layered love || rini au

05. surprise reaction

at the end of the day, nina adjusted her backpack and walked out of the school entrance alone, making her way back home since her moms had work.

"hey nina,"

the girl looked to her right to see gina walking next to her and confusion flooded her face. she thought the whole 'best friends-going out for tacos-defending her' was a one time thing.

"um-hi?"

"i was thinking that you should come over. we've got some homework cause of stupid mazzara so we should work together. i like a good study session." gina says as they continued their way down the path

nina didn't exactly argue with gina because she figured that she was the type of girl who didn't take no for an answer, and when she did, she would either talk your ear off until you changed it, or she would simply not listen to you and do it anyway.

so nina simply walked with gina down the sidewalk before they heard a skateboard rolling behind them.

"move out of the way." gina warns as she moves nina a little to the side, who flinches at the contact before seeing a boy wearing a red helmet and his curly-hair showing out of it pass by them.

"sorry, my brother just doesn't really care about other people's well being!" gina exclaims with an eye-roll before taking a deep breath as she continues to speak about something else as the two arrived at her house and walked inside.

"mom! i'm home!" gina exclaims before seeing the same woman come out of the kitchen

"i thought i saw ricky going upstairs-oh!" lynne exclaims seeing nina "hi, i'm lynne! you must be carol and dana's daughter nina!"

the girl just nodded quietly, looking around the house; not much to be surprised by since it was the same design but the other way.

"nina here is my new best friend," gina smirks "alright, we'll be up in my room,"

"leave the door open," lynne tells her as the girls go up the stairs

gina snorts a laugh "mom, i'm not an idiot. we're in a house full of four people and nina's not even-"

she stops when she sees lynne giving her a look and rolls her eyes

"fine, okay, yes." she sighs

nina continues to follow gina upstairs, walking past different closed doors before nina stops and sees a door slightly open, seeing a peek of different posters on the wall and a shelf.

she shook her head as she made her way after gina into her room, the frizzy-haired girl jumping on her bed and taking her laptop out of her bag

"sorry about my mom," gina says as she focuses on her screen.

nina looks around the room, taking in how vibrant and colorful it was with different decorations and shelves with books or trophies.

"i hate mazzara, the homework's he gives are so annoying," gina groans before looking up

"how long have you lived here?" nina asks, sitting down at the bay window

"my whole life, salt lake city is the sort of town where no one really moves often," gina explains "how long were you in los angeles?"

nina shrugs her shoulders "a few weeks. i moved cause my moms didn't like how i was treated there," she rolled her eyes at the thought of her moms thinking it would stop by leaving every time.

"oh yeah, i've been meeting to ask what's up with-" gina gestures to nina's face where the bruise and her cut lip is.

"it's nothing i haven't dealt with before," nina mutters, opening her computer as she starts working on the assignment.

gina smiles sympathetically before quickly standing up "i'm getting some soda, sometimes my mind goes off somewhere and the soda really helps me to focus you know?" she chuckles "you want anything?"

nina shakes her head and gina nods before skipping out of her bedroom and passing ricky in the hallway, who knits his eyebrows together and peeks his head in the doorway to see the brunette girl.

he leans against the door frame and folds his arms "are you stalking me?" he asks, reciting her words from earlier today

nina's eyes shot up from her screen "what? no. gina invited me,"

ricky nodded and starts walking further into the room towards her, nina closing her laptop and folding her arms as she stands up

"yes?" she asks as he arrives right in front of her

they hold eye-contact for a few seconds, ricky looking at her brown eyes before they move to the bruise and cut on her face.

nina didn't know what to do, usually if someone was looking at her, she would say a snarky comment and tell them to leave her alone, but this time it's like she was stuck and couldn't.

to her surprise, ricky didn't say anything about the marks on her face and just smirked

"you're blocking the way," he whispers, his eyes still on hers as he points to a box behind her

nina rolled her eyes and took a step to the side, seeing him head over to gina's desk and take out a few pens.

"what are those for?" she asks him

"i'd tell you, but then i'd have to kill you," he sings as he turns back to face her

"oh wow, a boy with humor." she says sarcastically

he keeps his eyes on her for a few more seconds and she looks back at him, still confused as to how he's looking at her - it wasn't something she's seen before, but somehow it made something inside of her stir around-

"ricky why are you in my room?"

the two divert their attention to the doorway and see gina walking in with a can of soda

"because i needed something," he explains showing her the pens before making his way out of the door

"you have enough art stuff!" gina exclaims after him, sighing in annoyance before looking back at nina "sorry about him."

"i-its fine," nina waves off before gina turns back to sit on her bed, the two returning their focus to their work while gina also talks to her and gets to know nina, but the brunette girl kept glancing up at the doorway every once in a while.