nini paced back and forth. back and forth. and back and forth. she stared up at the clock and shuddered a worried breath.
it'd been thirty minutes since she'd come home from work just to check on ricky and all she'd found when opening the front door was an empty apartment. no note. no trace of him. apart from an opened box that before brought nini joy and nostalgia, now only created pain and melancholy.
the sudden sound of the door unlocking made her freeze and turn to it, seeing it open up to reveal ricky who had been staring down and humming before he looked up and smiled politely
"hi-"
"where the hell have you been?!" nini yelled, cutting the boy off and he stumbled back in shock
"what-"
"you can't just-leave like that! without anything?! you didn't bring your phone...or text me or leave a message on a piece of paper, you just disappeared!"
ricky looked at her, his face dropped with the words she said and guilt washed over him.
"you don't remember much. barely anything about the city. you could've gotten lost, hurt, in trouble-"
"i-i'm sorry..."
nini breathed heavily for a few seconds, trying to calm herself down as she ran her hands over her face and let out one more deep breath before shaking her head
"n-no...i'm sorry." she mumbled "i just-i'm just really stressed out about this."
"yeah...i get it. me too." he assured her
the silence creeped back in once more. they both didn't speak until ricky cleared his throat
"um...but, don't worry about me. i mean, i did get lost on that street down the road but then found this old phone booth and called my mom-"
"your mom?" nini questioned with raised eyebrows. her stomach lurched at the mention of her.
"yeah." he smiled "she took me out to lunch. it was nice. she even suggested we go visit back at my-i mean-their house. for dinner tomorrow. turns out one of my best friend's getting married. pretty cool right?"
nini swallowed hard and forced a small smile back, nodding "y-yeah. cool."
"okay." he jumped, making his way towards the hall that lead to their room before stopping and looking back at nini "i uh...i really am sorry about scaring you like that."
nini solely shook her head "it's okay...just. use your phone next time?"
ricky caught the light joking tone at the last sentence and he chuckled, nodding "will do."