Sonder | ✓

Ten - May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour

Without giving the idea anymore thought, we left the café together –just before Angelina could hear Nick shouting "You go Eriko" batting his eyelashes ridiculously fast – I laughed rolling my eyes playfully.

The weather was lovely, the sky was clear and there were so many clouds.

Those were the kind of days you could lay on the ground and do some cloud-watching while forming imaginary shapes with the clouds.
I wanted to suggest this idea to Angelina, I really did. But the fear of rushing things impeded me.

We both agreed on steering clear of overly hyped children buying their back to school supplies at local stationeries, so we settled on Target instead.
As we made our way to Target's entrance, we realized how wrong we had been.
Children of all shapes, sizes and age were running everywhere holding pens and copybooks of all colors followed by outraged moms who obviously, couldn't control them.

I despised kids.

I remember being this enthusiastic about back to school shopping, yup, good old days.

Angelina and I gave each other sideway glances then stared back at the chaotic scene displayed in front of us.
"Okay guess we'll have to change our plan?" Angelina said shrugging.

Na-ah. Definitely not. I would not allow this.

"It's almost 5 pm, families will start leaving soon. Bet they were here all day" I said trying to convince her and myself.

"Alright, so what do we do until then?" she asked.

"I think I might have an idea" I said smirking.

"Care to share?" asked Angelina getting excited.

"Okay so you obviously have 5 dollars right? So each one of us will go and look for a gift for the other that costs a maximum of 5 dollars. We have 20 minutes. We'll meet at the cashier. May the best gift win." I said in a challenging tone.

I swear her eyes sparkled with excitement as she fumbled in her pocket searching for a 5 dollars bill.
She checked her watch then said faking the deadliest glare ever "May the odds be ever in your favor" perfectly imitating Effie Trinket. Then she took off running.

I shook my head laughing, fully aware of how much my crush on her was increasing by the second.

After 5 minutes of browsing and having no idea whatsoever on what to get her, I started to panic.

WHY THE FUCK DID I EVEN SUGGEST THE STUPID GAME TO BEGIN WITH?

I was so close to banging my head repeatedly on any display shelves.
So I thought about buying her a new notepad, then I cursed myself because;
A) She already has one, duhh.
B) I'll look like an overly-obsessed stalker.
C) There's nothing special about it.

I wandered through the books aisles then it finally clicked.
You know how in cartoons an imaginary bulb appears when you get an idea, yeah that's how it felt.
I remembered how Angelina had told me one day how her copy of 'Diary of an Oxygen Thief' wasn't in its best state due to her frequent reading. I rushed through the aisles looking for the book and then panting, I finally found it.

But because the universe was always planning this sort of destruction plan against me, the book was a hardcover and exceeding my 5 dollars limit.

Infuriated, I kept looking around while checking my watch.
10 minutes left ...

I passed by the flowers aisle, nahh, too cliché.
Chocolate boxes, too overrated.
Stuffed animals, why the fuck would I get her one of these?

Scanning past the aisle, my frustration growing by the minute, my eyes landed on something.
A stuffed bear with wings and a halo... an angel.
Angelina.
It was so adorable. The stuffed toy had this white fur with piercing green eyes.
I checked the price tag: 2 dollars.