𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 [a rini au]

forty-two

"that was an impressive argument. are you sure you don't want to be a lawyer when you grow up?"

"nini, i am grown up."

nina's moms returned home only a few minutes after ricky's spontaneous appearance. they were astonished, to say the least, but with a few swift lines from ricky and puppy dog eyes from their daughter, they gave nina the hesitant yet acceptable "okay" she was looking for. she packed a few things in her room while her moms laid out all their rules to ricky, and once nina was ready, the two teenagers hit the road. luckily, the girl was able to convince ricky to stop at mcdonald's and satisfy the craving she was having. on their way out of the drive-through and back to the highway, nina couldn't help but still be bemused by ricky's finesse.

"i'm serious," she continued, ignoring his joke as she shoved some fries in her mouth. "i know i don't do much socially, but when i do try to ask for certain things, it's like talking to a wall with them."

ricky laughed, taking a sip from his soda. "it's my irresistible charm," he swallowed with an eyebrow raise. "what can i say?"

nina rolled her eyes, reaching to the stereo to turn up the radio. "what you can say is, 'hey, nini, you're on aux.'"

the boy took his eyes off the road for a moment to watch nina navigate to the bluetooth settings on her phone. "i don't just give aux to anyone," he reflected.

"please," she scoffed, pairing her phone to the car. she gave him a look of disapproval. "we're listening to the radio right now. i'd say your music taste is lame."

"lame?! i'm literally a singer," ricky complained.

the defense flew over nina's head as she shuffled her throwback playlist. with the opening notes of "i want it that way," ricky knew she'd be the only exception to his aux rule.