𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 [𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐚𝐮]

05. | best friends

"i'll be back girls. follow the rules and listen to sasha, okay?" nini directed, making eye contact with her campers. she kneeled down, meeting the campers' heights, lips pursed. she had her songwriting notebook in one hand, concealing it behind her back. she didn't want a bunch of tiny kids surrounding her, begging her to perform for them. ricky was already too much to handle.

"where are you going anyway?" a girl wearing glasses asked, hand shooting to her face to push the frame of the glasses up the bridge of her nose. 

"i think she's going on a date with ricky!" brooklyn, the girl who came up with the whole speculation, exclaimed. a chorus of snarky ooh's filled the cabin. nini's face flushed red, sucking in on her teeth, as the little girls squealed, jumping up and down in delight. 

"how long have you guys been dating?"

"does he treat you well?"

"is his hair real?"

"what? of course it's real!" nini laughed, shaking her head. 

"can we please come to the date?" brooklyn asked, using her puppy eye look in an attempt to convince nini. 

"no, all of you have to stay here. and besides, it's not even a date. i'm just going to meet up with him and... talk."

"mhm, sure." brooklyn crossed her arms, doubtful.

nini stood back up, hand reaching for the doorknob "remember what i said! don't mess around!"

"wait, but we're not done asking questions!" one of the campers whined.

before another question could escape the campers' lips, she slipped out the wooden door.  she leaned back against the wood, smiling as she heard high-pitched groans from the other end. she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she made her way to the other side of the campus where the boy cabins were. while she strolled across the campus, she thought of the message ricky had sent her, surrounded by a grey bubble on her phone. how did both of them get asked if they were dating? it seemed strange how the thought had even crossed the kids' minds. they're still young, they don't understand anything. nini reassured herself, again and again, repeating the same words, that it was just a coincidence. nothing was going on between her and ricky. right? nothing.

it was extremely loud and chaotic on the other side of the campus. boys screeched in their game of tag and some were rolling around in the dirty mud. her eyes widened when she saw a little boy, no older than 10, hanging by his legs on a tree. she had no idea how ricky could deal with this absolute mess. maybe he was a better camp counselor than she thought. nah, that's not possible. she had to be the best. she carefully nudged past the boy campers to ricky's cabin.

"nini?"

nini turned around to be met with a cute, innocent boy with a handful of snacks cradled in his arms. her face softened as she realized that she was in front of peter, ricky's personal favorite camper.

"hey, peter! gosh, you grew a few inches since last year, yeah? soon, you'll be taller than me!" she said, ruffling his blonde hair.

peter giggled, "i don't know about that." he readjusted some of his snacks to prevent them from falling. "what are you doing here?"

"oh, i'm just meeting up with ricky."

peter raised his eyebrows, smirking. "are you two-"

"no!" nini lashed out. peter's smirk immediately receded, his gaze transferring to the ground now. "i-i'm sorry, it's just i've been asked that question a lot lately..." nini said, ashamed.

"it's okay. but i think ricky really likes you, ms. nini." peter said before skipping off to share his load of snacks with his friends.

nini stood there shocked as she replayed the scene. 

"there's no way he likes you, nini. he has a girlfriend for god's sake." she thought to herself, hand running through her hair. 

for the rest of the short walk, nini couldn't help but think about her and ricky's relationship. sure, they did have some intimate moments together, but she never thought about him that way, and he didn't either. at least that's what she thinks. as she brought her fist up to knock on the wooden door, the thoughts continued to swirl around her mind. after being asked that question multiple times today, she didn't know if she could face ricky without feeling weirded out. luckily for her, the door swung open, revealing the curly-haired boy.

"hey, neens! ready to sing your heart out?" he asked with a smug grin on his face. nini just simply nodded, brushing past ricky to enter the cabin. the grin on ricky's face immediately vanished as he hesitantly closed the cabin door. if it was one thing about ricky and nini's friendship, was that they always knew when something was wrong with the other.

"what's wrong?" ricky asked with a soft tone and a worried expression on his face. he slowly made his way over to nini who had her head hung low. her back was facing him as she stared down at her black converse, hands crossed. ricky reached out for her petite hand to comfort her, but she pulled away. he felt his heart crumble because she never rejected affection from him.

"ricky, we're best friends, right?" nini turned around to face him, straining her neck to meet his deep, brown eyes.

"of course," he reassured, eyebrows knitting, head tilted to the side in confusion. 

"and we have no romantic thing between us whatsoever?"

"is this about those kids asking us if we're dating?"

"answer the question," nini said, her tone pivoting to a harsher one.

"yes. i've only thought about you as a best friend..." ricky lied, not desiring to exhibit the true dilemma in his mind. he scratched the back of his neck, a habit he did when he was nervous and nini knew that.

nini sighed, "okay. i'm sorry, i'm just so fed up with all these weird theories." 

"hey, hey, hey, you don't need to be sorry. you have every right to feel that way." this time when ricky gently grabbed her hand, she didn't pull away.

"thanks, ricky. you always seem to turn a gloomy situation into a sunny one." nini squeezed his hand with comfort.

"what are best friends for?"