Running with Scissors

Chapter 4

Nicky smiled as she completed her task.  She had even gone to the effort of putting ribbons and bows on the gifts.  She pushed them under her bed to hide them until the big day.  Now she would just have time to throw on a clean pair of jeans and a sweater before meeting Scott and Claire.

Her phone began to play its little tune again.  She pressed the button to answer the call and put the phone to her ear without speaking.  For a moment she listened to silence. 

“Nic?”  She almost dropped the phone at the sound of Robert’s voice so convinced had she been that it would be a silent call.

“Hey you.”

“You ok?”

“Yeah.”  She smiled at her over-reaction.  “I just wasn’t expecting anyone to speak.  I’ve been getting these weird calls.  What’s up?”

“What day do you need picking up?  You finish college this week right?  I was thinking maybe pick you up Thursday ‘cause we’ve got a party to go to Friday and it’ll be a bit of a rush.”  

“Yeah, sounds great.  Only downside is Dad wants me here Christmas day, when’s that?  A week Sunday?”  She pulled a face.  “He’s decided to put his foot down.”

“No problemo.  It’s Christmas, there’ll be other parties.”  They made arrangements for Robert to pick her up and chatted about their plans for a few minutes until Nicky noticed the time.  Making her excuses, she terminated the call and quickly got ready to go out.

Half an hour later she was stepping off of the bus with Claire and Scott close behind her.  As they started to walk the short distance to the cinema complex Claire linked her arm through Scott’s.  “Will you hold my hand if it gets too scary?”

“Just your hand?” he asked with a cheeky wink.  Nicky was surprised to see her friend blush.

Scott linked his arm through Nicky’s so that they were all walking close together.  “You buying the popcorn Nicky?”

Nicky looked at Claire, “fantastic!  He asks us out on a date and expects us to pay.  What’s the world coming to?”

As they pushed through the doors into the cinema they were all laughing.

Paul watched from his car.  He could still see them through the glass frontage of the complex.  Scott had joined the queue for tickets while the girls stood together talking.  They were both smiling and laughing.  He felt a pang of jealousy as he saw Nicola rest her hand on her friends arm as she leaned towards her and said something close to the blonde girl’s ear. They both laughed.

Before he was even aware he was going to do anything he had his mobile phone pressed to his ear.  He watched as she carried on chatting with her friend, not immediately responding to the call.

“Answer it” he said under his breath to the empty car.  As though hearing the words she reached into her pocket and pull out her mobile phone.  He heard the call connect and saw her raise the phone to her ear.