𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 [a rini au]

one hundred and five

there was nothing else nina would rather be doing on a saturday night than what she was doing just now. slumped over at her desk, eyes darting between her loose-leaf paper and her iphone timer, the girl was in the middle of an unreasonably intense ap language & composition practice exam. she was trying her best to master the rhetorical analysis portion when she glanced at her timer for the fiftieth time. however, when she did so, her phone began to bounce as the timer screen dissolved. taking its place was an incoming facetime call. for a second, she thought she was going blind, because she could not believe whose name she was reading as the caller. nina didn't want to answer it, though, so she simply ignored it and went back to work. but, by the third follow up call, she groaned in annoyance and picked up without showing her face.

"hi," ricky bowen's voice was almost unrecognizable after not hearing it for so long. "were you getting my calls?"

nina was thankful that the camera faced her ceiling so he couldn't see her roll her eyes. "of course i did," she answered, putting her pencil down. "i just wasn't answering them."

she saw him run a hand through his curls, to which she was too easily reminded of how she would jokingly pull at them when he complained about a bad hair day. "you didn't respond to my text, so i wanted to call and wish you happy birthday," he continued monotonously.

"my birthday was yesterday."

ricky clearly huffed, but nina was trying her hardest not to look at her phone while she was already reluctantly speaking. "i was a little late," he agreed. "i'm sorry. can i see your face, though?"

out of spite, nina grabbed her phone, quickly flicking it upwards to get a glimpse of the top of her head. ricky sighed in defeat, looking as though he was sitting down on his bed. "good enough, i guess. can we talk?"

that infuriated nina just enough for her to prop the phone up on her vanity mirror, allowing the boy to see her entire being. "you wanna talk?" she cynically repeated, fixing her blue light glasses that rested on the brim of her nose. "convenient of you to suggest this weeks after the fight."

"i didn't really know what to say, nini," ricky defended himself. "would you have had words for me if i called you the day after?"

"hell yeah, actually. a few choice ones, to be exact."

ricky pursed his lips, shutting his eyes briefly to compose himself. "i'm cutting to the chase here," he began calmly. "i want things to go back to where they were before you showed up the other week."

"where they were? you mean when you're weren't giving me the time of day?" nina refreshed his memory, elbows now on top of her papers and chin in her hands.

"i'm talking about l.a.," he rephrased.

"i don't want to go back to that," she asserted her dominance. "i don't appreciate being kissed, blown off, and then told that i don't deserve anything."

ricky was prepared to get into another fight when he made the decision to call nina, but he desperately wished she'd give him more to work with in order to compose his argument. instead, she guilt-tripped him until he had to raise his voice. "nini, you're going to have so many meaningless kisses in your lifetime."

"right, just like your kiss with jess?" nina seethed, ricky freezing as he remembered the leaked photo. "i should let her know that you're probably gonna ghost her now. spare her some of my pain. unless you actually like her, of course. then i'd ask you, ricky bowen, if you were not attracted to me or if i just wasn't good enough for you."

"it's not that, nini, and you know it," ricky retorted. "we're very different, you and i. we're not meant to work out in that way, my life and your life. they just don't fit."

it took nina a second to process his words. not because she was shocked, but because she expected this answer way earlier in their relationship, perhaps the day after she drove him around salt lake city at night. he led her on to the point where this possibility had finally escaped her mind safely, but it was now brutally coming back later rather than sooner.

instead of objecting, the girl nodded her head slowly. ricky, confused, furrowed his brow. "what is it?"

nina licked her lips, leaning back in her seat. "you're right," she shrugged, ricky's features twitching nervously. "hell, i'm sitting here doing a practice ap test while you're out recording songs and tending to your loyal fans. we're not the same, and we're too different to work. you're 100 percent right."

"well, i still want to be frien–"

"no, ricky" she put her palms up, an exasperated chuckle escaping. "how can we be anything but strangers if our lives aren't compatible? we should just forget we ever met. it would be so much easier, and so much more worth it."

ricky was about to break into a cold sweat. he wanted her to side with him, but not to this extreme. he felt his phone start to shake from his grip's newfound fragility. "nini, that's not what i meant."

"sure it is, hollywood," her joyous tone was chilling as she spoke the previously adorable pet name for him. she reached out for her phone, holding it closer. "even if you don't want to admit it."

ricky cringed for his own sake. "look, i – "

"stop," nina's nose scrunched, thumb hovering over the red end call button. "besides," her voice then lowered to a whisper as his eyes widened, "now i can stop kissing your ass, and you can keep kissing that girl."

with ricky's expression completely befuddled, nina gave him a petty wink before closing the space between her thumb and the button.