Meeting Me Halfway (HSMTMTS Fanfiction)

Chapter 13

Ricky
  "Are you ready?" I ask, stuffing clothes into my suitcase.
   We are heading to Utah for East Highs Production of High School Musical and I am ecstatic! Nini...on the other hand..has been extremely anxious. She told me a couple of weeks ago that she was going to go to Utah again but from the looks of it, she'd seem happier stuck in a library doing a bunch of random homework.
   "Uh. Yeah. For sure." Her face said otherwise.
   "You sure? You look sort of...discombobulated..."
    "Whoa. I didn't know you knew such words!" She tease, giving me the bright smile she would always do when she was surprised.
   "Ha Ha, very funny. Alright well, the flights at 4 in the morning. Think you'll wake in time?" I ask, zipping my suitcase.
   "Funny. I'm always the one that wakes you up."

    Let me sum up what practically has happened in the last 2 to 3 weeks. Every single day after I managed to get Nini on the good side, our days have been starting a little something like this.
  I wake up at 4 AM and go on a run or go the the gym, then around 6:20, I'd get her her classic order for breakfast. I then would get back to the dorms around 6:40 and change into my suit before waking Nini up from whatever hazardous position she would be sleeping in.
   Every Friday we would have a movie night when we sat on my Make shift bed and watch whatever movies that were on Netflix or Hulu on one of our computers. To sum it up, we were on good terms and we....she..thought that we were just friends. To be frank, I can't stop whatever feelings I'd managed to get on movie nights.
There was a moment. That one moment where I was just so close to saying fuck it and kissing her straight up, but I..I just need to control myself and bottle up whatever feelings I get.
   "Um," I begin, putting my suit case down, "it's Friday. So movie night?"
   "Ricky we have to wake up in like 6 hours. Do you really want to waste 2 of them watching movies?" She asks sarcastically.
  I gave no reply except a simple smile.
"I'll get the drinks.." she sighs smiling. "What do you want from the vending?"
  "Dr. Pepper. Snacks?" I reply.
"Lays Barbecue with Twizzlers," she answers, grabbing her keys.
  "I have no clue how you eat those things."
  "What? Twizzlers?" She asks with an offended demeanor.
  "Yeah! Licorice is a disgrace. " It wasn't till seconds after I studied Nini's face that she was offended. "Sorry. Should've kept that to myself."
"It's fine. We all have our opinions. I'm going to go. I'll see you in 5." She replies with a regular demeanor.
I did it again. I always tend to fuck things up so quickly by whatever words come out of my mouth.

   I sigh as I place the key into the door and hold the brown bag of snacks in the other hand. I had taken longer than I expected to get the snacks so Nini must've already been at the dorm.
   "Hello?" I ask, opening the door. "Nini? There weren't any lays barbecue but I got you kettle cooked if that's cool with you."
I fully enter and lock the door before walking towards the bed and seeing Nini, who was already setting up her laptop.
She didn't reply, but blankly stared at the laptop.
"Nini? C'mon. We are going to waste 3 hours if you don't.."
She had taken her eyes off the screen and reluctantly returned her glance at me. It wasn't until a couple of seconds later that I noticed a tear roll down her face.
I place the bag on the table and quickly sat next to her before reading the rather long email on the screen.
"Your Mom...she just...." I didn't want to finish the sentence. I couldn't finish the sentence. Not in a million years that I thought this could happen. Not now.
I could tell she was holding back many tears, causing me to slowly place an arm over her shoulder and use my other hand to close her laptop and take it off her lap.
It was almost like permission. When I took her laptop away. Almost immediately, she had placed her head on my shoulder and let her emotions take over. I held her tightly as tears ran down her face like rain, constantly forcing me to wipe them away with the sleeve of my shirt.
"I'll cancel the flight.." I say abruptly, wiping another tear off her cheek.
"No.." she responds, voice light. "We can still go. I can see her one more time.."
The moment she responded, I was lost for words. What could I possibly say?
"Alright..." I say softly.

Nini had fallen asleep in my arms, causing me to do the same; but not before placing a blanket over her small body.

Nini
My alarm wakes me up out of no where. The night before, I had decided to set my alarm to 2:45 in hopes that I'd outsmart Ricky, but now I deeply regret it.
I turn my head slowly off of Rickys shoulders and quickly turn off my phones alarm. I look around the still extremely dark room. I could hardly see Ricky but I could see enough to notice that he was still asleep and shaking. The temperature in the room was low and I simply did nothing except feel guilty. I rub my eyes which were still puffy from my..breakdown.. last night, and take the blanket off my body before placing it on Rickys.
I force myself up on my feet, shaking with the fact that I decided to wear shorts and a sweatshirt.
Almost immediately, I run into my bathroom and get ready. To brushing my teeth, to brushing my hair, to washing my face, I struggled each time, trying not to tear up. It's like everything I do, it reminds me of my mom and how we would do it together.
   I put my hair in a very low bun and leave the bathroom quietly. I return my gaze upon Ricky, who had fallen to the side where I once laid.
  I walk up to the sleeping figure and shake him lightly. It had taken a couple of shakes for him to at least slightly open his eyes.
   "Hi.." I say softly, forcing a smile.
   He opens his eyes just a little bit more before returning the favor, except it was a real one.
   "You...um...you sure you wanna go?" He asks quietly, moving a strand of my hair behind my ear. Him doing this confused me but also softened me up somehow. He hadn't  done that in 3 years and it feels like I had felt it 30 times over.
    "Yeah..." I reply quietly. "I'm ready."

I'm on a road-trip so you guys got lucky and got another chapter pretty quickly😂
No one has saved my story since the last time I posted which makes sense since it wasn't too long ago so there will be no shoutout this chapter. Have a good day or night!