Make You Happy - a Rina story

Screw your courage to the sticking place

,,Ugh, I hate mornings. I hate Mondays. I hate this." Ashlyn stumbled into the bathroom where Gina was brushing her teeth.

,,Good morning to you, too." she greeted her with a smirk.

,,Oh, stop pretending you're enjoying this. Everyone hates Monday, even Gina Porter."

,,Depends on the circumstances, of course."

,,Hold on- You woke me up in the middle of the night!"

,,Technically you woke up yourself."

,,What are you not telling me?" Ashlyn looked at Gina with curiosity.

,,I'm not not-telling you anything." Gina smiled to herself and looked away from Ashlyn.

,,Gina! Now I'm really curious. What happened at night?"

Gina finished brushing her teeth and washed her face. ,,Okay, okay. Get this. Ricky texted me at 3 AM." she said with excitement.

,,Wait, why are we excited about that?" Ashlyn absolutely did not understand why Gina would be excited about someone waking her up at three in the morning.

,,Because! He texted me lyrics from his new song. Here, check this out." she handed Ashlyn her phone.

,,Plus, I wasn't sleeping anyway." she added.

Ashlyn scanned the screen, rereading Gina's morning conversation with Ricky. Then she squealed. ,,This is so adorable!"

,,I know, right? I'm just a little disappointed he had to see me leaving EJ's house to send something like this."

,,Sometimes we need a little push."

,,More like a hammer to the face."

,,Alright, alright. Let's not be too dramatic." Ashlyn gestured Gina to calm down as a joke.

,,That's literally our job." Gina chuckled.

,,Fine, you have a point. But remember who was too afraid to talk to him about what happened after opening night?"

,,That was different. He made assumptions today. You know what happened after opening night, it wasn't like this. Besides, I tried to talk to him at North High, that didn't work out very well." Gina tried to explain.

,,Or was it?" Ashlyn was about to leave the bathroom, before Gina asked: ,,What do you mean?"

,,You still haven't talked to him about it. What if you are the one who made assumptions in this case?" she said and left Gina with her thoughts.

,,I did something last night." Ricky said to Big Red over the phone while eating his cereals.

,,You could not have put that more vaguely." Big Red grimaced at him.

,,Right. Well, you know how I saw Gina leaving EJ's house?"

,,Yep."

,,So, I came back home, sat down and wrote a song. I don't know how or why, it just happened."

,,Can't relate." Big Red said while preparing his own breakfast.

,,Then I tried to sleep but couldn't. My brain was working overtime. So, at about 3 AM I texted Gina."

,,You did what?" Big Red stopped cooking, grabbing the phone with a shocked expression on his face. ,,Do you consider waking up the girl you like in the middle of the night romantic??"

,,Eh- Not exactly. But it happened. She was a little confused at first, but I sent her some of the lyrics and she seemed pretty happy, so it must have worked, right?"

,,I dunno. I guess?"

,,Here, have a look." Ricky sent Big Red a screenshot of their conversation.

,,All I know is that I would have never texted a girl anything remotely similar to this." Big Red went back to cooking his food.

,,Yeah, yeah, I know. You also tried to stop me from telling Nini that I miss her and want her back, which ended up fairly well once I told her."

,,Dude. You broke up."

,,But it wasn't because of what I said! Nevermind. I should have called someone else." Ricky rolled his eyes, then laughed.

,,No, no! I support you no matter what. I'm just being honest."

,,Yes, I can see that. Anyway, gotta go, I'll see ya in school!" Ricky hung up the phone.

Big Red and Ricky met up twenty minutes before school started in front of the school. They always do this so that they can catch up and talk for a bit.

,,Hey, um. I asked Ashlyn to meet me here today, is that okay with you?" Big Red asked Ricky.

,,Yeah, that's fine." he nodded.

,,Maybe she'll bring Gina with her."

,,Uh, yep. That would be fantastic."

,,What, do you not want to see her after your lovey-dovey convo this morning?"

,,No, it's just that- It might be a little awkward, I dunno. The last time we saw each other it definitely was weird." Ricky shrugged.

,,I'm sure it will be better this time." Big Red gave Ricky a pat on the shoulder. ,,Hey, did you do your Geography homework?"

,,We had Geography homework?"

,,Yeah, I found out about it this morning."

,,Ugh, I hate Mondays." Ricky sighed loudly.

,,I was just saying that! Wasn't I, Gina?" Ashlyn and Gina popped up out of nowhere behind them.

,,Yes. You were." Gina replied, her eyes meeting Ricky's.

,,Hey, Gi." he smiled a little. ,,Hi." she gave him an awkward smile.

Ashlyn fake coughed. ,,Are you looking forward to today's rehearsals?"

,,Yes, it's the only thing that keeps me going throughout the day." Ricky chuckled, then looked at Gina again. She was trying her best to avoid his eyes.

,,Ash, I wanted to show you something." Big Red stepped closer to Ashlyn.

,,Okay, let's go." she smiled at him and they entered the building, leaving Ricky and Gina alone.

Ricky didn't know how to act. ,,Did you get some sleep last night?" he asked after a while of awkward silence.

Gina finally allowed herself to look at him. ,,Not really, 'cause someone kept me up." she smirked.

,,That's my bad. I didn't want to wake you, I was hoping you'd still be awake." Ricky put his hands in his pockets.

,,Then your wish came true. I couldn't really sleep last night. I slept for a few hours after we talked but that was pretty much it."

,,Am I that boring?" he laughed.

,,No, you're not." she laughed as well. ,,I'm glad you texted me. It was sweet."

Once again, Ricky had no idea how to react. He was trying to absorb all of the happy emotions he was feeling right now.

,,Actually, uh. I was hoping we could talk." Gina said, startling Ricky. Wanting to talk is usually not a good sign.

,,Sure. What about?" he said. Unfortunately, the school bell rang. It was time for class.

,,We can talk about it later." Gina hid her disappointment.

,,I'll hold you to that." Ricky said, opening the door for her.