what more can i say | rini au

8. (mini chapter)

"You remember what happened that night?" Aspen's voice is soft as she sits down with Big Red on the steps to her front porch.

"Of course I do." He shrugs his shoulders. "How could I forget? You kissed my best friend and I bolted."

"Red..." Her tone shirts slightly, indicating there's clearly more to the story.

"I know, I know- it was only truth or dare... And I know it was barely even a kiss but I wasn't exactly going to stick around to see more."

"You um, you don't remember everything from that night do you?" Aspen's jet black hair is falling from its ponytail by the minute, and she has to brush a few strands from her face.

The moon casts soft shadows over the pair as she sits in the bit of sorrow she feels at the idea he didn't think so much of this particular moment than she did.

"What are you talking about?" He's clearly confused, and that hurts even more.

"What didn't happen outside... Before the trampoline incident..."

That makes Big Red's eyes go wide.

"Oh. Oh you meant that..."

"Yeah. I meant that." She finds herself glad at least he does know what she's talking about. Even if it doesn't mean anything as to his feelings about the evening in question.

"I remember. I would've Aspen. Seriously." His reassurance somehow means the world.

"Okay." She nods with a smile. "I'm glad, I mean- I wanted to."

"Then we never spoke of it again..." His voice falters.

"We were kids."

"It was three years ago not ten." He shrugs his shoulders, getting up from the step and offering her his hand.

"I didn't know you ten years ago." She hums, getting up but not taking his hand as she does so, keeping enough space between them as to avoid further awkwardness. Or so she expects.

"Aspen- you know what I meant. And I'm pretty sure I would've liked you just as well as a 6 year old as I did at 13 if I'd had a chance."

"I wouldn't have." He looks hurt, but she immediately realizes what he thinks, and she shakes her head quickly. "No. No oh my gosh not like that I swear. Six year old me definitely thought boys had cooties. I would've been too scared to talk to you." She says with a laugh, smiling at the red headed boy.

"You don't have to be scared of me. I've been told I'm pretty harmless." He shrugs, ever so nonchalant, causing a giggle to spill over her lips.

"Physically sure, but clearly not in every way..." Her voice trails off, the girl's eyes focused on his.

"We're not Gina and Ricky. I refuse to be that way." Big Red tells her a bit suddenly.

"I- I know... I don't want to be anyone but us." She replies, definitely confused.

"Do you want something Aspen?" He's being straight up for one of the few times in his life, and she's left frozen on her doormat as he takes a step closer to her.

"I- I think so... If you do?" She's nervous even admitting it even if he halfway did first.

"I think I do too."

He nods, smiling as he gives her a kiss on the cheek before walking away again, hopping on his skateboard and leaving her to go back into her house smiling, a hand pressed to her cheek where his lips had previously been.

Neither really knew what this encounter meant for their futures, but as the skate park group hangout earlier had shown them perfectly clearly, a lot can change very quickly.

Maybe this was the start of something, rather than the beginning of the end. The latter being what Big Red's best friend was almost certainly facing this same night.

This moral quandary is why Aspen hangs onto this encounter and doesn't share it with her best friend, and more obviously it's why why Big Red doesn't share it with his own. Because this was almost certainly weighing on Nini almost as much as it was Ricky and Aspen knows it.

Maybe tomorrow will be a new day, a better one.

Though at least for the pair, there was something good to appreciate about this very eventful night. It had become eventful in more ways than the one that sent them walking together through the dark.