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› 12 › secrets

"well... you can always talk to me. about anything... anytime, 'kay?"

"ricky, you know you can always talk to me!" mrs. greene says insistently.

"i know!" i laugh into my phone. "sorry about not calling you last week... things were weird. my head wasn't working right."

"don't say that, i understand," she chuckles sweetly. "can't believe it took kourtney a week to tell me about what happened. you watch over her, okay?"

"will do!"

"take care, sweetheart!"

"you too, mrs. greene!"

the call ends. i rest my phone on the table in front of me and find myself tapping my fingers on the readings i was studying for class before kourtney's mom called.

it makes sense why kourt didn't tell her what happened at the party so soon.

so much happened that night, and she fought with nini the next day... no wonder she didn't want to tell her mom about it.

i haven't been able to talk to her about nini either. she was in a pretty bad mood since we left the apartment that day and it lasted for a long while. it didn't seem right to bring it up.

and nini... well, i haven't seen her since that day too. we exchange messages from time to time but nothing deep ever comes out of it. not that i expect anything deep to come out of her texts but i never really saw her as the type to send dry responses? another thing to add to the neverending list of how she's different now, i guess...

but different isn't bad. it's not. i've learned that the hard way.

and after all - i'm all about knowing who this "new nini" is.

not because i still like her or anything, that's not it. it's to help kourtney.

and she was my childhood friend first before my girlfriend so it's not that deep... i just wanna reconnect with a friend. a friend that i... care about.

yeah, that's it.

"there you are bowen, i've been looking all over for you."

jack's voice rings out in the almost-empty study hall as he makes his way to sit in front of me.

"and what do i owe the pleasure of your presence...?" i ask sarcastically.

he rolls his eyes and puts on an irritated face. "why is it only now that i've learned that last week at aiden's party i ended up sleeping at the back of my car beside the nina salazar-roberts? and that no one bothered to wake me up?"

what a coincidence. seems like all the party's secrets have been told today.

"hold that thought."

"holding," he says impatiently.

i let out a laugh. "i love it when you do that.  it's hilarious."

"are you laughing at me??" he pretends to be offended.

"yeah because you never fail to say "holding" when someone asks you to wait,"   a grin spreads across my face as i look down at my papers. "why do you do that anyway? is it to be quirky so all the girls think you're cute?"