More Than a First Kiss

8

Nini's POV

As most last days go, mine has been quite uneventful. At the end of the day, I got a ride with Kourtney and her mom. That was mostly spent singing along to Taylor Swift and discussing the details of Kourtney possibly joining me in LA. I leave in a week, maybe we? After her shift, my moms and I are going to pick her up and head over to her house and have a conversation about it together.

When I get home my moms are sitting at the dining table looking extra giddy. "I wasn't expecting you guys to be home. I thought you both had to work late."

"We wanted to show you something," Mama Carol gets up, "In the garage." Confused, I smile and follow them. When we get into the garage I notice a sheet over a car. "You guys got a new car?" I assume.

"No honey. You got a new car," She says as she pulls the sheet off revealing an older, small, bug. "You got me a new car!!!" I semi-shout. Jumping over to my moms, hugging them both. "I can't believe this!!! How, Why, What!?" I'm stumped.

"We had saved a bit more money for YAC so when you decided it wasn't the best fit for you we saved a little more. To get you that car, you've been eyeing in the neighborhood," Mama Carol explains.

About a block away there's an older couple who are moving and have been trying to sell their car. No one in the neighborhood has taken to it since they all have fancier cars already. But I have been looking at that car, every day hoping it hadn't been bought yet. It's a light blue, just the slightest bit rusty, though all together in really good shape.

"I can't believe you got this!" I say again. My parents really are the best a girl could ask for. "You are such a good kid, you don't ask for much. Besides, we know you'll either get a record deal before college or get a scholarship. We don't have to worry about saving for that," My mom jokes.

"That is true," I chuckle.

A few hours later, closer to seven, I decided to take my new car for a test drive. My mom's of course will be following me in their car. We head over to Slices to get Kourtney.

When we get there I excitedly walk into the establishment. When I get inside I notice Ricky and Lily holding hands while Gina and Ej are standing across from them, with an Angry Kourtney just to the side.

I got there just after Kourtney finished speaking. Now Gina has started to talk, "You know I used to think you were a good guy. After Carlos's Quinceañera, I started to think otherwise but when I heard what you did for Carlos and Seb and I did my best to forget about what you did to me. But now that what you're doing is destined to hurt my best friend, I'd prefer it if you stayed away from me," Gina snaps.

I can't help but be furious. All I've gathered from this situation is that Ricky did something to Gina that hurt her, and he's clearly getting closer with Lily. Which is a whole other problem. Right now I care about how he possibly hurt Gina. Lately, Ricky has been treating me terribly, ever since that moment when he was leaving the after-party. Earlier that day everything seemed fine. Now he's snappy and defensive towards me, constantly calling me Nina.

"What did you do to her?" I snap, arms crossed.

"I have no idea!?" He responds. Gina's face falls, hurt by his obliviousness.

"That doesn't shock me in the slightest," I snap, "Kourtney, you ready to go?" I ask, changing the subject. "Yeah. Let me just grab my bag" Kourtney leaves to the back.

"We'll see you later Nini," EJ smiles as he and Gina leave Slices.

"I'll go get us a table," Lily says, leaving Ricky and me alone. Ricky turns to me, his body language defensive. Before he can say anything I open my mouth, "How could you do this to Big Red?" He looks like he is about to respond but before he can Kourtney comes back prompting us to leave. As we walk past the big window next to the door I look back at Ricky. As much as I want to hate him I can see the hurt in his face. Knowing him, he's feeling conflicted and confused. Though as I look at him I find myself struggling to find the boy I loved.