The Perfect Gift

Ch. 3

She gives her a peck on the cheek and pulls away, finally making her exit. "Bye, sweetie!"

"Bye, Mom!" she calls with a final wave, feeling a small pang of sadness in her chest as she watches her go, returning her wave.

******

Nini makes her way toward the elevators down the hall once she enters the apartment building, plastic bags in hand thanks to a quick trip to the grocery store. She had stopped by after work, making sure to buy all the necessary ingredients for sugar cookies and eggnog.

Also, she may have stocked up on marshmallows, but they're strictly for her. And it wasn't like she walked by them three times, fully intending to pass them by before an image of Ricky excitedly holding up a bag of marshmallows finally made her impulsively grab them and throw them into her shopping basket.

Plus, she liked to snack on them, remember? Ricky totally had no influence over her decision, whatsoever.

"Oh my God, I am losing my mind," she mutters to herself irritably as she jabs at the elevator button with more force than necessary.

She's not sure how she feels about her current standing point with Ricky. She'd be lying if she said she didn't like him at least a little bit. But the thing is, she doesn't particularly want to like him. She happens to like her life uncomplicated and mess-free. Crushing on her wildly popular neighbor would most likely end all of that. Not to mention the unnecessary added stress and worrying about his feelings on the whole matter as well.

Like, what if he doesn't even really like her like that?

Dear God, this was all so elementary school and therefore, a complete waste of her time.

Maybe seeing him too much in such a short amount of time was messing with her, as well. To be honest, she can't quite remember the last time she really spent time with anyone except Kourt, or her moms. Maybe she just needs to make more friends and meet new people. And it didn't help when you mix in Ricky's good looks and ridiculous charm.

She's about to impatiently jab at the button again when the doors finally open up.

The elevator is empty and she breathes in relief, ignoring the tiny, miniscule fleeting feeling of disappointment. She steps in and presses the number five and she keeps an eye on the hallway until the doors fully close.

So far, so good, right?

When she makes it to the fifth floor, she's almost positive that she'll run into his smirking face, but the doors open to an incredibly empty hallway.

"Wha-at? No way," she whispers to herself, somewhat incredulously, as she blinks at the open space. "Awesome," she smiles to herself as she steps off.

This quickly changes, however, the second she sees a huddle of women waiting outside her apartment door, banging at her door.

"Oh, God. Less awesome. Less awesome," she hisses to herself frantically, eyes darting around as panic starts to fill her very being.

She contemplates between the stairs and the elevator but then realizes that either route won't help, anyway, because then where would she go?

Besides, it's only a matter of time before they give up and take to the stairs or the elevator and then BAM! her missing body will be all over the news the very next day.

And she just did her grocery shopping, too!

She starts repeatedly chanting to herself that tonight's the night she's going to die when one last, final idea pops into her head.