3 Years

74 - Frightful

Nini was excited to see him in person again; it's been a while. She was now packing a little picnic for them this time; it was the same thing as last week, only having sat in the refrigerator.

She figured a picnic might be a nice choice for a few reasons: one, they used to do it often in high school and college; two, it would be away from people since he was obviously a little uncomfortable last time; and three, she wanted to do something for him instead.

The food she packed was very much like what children would eat, but she wasn't the most fantastic chef and assumed he wouldn't mind.

She felt horrible for Noah; she remembers Ricky at that age, the scared little boy that wished for his parents' fighting to come to an end. The situation was very obviously different for Noah though, but she could guess that the feelings were probably at least a little similar; that feeling of dread and fear that the whole world was ending.

She sat at her desk in her bedroom with the picnic basket at her side on the floor, working on East High's fall musical. There was still so much to do, and she wonders how Miss Jenn did this alone before because she was stressing out with two of them.

Papers were strewn across the table as she read over multiple scenes. Most of the papers looked like a rainbow with all the different colored pens she had used so far to make notes.

She pushed the piles to the side and opened her personal notebook instead. So many unfinished songs with various dates in the corners that had long gaps in between each.

There were also all the rehearsed lines and situations that her mind thought up. Nini read the old ones where she imagined what would happen after telling the twins who exactly Ricky was and what happened to him; she only thought of negative outcomes, her imagination stopping her from ever being honest.

She grabbed the ukulele out from under her bed, wanting to try and finish some song instead of dwelling too much on the past.

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Nini continually checked the time on her phone as well as her texts; Ricky still hasn't told her anything, which made her a little concerned. Did something else happen with Noah? Is he angry with Ricky over them seeing each other? The latter is the exact reason she never kept a relationship for more than at most two weeks (one of the reasons at least); she didn't want the twins to become attached to someone only for them to leave.

She figured messaging him first wouldn't hurt anything. She pressed on the app in the corner and opened their conversation. She types one word out before a call takes over the whole screen, preventing her from continuing. She was about to ignore it until she registered the name at the top: Salt Lake City Hospital.

Nini wasn't sure why they would be calling but assumed picking up was the better option. "Hello?" she answered.

"Is this Nina Salazar-Roberts?" a man asked.

"Yes, this is she."

"A, uh... Micheal Bowen was just brought in..." Nini instantly jumped out of her chair and began fishing around on the floor of her closet for shoes. She didn't quite hear all of what the man was telling her, but she heard enough already to know that she needed to leave now.

The man's voice turned to cartoon gibberish as she scurried around the house to find all her essentials. "Thank you," she said quickly after he finished talking, running downstairs. "I'll be there soon."

She made it to the front door before remembering that the twins should probably know too. Right, kids. "Lauren! Jayden!" She waited for some form of acknowledgment.