𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲 [ 𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗮𝘂 ]

love in the dark .35

nini woke up. the image of lewis and her yelling at each other lingered through her thoughts. he hates her. she looked at ricky. he was fast asleep. his arm wrapped around her stomach as he snuggled his head into her neck. she hated herself.

she could never do right, she thought to herself. the girl stared at her ceiling and sighed. lewis' words were deep in her mind no matter how hard she tried to get them out. ricky's comforting words shortly followed. she knew he only said it because it was what she had to hear at the time. a tear rolled down her eyes the more she thought about it.

"why am i so stupid?" nini whispered to herself. the girl looked at ricky again. he looked so comfortable and happy. she didn't want to ruin it again. she truly didn't deserve him. she would ruin his innocence like she ruined lewis'.

the girl crawled out of bed and tried to be as quiet as she could. she went to her closet. her eyes scanned the top of her shelf, looking for a bag. she finally found a small duffel bag and went on her tipey toes to grab it. she brought it down to the floor and sighed. nini immediately started to stuff the bad with clothes and other necessities. the more things nini packed, the more tears fell off her face.

this was the right thing to do.

when it was finally full, the girl got up from her closet floor. she looked at her belongings one last time before turning the light off. she walked back into her bedroom to see ricky still asleep on her bed. nini looked at him one last time before exiting her bedroom. her house floors creaked with every tiptoe. there was only a faint sight of light throughout the hallways from the moonlight. the girl safely escaped outside. she looked at her car.

tracker.

the girl bent down to her license plate, her hands searching for the little tracking device. she finally landed on it. she grabbed a rock from the floor and slammed it against the tracker until it detached itself off the license plate. she smiled as she stared at the tracking device on the floor. she felt kinda free.

nini let out a sigh of relief and glanced back at her house. lights off. no one knows, yet. she quickly got up from the floor and ran inside her car. the girl stared at her house through her windshield.

"here we go," was all nini said before driving off.

+

an hour later, it was 3 in the morning. ricky woke up. he felt his hand get cold and opened his eyes. he saw the empty space next to him and started to get worried. he sat up and looked around the room to find nini, but she wasn't there, "nini?" ricky called out. he waited for an answer — none.

"... nini...?" ricky called out again, hoping that maybe she didn't hear him the first time. he waited a couple of seconds before getting out of bed. he checked his phone and saw how late it was. no messages.

he walked around her room, searching for something. there was nothing.

bedroom. nothing.

bathroom. nothing.

closet. her phone.

ricky bent down to the floor and picked up nini's phone. it was locked. he was confused as to why nini would just leave her phone like that. why would she leave him in the middle of the night? where did she go?

ricky went back into her bedroom and crawled back into her bed. he sat there, waiting for her to come back. but she never did.

+

it was finally morning. ricky checked his phone. it was six in the morning. everyone was gonna be awake soon and he couldn't be there anymore. he glanced at his phone again, nothing. the boy looked at nini's phone in his hand. he carefully placed on her nightstand.

he looked round her room for another sign, but there was nothing. ricky felt sick to his stomach. where the hell is she? what the hell does he do?

ricky had no other choice. he grabbed his belongings and crawled out of her window. he looked around nini's driveway and saw that her car was gone. he saw something on the ground. it was beeping. he ran towards it and realized it was a tracking device.

"no, nini," ricky whispered as he looked at the broken tracking device, "what did you do?"

he ran to his car and drove off home. the boy was panicking the further he got from nini's house.

"fuck fuck," ricky muttered to himself. he was the last one to see nini. what if it was something he did? what if it's because he got involved between lewis and nini? fuck fuck fuck.

ricky was at the stoplight. he looked straight ahead. he looked to the left. he had to make a decision. the boy cursed around his breath and turned on his signal. he made a left once the light turned green. he was going to capulet records.

he finally got there and parked his car as quickly as he could. he ran to the door, only to be stopped by security, "not so fast," the security guard stated, "capulets and capulet workers only."

"i don't think you understand—"

"capulets only."

"this is an emergency," ricky breathed out. sweat was dripping down his forehead the more anxious he got, "i need to talk to benjamin. please."

the security guard looked at ricky. the boy was frantic. he sighed and spoke into his walkie talkie. after a couple of minutes, the security guard grabbed ricky and led him throughout the building. ricky looked at all the pictures and ads of all the capulets throughout the building, they were mostly of nini.

they finally reached benjamin's office. the security guard pushed ricky into the office and left. benjamin closed the door and locked it behind ricky. he studied the boy. his palms were sweating, his hair was mess, and his eyes were red, "mr. bowen, now what was so important that you had to come here to ... capulet records?"

benjamin titled his head at ricky as he leaned against his desk. ricky felt a lump go through his throat as he said the next few words. even he couldn't believe it.

"nini ran away," ricky finally said, "she's gone."