the flaw in being perfect - rini au

forty three

Ricky's Saturday has been pretty great. He hung out with his dad all morning, then headed over to Red's house to hang out with Red and Ashlyn again.

The three of them have been getting pretty close recently.

He didn't spare a thought as to what Nini might be up to until he got a text from her around 9:30pm.

Nini
hey

That's it? That's all she has to say?

Ricky ignores it. He knows she's on her date with EJ.

He adverts his attention back to Red, who is currently seeing how many oreos he can balance on his face at once. He's at seven.

"Eight!" Red calls excitedly.

"If you get to fourteen I'll buy you a candy bar," Ashlyn tells him, flipping through a magazine absentmindedly.

Ricky is starting to understand Ashlyn a lot better since getting to know her.

She's complex, but she's fun to hang out with. You just have to get past the hard exterior and she's actually pretty funny— in a satirical kind of way.

She loves to play video games and do more girly things than she'd ever admit to, and she really only makes fun of people if she thinks of them as a friend.

Ricky is proud to announce that he got his first insult two days ago.

"What are you smiling about, Bowen?" Ashlyn asks, looking up.

Ricky shakes his head. "I'm just happy I have you two."

"Don't get all sappy." Ashlyn rolls her eyes. "Red does that enough for all of us."

Red balances his twelfth oreo on his face. "I love you both!"

Ricky laughs. "Don't move too much, you'll drop your oreos."

"I'm a master at balance. Just you wait." Red places two more oreos in his face. "That's fourteen!
Ash, you owe me a candy bar."

Ashlyn chuckles. "We'll get it tomorrow."

About two hours later, Ashlyn has gone home and Ricky and Red are getting ready for bed.

"How was the game last night?" Red asks.

"It was actually amazing. You should have come," Ricky tells him happily.

"Football isn't really my thing, but if I can convince Ash to tag along, maybe we'll come to a game sometime."

"That would be really cool." Ricky smiles.

Ricky's good mood has been staying strong recently. That is, until he sees the next text pop up on his phone.

Nini
i'm sorry i couldn't be enough

Ricky furrows his brows at that message.

What is she talking about?

"What's up, dude?"

"Um, it's nothing, sorry." Ricky puts his phone down. "Just a weirdly worded text."

"Is it from your dad? Do you need to get home?" Red asks, concerned.

"No, no, it's not my dad. I'm good here." Ricky forces a smile back on his face.

He doesn't want to think about Nini tonight.

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aw, some red, ashlyn & ricky time :)

-jenna