stolen kiss || rini au

17. missed opportunities

nini came out of her auditions on friday afternoon completely satisfied with how it went but now she felt nervous for the outcome.

"i'm sure you got sandy," seb tells her

"yeah, you nailed the song," gina nods as they arrive at nini's locker

"yeah, we'll see." nini laughs softly as she opens her locker to put her school bag in before they went towards the gym to get seats for ricky's basketball game.

"so, talking about the elephant that's been in the room for the past few days..." ashlyn speaks up

"this isn't the right time." nini says with wide eyes and a fake smile as she notices ej, big red and carlos rushing towards them

"well-"

"okay, so we got sight on a few seats." big red said "if we go now we could get them,"

"great let's go!" carlos beams as they all start making their way towards the gymnasium.

when they entered the gym, nini caught sight of ricky warming up on the court and felt her heart rate increase.

she noticed him look at her and quickly looked away, kourtney tapping her on the shoulder

"you should talk to him." she whispers

nini sighed and shook her head "no."

"you have feelings for him nini. it's not a bad thing and he likes you to. we can tell," kourtney tells her

nini bit the inside of her cheek as she looked back at the court, seeing ricky dribble down the space as he shot the ball into the hoop.

she took a deep breath and glanced back at kourtney before nodding slowly "okay..."

"go now." kourtney says excitedly

"he's warming up!" nini reminds her

"so?" kourtney asks as they sit down

nini sighs and nervously fiddles with her fingers before nodding and making her way down the steps of the stands

ricky made his way towards his duffle bag, taking his water bottle for a quick break before making his way back on the court until he sees nini making her way towards him.

"hey..." she breathes

"she speaks," ricky says with a chuckle, taking deep breaths

nini shakes her head with a small sigh "i-i wanted to talk to you..."

"hey-how'd the auditions go?" he asked hopeful

nini opened her mouth "oh-great-i think...i mean-i hope so?"

"so, which is it?" he jokes, making her laugh nervously

"um-anyway...i wanted to-ask something." she says, ricky nodding "um-it's about this...thing we're doing-"

"hey bowen!" the coach exclaims, ricky turning around "get back in there and finish warming up!"

ricky returned his gaze to the girl "i should-"

nini nodded "uh-yeah, no-yeah go ahead. we'll talk later,"

ricky gave her a quick smile before running back out onto the court, nini taking a deep breath as she returned back up to the bleachers

"what's up?" ej asks with a smirk

"yeah, what did you have to be feeling-i mean-dealing with?" big red questions, gina nudging the boy in the ribs "ow!"

nini sighs "you told them?!"

"they made us!" seb exclaims

"how did they make you?" she questions

"we asked them if they wanted to know why you were going to ricky, and they said yes..." kourtney says sheepishly

nini groans as she buries her face in her hands "this is the worst day of my life."

"what about the day you start canoodling with your enemy?" ej asks

"ej, that has to be the best day of her life obviously," carlos grins

"guys, okay stop." kourtney says, the others shaking their heads with a small smile

"did you tell him?" she asks

nini shakes her head "he had to go focus on the game..."

"talk to him after," ashlyn suggests

the girl nods "yeah..."

—

the game ended with east high winning again; everyone was over the moon and now the team members were all excitedly making their way down the hall from the changing rooms.

nini fiddled with her fingers before her friends caught her attention

"there he is," big red nods

"nows your chance," ej sings

she swallows nervously ajd takes a deep breath "he-maybe i'll just wait until monday-"

"no, you're doing this now." ashlyn tells her

"but-"

nini gets cut off by feeling carlos, seb and gina all push her towards ricky, the girl stumbling as she glared back at them before turning back and taking a deep breath as she approached ricky.

she nervously tapped her finger on his shoulder, causing for him to turn around and he smiled instantly when seeing her

"hey roberts," he grinned

"nice job out there," she said

ricky raised his eyebrows "wow, no quick insult? are you sick?"

she rolled her eyes playfully, finding a small smile on her face "ha ha richard,"

he smirked as he leaned against the lockers "so, what's up?"

"well," she took a deep breath "um-remember when i told you i had something to say before the game?"

ricky nodded "yeah,"

"well-it's funny-i-i kind of-i think-"

"hey bowen!" parker, one of the boys from his team exclaimed from further down the hall

ricky turned around "yeah?"

"you coming? we're all heading to lily's now for the party."

"yeah one second," ricky replied

nini felt her heart sink slightly from disappointment as he turned back to face her

"sorry, what did you want to say?" he asked

the girl shook her head with a small smile "nothing. it can wait. go have fun at your party."

ricky nodded "i'll see you tomorrow or something? we can hang out?"

nini smiled "yeah, of course."

he looked around them to see no one before quickly leaning in and kissing her on the lips shortly before smiling at her and running off down the hall.

the girl felt her heart flutter for the few seconds before he was out of sight and she took a deep breath, making her way out of the school and back home.