Chapter 0.7

"Ah man," Nick groaned when his car stopped in the middle of the road, where no houses were nearby.

He tried to call someone but there was no service. A black van suddenly showed up, stopping behind his own car. A guy in a black hoodie and long leather jacket stepped out, it was raining and there was nothing suspicious about it.

He knocked on Nick's window and Nick pulled it down to talk to the stranger.

"Hi, " the guy said.

"Hi, I'm actually glad that you stopped by. I've got a little problem in my hands," Nick said.

"I can see, your tire is flat. I think you might need one, glad thing I do. I can go fetch one for you if you want?"

" Seriously?" Nick couldn't believe his luck.

The guy nodded, " yeah, I really don't mind."

"Oh, in that case, it would be great man, thanks," Nick said in relief.

With that, the guy went back to his car to fetch the extra tire, before returning Nick's car. Both helped each other in replacing a new tire, which relieved Nick even more.

Once done, Nick placed the other tire at the back of the car. When he returned to the driver's side, he noticed the guy was busy staring at a picture of Kate. It was a picture he'd taken when they went on a date by a lake, it was one of his favourite dates that they'd been to.

"Is that your girl?" The guy asked.

"Yeah," Nick said, taking a look at Kate's picture.

"She's pretty." The guy commented.

"Yeah and I'm a lucky guy." Nick agreed proudly, being oblivious of the change of expression on the guy's face, now he wore a more serious expression on his face.

Nick distracted the man's thoughts when he held out his hand to offer money, but he declined, saying how it was no problem. Nick noticed a cut on the guy's knuckles and that's when he quickly removed his hand.

"Well I'd rather be off." The guy said.

He was gone before Nick could say anything.

Nick drove off not putting too much thought into the guy's strange behaviour, his mind was occupied by the game in which he was missing.

Sweat dripped from his forehead as he drove into the night. His chest burned with heavy emotions that it became sore, he was angry no doubt. His reasons were of thoughts about Nick holding Kate and being there for her, when it should have been him, the one who mattered. To him, he was the only one meant to do all the things that Nick was doing now, he should be her only protector and caregiver, the one to be in her thoughts and heart.

He let out a heavy sigh.

Oh, how he wished that Kate knew how much she was loved and cared for, that he was her problem solver.

The time would come when she realised it and she would be under his eye. She would no longer be Kate Dawson but Amileen, his fragile and dependent one to him. He couldn't wait until his big debut and the thought of her belonging to him and him alone, caused for a deadly smirk to appear on his face.

He switched on his rock music and drank from his open beer and continued on the road.

*******

Kate checked out her beautiful car.

She got reminded of how it had been messed up before she sent it for repairs. She had been riding her beautiful car on a foggy night, not noticing a big pothole ahead. It's unfortunate that she took note of it rather too late.

Instead of crying like she felt like doing, funny enough she ended up laughing about it. She felt so silly the whole time until time came for her to be picked up, that's when the situation hit her hard.

Sadness took over, heavily then.

"Soon you'll be in it." Someone said from behind her.

Kate turned around to find Austin heading towards her. He was the owner of the shop and one of her good friends. Austin was cute guy with chocolate brown eyes and dirty blonde hair. He was on the taller side, well she considered him taller than her and quite muscular. She could only link that to be the result of all the work he did in his shop. She had no doubt that his charming smile was part of the main reason many custormers returned, more especially the female custormers.

"I cant wait, I miss her," she replied.

"I would miss her too." Someone said, capturing both their attention.

Surprisingly that person was none other than Max, and the sight of him brought out a smile from Kate. When he noticed her smile, he returned it with his own.

"Max, what are you doing here?" She asked, sounding quite glad to see him, which did something to Mac's heart.

" Came to check out my mom's car."

She nodded before turning to Austin, to introduce both guys to each other. They shook hands, displaying politeness towards each other.

"Your mom is Mrs Smith, right?" Austin asked.

"Yeah. So how is it?"

"Well, it'll take a few more days until it's good, plus with the short staff, I doubt that I'll be able to look at your car for a while Kate." Austin addressed Kate, expressing how sorry he felt.

He knew how much she'd been patiently waiting for it to be fixed. If it weren't for being short staffed, things would have been different.

"Is Gabe still away?" Kate asked.

"Hmm, he was meant to return soon but things turned out for the worst when his sister suddenly passed. So I doubt he'll be able to make it back anytime from now. I guess I'll be handling more than I thought." He shrugged on the last part as he explained.

" That's bad man." Max found hinaelf saying while listening to Austin.

He couldn't imagine how much more work Austin was now left with, at the same time, he felt for the Gabe guy.

In the mean time, Kate's mind worked overcome as an idea came to mind. She remembered seeing Max and his dad work on a car not so long ago, she was hopeful that what she was about to suggest would come as a win for both guys.

An even bigger smile came all over her face.

"What's with the smile?" Austin asked curiously.

"Well, I think I have a solution to your problem." Kate answered with excitement.

" Oh?" Austin raised in his brow in curiosity.

She glanced between the two guys before she said, " well, I think Max over here, can fill in for Gabe while he's away." Kate suggested.

At first there was silence before Austin turned to Max. " Are you any good?"

"Uh, yeah...I guess." Max said hesitantly.

For some reason this made him a little nervous.

Austin scratched lightly on his chin as he let his mind work, making both anxious to hear his thoughts. After he was done thinking, he let out a breath before looking at them both.

"Look, we do need extra hands here but I'll have to assess you first Max, before any decision is made. Is that cool?"

Max's eyes widened, not expecting this at all. He honestly thought he didn't stand a chance.

But an opportunity was presented and he didn't want to fumble this.

" Yeah, cool." He finally responded.

" Alright, so when do you think you could be available?" Austin asked.

"Now I guess."

"Okay, come with me." Austin said , already heading to his office.

"Well I'd better leave you two then." Kate gave a pat on Max's shoulder before leaving Max to follow after Austin.

Truly Max did not disappoint as he got down to business, under Austin's eyes. He surely impressed Austin with the way he handled everything, as if He's been doing for quite a while. Austin took note of how Max handled custormers and his hands when working with cars, by the end of the day when Austin got all he needed, he promised to call once he'd made his decision.

*********

A day reserved for shopping had been a good one for Anna, because she surely had a blast. Meant to end it off with a treat, she was surprised to see Nick busy studying at one of the local coffee shops. Not being able to resist because of something that came to mind, she approached him.

He noticed her before she reached his table and he set his laptop a side, giving her attention.

" Can I?" She asked.

He gestures for her to take a seat opposite him, as an answer.

"Studying hard?" Anna said.

He shrugged." Just doing some research."

His tone sounded far different from the one she was used to, it sounded low. Sadness and exhaustion was something that was evident on his face too.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

" Nothing, I'm a bit exhausted that's all."

" Yeah, you look like you might need a good rest, especially now that Mad X is setting foot here soon. I'm sure both you and Kate are excited." Anna knew bringing up the upcoming event in the conversation would lighten the mood.

Unfortunately that didn't have much effect, because this dampered more of his mood, it seemed.

She frowned slightly.

"I'll be riding solo this time since she's not feeling up to it." Nick said.

"Wait, Kate said that?" She sure was surprised.

He nodded.

" That doesn't sound like her." She mumbled to herself.

"Well, she hasn't been herself lately." Nick answered her, already hinting that he heard her. " She is distant and it bothers me so much to watch her pretend that all is fine, when I can clearly tell that she's not." He continued to mention or more like speak out his thoughts.

"I know." Anna agreed. " She's been a bit jumpy too, it's concerning. Knowing her, she'll say something soon, and until that time comes, all we can do is be there for her and not push her." As Anna said the last part, it gave her a positive mood.

" You're right." Nick agrees, accepting her words. " It's just that I feel so helpless sometimes, to not know what's bothering her. I think that she needs a bit of space to be herself again." Nick said, now packing away his stuff.

While Anna listened on, the last part made her eyes to widen a bit. His attitude towards the situation with Kate made her a little nervous. She didn't want to assume anything but at the same time, it worried her to think that at some point he might have considered a break up.

While deep in thought, Anna was unaware of this being reflected on her face, causing a reaction from Nick when he realises what she thought.

" No, I'm not - I would never do that," he quickly said, not wanting her to assume too much.

" I thought...."Anna trailed off.

"I love her!" Nick exclaimed, feeling offended that his love and feelings for Kate were being questioned, but at the same time feeling a great need to defend his love for her.

Witnessing his reaction relieved Anna greatly and all she could do was nod, accepting his words. She was taking his word and trusting it.

She could strongly stand by by the fact that no matter what, ever since Nick found interest in Kate, He's never shown any difference. He's expressed so much love for Kate, that she wondered whether her best friend understood how deep his love for her was.

Silence had taken over after Nick's reaction until he announced that he had somewhere to be. Anna watched him leave and while alone, her heart went out to both Kate and Nick. She felt bad Nick, who loved Kate immensily while concern went out to her best friend.

A person with a traumatic past like Kate found quite a challenge to adapt to certain things, for them, something always found a way to trigger them into withdrawing back to their old self as a protective shield. A lot of progress had been made, for Kate to be the Kate they all knew now, she was far from the fragile Kate Anna first got to know.

At the Dawson resident, Kate sat on her bed reading her romance novel, she really enjoyed the passion that the two opposite characters shared. Her cell phone suddenly rang, just when she was about to turn to the next page. Without any much thought, she answered the phone.

"Hello." There was no sound.

She tried again and this time she heard breathing but no one said anything. The constant breathing started to creep her out now, which now she felt chills travel along her spine.

Whoever was on the line was playing a sick joke on her and she knew that she shouldn't fall for it, but it was rather too late because she did. As she was about to say something, the person hung up all of a sudden.

' It's probably nothing.' She thought, while nervously playing with her hair.

She felt uneasy, which was the last thibg she needed.

' Maybe it won't happen again.' She thought.

Right when that thought came, the phone rang again, making her jump in surprise.

She took a deep breath before she answered.

"Hello," her voice sounded soft and nervous.

The breathing continued.

"Who is this?"

Instead of an answer, the breathing only got louder.

Her nerves shot up the scale and sweat trickled down her forehead.

She wanted to switch off her phone and she was in the midst of doing it, when something shook her to the core.

"Amileen."

The name was said once, a name she never thought she'd hear again and it was enough to make her blood run cold. No matter how soft the voice sounded from the other end of the line, way too soft to be heard much but she did.

This struck her panic like a bullet through a wall. She threw the phone away and rushed to close all curtains and keep her door locked. She was no longer in her right state of mind, the call had triggered something in her and threatened to take her back to A dark place, as if she never spent years working hard to break free from it all.

Her thoughts were clouded and affected her next action, where her hands had found themselves reach inside her small bag, to retrieve a raiser cutter. Without any hesitation, she connected it to her flesh.

This was the first time in so long that she had something sharp connecting with her flesh or hearing that name. Everything had been meant to be buried along with her past.

Eversince the phone call, her emotions went out of control. The longer liquid spurred out of her flesh, the more her mind went into that dark place and her heart screamed for help.

Unfortunately there was no aunt or uncle, no Julia, Anna and no Nick. She was all alone.

She knew that no matter how hard she ran, she couldn't run faster and that soon, she would fall deeper into that dark place where no one, even the love she so tried to protect wouldn't be able to free her.