𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 [a rini au]

- ELEVEN!

nini had practically sprinted back into the dining room where the party was being held, scanning the premises for margo and ensuring that she was appearing less flustered than she felt before approaching the blond. her interaction with ricky was running on loop through her mind, everything from his eager remembrance of her name to his compliments about her delicate neckwear. they were small sentiments, ones which perhaps held no value and weren't even sentiments at all. but, they caused nini's skin to heat up every time they replayed in her head on her skip back to the party.

"there you are!" margo welcomed nini when she saw her brunette best friend moving in her direction. margo was sipping on some seltzer in an irrationally fancy glass, swirling the carbonated drink as she twirled the glass rhythmically. "i've been waiting to take pics with you."

"sorry, i got kinda lost," nini fibbed, twiddling with her fingers as she eyed the room entrance subconsciously. clearly the girl wasn't being discreet enough, for margo followed her eyes easily.

now entering the dining room again was ricky, a welcoming smile on his face as he went to shake hands with margo's parents by the bar. margo's lips tugged upwards into a smirk, but she still didn't want to disclose what she knew to nini just yet. she wanted nini to come to her, but that didn't mean she couldn't mess with the giddy singer just a little bit. "lost, huh?" margo nodded slowly, nini's head whipping from the doorway back to her. "i'm assuming ricky showed you the way back."

nini immediately flushed a shade of bright pink, overpowering the light blush already dancing on her cheekbones. "oh, uh, no," nini smiled as margo's brow rose. "well, i mean, sorta. i ran into him on the way back. turns out i was going down the wrong hallway!"

"he's so good, isn't he?" margo's features twisted with delight as she watched nini pathetically attempt to hide her butterflies. the blond rose her glass in the air. "forget him. it's picture time."

___

it was hard for ricky to keep his eyes off of nini. there was just something about her, this magnetism she radiated as she glided across the room between her manager, colleagues, and margo's family. he couldn't stop thinking about his conversation with her at the bathroom, and he wondered if she was feeling the same. he was one to overthink, and he often tied himself to people, especially those who made his heart beat faster than the speed of light. many times it was one-sided, but he prayed that this wasn't one of those instances.

ricky was entering the buffet line when he felt a sudden nudge of his hip. "laurie and joe have seemed to miss you more than me," margo looked up at the curly-headed boy, holding an empty plate of her own. "they just talked to me about you for a good fifteen minutes."

ricky let out a hearty laugh, reaching for the serving spoon beneath a tray of pasta. "mama and papa richardson are angels, and so am i. it's fitting," he snickered as he plopped a glob of pasta on his plate.

"while that is true, i'm gonna have to ask you to stop calling them mama and papa," margo stole the serving spoon from ricky. "i say that because they like it and i cannot accept them liking you more than me."

"hey, let me have at least one win in the parental department, okay?" ricky darkly joked. although it enlightened him to a certain extent, the reference to his family life sent a distinct chill down margo's spine, one which was normally reserved to stories shared with her by nini. only relatively recently has ricky been opening up to margo regarding a sudden increase in distress in his parents' home. the fact that the two most important people in her life were experiencing familial problems hurt her beyond words.