The Return || rini au

10

nini spent the weekend overwhelmed with guilt. she would pace around her room with this pit in her stomach because of the moment she and ricky shared.

many people wouldn't think much of it. it's not like they kissed. but, nini knew that she wanted to for a moment and she also knew that if her mom hadn't come up, they probably would have.

nini got ready for school on monday wearing a black and white polka dot dress and her hair tied in a low sleek ponytail.

when she arrives to school, she sees a crowd of girls surrounding someone and she squints her eyes in confusion

but they widen when she sees that bright smile towards her and the raven-haired boy running up to her, taking her into his arms and twirling her around

"surprise!" he exclaims with a laugh after putting her back down

"what are you doing here?!" nini asks confused

"not the hello i was hoping for." he says

nini shakes her head with a laugh "i didn't mean it like that-"

"don't worry it's okay babe." he smiles as he leans in to kiss her

she kisses him back and pulls away with a small smile before her eyes shift to the curly-haired boy standing at the double doors with gina who was laughing

'he doesn't seem to have thought much of it.'

"are you going to be at school today?" nini asks him

ej shakes his head "no i'm just here for a few days to visit you."

nini blushes and looks down before hearing the bell ring

ej kisses her cheek and she giggles before waving goodbye to him and walking towards the school entrance.

***

"-you did what now?!" gina exclaims laughing

"i thought you were going to go to her house!" ricky groans

"when i said 'no' i actually meant 'no'!" she giggles shaking her head

"well why did you completely ignore me?!" he asks her

"because i was in the middle of my biology homework!" she replies

ricky's eyes widen and he rubs his hands over his face

"ricky why is there a crowd of people surrounding something?"

the boy looks to where gina's gaze is directed at and tries to see through the gaps between the people, but they're all too budged together

"i don't know." he says "oh by the way, we need to tell ashlyn to throw a party this week."

gina scrunches her eyebrows and folds her arms "why?"

"uh-" ricky looks down and starts fiddling with his fingers "i-i might have told-that to-uh-nini?"

gina's arms drop down to her sides and she sighs

"and why the hell did you do that?!" she exclaims

"because she asked me why i was at her house and i can't really say 'oh because i sort of went through your instagram and saw a video where you were wearing my sweatshirt and told gina about it, where i thought she was going to go to your house and say something stupid'"

gina laughs "i wouldn't say something stupid!"

ricky shakes his head with a grin "yeah definitely."

his eyes shift to see the brunette girl walking towards the entrance and he notices that she was avoiding his gaze and fiddling with her charm bracelet

ricky clears his throat and looks down at the floor

"i know that look." gina says before looking back to see nini entering the school "what did you do?"

the boy looks up "i didn't do anything!"

gina looks at him and he brings his hands up in defense

she sighs and nods before they both go into the school to start their day

***

nini arrives at her locker and opens it to get what she needed, and when she closes it, she sees ricky standing there, making her jump up in fright

"sorry!" he says quickly

"i-it's okay." nini says, as she holds her books closely to her chest

"i think we should talk? about what happened last night? look i think-"

"oh! no it's okay! we can just forget about it right?" nini says quickly.

she knew that he was going to say the exact same thing, so she had to say the words first before he had to reject her.

"oh-"

'why did i think differently?'

"yeah." nini gulps "but-we can still be f-friends right? or not! if you still need time to-"

"no!" he says quickly before clearing his throat "no, uh-i think we can be friends again."

nini sighs in relief and nods "well i should go."

ricky nods "yeah me too."

"okay." nini breathes before turning away and walking off in the other direction

once she's out of his view, ricky leans back against the lockers and sighs

why did he think for one minute that maybe she did have a small inch of feelings for him? why did he let himself start to care for her?