rainbow connection | rini

twenty

"They're back!" Lynne shouted as Nini and Ricky walked through Nini's front door.

"Your curfew isn't until 1:00, it's only 10:30," Nini's mother told them, checking the clock on the wall.

"Yeah, we were having a pretty okay time until someone spiked the punch and people got stupid and turned the music up way too loud for Nini's baby ears," Ricky explained.

Nini rolled her eyes and groaned, "I don't have baby ears!"

"Anyway," Ricky began, "We stopped someplace for food after we dipped and Nini ate a double bacon cheeseburger and all of her fries. No leftovers! Cue applause." Nini turned red as her family members applauded her.

"I was thinking we could all watch a movie," Nini suggested. "You know after I get out of this dress and these stupid heels."

The adults seemed to agree and both teens darted off in separate directions to escape their formal wear. Nini wiggled into a pair of shorts and one of Ricky's sweatshirts. She'd kept many over the year they'd been dating.

"Alright," she called out when she got to the bottom of the stairs, "who wants snacks?"

"You want more food?" Ricky asked.

"Yes, over the course of a year, we went from anorexia to tapeworm," she joked, her laughter filling the room. "Seriously, I'm in the mood for some cookies!"

Both sets of parents found their kids trustworthy enough to let Ricky stay the night with Nini. After Ricky's parents went home, the couple retired up to Nini's bedroom where she flopped onto her bed lazily and Ricky took a seat at her desk. He looked at the dead flowers in a vase next to her laptop and smiled.

"Are these still the flowers that I bought you for your choir concert last year?" He asked. Even though his back was turned to her, she shook her head.

"Those are from this year. The ones from last year and our anniversary are cased and over here on my bookshelf," she said. His smile grew and he turned around to look at her.

"You know what?" He asked. As Nini let a curious him escape her lips, he let his body fall on top of hers. "I love you!"

"Can't breathe," she gasped out as he peppered her face and neck with kisses.

"Oh, whatever!" he exclaimed as he pushed himself off of her.

"I have a nightly routine that you're disrupting, you know," she told him after he climbed off of her and she sat up.

"Well, don't let me stop you, carry on!"

She stood up from the bed and walked into her slippers. When she reached the frame of her door, she turned around and asked, "You comin'?"

"Oh!" Ricky said. "Yeah, sure."

He followed her down the hall. He considered how graceful her dancing was and figured that her comically noisy shuffling was intentional. When she pushed open her parents' door, the two adults laughed to see a head of curly hair behind her.

"Come," she demanded, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the bed with her. She kicked off her slippers and crawled in between her parents.

Ricky stood at the foot of the bed awkwardly. "Hi," he mumbled sheepishly.

Carol moved over and patted the bed before asking, "Care to join?" The woman and her husband attempted to hide their amusement when he climbed into the bed with very stiff movements.

"Ricky, would you care to pick tonight's documentary?" Scott asked. He reached over to Nini to hand him the remote.

"Uh, sure." He opened the documentary section of Netflix on the television before looking at Nini. "This is your nightly routine?"

"Yes, but this is the most crowded it's ever been," she said. She was peering up at him, her eyes innocent and wide. He laughed.

"I'm in your parents' bed because I love you, remember that," he told her.

"He's in our bed because we love you, remember that," Scott added.

"Oh, I feel so loved!" She yelled.

After an extremely informative documentary about the life of Steve Jobs, Nini and Ricky sleepily returned to her bedroom. She curled up to Ricky, practically on top of him.

He rubbed his hand up and down her back for a while and at some point, she shuddered, a whine escaping her lips. "Are you okay?" Ricky asked.

"Yeah, of course," she laughed out. "I just thought about how in a few months this will be our nightly thing, you know? We'll be starting college and we'll be together. Isn't that perfect?"

"It's everything I could ever hope for," he told her with a chuckle. "But I need you to stop making sounds like that."

"Why? I didn't do it on purpose." And in the darkness of her room, Ricky began to blush.

"Just don't, okay?" He said softly. Nini laughed, suddenly aware of his embarrassment.

"I can't help that, Ricky. It's not a voluntary sound. Maybe you shouldn't rub my back like that. It gives me goosebumps," she told him.

"So you'd rather not get back rubs than just try harder to not make that sound?" He asked.

"Excuse me, but neither of those are an option for me. You will rub my back and I will make whatever sounds I want. Your erections are not my problem," she said.

"Bossy. Also, please just say 'boner' like the rest of the world," he teased.

"No, you don't even have bones down there, that doesn't make any sense," she groaned.

Ricky laughed and said, "Yeah, well you don't either."

"True, but it's not called a boner when I get aroused, now is it?" she asked.

"So you do get turned on," he commented. "Interesting."

"That's not what I meant. I meant 'I' as in females in general," she whined.

"But that isn't what you said," he quipped. "You wouldn't be so defensive if you were being honest."

"Okay, maybe like once. Whatever," she admitted.

Ricky cackled and said, "I believed you, I was just trying to annoy you. But now? I wanna know about this."

"I don't wanna talk about it," she whined

"Come on. I wanna know. Unless, of course, it wasn't me." He feigned hurt and Nini whined, kicking her legs.

"It was, okay? Geez." She sighed and then said, "There was this one time where we were kissing and you did this thing and I got all.. tingly or whatever."

"What was this thing?" he wondered aloud. "Come on, for future reference."

She whined out of embarrassment before turning toward him and saying, "I don't know, you were holding me but then your arm got tighter and it just.. did it."

"Noted."

"In my defense, you've made me more comfortable than anyone else ever has. You're, amazing, you know that?" Her voice was quieter, almost a whisper.

"Eh, I think I've heard that before. I don't think I really ever would have cared about anyone so much if I hadn't met you. You're my world, Nini." He kissed her head. "Now go to sleep, we've got things to do tomorrow."

the end.