if i can't have you || rini au

49. newsflash

that night, ricky stayed over at nini's. he was exhausted and his head-space wasn't in the right one; falling asleep on the couch beside nini after they'd been watching a movie while she just stayed awake.

nini was stiff beside the fast-asleep, curly-haired boy and she had her heart to the pit of her stomach at the sound of his words relaying in her mind. over and over again.

'you're my home.'

she shuddered a breath as she closed her eyes, burying her face in them tiredly before slowly standing up, being careful not to wake ricky up as she made her way down the hall of the apartment and towards erica's bedroom door, knocking on it softly

"yep?"

nini nervously creaked the door open a few inches to reveal herself, erica looking up from a cook book she'd been reading and taking off her glasses with her eyes furrowed in concern at the sight of nini's face

"hey, what's up?"

the girl fiddled with her necklace anxiously, opening her mouth to say something before she just shook her head "um...actually...never mind, it's alright."

but when nini turned around to leave, erica stopped her

"stop and get over here." the woman said sternly

nini closed her eyes, turning around as she exhaled deeply and made her way to sit down on the bed in front of her aunt

"want to tell me what's up?" erica asked with a raised eyebrow

"...not really." nini mumbled quietly, looking down as she traced circles on her hands

"does this have anything to do with ricky?"

when seeing nini's gaze move upwards to look at her, erica knew the answer, the frown and sympathy evident on her face as she put her book down on her nightstand

"listen honey, you need to talk to him." she said softly "you can't keep these feelings bottled up."

nini shuddered a breath "we said one step at a time-"

"yes, in december." erica said factually "you can't keep pushing this conversation away and postponing it, you have to confront the big picture."

she knew she was right. nini definitely knew that her aunt was right in all cases...and that completely terrified her. nini didn't want to come to the conclusion she knew of. she was too scared, especially now.

"...i still have a little bit left with him." nini said in a fragile, shaken voice "i don't want to mess it up."

"you do have a little time left with him and your friends here but please don't leave the conversation till the last minute. i know you love living in the moment and all, but this is the time that you have-"

"have to be responsible, i know." the girl finished with a nod, the frown on her face deepening "...do you think he'll be okay?"

"ricky?" erica confirmed, nini nodding a reply "he'll be okay."

"how do you know for sure?" nini asked, bringing her hand back up to fiddle with the charm of her necklace

erica took a deep breath and brought nini's hand down into hers, squeezing it comfortably "because he'll never be alone. neither one of you will ever be alone. and even when you're both apart, you'll always have each other in here." she assured the girl, pointing her other hand towards nini's chest where her heart was

the brunette girl exhaled slowly, nodding as she forced her tears away from her eyes as she leaned forward to hug the woman "thank you aunt erica..."

"always." she smiled, bringing her arms around nini to hug her back before patting her hand softly "now, you should go to sleep, it's getting pretty late."

nini nodded, pulling away and standing up to leave the room before arriving at the doorway and turning around "i love you..."

"love you too honey," erica chuckled warmly, nini cracking a small smile before closing the door behind her quietly and walking towards the living room to check on ricky

when she entered it, she saw the tv still on so she made her way to turn it off, turning back to see the curly-haired boy still fast asleep with a blanket around his body and his eyes fluttering every so often, soft snores escaping him in rhythm.

nini felt her heart sink as she smiled sadly, wanting nothing more than to head over to him and lay in his arms, having his safe embrace around her with nothing there to frighten her because of it...

but her trance was broken by a ringtone from the grey hoodie pocket, quickly picking the phone up to answer it before she could wake her sleeping boyfriend up and bringing the phone to her ear

"hello?" she whispered, quckly making her way further from the couch so that she could talk a little louder

"miss nina," benjamin sighed through the speaker "you haven't seen my messages??"

"no...sorry benjamin...i was a little preoccupied. is everything okay?"

"...erm-yes, everything is—okay...except-"

"except what?" nini asked, her heart rate speeding up as she impatiently waited for benjamin to continue

he exhaled deeply "your mother wants you to come home."