the flaw in being perfect - rini au

sixty

It's finally time.

It's nearing four pm, the time Nini asked Ashlyn to meet her at the cafe, and Nini is right near shaking.

"Hey," Nini finally hears a familiar voice approach her.

She turns to see exactly who she expected.

"Hey." Nini half smiles in response.

"Can I sit?" Ashlyn asks, gesturing to the chair across from Nini.

"Oh, yeah, of course."

The two sit in awkward silence for a second.

"This is weird, isn't it?" Ashlyn breaks the silence.

Nini lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Yeah."

"I've missed you," Ashlyn starts.

Nini stays silent, not really sure how she's meant to respond.

Should she be open and admit she missed her too? Should she be mad that it all happened?

"You don't have to say it back. I just want you to know that."

Nini nods, staring down at her tea.

"So you drink tea now?" Ashlyn asks.

"Caffeine free," Nini responds quietly.

"Right..." Ashlyn trails off. "Because caffeine is a, uh..."

"Appetite suppressant," Nini finishes.

Ashlyn nods. "What else has changed?"

Nini moves the stir stick around in her drink.

"I didn't want to stop being your friend," Ashlyn switches topics again. "I thought it was what you needed."

"You've already said that," Nini points out softly.

"You're making this kind of difficult," Ashlyn tells her.

"You made the last year of my life difficult," Nini retorts.

"Yeah, well, it was difficult for me, too," Ashlyn shoots back.

"You ignored me after my parents died and I was hospitalized." Nini finally looks Ashlyn in the eye.

"You needed to start over."

"What I needed was the one person who had been by my side through everything."

"You turned out just fine with me, Nini."

"What, so just because I'm not dead yet means I'm fine?" Nini scoffs. "Good to know."

"You have Kourtney."

"Kourtney isn't who I wanted." Nini looks away.

"You could have told me that."

"By approaching you and asking to talk after you blocked my number so I couldn't text you? I don't think so." Nini crosses her arms uncomfortably.

"It was still an option," Ashlyn points out.

"Why didn't you want to be my friend anymore? Was I too broken for you, too? Because you told me you'd be there for me forever," Nini reminds her, feeling her heart break all over again.

"Nini, of course I wanted to be your friend."

"So what? Was I too much to handle? You could have told me that. I would have understood that a lot better than suddenly not being in contact anymore." Tears slowly start to well up in Nini's eyes.

"That's not what I was trying to do."

"What were you trying to do, exactly?" Nini can feel her tears threatening to fall.

"Not that."

"Talk to me again when you know how to answer a simple fucking question," Nini spits out, grabbing her stuff and heading out before anyone can see her cry.

Ashlyn has no idea what to do now.

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honestly this was lowkey not what i planned to write for this interaction but y'all know how i love my chaos 🥰

what do you think??? are ashlyn and nini ever going to be as close as they were??

-jenna