𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶. [𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘪 𝘢𝘶]

7

I LEAN FORWARD in my lunch seat, placing my arms on the table before I dip my head down and rest my head on my forearms. Mondays always go by incredibly slowly. It was only lunch, I still had 5 more class periods to get through. I haven't seen Ricky since Friday night. I only had 28 days left. This is a problem.

"Nini, you good?" I hear Jack ask. I don't feel like replying. I wasn't very happy with him at the moment. What kind of friend leaves someone in the middle of a bar at night? Then I ran into Ricky of all people. Until further notice, Jack was in timeout.

"Trouble in paradise?" I recognize the annoying high-pitched voice immediately. I lift my head up and see Lily standing there, an evil smirk on her face. I was seriously not in the mood to deal with her right now.

"Suck my dick, Lily." I curse, rolling my eyes when I see her eyebrows raise. Her hair was perfectly curled, and she looked flawless. I never understood people who try that hard for school.

"I didn't even say anything yet! Your hatred for me is elevated today, Nini." Lily remarks, taking a seat at our table next to Jack. I furrow my eyebrows, confused by her statement.

"My hatred for you is always elevated." I mumble, slouching back in my chair and looking the opposite way. Across the lunchroom, I notice Ej and Ricky at their table. How did I never notice them before? It was only the two of them at that table. Ricky begins to laugh, which implies that Ej said something funny. This was the first time I've seen Ricky ever truly smile. He should smile more.

"Nini?" Gina's voice causes me to shake away my thoughts and snap my head towards hers. I raise my eyebrows, using this as my silent way to acknowledge her.

"Can you go?" She wonders, but I remain confused.

"To what?"

Gina laughs, "Girl, who did you get hypnotized by? I was talking about how my parents are going to be gone for the whole night tonight so I'm throwing a party at my place. Can you come?"

I furrow my eyebrows, "A party? On a Monday night?"

"Yeah. This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to throw a party since my parents never leave me home alone so I'm going to take it. Please tell me you'll come." She persuades.

I turn my head over my shoulder to look back at Ricky and Ej. Ricky still looked as if he was laughing. Ej's back was to me so I couldn't see his facial expression, but I gathered that he was laughing too. I sigh, turning my head back to Gina. "Okay, I'll go on one condition. Ricky and Ej go, too."

Over the weekend, I did some thinking. Ricky may be a jerk, but I'm not going to let that stop me. I was completely convinced that I had given up on trying to save Ricky, but now I think that only encouraged me more.

Gina raises her eyebrows, "Well, Ej is already invited since I told the boys basketball team but I'm not sure about Ricky. It's nothing against him, he just seems like he kinda keeps to himself. Are you sure he would want to go?"