Lean on Me Forever || rini au

21. revealed

the next day, nini arrived to school with her side paining her and her face filled with the same bruises from yesterday.

she missed breakfast, using the excuse with her moms that she had to get to school early for a project.

when nini arrived to school, she saw ricky standing at his locker talking to the others, he seemed determined with something but she couldn't do anything.

right at that moment, she felt noah grab her wrist and pull her towards a classroom.

"how many times have i had to warn you about consequences?" he questions

nini opened her mouth "i-i didn't do anything..." she said in a small voice, looking down.

noah took a few steps towards her "you're lucky we're at school. one step out of line, and it's another... fun surprise. got it?"

nini felt her stomach turn as her eyes started stinging at the thought and she nodded "i-i have to go to the bathroom."

noah nodded as they both made their way back out of the classroom and towards a bathroom, nini rushing inside and into a stall as she breathed in heavily and shakily.

she closed her eyes and felt a few tears fall down her face, nini running her hands through her hair as she brought her hood down.

she knew she couldn't stay too long and quickly wiped her eyes, putting her large hood back over her head to cover her face before going back out and washing her hands, putting cold water on her face and hissing under her breath at the burn from the contact of the water on the cut on her face.

once she was finished, she slowly made her way back out of the bathroom and noah accompanied her to her class, nini wanting nothing but to desperately be free.

—

at lunch, nini got out of her classroom alone to have to meet noah at the cafeteria, walking slowly towards her locker to put back her stuff before hearing her name being called

"nini!"

she turned around and felt her heart face when seeing ricky rushing towards her, nini quickly turning back and arriving at her locker, opening it to tidy up her books, quickly closing it and jumping when seeing ricky a few meters away from her.

ricky took notice at how jumpy she was now, his worry for her increasing as he looked at her.

nini kept her head down to make sure he couldn't see her, too terrified for him finding out or for noah to arrive to see ricky talking to her, knowing what he would do to her.

"i saw your tweet. neens, please talk to me." he said softly

nini felt her heart stop and rise slightly when she heard him say that. she didn't understand how he still cared about her...

that was when her heart sank back down. he wouldn't care for her if he knew the truth about her. which is why she had to stop trying to feel some sense of hope or get some help from him.

"t-there's nothing to talk about." she muttered, turning back around to walk away, but ricky wasn't having it and followed her down the hall.

"neens-"

"ricky stop calling me that. and stop following me." she snapped, her eyes stinging as she turned a corner into a crowded hall.

"you can't push me away. you keep trying, but don't you see that it's not working? why can't you just talk to me?! what's going on with you-"

"it's none of your business!" she exclaimed, earning the attention of a few people in the hallway as she kept her head down.

she was horrified from the idea of noah being among the crowd; or being this close to ricky. she's never been this close to anyone apart from noah for the past two weeks. it's been torture but not like how it is now. to be close to ricky yet not be able to actually be close to him.

ricky scoffed as he kept following her, her back still faced to him "none of my business? if something's happening to you-"

"nothing's happening to me so just drop it." she told him, hiding the plead in her voice.

ricky clenched his jaw, frustrated at the fact that she wasn't facing him, so he grabbed ahold of her hand and swiftly turned her around, her hood flying off of her face as gasps filled the hall, ricky dropping her hand and his face falling at the sight of nini's face.