rainbow connection | rini

sixteen

Every day, Ricky went to the hospital with Nini's homework for her. She had yet to start any of it, though. He stayed for as long as her parents allowed, which was often until visitation ended. They made a short nap together a habit.

One day, as the two were laying together and Nini was on the phone with her grandma, the woman asked, "Nini, do you want me and Grandad to go out there?" The young teen didn't respond until the woman repeated, "Nini?"

"Grandma, I don't want to cause too much trouble," she said quietly. The woman laughed.

"Nini, it's no trouble. We love you. You don't have to say yes, but if you do, we'll look at some flights." The woman's voice was soft and kind, Ricky could tell that she meant it.

"Grandma, I really miss you guys. Please come," Nini pleaded.

When she got off the phone, Ricky said, "I'm confused."

"Why?" Nini asked.

"I thought your grandparents all lived in Salt Lake," he told her.

"Oh, no. My mom's parents live here and Scott's parents live here," she responded.

"Scott is your dad."

"No," Nini laughed, "he's actually my stepfather and he adopted me. My other mom died when I was two. We keep in touch with my grandparents. I go see them in the summer out in Denver."

"Oh, I never knew that," Ricky told her.

"We never really talk about it to people outside the family," she explained. "Anyway, I wanna show you something. Promise you won't get mad though."

"I'll try my best," he said, "But I don't see you making me mad very easily."

Nini pushed the blankets back until they bunched at her hips. Then, she began to slide her hospital gown up. Ricky didn't understand the point of seeing her elephant-speckled underwear until she got up to her stomach. "The therapist said that you shouldn't date someone if you feel you can't show them all of you."

"Before I say anything else, I just wanna know. Is there anything you don't have with elephants on it?" The couple shared a short laugh. "Were those because of me?" Ricky asked, running his fingers over the scars on Nini's stomach.

"No. You never really did anything. Your friends did, but you didn't," She said.

"But that's worse," he sighed. "I could have helped you sooner." He then ran his finger over more prominent scars that looked more recent. "What were these about?"

"Just stuff with EJ." Her words were mumbled. Ricky nodded. Nini couldn't tell what he was feeling. "I felt really bad about myself after that. Like, not good enough but I don't know why because I didn't really like him."

He pressed his lips to hers softly. "You're more than enough, I promise. I don't want you to have to feel like that, okay? You deserve better."

She nodded and then said, "I'm tired again, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, go ahead. I'll still be here when you get up." He ran his fingers through her hair and then pulled her gown back down.

While Nini was sleeping, her doctor came in to adjust her IV of vitamins. He told Ricky that Nini's malnutrition was the cause of her heavy fatigue and that all he needed was patience. Ricky asked him if Nini was actually getting better. He said it was hard to get Nini to even consider stepping onto a scale so he wasn't actually sure of any weight gain she might have experienced so far.

When Nini woke up, Ricky asked, "Why don't your parents come in here that often?"

"Probably because they've gone through the situation before and they assume that people such as you and my grandparents want to see me like this," the girl commented.

"I wanna see you all the time," Ricky told her with a chuckle.

"Well good luck with that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He questioned.

"They're probably gonna send me away again. Last time, they sent me to a treatment facility in Mississippi. And it worked, I guess, because I was okay for a while after I got back," she explained.

"What happened?"

"People noticed that I'd gained weight over the summer. Your people, I mean. And I had to get refitted for my dance costumes and stuff. It was all just very embarrassing. Not to mention, I was fat." Ricky shook his head at her.

"They aren't my people. Besides, you've never been fat." His grip on her waist tightened slightly and the two were drawn closer.

"Well, I think I was," she said with a shrug. He sighed with a shake of his head. "Can you ask them if I can have some water?"

Ricky nodded and carefully got off of the bed. He found the nearest nurse who told him that they were just about to deliver Nini her dinner anyway, so they'd make sure to refill her water. He kindly asked the nurse to let Nini know that he'd be back shortly and then practically ran all the way to the hospital's cafeteria and bought himself some food.

When he got back to her room with his food, a nurse was sitting in a chair in the corner, her eyes on Nini who was staring down at her food nervously. When she heard her room door open, her head shot up. She gave Ricky a pleading look.

"Come on," he told her, "Let's eat! I'm so hungry." With the table they put over her bed between them, Ricky began to open his food. He'd bought the same thing Nini had been served.

"Oh yeah," she told him sarcastically, "I'm starving."

"That's not very funny," he informed her. "Eat."

"I can't," she whispered. "She's just.. watching us."

Ricky chuckled. "That's her job. Don't look at her, look at me."

"Fine. Let's eat some broccoli," she told him. Together, they ate only the broccoli off their plate.

"I don't know about you, but I sure do wanna try this quinoa," Ricky told her.

"Quinoa tastes like nothing," she said to him after eating a spoonful. Ricky nodded in agreement, ultimately deciding not to tell her about the high protein levels of the food. He was sure she already knew that.