the flaw in being perfect - rini au

twenty three

Nini wishes she hadn't had an anxiety attack in front of Ricky, but she knows that since it happened she has to deal with it. As of now, her plan is simply to avoid the topic as long as she possibly can and if it is brought up, she'll brush it off as something normal.

The only other person Nini has had an anxiety attack in front of has been Ashlyn, before rehab.

Nini sighs, remembering the girl that doesn't seem to care about her anymore.

Nini and Ashlyn used to be extremely good friends, and Nini really misses the badass redhead. If only Ashlyn didn't seem to hate who she's become, then Nini wouldn't be so scared to talk to her anymore.

Ashlyn has always been the kind of girl that doesn't care what others think. She does what she wants and what's good for her without a single regret. She always seems to do the right thing.

She did the right thing getting Nini into rehab.

Nini blinks hard, trying to get the memory of that day out of her head.

"Nini, did you, like, twitch or something?" Gina laughs at the lunch table.

"Yeah, sorry. There was just something in my eye." Nini plasters her smile back onto her face.

She can't be thinking about her past at school. She can't risk looking vulnerable.

"Anyway," Nini changes the subject. "What do you think of the new pyramid Coach Jen proposed yesterday?"

"It's kind of overused if you ask me. I mean, a tick tock in the center? Boring. She knows I can do a back tuck, just throw me already."

Nini nods along with the girl.

Nini knows that the reason they're doing a tick tock instead of a back tuck basket toss is because of the timing for what's coming next in the routine, but she also knows that arguing with Gina only brings bad juju.

"And on top of that, why am I on the side? We all know I'm a better flyer than Fiona."

"Coach Jen is going to rotate the stunts for the second part of the pyramid so you can do your heel stretch into a scorpion in the center," Nini informs her.

Yes Gina is stuck up, but she does have the talent to back it up.

"I could still be in the center both times." Gina shrugs.

Once again, Nini decides not to argue.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" Nini hears a voice behind her.

She turns around to see Ricky staring at her.

Nini turns back to Gina to see her glaring. "Why would she talk to you, Ryan?"

Nini knows that Gina called him by the wrong name intentionally, turning back to Ricky to respond, but he beats her to it.

"I'm not talking to you, Georgia." Ricky rolls his eyes. "Just come with me, Princess."

"Don't call me Princess, Prince Charming." Nini grumbles, but packs up her stuff anyway.

"You're seriously going with him?" Gina raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's for a class project. I'll see you later," Nini excuses herself.

Nini follows Ricky out of the cafeteria.

She wonders where he's taking her, but to be quite honest she had been wanting to get away from Gina all lunch period, so she really didn't care all that much.

"Where's Red?" Nini asks as they walk into the hallway.

"Some club meeting. Robotics, I think?"

"Why aren't you sitting with the guys?" Nini questions again.

"I don't know how well I fit in there," Ricky answers honestly with a shrug.

Nini just nods. The two get out to the front of the school and Nini follows Ricky as he walks into a grass area and sits.

She sits down next to him.

"So what's up?" Nini initiates.

Ricky looks into her eyes, wondering if she's seriously asking or if she just wants him to be the one to bring it up.

"You had an anxiety attack yesterday." Ricky states.

"That's true." Nini nods, her face not faltering.

"Does that happen a lot?"

"Only when I experience triggers." Nini shrugs.

Which is more days than not, Nini fails to add.

"Do you mind me asking what your triggers are?" Ricky asks carefully. "I don't want you to feel like you have to tell me, but I would like it if I didn't trigger any more in the future."

Nini takes in a slight breath, realizing what he's getting at. "Oh! No, you didn't cause that. That was all me. I don't want you to feel like that was your fault. It truly was just me getting in my head about something."

This leaves Ricky even more confused. Her trigger could be anything if it was just something she thought about when he picked her up. It could have absolutely nothing to do with being picked up.

"Alright." Ricky nods.

"Alright," Nini repeats, starting to get up. "If that's all you wanted, then I should probably get back—"

"Could we hang out again sometime?" Ricky asks suddenly, startling Nini.

Nini stands up all the way, biting the inside of her cheek as she thinks. "Yeah. Yeah, we can."

Nini holds out her hand to help Ricky up, though she knows she isn't much help when it comes to actually getting him to stand.

"Would you want to exchange numbers to make it easier to communicate? You know, rather than walking up to each other's lunch tables."

Nini smiles slightly. "Yeah."

For the first time in a while, her smile feels genuine.

Ricky and Nini hand each other their phones, typing in their contacts before handing the phones back to their respective owners.

"I'll text you later. We'll plan something."

Nini feels herself blushing a little, so she turns away quickly. "Sounds good," she calls over her shoulder as she walks away.

Nini doesn't know what changed between them because of yesterday, but she thinks she might kind of like it.

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thank you to everyone that's been commenting and voting!!! it really means a lot to me 🥺

in other news, are we excited about rini getting each other's numbers?! finally, right?

-jenna