, and his face drains. She gently gave him a dose and James hisses but pretends to be strong.
"See, I took it well," he states proudly and she laughs.
"Is he fine?" Adrian asks Bellona.
"Yeah. The fracture is still a little severe, for at least a week he needs to be here," she tells them, they nod in understanding and says in unison, "Thanks"
"No worries. I will leave. Don't let him use his phone for more than two hours and no coffee," she scribbles his recovery progress points on her notepad.
"Fine, I will sacrifice those for you," James and puffs his chest out.
"Shut up already," Austin grumbles and Bellona gets the door to leave. Just when she was about to walk out, she swivels to ask the question she was wondering since morning, "Umm...do you know...where Kaiser is?"
Their eyes scanned her making her regret that she asked them. She didn't saw him since morning, hoping he would be in the room but he wasn't.
"He is sick," Theo replies with a slight smile.
Sick? That idiot was wandering around in doused clothes.
"Okay, thanks."
She immediately rushes out and beholds Tyler approaching her, "Bellona, where are the reports of the VIP lung patient?"
"It's with Logan."
"That idiot is assigned for a night shift and he carried the report with him. I need it now, the cardio surgeon will be here soon," he heaves a sigh. Bellona tugs her phone out and rings her best friend. He received it almost immediately.
"Logan, we need the file bro, where are you?!" she glances at Tyler who impatiently taps his foot.
"Shit! Bellona, I am not home currently," he grumbles.
"Gosh Logan y-
"Dont curse! Just go to my apartment and get the file. Take my brother with you, he knows where I keep my stuff. You know my passcode"
Why all idiots are crammed in my life?
"Fine. Donkey hole," she mutters and hangs up, "I will have to go to his apartment and get it. I will be back in half an hour or so."
"Be quick, drive safe," Tyler curtly nods before walking away. She again knocks on the VIP door and Liam rolls it open, "That idiot contacted me. Let's go."
❣
"Is being a doctor difficult?" Liam asks, navigating them to their apartment.
Bellona thinks for a while then asserts, "Being everything is hard."
"Indeed true. Did you ever lost a patient?"
"I did. I lost my second patient in the abdominal surgery. It was.....dreadful. What about you, did you failed to save someone?"
"I did. We were altogether 21 in a team. We lost three of them"
Unknowingly, she felt a tug in her heart. She felt how dangerous their work is. And thinking of Kaiser and these boys, getting in that sort of danger, was something she didn't want to imagine.
They arrive at the apartment. Liam unlocks the door and like a gentleman he lets her walk in first. Bellona smiles and enters the living room. She and Lexi have been over Logan's house before so she was familiar with the place.
But she witnessed a scene, she never thought she would.
Kaiser Collins was sprawled on the couch, half-naked and with a carton of ice cream. He noticed the chubby girl standing with her jaw on the floor, the spoon falls off from his mouth with a soft clank. The poor guy was so shocked that the ice cream spills down his chin.
Gross.
"What are you doing here?"