in your reflection || rini au

14. in my head

ricky put down his phone, exhaling deeply. he couldn't piece together why it was so important to her to start dancing again...what was it to her if she didn't ever seem to actually care about him throughout their entire time they'd spent together?

he shook his head, trying to ignore the thoughts running through his mind but his gaze moved to the wall in front of him, thinking back to all the old memories he'd had when dance was in his life...

it was always something he'd love; he'd dance around the house aimlessly ever since he could walk and his parents would even join him for a laugh. then, he'd put so much work into it at the studio with the knowledge that it was something he wanted to do forever.

and then the 'accident' happened.

ricky scoffed, shaking his head bitterly as he laid back against his pillow, turning over onto his nightstand which held his lamp, an old book and a dusty picture frame that's been facing down for the past four months.

he had been okay with getting the brunette girl out of his life and mind all together from the end of the last academic year...and now he hates that he somehow can't get rid of her in his mind no matter how hard he tried.

*

nini stared at her phone, biting her thumb nail as she read back the conversation they'd had...it wasn't really a conversation the more she looked at it though; mostly just her trying to convince ricky while he just stayed monotone.

"—neen?"

the girl quickly blinked, looking up from her phone to see her boyfriend arriving with a few snacks and a raised eyebrow

"hm?"

"you alright?" he asked, his eyes glancing down at her phone suspiciously when she had quickly turned it off and stuffed it in her back pocket

"oh! um—yeah," nini nodded with a small smile "yeah, i'm good. i have to go to work in a few though."

leo sighed "really...? i was sort of hoping we could hang out longer."

nini frowned, standing up as she made her way around to him and wrapped her arms around his neck as he held her "i'm sorry...but you know that i have to work. i can't afford to lose track, you know? especially now it's senior year..."

leo took a deep breath, putting on a smile "yeah...right. sure."

she gave him another small smile before leaning in to quickly kiss him on the lips before jumping out of his arms "and you know, we'll have a lot of time together now that our friends know about us."

leo chuckled "that's true."

he watched as his girlfriend grinned at him once more before she disappeared out the door, making her way out of his house and towards the ice cream parlor a few blocks away.

she fiddled with the little locket charm attatched to her denim jacket that she'd been wearing, her mind wandering off as she thought back to ricky...

she couldn't understand why he didn't want to get back to it. he loved to dance as much as she does.

something nini had been doing ever since she'd talked to him in the empty classroom the other day was list all the reasons he could possibly not want to and so far all she had was:

1. he didn't want to have to see her every day again

2. he was scared of getting hurt again (both mentally and physically)

and she'd ruled out any sort of reason to do with her now, her mind running back to their little outburst at his locker a couple weeks ago when she'd tried to apologize to him.

'believe it or not, it is possible to get over the nina salazar-roberts'

he couldn't have been more loud and clear about that.

nini exhaled as she entered the ice cream parlor, deciding that she was going to have to put ricky at the back of her mind and focus on work...but one thing was sure, even though the reason to her was unknown of:

she was definitely not going to let him give up on dance no matter what.