𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 [a rini au]

nineteen

"ricky, are you crazy?!"

part of the reason ricky left his hotel room to visit the lobby was, in fact, to tweet at nina salazar-roberts. he wanted to prepare for the backlash he would receive from his friends upstairs, and once he returned to his room, he got exactly what he expected. ricky could barely make it into the room, for red, carlos, and seb were all yelling the same sentence at him.

"can you guys let me breath?" ricky asked in annoyance, pushing past his friends to sit on one of the beds.

"no, ricky," carlos insisted, shuffling to catch up to him. "you don't just go galavanting on social media and replying to random girls! what did you not understand about lying low while we're here?"

ricky rolled his eyes, proceeding to subconsciously laugh at carlos' paranoia. "i was going to tell you guys, you know."

"tell us what?" red spat. "that you have a girlfriend we don't know about? does gina know?"

"girlfriend?!" ricky screeched, shocked that red would jump to such a drastic conclusion. "no. nini is literally just the waitress i met at the diner the other night. she's chill, so we hung out for a bit. it's nothing to worry about."

carlos, and seb now by his side, dropped their jaws in unison. red simply gawked at ricky with a baffled grin. "you hung out with a random girl?!" carlos cried, ricky looking puzzled in return. "that is so risky, ricky!"

"why is it risky?" ricky fought back, crossing his arms. "sorry that she's not an a-lister and you guys wouldn't hang out with her, but she was really nice. she showed me around salt lake and i like her energy. it's not the end of the world!"

"you would think you would've learned celebrity etiquette by now," seb chimed in. "you can't just go around posting about 'being friends' with normal girls. the press and your fans are going to have a field day with that."

ricky did see some truth in seb's statement, and he started to feel the pressure as red and carlos nodded along. "well, you guys would feel differently if you met her, and don't use the word 'normal' as an insult."

the three friends stared at ricky in mystification. "i'm serious," he continued, a smiling tugging at his lips. "i'll text her and see if she's working tomorrow night."

"text her?!"