𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗰 [𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗮𝘂]

tired of this .03

"what's up with the long face?" ashlyn asked ricky as she leaned onto the locker next to his. ej came up behind ricky and placed his hands on ricky's shoulders.

"let's just say my boy is losing to jack in the crack over there," ej pointed his head to jack and nini talking in front of the hallway.

carlos came around and let out a condescending whistle, "i see the wannabe sway boy still has your girlfriend in his clutches."

ricky rolled his eyes and shut his locker, "she's not my girlfriend, she's my bestfriend."

"ouch," ej muttered.

"precisely which is why you need to make your move now," carols nagged the boy.

"prom is in a few months, ricky," ashlyn added on, "don't you wanna go with her?"

"duh, we're gonna go together. we've always said we would," ricky defended himself, rolling up his sleeves as he eyed nini and jack talking.

"you guys made that promise when you were like still pissing your pants at recess" ej teased, making ricky smack his arm. ej chuckled and slowly stepped in front of the curly headed boy - blocking ricky's view of nini and jack. he continued, "what if jack moves in on her and asks nini? then what?"

"you guys are stressing me out," ricky whined, walking away from his friends. ej and ashlyn shrugged their shoulders, walking off to class while carlos chased after ricky. the boy sighed and shook his head, "carlos, not now."

"i have history with you," carlos reminded the boy, "besides, what's so bad about telling nini how you feel? how do you expect anything to happen if you're too scared to say anything?"

"because it could ruin our friendship," ricky told carlos, "i don't wanna lose her."

"would you rather lose her to jack?"

-

"and this video got like two million views, no biggie," jack bragged to nini as they walked the halls together to history class. the girl tucked her hair behind her ear and blushed.

"wow... you're like kinda famous then on tiktok...huh?" nini drooled, even though the girl had already seen the video like five hundred times. she was sure that half of those views were from her and gina.

jack shrugged his shoulders and ran his hand through her hair, "nah... that's like nothing."

"mm...wow.." nini chuckled and felt her cheeks getting hot as they entered the classroom.

as soon as nini stepped inside, her eyes met ricky's. the curly headed boy gave nini a huge smile and quickly pushed carlos off of the seat next to him. carlos quickly caught himself and looked at ricky with anger, "you dick?"

"scram! nini needs to sit next to me," ricky quickly said, "go sit with seb or something."

"we're fighting right now," carlos whined as he eyed the blonde boy who was sitting alone at his table.

"then go fix it," ricky gritted through his teeth, throwing carlos' backpack at his chest. carlos stumbled backwards a bit before making his way over to seb. ricky glanced back at nini who was looking at jack.

the girl waited at the front to see where jack was gonna sit. without another word, jack made his way over to lily and howie. nini's smile faded and her eye's met lily's. the blonde girl smirked at nini before pulling jack into the seat next to her. nini rolled her eyes and angrily made her way next to ricky.

"hey!" ricky chirped as he grinned at the girl. nini threw her backpack on the floor and groaned.

"why?! why does lily always have to go out of her way to piss me off," nini immediately started complaining. ricky's smile faded and he analyzed how angry the girl was getting, "it's like she wakes up every morning and comes up with a daily schedule of how she's gonna torment me. every time i want or have something, lily always has to one up me. always."

"why are you letting her get under your skin like this?"

"why is she such a bitch?" nini muttered back, rolling her eyes. ricky let out a sigh.

"because she's a loser and she's jealous of you," ricky reminded nini, "don't entertain it back."

nini scoffed and chuckled, "yeah, like lily's jealous of me."

"bubs-"

"-ricky, she's not," the girl cut ricky off, looking at him in the eyes, "there's nothing for lily to be jealous of..."

the boy took in a deep breath and looked between nini and lily. the girl was so upset and insecure while lily looked as happy as ever. ricky couldn't stand the sight of nini being so hard on herself.

ricky grabbed nini's hand under the table and gave it three squeezes. right away, all of nini's sadness, anger, and hatred washed away from her body. it felt as if a ton of weight has been lifted off her shoulders. on the other hand, ricky felt like shit. nini always feels so deeply and intensely. he always hated how hard nini was on herself, sometimes holding in her pain was just too much for him to endure. but he loved the girl and would go above and beyond to make her feel better.

the girl inhaled a deep breath and turned to ricky, "thank you... you always seem to know how to calm me down," nini softly said, giving ricky a smile.

"what are best friends for," ricky answered.

before nini could respond, their history teacher rushed into the classroom with a paper in front of his face, "welcome!! welcome everyone!! how was christmas break?? good?? bad?? life-changing?? i don't care. listen we don't have a lot of time together so i am going to read out a list of partners so be sure to find them when i am done. guzman and nadia, alex and willie, seb and carlos, dash and lily, aidan and paige, kourtney and howie, luke and julie, omar and ander, jack and ricky, and lastly, lily and nini."

ricky and nini quickly looked at each other with shock. "oh fuck," ricky cursed in disappointment.

"what?? you are so lucky," nini whined while students started to move their seats, "switch with me!"

"i can't switch with you , idiot. he made the groups," ricky told the girl who only rolled her eyes.

"ricky...i don't wanna work with lily!"

the boy shrugged his shoulders and looked at nini with defeat, "you gotta, bubs."

soon enough, lily approached them with a smirk. ricky got up from his seat and headed towards jack while lily took his place. nini rolled her eyes and faced her body away from lily.

"this is gonna be fun, right?" lily asked in a snarky tone.

sure, bitch.