To Pick or Not to Pick

*Sid’s Note* Hello everyone! I’ve been on Reedsy for about a month, and I’ve wanted to submit a story for the longest time, and I finally have! I was super nervous to publish my work on a writing platform such as this, and finally crossed my fingers and sat down to write this. Although, I probably did choose the easiest one :) This story idea was given to me by my IRL friend, Nainika Gupta after she wrote her story Bomb’s Away, so go check her out!!! I hope you enjoy my first submission, and I’m going to continue writing in the New Year!!!

“You have ten seconds to choose, Ella.” I look up with pleading eyes to my mom.

“Only ten?” She nods and taps her watch impatiently. I get the sense I can’t bargain for any more time. Plus, we’ve already been here for about fifteen minutes. Mom doesn’t like indecisions. They annoy her.

“Ten,”

I jolt, then turn back to the choices in front of me. There are sugar-covered fruit jellies, licorice all-sorts, sour candies, and fizzy cola bottles. Fondant squares and caramels, truffles, candy corn, skittles, M&M’s, both peanut and regular, gumballs of all sizes, and peanut brittle. A mismatched collection of Hershey kisses, white chocolate mice, and Maltesers. I love all of them, how in the world am I going to choose??

“Nine,”

Ok, I can rule out the fruit jellies, the licorice, and the peanut brittle. True, the jellies are so delightful, the different flavors all bursting on your tongue. Licorice is a good after-dinner treat, with the sharp taste that I adore. Peanut brittle is so wonderfully crunchy, the peanuts leaving a wonderful aftertaste. All those choices are amazing, but in the long run, I’d be much happier with the other choices.

“Eight,”

Fine, I guess that the fondant squares, caramels, and chocolate mice can go. While the fondant squares are amazingly decorated, there isn’t much to taste, simply hardened sugar. Caramels are pretty good, but also kind of boring. And chocolate mice are cute, but not what I’m going for. They’re all good, but I couldn’t see myself choosing them.

“Seven,”

Sour candies and truffles are the next to be eliminated. To be honest, I don’t really like sour candies all that much, the sourness more off my sweet scale. And truffles, while good, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache center coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped toasted nuts, aren’t my cup of tea today.

“Six,”

“Mom, a little more time?” I whine, quickly glancing at her. She shakes her head and taps her watch again.

“We have to go. You only have six-ish seconds left.” I turn and survey my remaining choices. I’ll skip the skittles and M&M’s for now, those are generic candies that I can get anywhere, but at Loli Pops, the best candy store in Oakbrook, I want only the best. So on that note, I also skip the candy corn, although super tasty, and the Hershey kisses.

“Five,”

“Mom, slow down,” I say, but don’t expect an answer. I’ve narrowed down my choices to the delightfully fizzy cola bottle candies, the jelly kind that taste exactly like the drink, gumballs that blow the biggest bubbles I’ve ever seen, and the Maltesers, the spherical malt honeycomb center, surrounded by milk chocolate….oh, I just love them. Three choices aren’t so bad. But still so hard.

“Four,”

I stare at my three options again. I love fizzy cola bottles. They are amazingly fizzy, make good by-itself treats, yet also make a yummy topping on top of floats and tall glasses of Coca Cola. Argh, they are just so good! The gumballs are amazing too. They last for hours and don’t lose the flavor as easily as most gumballs. And they’re huge!! Almost the size of my six-year-old fist!! The bubbles you can make? Oh, humongous. Gigantic. Ginormous. Just, a great quality gumball. And finally, the Maltesers. Such wonderful chocolate. Last year when my mom took me to England for her business trip, she bought so many boxes of the decadent chocolate spheres for us to eat.

“Three,”

Fizzy cola bottles, amazing gumballs, or Maltesers. Fizzy cola bottles, amazing gumballs, or Maltesers. Fizzy cola bottles, amazing gumballs, or Maltesers. Fizzy cola bottles, amazing gumballs, or Maltesers. I can’t choose. I can’t possibly choose. How can I choose between fizzy cola bottles, amazing gumballs, or Maltesers?

“Two,”

Which one will be the best option for me? Which one will I absolutely love? Which one will I savor the most? Fizzy cola bottles, amazing gumballs, or Maltesers? I sigh, then eliminate the fizzy cola bottles from my choices. It was a hard decision. But we anyway didn’t have Cola at home, nor did we have ice-cream to make cola floats, so it wasn’t worth it. But between the gumballs and Maltesers? I couldn’t choose.

“One. Time’s up. Which one did you choose?” I sigh and turn to mom.

“I can’t choose between the amazing gumballs, or Maltesers, mom.” She sighs.

“Fine, just take them both.” I gasp.

“Really? I can take both?” She rolls her eyes.

“Hurry up or we’ll leave here with nothing.” I grab the bag she holds out for me, the biggest size there is from the counter, and start to scoop as many gumballs and Maltesers inside as I can stuff inside. Finally, I fold up the bag and clutching my treasures, run to the front desk and hand the bag up to the kindly old lady sitting there.

“Well, dearie, did you take a long time to choose?” She asks while ringing up the total.

“No, my mom counted to ten and I had to choose in that time.” She handed my mother the receipt and handed me back the bag.

“Well, I hope you enjoy your candies, young lady. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.” I waved goodbye, then holding my mother’s hand in one hand, and my bag of treats in the other, we walked out of the store.