The smell of cake fills the room, warm and sweet, as I take it out of the oven with my red mittens and place it on my kitchen table. The only table in this entire apartment.

Sitting on a chair, chin in my hands, I stare at it. It doesn't look pretty, and it lost a good chunk of it when coming off the original recipient. The neighbour is going to hate it.

My palms get sweaty just thinking she might actually come. I don't know how to act around her. I've been dying for some human interaction for quite some time, but now it's making me anxious.

She intimidated me. She is gorgeous with the classic blonde hair, blue eye combo. I'm not nearly as pretty as her. Not to mention the way she looked so serious and arrogant with that superiority stare of hers.

The door bell breaks the silence, and I am quick to my feet. Not so quick to open the door, though.

I peek through the peephole and step back as soon as I see her. Two deep breaths don't help, so I put on the best smile I can and try to mask how I really feel inside.

"Hi!" I exclaim, a little too high pitched.

She furrows her eyebrows like I am being weird. Maybe I am. She comes in and I close the door behind her, leading her to the kitchen.

"I was about to make tea to go with the cake. Would you like some? I also have orange juice, milk,..."

"Tea is fine."

I nod and point at a chair for her to sit while I put the kettle on the stove. I assume she sat down, because I turn around too quickly to see. Everything I do is slow in order to gain time before I have to face her again.

"Have you been living here for long?" she asks. "I don't think I've ever seen you before."

"Yeah, um, for a while, actually. I guess we just haven't crossed paths."

"I guess." She is silent for a moment. "I'm Nina, by the way."

"Jade," I reply.

I turn towards her, leaning against the counter. She's staring at me, head on her open palm. If I could take another step back, I would, just to avoid her piercing gaze.

"Are you at university?" she asks once more.

"Yupe. Med school. You?"

"Marine biology," she answers. "Are you home alone?"

I nod, taking the kettle off the stove and filling two mugs. Once I'm done with the tea, I hand her a mug and sit across her on the table.

"I live alone and I'm quarantining alone."

"Same," she says. "It's quite boring."

The cake is still hot, but I cut a perfect slice and hand it to her on a white plate. She looks at the fumy slice with a critical look before grabbing a fork and taking a bite.

She is making me nervous just for being here and I feel my hands getting clammy with sweat. My mind races to find a reply that will keep the conversation going instead of the horrid silence I'm so used to.

"Tell me about it. I've tried a thousand different hobbies to keep me occupied."

"I'm mostly binge watching shows, to be honest," she says between bites. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

I look away really quick. "Like what?"

"Like you're about to cry or something."

I shake my head. "I'm not."

I cut another slice of the cake, but in the motion I press the blade against my index finger and blood pools outside my skin. The blood runs down my finger as I lift it to look at the wound, a dark red contrasting against my pale skin.

I don't react, but Nina does. Before I can do something, she's already caught a napkin and wrapped it around my finger to stop the bleeding. Her left hand holds my wrist and the right one presses the cut. I peer at her, but her gaze is on my finger.

"Are you always so clumsy?" she complains. "Where do you have the band-aids?"

"What?" I ask, still a little disoriented. "No, no... I can do that. You sit down. Eat. I'm fine."

"Then why are you mumbling like that? Don't be silly, just tell me where is it."

Despite not wanting to trouble her, I point at the bathroom. "In the top cabinet." I can't believe I let myself be so vulnerable. If my mother knew, she'd be lecturing me about being a terrible host.

Nina comes back with my first aid kit and sits by me. Gently, she cleans my finger and places a band-aid on top of the cut. Once that's done, she retrieves it to the bathroom, leaving me staring at the finger.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do this."

"No biggie," she shrugs, sitting in front of me again. "My sister and I used to be each other nurse, so I'm used to it."

Did she just casually share a personal detail, or am I delusional?

"You have a sister?" I ask, hoping to keep the conversation going.

"Yeah. Older. The boring one. Do you want me to cut a slice for you?"

"Mmm? No, of course not! I invited you here. You don't need to do anything."

She ignores me and serves me against my protesting. I glare at her, feeling a little more at ease now that her eyes no longer feel judging. She's still not smiling, contrasting my nervous giggles, looking calm and collected. Perhaps she's assessing if I'm worth a smile. Or perhaps she just doesn't care.

"You almost chopped your finger off. Forgive me if I don't trust you with a knife."

"I'm fine," I insist.

The corner of her lip twists into a smirk. "Sure thing. Your cake is delicious, by the way. We should do this again. It's nice. Don't you have a balcony?"

I frown at the insinuation. What does she mean by nice? I almost lost a finger. Besides, she doesn't look like she is enjoying it at all.

"A tiny one," I reply to the last question. "It's not enough for two people."

"That sucks. Mine is bigger. We can do it in my place next."

No, thank you.

She checks the time and, thankfully, decides is time to leave. It's getting dark outside and I have to make dinner. I like to have everything done by dinner time so I can curl up in my bed reading a book.

"See you," I say with a fake smile, holding the door for her.

"Yeah. Look, whenever you're bored, I have a much bigger TV. You can show up whenever you want."

"Okay. Thanks, 5D," I tell her, using the same form of the nickname she had given me before.

"It's Nina," she corrects. "My name is Nina."

"Bye, Nina," I say in the same nonchalant way she used before.

She smiles, and I think she is about to say something, but she just waves and disappears behind her door, on the other side of the hall. As soon as I find myself alone, I exhale the longest sigh. That was exhausting.

I'm not used to this anymore, even less with a girl like Nina. She's had the same blank look on her face the whole time, only smiling by the end of our interaction. I can't believe she wants to do this again.

Hello!

Welcome to my 1st quarantine tale. I'm planning to finish it before my 2nd tern starts but I don't know when will I write the 2nd one.

Anyway, Stuck Inside is a spin-off of BM, being the protagonists' secondary characters of it. Reading BM is not necessary but if you want to read it, you're more than welcome.

All hail vxy cuz she pressed me to write this faster but hasn't checked it out yet.

Thank you for reading xx