ricky and nini's realizations

chapter 36

general pov

both teenagers wake up monday morning to get ready for school feeling the nerves of the day knowing that they'll be in public together for the first time outside of being just friends. nini with the anxious nerves while ricky is consumed by nerves of excitement. she trusts and feel confident in her new, quickly changed relationship with ricky and  he has never felt so right about something despite the time it took him to get to this point in his feelings.

nini's pov

i head out to my car soon to wait for ricky like any other day. i see him coming down the sidewalk towards me, but i don't want to continue staring as i can feel the butterflies engulfing my stomach. he hops into the car and i already feel the mood change. "hey nins," he greets me while putting his skateboard into the back seat sliding it over his shoulder. "hey," i say back. i feel like we're in a place where conversation is very prominent to understand where we both sit in terms of developing this new relationship. gosh that's weird to think. "ricky, about our talk yesterday. about you know. just going slow," i say with question in my voice because i'm nervous of saying what he doesn't want to hear, "i'm still kinda uncomfortable being public about stuff. i mean like," i pause for a moment pushing my hair behind my ear while releasing a small breath. i open my mouth to talk again, but ricky beats me to it. "that's okay," he says ducking his head in the slightest to meet my eyes while moving his hand to my thigh. my breathe hitched at his new act of affection. it kinda freaked me out, but felt comforting. his touches are new territory to me now. i furrow my eyebrows at his quick response earning a chuckle from him which then turned to a small, curious smile on my lips. "but yesterday-," "yesterday i hadn't put any thought into it. even though i mean what i said about it being okay that this is public right now, i also know that we'll get there eventually. that's what matters to me. i don't want to rush us." hearing him say 'us' leads to a heated blush washing over my cheeks. "i really want you to know that it's not that i want this to be some secret. i just think that this is super new, but what i said at the park still stands for me entirely," i assure him with a smile. with his hand still resting on my thigh, his other hand moves to my cheek. he kisses me gently and longingly while feeling his hand grip my thigh just the slightest bit harder enough that i notice. we both smile into the kiss after a few seconds. "we need to get to school," i say to him. his grin grows into his classic, goofy smile that i adore as he leans back into the seat. i begin backing out of the driveway hyper aware of how he didn't remove his hand from my leg, but i don't acknowledge it due to me not wanting him to pull it away. the drive to school is a comfortable silence in each other's presence with my playlist playing on a low volume filling the car with some noise.

ricky's pov

i've never felt this much happiness pulling up to school before except for the fact that my good mood isn't because of school. nini and i pull into the school parking lot like any other day, but the two of us feel the change in atmosphere all because of us. i feel like we're in such a good place and i couldn't be more excited about it. "ready to go?" she checks with me as i'm still daydreaming even though we're parked. she giggles at my lack of response. she could tell i was zoned out. i was brought out of my thoughts by that giggle of hers. she starts to open her door to get out, but i grab her hand that's reaching for the handle. her head whips to look over at me unaware of how close i had moved to her. her eyes flick from mine to my lips that are practically up against hers already. i press our lips together fast wanting to cherish the feeling of her, the feeling that i'm now addicted to, before going into school where i won't be able to. we pull away at the same time, "i just needed that before getting out of the car," i tell her while moving my eyes to the other students walking past her car to the building then looking back to her signaling how getting out of the car means we're back to being best friends for the next 8 hours. she pecks my lips as her response of understanding and gets out of the car.