Ethereal Love

Back To The Lake

"Just don't run away from Ricky, Nini."

Nini couldn't sleep after thinking about what her mother had said. The last thing she had told her before kissing her on the top of the head and telling her to go to bed.

Just don't run away from Ricky.

Easier said than done.

It wasn't as if she wanted to run away. Nini knew her mother wasn't being literal; it wasn't like she could get far if she actually tried to run away. She meant don't push him away, don't refuse to let him love her. Which was what Nini had been doing to everyone she met for the majority of her life. It was going to be difficult to break down those walls and be with him completely.

Up until recently, she'd been doing a pretty good job. Their relationship was so out of the blue that she'd almost forgotten to put up those guards and lock him out, and before she even realized he was right there in her heart and there was nothing she could do, and even better, she found herself not even wanting to do anything about it.

But now things had changed, and there was no denying that. And with the added stress of a baby on the way, it was all too easy for her to revert back to being the old Nini; craving loneliness. She didn't want to lose him; on the contrary, that's what frightened her most.

But because she was so frightened of losing him, she found herself wanting to push him away. Before he broke her heart.

Her mother knew all this. And she knew that worrying about the baby would only make these fears ten times worse. Carol blamed herself completely, wishing nothing more than to be able to reverse the damage she'd done to her daughter's heart. So she tried, and she had made Nini feel more aware of what she was doing, how she was feeling.

But it didn't make her change her mind.

LINE BREAK

Nini finally woke from a very fitful sleep at just gone twelve the next day. Groaning in distaste at the thought of getting up and going about her day, she buried her head in the pillow and snuggled further into the sheets. It was then that she realized that there was a hard, warm body pressing into her side. Smiling, she turned her head to breathe in Ricky's scent and shuffle a little closer into him as she began to drift back into sleep.

Then he snored slightly, but loudly, and it jolted her awake. Eyes wide, she moved away from him and then reached to shake him awake.

"Ricky! You were supposed to go to school!" she hissed. He blinked, uncomprehending, and then yawned and closed his eyes again.

"I'm sleeping, Nini." He mumbled. She rolled her eyes and yanked the covers away from him, grateful that he was at least wearing sweatpants. She found it difficult enough to concentrate with him shirtless in her bed.

"Well tough. Its past midday, Ricky, and you should be at school!" she scolded him. He opened on eye a crack and she could see the amusement on his face.

"You sound like my mother." He smirked. She slapped his chest and shoved his side, attempting to push him off the bed, but only succeeded in shifting him slightly to the right. The boy was heavy.

"Oh come on, get up!"

"Why? Come on, Neens, it's too late for me to go to school now anyway. Why don't we just relax? You're obviously still tired. Come here." He held his arms open for her, and despite the temptation, she shook her head.

"No, Ricky. Come on, get up!" she got to her feet and paled suddenly, a familiar feeling in her stomach.

"Nini, are you-" Ricky started, concerned, but she ran past him and out of the bedroom before he could finish. He scrambled to his feet and followed her to the bathroom, arriving just in time to pull her hair out of the way before she emptied her stomach into the toilet bowl. She groaned once she was done, flushing it away and sitting down cross-legged as he filled a plastic cup with water for her. She smiled gratefully and took it, rinsing her mouth before swallowing the rest in two mouthfuls.