𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥. [ 𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐚𝐮 ]

used to be .23

ricky nervously sat in his chair with his leg bouncing up and down. he couldn't wait for ellie to come here. he had to know what nini was going through. just in time, the boy heard a knock on his door. ricky quickly got up from his chair and ran to the door, expecting to see ellie. but it wasn't her.

"tj....?" ricky asked a bit confused, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"ricky.. i know you hate me."

"yeah, i do."

"okay! just hear me out!" tj said a bit frustrated. ricky let out a deep sigh and let tj in his room.

"okay.. hurry up though," ricky said and tj nodded his head.

"ricky... i really like nini-"

"bro-"

"i said hear me out," tj said in a stern voice. ricky rolled his eyes and told tj to proceed, "... im worried about her ricky. she looks like a mess. it looks like she hasn't been sleeping, she barely goes to class, doesn't talk to anyone, barely eats... she just stays in her dorm room all day."

ricky stared at tj with disbelief. the boy couldn't deny that tj cared about nini as much as he did. even though it pained ricky to even think this, tj cared about nini more than he anticipated and maybe that's why she liked tj over him.

"you really care about nini.. huh?" ricky softly asked him. tj nodded his head and looked up ricky with apologetic eyes.

"you have no idea.."

"no i do..." ricky stated and sat in his bed, "listen... nini's not gonna talk to me anytime soon. im probably the last person she's ever gonna talk to, but can you promise me something?"

"depends on what it is..."

"when nini does start talking to you, can you take care of her for me?" ricky asked with his voice breaking a hit, "she's been through some stuff and she tends to hide all of it and keep it to herself until one day she finally breaks down."

"okay... i'll try," tj told ricky and looked at the poor boy who looked heartbroken.

"man.. when did things get so bad?" ricky said as he stared at the blank wall in front of him, "you should've seen the way we used to be, man. we were so in love.. so innocent and happy. we used to facetime every night even though nini would fall asleep after ten minutes. we would eat in & out like everday. nini used to make fun of my big ass forehead every single day. we even raised a couple of butterflies together... seems so long ago. you know it took us six attempts to get our first kiss together?"

"woah really?" tj chuckled and ricky nodded his head smiling.

"yeah.. but it was worth it," ricky proudly said. he got up from his bed and went in his closet to grab the tip jar, "the first time nini and i actually starting talking to each other, we got into this huge fight. every since that day, nini's been putting one dollar bills in this jar to see how many days it would take for her to fall in love with with me."

"it seems kinda empty."

"yeah...she fell pretty fast, huh?" ricky looked down at the jar and smiled, "the day she gave this to me was when we finally had our first kiss... it was... perfect."

tj looked at ricky and shook his head, "ricky.. im gonna tell you this right now. im gonna try really hard to look after nini, but i can't promise you that i will."

"why not?"

"because nini's never gonna love anyone like how she loves you."

before ricky could say anything, he heard ellie knocking on his dorm. ricky gave one last glance at tj before he made his way to his door, "hey ellie."