nini took in a shaky breath as she forced herself to stand up from her bed, putting her large hoodie over her smaller, bruised up body as she winced and whimpered from the pain.
she looked at herself in the mirror and saw her bruises on her face clearing up, which was a relief because she needed to go to school today.
her lower body hurt way too much. nini feeling her eyes sting at the thought of why as she slowly made her way towards her vanity and covered up her bruises on her face, inhaling sharply to force the tears back as she did.
once she was done, she looked at herself and saw her bruises gone on her face, knowing that if you didn't know they were there, you wouldn't see or think of their presence.
when nini opened her door, she peeked her head out to see if aria and jacob were gone, sighing in relief when not hearing a sound and seeing their room doors open. now they at least got the hint to go to school without her.
she made her way out of her house, holding her bag over her shoulder as she kept her head down, forcing herself to not limp as she clenched her jaw in pain.
"finally." noah sighs as she took a turn.
it was now a routine that when nini went somewhere, she texted noah and met up with him here. she would have to give her phone for him to check to see if she answered any messages or tweeted something, all she would do was log out of her rant account and delete her private snaps every morning before coming to him so that he wouldn't see how badly her suffering affects her.
noah scrolled through her phone and messages, all of the read and unanswered texts from ricky and her friends before nodding and turning it off, handing her back the device
"good. you're following the rules now." he says
nini took the phone and put it in her bag silently before following him towards the school.
this is the part nini was dreading; having to pretend that nothing was happening to her. but she felt so alone and she knew no one could help her even if they knew. they'd just end up getting hurt and leave her after knowing the truth of her past.
the entire day goes by like usual, she goes to her classes and everywhere accompanied by noah, eats lunch with noah and ignores her friends and ricky.
she spent the entirety of lunch sitting at the table at the back of the cafeteria with noah, barely touching her food. all she wanted was to turn around to see if maybe her friends were checking to see if she was okay, maybe ricky was looking at her... but she couldn't afford it. so she convinced herself that they weren't thinking of her and that it was for the best that she stayed away.
at the end of the day, nini walked down the hallway towards noah's locker where he was waiting for her.
"i have to go get something from a class, then i have a surprise for you." he grinned "don't move."
nini swallowed and nodded as he shut his locker and walked towards a classroom a few steps away.
she exhaled deeply and leaned against the lockers, hugging herself as she winced quietly and shuddered another breath before opening her eyes and seeing aria, ashlyn and maya walking down the hall.
"no." nini whispers to herself as she sees them making their way towards her.
"hey neens, can we talk to you?" ashlyn asks her
nini opened her mouth "w-why?"
maya takes a deep breath "well, you've been off this past week and you took us all off of your rant-"
"i deactivated the account." nini interrupts, her eyes repeatedly shifting towards the classroom to check whether or not noah was coming out.
"yeah but even at home-"
"maybe i just need time alone! not everyone needs to be glued to others you know?" nini snaps, her heart sinking when she saw how taken aback the girls were.
"we're just trying to see if you're okay, even ricky-"
"well you guys need to stop and leave me alone." nini told them.
ashlyn scoffed at her tone and maya and aria frowned.
"well, bye i guess." ashlyn muttered as she dragged maya and aria away
nini shuddered a breath and inhaled sharply, blinking tears back as she saw noah walk out of the classroom.
"okay, let's go." he demanded, the girl adjusting her bag as she followed him out of the school.
YOU ARE READING
Lean on Me Forever || rini au
Fanfiction*spoilers in description! please read the first two books before reading this one!!!* "𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚." "𝙞 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩!" ricky and nini have had their ups and downs this past year and a half, but as they finally think they have their happy endin...
