𝟐% 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 [𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐚𝐮]

𝚜𝚌𝟸𝟼: 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚒 𝚠𝚊𝚢

𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑰'𝑺 𝑴𝑶𝑼𝑻𝑯 𝑭𝑬𝑳𝑻 𝑼𝑵𝑼𝑺𝑼𝑨𝑳𝑳𝒀 𝑫𝑹𝒀 𝑨𝑺 𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑼𝑮 𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑷𝑰𝑵𝑲 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑪 𝑺𝑷𝑶𝑶𝑵 into the strawberry ice cream that was gracing the presence of her and her ex's table at Fro Yo, Yo Yo in Downtown Hollywood almost a week after their conversation at the hospital. Her sweaty palms were causing the small spoon to slip and slide in her hand, and her leg was rapidly bouncing up and down.

It was like EJ sensed her worry as he placed a gentle hand on her leg. "Don't look so nervous, aren't you a big time actress now?"

"Was that your attempt at being sweet?" She asked, pulling her leg slowly out of his grasp.

He rolled his eyes at her commentary. "Listen, I know you're nervous about this whole thing, but I'm assuring you it's gonna work." She had her doubts coming into the store with EJ, but thirty minutes in and five separate groups of teens had tried to sneakily take pictures of the pair. When he realized that wasn't going to calm her down he huffed a sigh, thinking about what he would've done if they were still together. "Look Nini... Your talent has gotten you so far already. All this is doing is cementing your place in a fast paced industry... No press is bad press, right? And I know to you I'm a lot of things, but I know talent when I see it."

She gave him a puzzled look. "Someone really doesn't want me to back out of this huh?" She was wearing a slightly teasing smile as she spoke, remembering why she had fallen for him in the first place.

Elijah Jamie Caswell had always been an amazing actor.

He just had a way with words- overly honeyed, far too good to be true and she saw that now. She loved who she thought he was, and she guessed that was okay. The spell was finally broken and she owed so much of that to Ricky (and Miss Mercedes, anyone with a cellphone at that party, Lily, and she hated to admit it, but Ashlyn Gossip-Mongering Moon).

"Yeah, I just love leaching off your popularity, sugar queen." He jested as he scooped some ice cream into his mouth.

"Your words, not mine." She shrugged. "I hope you know this doesn't mean that we're cool. I still can't stand you." She smiled sweetly at him, despite her words being completely contrary to her visual sentiments.

"Oh I'm not feeling amazing about you either Neens, seeing as you hope I'm miserable."

"Glad you got a chance to listen to the song. I meant every word of it. Music video's coming out tomorrow, so the buzz around the song will probably continue."

"Are you releasing any other songs about me?" He mumbled through his ice cream.

"Well I don't know for sure Elijah Jamie." She replied, snarkily. "Your cockiness makes me not want to." She replied, getting up and throwing the soupy remnants of her dessert in the trash.