Running with Scissors

Chapter 4

As the next two weeks passed Nicky found herself snowed under with the course work she needed to catch up on.  She was hoping to get away for a while during the Christmas break and knew that having everything completely up to date would make the conversation a much simpler one when she spoke to her Dad.

Today she had the house to herself.  She was enjoying the peace and quiet and taking a well deserved break from study to wrap the few Christmas presents she had bought.  A task that was only slightly hindered by the bruised shoulder she was nursing as a result of falling from a horse a couple of days earlier.

Examining the small pile of presents Nicky tried to think if there was anyone she had forgotten.  She had not managed to buy a single thing when she had gone shopping after seeing Paul.  She had wondered around the town centre, looking into windows for inspiration but not able to get into the right frame of mind.

It had turned out well in the end as Claire was also behind in her shopping so they had made an afternoon of it together last Friday before Nicky left for Roberts.  They had bumped into Scott when they decided to warm up for half an hour in the coffee bar.  Claire had flirted outrageously with him.  But there was no surprise there. Claire liked to flirt.  And of course Scott hadn’t objected in the least.

In fact he had invited Claire to go to the cinema with him.  She had been a bit put out when he had also invited Nicky along.  Nicky had tried to decline, knowing that her friend would want the time alone with Scott.  He was just her type!  But Scott had insisted so they were all going out together tonight.

Maybe she would be able to make her excuses and leave early.  That way everyone would be happy.  She just hoped that Claire didn’t do something stupid like inviting one of her numerous single, male friends along in a blatant attempt to match-make and turn the night into a double date.

Nicky jumped as her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing.  She looked at it suspiciously for a moment, over the past few days she had been getting a lot of calls but the person would just hang up when she answered.  Probably just wrong numbers or something, but it was getting really annoying.  Snatching it up she winced as pain shot through her shoulder.

“Hello?”  She listened to the silence at the other end for a moment.  “Hello?”  Still silence.  She looked at the screen and saw that the number was withheld.  Putting the phone back to her ear she listened to the silence for a few more seconds before cutting the call off.  She frowned at the phone.   

Pushing the mobile to one side she picked up a pen and began to write out gift tags.  The phone rang again.  Nicky reached for it, looking at the screen.  Once again there was no number showing. 

“Hello?”  She was sure she could hear breathing.  “You know, there are numbers you can call if you just want to get off on listening.” She said into the phone, hoping to prompt some kind of response.  No one spoke.  She cut the call off. 

The phone began to ring again.  Still no number on the screen.  Nicky pressed the button to cut the call and the phone fell silent.  She sat looking intently at the screen expecting it to start playing its ringtone again.  But the screen remained dark.  After a few minutes she put the gadget down and continued her wrapping.