ricky and nini's realizations

chapter 73

general pov

throughout that school week nini kept up with her routine of avoiding all signs of ricky and even their friend group without meaning to. she maintained her new routine of spending lunch in the backstage theater space. ricky stopped his secret hiding behind some theater props to admire her from afar knowing that that was the closest he would get to her right now. it felt wrong watching her without her knowing and he couldn't do it any longer. that doesn't mean that he stopped it all together. halfway through lunch each day he would leave the lunch table to"go to the bathroom." he instead took a detour to the theater's side door sneaking in to check and see if she was there and okay. she always was. whether she was lying on her stomach on the ground typing away on a paper while eating apple slices, or she was taking a short nap against the wall until the bell. either way, ricky needed to see for himself that she was doing okay. in reality, neither ricky or nini we're okay. every night since the day after their phone call, ricky sent good night texts to her. she never responded and ricky was actually okay with it. each night that week he would type a quick text in bed just before going to sleep to send her. all of which were variations like, "goodnight. i miss you," or "hope you had a good day today. missing you." the sweetness of the texts didn't hide the hurt ricky was feeling that hasn't eased up even a little. it was his way of having some kind of communication with her and letting her know that his feelings for her aren't going anywhere. she grew accustomed to her phone's notification going off at the oddly late hour beginning to recognize it as him. she always felt guilty not responding, but would be reminded of the ache in her heart after shutting off her phone telling her that she just couldn't handle responding. responding would open the door to a conversation and she wasn't ready. after a couple days, she began wondering if he would let up with the messages after her ignoring them so many times. but he never did. she figured that since he supposedly didn't love her, then he would give up at some point. thursday rolled around meaning that east high was rallying up for another basketball game that night. nini came to school in her cheer uniform and ricky in his team jacket. both continue on with with their regular school day accustomed to their avoidance of one another always filling in the gap if one of their friends asks why the other isn't present. greyson remains in between the two heartbroken teenagers in government causing relief for nini and hurt for ricky. but ricky tries to put his focus on the game today. it's his returning basketball game and the whole school knows it. the school finishes like any other day does. nini goes to her locker to grab her cheer bag and jogs down the stairs to the second gym for cheer practice before the game tonight. ricky has a mandatory game day practice in the opposite gym, but watches nini from down the hall while talking to one of his teammates at their locker as an excuse. once she's down the stairs and out of sight, he goes his own way. any opportunity for a glance at nini he takes advantage of to hold him over until the next glance he can get.
the cheerleaders settle into their places on the sidelines just in time for the boys to come running out to their pregame song. the ginormous bleachers are completely filled to the top with smiling faces. nini is front and center of the two long lines of cheerleaders while ricky and ej lead the line of boys into their entrance of lay ups exciting the crowd before the opposing team comes out. ricky shoots his and it goes in with a swish. he catches the rebound passing it to the next guy. the boys have a few minutes to shoot hoops on the court once the opposing team comes out to do the same at the other end. the game starts with the sharp blow of a whistle and nini finds herself watching every move of ricky's. she can't tear her eyes away from him no matter how many times she tries to. even as a cheer is called, she doesn't the movements while her eyes chase a specific person across the court. she's a nervous wreck each time he has the ball in his hands scared of what happened last time happening again. at one point, her whole body flinched as a guy shoulder shrugged ricky. he was completely fine though. the next two hours go by in a flash. east high won by a land slide thanks to ricky's efforts finally being a part of the team again. the boys celebrate on the court at the buzzer blaring with a lot of pats to the back on ricky for being responsible for a huge chunk of the points they scored. ej roughly takes ricky into a playful chokehold harshly ruffling his curls with a toothy smile on his face. she's so proud of him for performing so well tonight. it's almost as if she had a mere second of forgetting the pain she's been in seeing the other boys acknowledge ricky for how amazing he did. nini looks away to bend down to her bag as some of the cheerleaders start filing out little by little same as the crowd. she pulls out her bow and ponytail to relieve her hair of discomfort putting them into her bag and zipping it closed after pulling out her thick jacket. still squatting on the ground she puts on her jacket. in one swift motion she pulls the strap of her bag over her shoulder and stands up. the moment she stands she sees ricky already looking at her from his place across the court in a conversation with his dad. ricky was anything by focused on his dad. mike shared how proud he was of him, and while ricky needed and appreciated it, his eyes were glued to a certain someone controlling his thoughts. "thanks dad," he says sincerely, but with his eyes stuck on a surprised nini who looks frozen in place. nini takes in the nearly empty gym and pries her eyes from rickys turning around and walking down the quiet halls of east high to reach the student parking lot in the back. ricky's eyes follow her until she's out of the gym, "could i meet you at home? i gotta go to the locker room and stuff," he says so vaguely, but mike doesn't seem fazed at all. "sure thing." ricky jogs across the gym floor determined to catch up to nini before she's gone again.

had to set up for the next chapter w/ this one