rainbow connection | rini

twelve

Ricky tapped Nini's shoulder lightly. She was in the middle of taking a drink from a bottle of water. She swallowed the water, wiped her mouth, and turned around.

"Oh, hi!" She grinned. She didn't seem to notice his left arm hiding behind his back.

"Hey," he said with a smile. "I brought you these." He pulled his left arm forward and she gasped.

"You bought me a bouquet of roses!" She let out a squeal and hugged him. "Thank you, you're so sweet!"

"Wow, two hugs in one day? I'm winning at life," he joked. When she pulled away from the hug, he said, "You sounded beautiful. The entire concert was great."

She turned red. "Thank you, Ricky, so much." She hugged the roses closer. "You didn't have to come or bring me flowers, you know."

For some reason, he stretched out his hand to reach for hers but pulled it back before she noticed. "I told you, I wanted to."

She smiled softly and said, "Well, I'm glad you did."

Ricky looked around before asking, "Are your parents here?"

"Yeah, but I don't know where, I'm too short to see anything." He looked around and suddenly began to pull her over to her parents.

"Hi, Ricky!" Her mother exclaimed with a grin.

"Hi, Mrs. Salazar-Roberts," he greeted. "Hello, Mr. Salazar-Roberts."

"Are these from you, Ricky?" Carol asked as she gestured to the roses Nini was holding.

"Oh, yes ma'am," he said. He looked at the flowers and then between the two adults before him. "I hope that's okay."

"Of course!" She laughed out. "They're very pretty."

Nini sat in her parents' room as her mother got ready for bed that night. The woman was removing her makeup at her vanity and Nini was watching her while humming.

"Nini?" She said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

She didn't turn around, but she asked, "Is there something going on between you and Ricky?"

"No, we're just friends. Why?" Nini questioned.

Her mother shrugged. "For one thing, he brought you a dozen roses tonight. Another would be that you giggle around him. I had no idea that you could giggle."

"No, no. I don't like him," Nini explained. "He has a girlfriend."

"Are you implying that you would like him if he didn't have a girlfriend?" She asked.

Nini groaned. "No, Mom. I was just saying that he has a girlfriend, which seems pretty relevant to the conversation."

"Whatever you say, Nini."

Back at school, Nini couldn't help but scoff when Ricky was with Gina. He still came to see her in the library during lunch, but he started bringing green apples which she preferred much more. According to him, Gina was still annoying.

"How long has it been since the party?" She asked on a Thursday.

He thought for a second and answered, "Two weeks and three days exactly. Why does that interest you?"

"I need to tell you about something that happened at the party. I don't want you to get mad though, okay?" She looked worried.

"Okay, I'll try my best not to get mad. Eat your apple while you tell me," he demanded.

"Okay, well, I didn't remember immediately, but on Monday I started to remember a couple of things from the party. How long were you away from Gina before you took me home?" She asked.

Ricky thought back to the party. "I was only with her for maybe ten minutes after we left the kitchen. So I was away from her for like twenty."

She sighed and said, "Before EJ started being.. you know, I went to look for a bathroom. I walked in on Gina and some guy doing stuff."

Ricky leaned a bit closer and asked, "What exactly were they doing?"

"Do you really think I would know? I left really quickly," she explained.

"What did it look like at a glance, Nini?" Ricky seemed extremely frustrated, Nini felt bad for having said anything at all.

"It seemed like oral sex. I'm not sure what else she could have been doing." She looked into Ricky's eyes. "Are you mad at me?" She asked.

He put his hand on Nini's and said, "I'm not mad at you, I promise. I'm mad at her. Are you sure it was her?"

"Yes because she followed me and said I didn't have to mention it to you," she explained.

When Nini got home, she went and sat next to her mom. "What's up, kiddo?"

"What if you care about someone so much that it hurts when they hurt?" She asked rather suddenly.

"It means that you love them. I feel that way for you," her mom said with a smile.

"Okay, but that if you also want to hold onto them and never let go?" She wondered.

Her mother laughed and said, "It's still love, Nini. What are you getting at?"

"Mom, Ricky Bowen makes me nervous inside and when he smiles at me, it feels warm in my stomach. What do I do?" She liked him. She didn't think it was possible, but she liked him.

"Honey, I think you should let him know."

Her mother didn't tell her that she'd been talking to Ricky's mother. Nini didn't know that the two women were certain that the pair liked each other. She was also never told that the Bowens better preferred Nini for Ricky than Gina. They pretty much hated Gina.

When Ricky walked up to Nini earlier than usual in the library, something seemed different about him.

"We broke up," he said. She got up to hug him and he hugged back tighter than ever.

Because Ricky began to visit Nini much more frequently, it came as no surprise to Nini when a few days after their breakup, Gina started up with malice toward her.

One morning, while Nini and Ricky were talking at Nini's locker, Gina walked by with a couple of friends. Nini didn't see her take the lid off of her water. She didn't see her fake stumble up to her and spill it, either.

A sudden wet chill passed through Nini and she began to shiver. She was soaking wet and the school's air conditioner was blasting in an attempt to beat the incoming heatwave. She looked up at Ricky in sheer helplessness.

He tossed his jacket over her shoulders and said, "Come on." After wringing her wet shirt and attempting to wring out her pants in the nurse's bathroom, the pair went outside and sat under the warm sun. Ricky's skin was ablaze, but he was glad Nini's clothes were warmer and drying.