kid krow | rini

six

Nini walked through the hallway of the school on her way to her third class of the day. As she passed EJ's locker, he slammed it, causing her to jump. He didn't seem to notice her as he was yelling at Gina, so she lingered by.

"No, Gi, he's like fucking limping," he exclaimed. "He's bailing on practice because of it, so he's getting benched for our game this week!"

Gina rubbed EJ's shoulder and asked, "What the hell did he even do?"

"I don't know, he literally won't say, but I know he's been turning his location off a lot lately." EJ ran his hands through his hair. "He's probably skating again when I literally told him to cut that shit when he started playing basketball. He never listens."

"Well," Gina sighed, "Ricky's an idiot."

Nini sighed and quickly walked away from the couple just as the bell rang. Ricky had promised her he was fine but according to EJ, that clearly wasn't the case. The girl looked back and forth between an intersection in the hallway. One direction led to her class, and the other led to the auditorium. She turned toward the auditorium and pulled out her phone.

She shoved the door open and sat down in a seat. Ricky came in not too long after her and pulled the door until it closed. Nini watched his eyes scan the room before he sat down in the seat next to her.

"Hey, love," he said softly. He leaned over to kiss her cheek, but she leaned away. "What's wrong?"

"You're benched?" she asked.

Ricky sighed. "Where did you hear that?"

"Answer the question," she pressed. Ricky nodded slowly. "You said you were okay, Ricky."

The boy shrugged his shoulders. "I thought I was. I had only walked like... to my bathroom when I told you I was okay but I got to the stairs and it sucked. I missed first period and Jenn took me to get it checked out. It's just twisted, not sprained so it probably won't even hurt tomorrow. I'm benched as punishment for not going to practice today, is all."

"I'm sorry," she told him. "You shouldn't have stayed with me last night. I'm sorry I asked you to."

"No," Ricky said, stroking her cheek softly. "I would jump off of your roof a million times."

Nini laughed. "We don't have that many tree branches, hun."

"That's fair," he decided. "So... if you're already so late to class... is there really a point in going?"

The girl looked at her boyfriend, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. "I've never skipped a class before."

Ricky nodded. "You should go then," he told her. "I will not be because class will be halfway over before I hobble across the school."

"Mhm," Nini hummed slowly. "But you would probably want some company, right?"

She gave Ricky a little smile and he laughed out, "With you? Always."

"Well, then, I guess there's a first time for everything," she told him as she set her bag on the floor.

After school, Jenn drove both teenagers to Ricky's house. She joked in the car that it had been a while since she'd had to drive Ricky anywhere and that it made her heart happy. Ricky, of course, begged the woman to stop embarrassing him.

Ricky took Nini to his music room and led her to a door that hid a couple of steps. Just down the stairs, Nini found herself in a children's playroom. "What the hell, Ricky?" she laughed out.

"This is my old playroom," he said. "The music room use to have bunk beds and this is where all of my sleepovers took place when I was little."

"It's amazing," she confessed. "I don't think I would have ever wanted to leave your house, Richard."

Ricky laughed and said, "That's the goal, Nina!" Nini watched the boy limp over to a ladder and climb himself up onto a mezzanine where he slid down a slide that landed him in the center of the room in a small ball pit. "Come on!"

Nini laughed along with him and followed his actions. Once she landed in the ball pit, the pair began to throw the balls at each other. Nini misfired a lot more than Ricky did, but one did land right on the center of his forehead.

"Time out!" Nini screeched. Ricky paused, concern all over his face. "There's a swing in here?"

The girl clambered out of the ball pit and darted across the room and to a swing in the corner. She began to kick her legs to swing back and forth and Ricky asked, "Can you guess why there's the padding on the wall behind it?"

"Mmmm... something tells me you were kind of reckless," she comments. "Ricky this room is so cool, I don't get why you didn't show me sooner!"

Ricky shrugged his shoulders and then pushed himself up to get out of the ball pit. "I kind of forgot about it," he told her honestly.

"Rich kids," she jeered.

Not long later, Jenn called on the house's little intercom system that dinner was ready, so they made their way back up to the dining room, Ricky walking a little more confidently than he had been earlier on in the day. Jenn was setting out dinner, but only for two. She almost always did this when Nini was over.

"I made lasagna! But they're personal-sized because Nini's a vegetarian and I'm just... really good at what I do," the woman joked.

Nini smiled at the woman. "Jenn, you're amazing. Where's yours?"

"Oh!" the woman said, "Mine is in the kitchen, I'm gonna have it in there."

Nini pouted. "Jenn, no! You should eat with us! Right, Ricky?"

Ricky, who'd been entranced by his phone, looked up. "Huh? Oh! Yeah, Jenn, eat with us!"