stolen

29. realization

Nini quickly stands up, immediately backing away from her desk and towards the door. Her heart racing. Nini's heart was sinking slowly as she began to grow more scared.

"I- I knew you looked familiar. Uh it's um...nice to see you Mrs. Adler. Have you...have you seen your son in jail yet?!", Nini speaks, slowly raising her voice.

The blonde-haired lady gets up, slowly walking closer to Nini to try and calm her down.

"N-no! Get away from me...", Nini shouts, pushing her away.

"Nini please, I just want to talk.", Tracie pleads.

"Well...I- I don't! I don't trust you. Do you not remember everything that your idiotic son did!"

"I do...and I'm deeply sorry for it Nini. I didn't want him to do it-"

"So, you knew about it?! Are you being serious right now? You knew what he was gonna do and you didn't have the decency to tell me!", Nini shouts.

"Listen Nini, I just want to talk about Luke, okay? He loves you and-"

"No! How can you even say that! He kidnapped me! He hurt me multiple times! He cheated on me! I don't need him anymore, I have somebody better!", Nini yells, tears forming in her eyes.

She opens the door aggressively and stomps out into the waiting room where Ricky is. Nini sniffles and wipes her eyes as she arrives.

"Let's go Ricky.", she speaks, ignoring the calls from the blonde-haired lady.

"W-what happened?", Ricky asks.

"Can we just please go home?", Nini mumbles.

"Y-yeah c'mon.", Ricky speaks, taking her hand and walking out.

The entire car ride was silent. Nini was fuming with anger and Ricky knew that. He wasn't going to try and talk to her about it...knowing her she'd get even more angry. Once they arrived back at their apartment complex, they made their way to their apartment floor. Nini unlocked her door and stomped inside, Ricky following. She immediately walks into her bedroom and face plants onto her bed. Nini could hear muffled crying, so he walks over and sits next to her. He places his hand on her back and begins running his hand up and down.

"Neens?", he softly speaks.

"What", she replies, her head still in the pillow.

"Do you wanna talk about it?", he asks.

"No. I want to go punch something.", Nini replies, upset.

"Hey, look at me.", Ricky says.

She lifts her head from the pillow and looks at Ricky, pouting.

"Take a deep breath. Calm down a little.", he says, calmly.

Nini sits there, silently, taking deep breathes to try and calm down before she totally went off on Ricky. She had put her guard down...she thought she was done with those people...but the universe had seemed to have other plans. After some silence between Ricky and Nini, she finally spoke up.

"Ricky?", she quietly said, her voice cracking a little.

"Yeah?"

"D-do I have to go b-back there?", she asks, her voice trembling.

"Not if you don't want to...", Ricky replies, "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

She takes a deep breath, "The lady...who was supposed to be my therapist. She...is L-Luke's mom."

Ricky's eyes widened, "What?! Woah...uh okay then..."

"S-she tried to tell me that he l-loves me...", Nini replies, scrunching up her face out of disgust.

"That lady is just as crazy as her son...did she say anything else?", Ricky speaks.

"N-no I just...", her voice was trembling, and her lip began quivering, "I was scared Ricky."

"I know, I know.", he whispers, opening his arms to hug her.

Her face was buried into his shirt as some tears fell from her eyes. Her voice was muffled by his shirt but he knew what she was saying.

"I didn't know if I was about to get kidnapped again and I-", she says, breathing heavily.

"Hey it's okay now. You're safe. I promise you Nini, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you.", Ricky assures the girl, stroking his hands through her hair.

She sits back up, releasing from the hug, and looks at him. In this moment she realizes how much he cares for her. And the two times he's said I love you...he meant it. In Nini's eyes, he looks so perfect sitting there in front of her. All she was thinking was that the curly haired boy in front of her...is all she's ever wanted. But she was scared. She knew she could trust Ricky and he'd never hurt her...but with all she's been through, she didn't know how to not be scared. She only knew one thing.

She loves Ricky Bowen.