Swept Off My Feet- Rini Fanfiction

You Know How We Can Talk All Night

*Nini*

As soon as I heard Ricky say whisper yell "Benefit?!" from the bathroom I knew something was up.
"I think we're all done with games for the night, right?" I said to everyone.
"Yeah," Big Red said.
"Sure!" Ashlyn added.
We all got up, threw our paper plates away and went into the living room to continue the party.
As everyone chatted, I went down the hall to the bathroom and knocked on the door.
"Hey, Ricky," I said softly.
"Is everything...um...alright?"
I heard him gently walking around.
"Uh, yeah," he said.
"Is it okay if I come in?" I asked him, putting my hand on the doorknob.
"Mhm," he mumbled back.
I opened the door and he was standing with his hands in both of his pockets.
"Are you okay?" I asked. "Who called you?"
Ricky looked pretty distraught about something but he almost never cried.
He got emotional, and I'm pretty sure that's what was happening right now, but he rarely ever cried.
"It was my mom," he told me.
"Oh," I said, smiling slightly. "She just wanted to say hi?"
"Yeah," he said back. "She just wanted to check in on me, I guess."
I smiled at him.
"I was just...uh...wondering when the party was over?" Ricky asked, taking his hands out of his pockets, the putting them back in.
"Just to see if I can...text my dad to um, let him know when I'll be home."
I tilted my head slightly to the right.
"Yeah, I guess it's over whenever people want to leave," I told him. "Did you...need to go?"
Ricky was about to speak when his phone got a text notification.
He took a deep breath and looked at his phone.
Words can't even describe what I just saw.
The moment he looked at his phone, his whole face got super tensed up.
His eyes squinted slightly, like they always did when he got emotional.
And I noticed his hand was shaking slightly.
I closed the bathroom door behind me, so we were a little more private.

*Ricky*

Dad: I assume you got the call from mom. Ricky, I'm sorry but this is what's happening. I'm only doing this because I love you.

I couldn't believe it. This was really happening. I was moving away from everyone I loved. Nini, the whole cast from HSM, the lacrosse team, and much more.
For some reason, my mind completely zoned off and I felt like I was standing on a cloud. I wasn't thinking straight.
I actually wasn't thinking at all.
I gripped my phone and threw it against the tile floor, feeling my cheeks getting wet.
It didn't give me the satisfaction of breaking or cracking, so I went to pick it up again to try again until Nini stepped in.
"Richard Bowen," she said sternly, grabbing me by the arm and looking at me straight in the eyes.

*Nini*

I've never seen him so aggressive before. This is not the real Ricky. This isn't my Ricky.
"Richard Bowen," I say a little more strictly than I planned to.
That's when he looked me straight in the eyes and my heart almost shattered.
His eyes weren't the usual sympathetic, innocent, gorgeous brown eyes.
These were angry, and hurt. It's like I could feel the extreme tension throughout his whole body just by looking at his eyes.
"What's going on?" I whispered.
He looked at me, and then at the floor, his aggressive, angry emotion starting to melt into a depressed, lonely one.
"I...uh," he started, but stopped himself and swallowed.
"I'm moving to Chicago."
I felt my heart drop.
He looked up from the floor and saw my expression.
He let out a nervous laugh.
"Uh, yeah. I move in with my mom and Todd on Monday," he tells me.
I...I couldn't believe it. He was going away on such short notice.
"For how long?" I asked.
"I think it's permanent, Nini." When he said my name, his voice cracked and I started to notice tears were forming in his eyes.
Remember what I said?
Ricky wasn't one to cry. I'm pretty sure neither of us couldn't have not cried.
"Ricky I'm so-"
"You see what I mean?" He says, the feeling of anger returning to him.
"Nini, do you..." he stopped himself to swallow the lump in his throat.
"Do you remember when I came over to your house when my parents were fighting?"
"Yes," I said in a small voice.
"I told you that I wanted everything to go back to normal. I told you that I wanted it to stop, that I wanted my mom out of my life."
I nodded, trying not to cry.
"Well, look what happened. I got what I wanted. Everything kind of went back to normal. I was just starting to get used to the new change without her," he said, putting up his index finger.
"And now everything changes again," he added.
"Ricky, maybe this is your new normal. This is where you're supposed to be. With her."
Ricky shook his head.
I grabbed his face with both of my hands to stop him from shaking his head.
"You don't belong here. You don't belong in this small, boring town. You're going go places, Ricky. You're going to change the world. You don't belong in Salt Lake City."
"I belong with you," he replied, this time a tear making its way down his eye.
"Maybe," I told him. "But you need to focus on your future. You don't see a future here, so you?"
"Nini...you didn't go to the YAC because of me," he said. "You said that you wanted to stay with me. And now..." he choked.
"Hey," I said, wiping the tear. "Don't worry about me. Worry about packing everything up in time and catching your flight, you understand me?"
Ricky all of the sudden got super pale. I took my hands off his face and put the back of my hand up to his forehead. He was getting really hot.
"Ricky are you feeling okay?" I asked.
He closed his eyes and nodded.
"It's almost like you have a fever or-"
Faster than I could comprehend, Ricky bolts for the toilet and falls on his knees, throwing up.
I go over to him and rub his back.
"It's okay," I told him gently.
Then he started to cry.
Ricky never cries. I've only seen him cry once, and that time was because of his parents.
Well now I'm seeing him cry for the second time.
And what's it about?
His parents.
"I can't take it, Nini," he cried, then threw up again.
"I know," I told him, still rubbing his back, trying not to cry myself.
"I don't...I can't...I just don't want to leave," he cries in between deep breaths.
I grab a washcloth from underneath the sink, wet it, wring it out, and brought it over to him.
I sat down on the floor next to him.
I gently lifted his face away from the toilet and wiped down his face.
"I can't lose you again," he said.
I finished cleaning up around his mouth.
"You're not going to lose me," I smiled gently.

*Ricky*

This is your second time breaking down in front of her, idiot.
Get yourself together.
"Nini, I'm moving almost 2,000 miles away," I told her.
"Don't think of it like that," she said.
"Just think of it as a short distance away from each other. Listen, it could work. Once we're out of high school, we're adults going off to college. It's going to be okay."
"I don't want it to be like that though," I said, tears still finding its way down my cheeks.
"I want to take you to your favorite sushi restaurant. I want to take you on cute little dates during the summer, where we can watch the stars, and dance in the rain. Whatever we do together, will make me so happy. Being 1,600 miles away will literally-" I was stopped by my voice giving out.
I let out a huge breath and tried to start talking again, but couldn't find the words.
Then frustration overcame my entire mindset and I burst out crying again.
I put my head in my hands and let it all out, which I would regret later tonight when I thought back about it.
Nini stood up, taking my hands, and pulling me up with him.
Then we both hugged really tight, probably the tightest hug I've ever given.
"Shh," she said, trying to calm me down.
"I just-"
"I know," she interrupted.
The more I stood with Nini, hugging her, the more I came to the realization that I would have to break her heart for the second time in less than a year.