angels like you (rini au)

E I G H T E E N

~chapter eighteen~

"By the way, Anna can be a bit...judgemental," Ricky warned, before opening the door to her hospital room. Nini paused as he continued to give her more heads up about his sisters behaviour. "How so?"

"She hasn't been exposed to many people..I'm pretty sure me, EJ and his mom are the only people she really knows outside of daycare," he continued, to which Nini nodded. "And she kind of us has this habit where she kind of assumes everyone she meets is bad-"

"Until they give her a reason to think otherwise?" Nini guessed, realising that what Ricky was telling her sounded awfully familiar. "Yes! Exactly, and-"

"She usually puts her guard up as soon as she meets new people because she doesn't want them to think she's vulnerable because it'll make it easier for then to hurt her?" Nini added, which just made Ricky a bit confused. "Yeah..exactly. Have I told you this before or something?"

Nini smiled nervously, shaking her head no. "Are you nervous or something?" He asks, with a soft laugh. "Nervous? Me? No, why would I be nervous? It's just you and I here, no reason to be nervous. Not at all, no nerves," she rambled, shaking her head wildly. "So why are you shaking your head like you're trying to get an ant out of your hair and rambling like that?" He asked, resting his hand on the handle of the door.

"I'm not- what is the connection between those two things, Ricky?" She asked him, rolling her eyes slightly. "You always do that when you're nervous. You did it when you came to my house, you did it when you told me about your mom's boyfriend, and you're doing it now. It's like your nervous tic," Ricky explained to her, to which she scoffed. "Yeah right."

"It's true, you do it every time!" he laughed, shocked at the fact that she didn't believe him. "Oh please, as if I'll trust you to know my nervous tics. We barely even know each other," Nini stated.

"Well, now we'll get to know each other beyond abusive households and childhood trauma. And we're clearly making progress, because now you're about to meet my dying six year old sister!" He said in a sarcastically eager tone. Nini tilted her head as she raised her eyebrows, surprised at his dark humour. "That's the whole reason you asked to hang out with me in a hospital today, right?"

"Riiight," Nini said, elongating the vowels as she nodded.

That's definitely why we're hanging out. Not because I want to get to know you better because I think there is the slightest possibility that I might have the tiniest itty-bitty crush on you because Gina programmed in my mind that if you happen to find your friend kind of cute, and enjoy physical affection from them and find yourself becoming a better person because of the positive influence they've had on your life, as well as you trusting them enough to tell them personal things because they're the only person on the planet who really understands you then that might be an indication that you have a crush on them.

That's definitely not why.

"Well..let's meet your six year old sister then," she smiled, trying to leave out that one specific word. "You forgot the dying part," Ricky told her in a weirdly positive happy. "Shut up and open the door," she demanded.

Ricky opened the door of Annabelle's hospital room, Nini walking slowly behind him. "Hi Ricky," Anna greeted, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Nini hadn't seen Annabella in quite some time, and even when she did see her, it was a very brief encounter. But Nini was very aware of her surroundings, and was good at remembering details. And even she could tell that Anna looked different.