𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮|𝙍𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝘼𝙪(𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙙)

Sixteen

"Soooo" Nini said into the phone with a small smile on her face "the tryout list was posted today."

"Are you gonna wait until we're 80 to tell me? Did you make the team??" Ricky said through the phone, clear excitement in his voice earning a laugh from Nini on the other end

"I made the team!" She said excitedly and Ricky matched her energy cheering her on on the other side of the phone "I didn't even want to do this at first but knowing that I'm apart of the team now? It just feels so good. I actually feel...important"

"Hey hey hey you've always been important. You just have to be around the right people to feel it" he said causing her to smile on the other end of the call. She'd been doing a lot of that since she met him. She felt herself actually being in a better place

"Thank you Ricky, you know I couldn't have done it without you" she smiled

"You did most of it yourself. I was just there to fix minor things, but you were amazing out there and it was all you. Besides, what are friends for?" He said and immediately regretted saying the last part, knowing he wanted to be more than friends with her

"Yeah, friends" Nini said awkwardly before a silence fell among them

"So uh—when's the first practice?" Ricky asked breaking the silence between the two

"Well" Nini sighed slightly "apparently this year they held tryouts late in the year so practice starts tomorrow."

"So are you doing anything tonight? Last night of freedom" Ricky joked slightly. He wanted to spend the night with her but didn't want to be too straightforward when asking

"Who would I be doing anything with tonight Ricky? You and Gina are literally my only two friends" she laughed lightly

"Do you want to do something tonight?"

"I might be up for something, what did you have in mind?"

"You'll see" he beamed "I'll pick you up at 6" he said as a smile formed on his face not knowing that a smile also formed on Nini's face. "I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah" she said before hanging up

Ricky knew exactly what they'd do and he was positive that she'd love it, but he had a few things that he needed to get together first.

He knew that this wasn't exactly a date, but he still wanted everything to be special for her. And that's exactly what he was planning to do, make it special.

"Oh, hey Ricky" Layla spoke as they walked past each other. They had been in different rooms all day so this was actually their first time seeing each other all day

"Hey...did you make the volleyball team?"

"Yeah" she laughed "I can finally calm all my nerves down, I was so worried I wouldn't make the team"

Ricky opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. He remembered that Layla didn't know that he was sitting in the bleachers during the entire practice

"Congratulations Lay, I'm really proud of you" he said and she smiled

"Thanks Ricky. Now we're both athletes" she said before walking off into her room.

•••

"No way you like pancakes more than waffles" Nini laughed as they were on their way to the destination that Ricky had in mind.

"Pancakes will forever be superior to waffles. Waffles are way too thick!"

"At least waffles have little cups to pour the syrup into. Pancakes just sit there drowning in syrup"

"I'd rather have drowned pancakes than overly thick waffles"

"I don't know Ricky, I might have to rethink this entire friendship" Nini said acting like she was hurt immediately earning a laugh from Ricky

"That's too bad, because pancakes will always be better than waffles"

"Yeah, this friendship is over" Nini joked

"At least I have pancakes to lean on" Ricky said

"Shut upppp" Nini laughed hitting his arm. After a while the laughter died down and Nini took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the scene that sat right before her.

The windows were down so her hair blew in the wind as she took in the beauty of the ocean that sat before her. Ricky drove past a beach and the sun was setting so the sun reflected onto the water.

"Wow" she breathed out

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever taken the time to appreciate how beautiful this can be."

"Yeah, sometimes after a bad day I'd drive up here and just watch the sunset. My parents always told me 'every sunset is an opportunity to reset' so just watching the beauty of it right in front of me always helped"

"Maybe one day, we can do that just watch the sunset. I mean only if you're up to it" she said

"Of course. I'd love that" Ricky smiled looking over at Nini who continued to admire the beauty of the sunset "we're almost there" he said and she nodded excited to see what exactly he had in mind.

She always had fun with him regardless of what they did.

They finally arrived at the destination, and Nini looked kind of confused. They were in a forest like area and there was really nothing interesting about it.

"You're not trying to kill me are you, I mean this is the perfect place to hide the body?" She asked semi joking

"No im not trying to kill you" Ricky laughed placing the blanket on top of the car "here we're gonna sit on the roof of my car. Do you need help getting up?" He asked and Nini nodded. Ricky walked over to her side of the car helping her onto the roof

After Nini was situated on the roof he grabbed the picnic basket out of the backseat, and sat it on the roof before sitting up there himself

"What's all this?" Nini said with a smile

"I brought us dinner" he laughed "it's honestly not much. Just a few sandwiches, some chips, drinks and cake for dessert" he said nonchalantly but this was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for Nini.

He handed her a sandwich and she gladly took it taking a bit out of it

"Oh my—this has to be the best sandwich I've ever tried" she said honestly

"The secret is sub oil" Ricky laughed lightly

"Wait—you made these?" Nini asked shocked. She knew Ricky did a lot but she didn't know that cooking was added to the list

"Yeah" he chuckled "it's honestly nothing Nini. I made these in like 5 minutes"

"If you're done bragging I'd like to finish my sandwich" she joked taking another bite out of the sandwich

After both of them finished eating they rested on the roof of Ricky's car looking up at the stars admiring how beautiful the night sky was.

Nini laid close to Ricky's body as he wrapped an arm around her. To the normal person's eye it'd look like they were dating, but in reality they were just really close friends.

A/N
I genuinely apologize for how bad this chapter is. I attempted to fix it but it just didn't work so I'll try to do better with the next few lol. Tysm for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed.