rainbow connection | rini

seventeen

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Ricky's mom asked when she walked into Nini's hospital room the next day.

"Honestly, Lynne, I feel like I could use ten more blankets," she told her. That wasn't new though, Nini was always cold. "The doctors call it anorexia nervosa, but I call it powerful air conditioning." She added a laugh at the end and Lynne gave her a sad smile.

"The good thing is that it's not severe. I can ask them to bring more blankets," she offered.

"That would be great, thank you. Can you send Ricky in while you're at it?" She smiled. Lynne's face fell.

"Honey, Ricky isn't coming today," she said.

Nini's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"Well, he got in trouble, so Mike and I decided that he needed to face some sort of consequence," the woman explained.

"Can you tell him to quit playing around and get in here already?" she asked.

"Nini, he's not here."

"I don't understand," she told her. "He'll be here later, right?"

"No, he won't. You see, he got in a fight at school today and got suspended. He won't be here for a while." Nini shook her head a rolled her eyes.

"Call my mom in here," she demanded. So, Lynne did.

Carol walked in, Scott and Mike trailing her. "What's wrong, honey?"

"I want to see Ricky."

"Sorry, sweetie, you can't," she said. "Maybe you'll be able to see him next week."

"Well, now you're all just being stupid," she scoffed.

"Nini! That's very rude," her mother scolded. Nini rolled her eyes and pushed herself upright.

"I want to see him now."

"Nini, you can't," her stepfather told her. "He's in trouble."

"I don't care!" she yelled. "Get him here now!"

"Maybe you should lay back down," her mother suggested and lightly pressed on Nini's shoulders in an attempt to make her lay down.

"No!" she screamed, shoving the woman's hands away. "Don't touch me!" Tears began to flow out of her eyes.

"Nini, you need to listen to your mother," Lynne told her. Together, the two women attempted to press Nini's body down. She began thrashing. Shrill screams escaped her lips as her arms flailed in a weak attempt to keep any of the four sets of hands away from her.

In her sharp movements, she managed to accidentally rip the IV out of her hand and had a complete disregard for the blood dripping down her arm. Carol slammed her hand on the emergency button and encouraged Lynne to step away from the bed. Lynne listened and exited the room very quickly.

Doctors and nurses rushed in, having already been alerted by the spike in Nini's heart rate. Their hands replaced Nini's parents which were only there to aid the nurses in restraining Nini's arms to the bed. This only made her screams, which were separated by sobs, louder. One of the doctors wrapped Nini's bleeding hand before turning to Carol.

"We're going to have to sedate her," he said. Carol gave him an okay and quickly exited the room.

Nini went under fairly quickly and all of the adults were glad to return and see her so calm. "That was scary," Lynne commented.

"I've never seen her act that way," Carol explained. "I didn't realize she and Ricky were so attached to each other."

"Ricky is really mad at us about the decision. He won't tell us what the fight was over, though," Mike told her.

"I understand that what Ricky did is unacceptable," Carol said, "but is it possible for you to limit his time rather than disallow him to come at all?"

"Carol," Scott said, "we can't ask them to do that."

"No, no," Lynne said. "I think Carol is right."

Mike looked at Lynne and said, "Nini makes Ricky a better person, I don't think there's harm in letting him come."

After a long debate, the four decided to allow Ricky to go. By the time he was told he could visit Nini, the effects of the sedation were beginning to wear off. He rushed to the waiting room closest to her room to find his parents sitting with hers.

"Hey," his mother said softly. "I think she should be waking up soon. Let's go check."

Ricky thought it unusual that his mother wanted to join him in the room with Nini. When he walked in, he grew angry and suddenly understood why.

"What the fuck?" he said, his voice raised. "Why is she tied down?"

"They're restraints, and you need to watch your mouth. She had an incident earlier and Carol gave them permission to restrain and sedate her," she explained.

"Why the fuck would she let them do that?" he exclaimed.

"Ricky!" His mother scolded. "It needed to happen. Just wait here until she wakes up."

So, Ricky pulled a chair over to her bedside and waited for her to wake up. He was there for about half an hour before her eyes fluttered open. Her breathing got heavy when she tried to sit up and realized she couldn't.

"No, no," Ricky cooed and stroked her cheek. "It's okay. I know you want to sit up, but you can't."

She seemed to grow calmer next to Ricky and finally asked, "What made your parents decide to let you come?"

Ricky let out a chuckle. "The fact that you went psycho and tried to take out all of our parents and, by the looks of your hand, yourself in the process."

Nini laughed and rolled her eyes. "I just wanted to see you, okay? I was upset."

"I know, I'm sorry," he said. Just then, a nurse came in to check on Nini.

"Oh, you're up," he said. "How do you feel?"

"So much better," she told him. "That sedation was the best sleep I've gotten in 17 years."

"Very funny," he said and he seemed to actually be amused.

"Say, you should untie me," she suggested.

"You read my mind!" He joked. He quickly removed Nini's restraints and left the room.

She sat up and ran her thumb across Ricky's bruised cheek. "Your mom said you got in a fight."

"Yeah," Ricky told her.

"Why?"

Ricky didn't want to tell her about the words EJ had said to him earlier that day about her. He tried to figure out a story that didn't involve the phrase, "anorexic bitch." He decided to simply say, "I was still a little angry about what happened with EJ."

Nini sighed and said, "I shouldn't have told you about the cuts."

"No," Ricky said, "I want you to be able to tell me things. I promise not to fight anyone else who poses a threat to your safety and mental health unless you ask me to."

Nini laughed at him. "That was cute. Now, I need you to get our parents so I can apologize for being so erratic today."