kid krow | rini

ten

Like most Saturday mornings, Nini sat on her bedroom floor, her knees making a little triangle with the knees of Kourtney and Carlos. They leaned in together, whispering about their little life updates and giggling together. There was just one thing different about this girls' night.

"You let him do what?" Carlos screeched.

Nini shushed the boy and used her forearm to shove him playfully. "Be quiet!" she reminded him. "You're gonna get me killed!"

"I'm sorry," he whispered back. "I just didn't think you would be the first of the three of us to get some, it's crazy!"

Kourtney laughed loudly at Carlos' statement. Nini's face burned and turned beet red as she watched her friends laugh at her. She pushed herself out of their little formation and began to stand up. "I don't know how to take that, but I don't like the term "get some" at all," she said.

"Nini, I'm sorry, but you had sex in a pool on New Years," Carlos pointed out. "That's just not very old Nini of you."

Nini sighed and ran her hands through her hair, her cheeks still red. For whatever reason, she felt her eyes gloss over. She pushed back, "We didn't have sex and I'm not different."

Kourtney was always going to defend Nini, everyone in the room knew that. She popped up and pulled Nini close, sitting their two bodies on the bed. Nini began to cry as the girl petted her hair. Carlos began to feel extremely awkward because of the fact that he'd just accidentally made Nini cry, so he didn't try to move closer.

"Nini," the girl said softly, "No one is judging you, okay?" Kourtney watched her friend gulp, her eyes blankly pointed at the floor. "Did you want to do that stuff with Ricky?" The girl nodded. "Did you like it?" She nodded again.

Carlos found the courage to stand up and sit on the other side of Nini. "That's all that matters then," he promised. "The old Nini thing was just a bad joke, I'm sorry."

"I just... don't like feeling like you guys see me as your friend or Ricky's girlfriend. I don't wanna feel like two different people, I'm just me," she explained.

"Maybe it's your whole secret relationship thing?" Carlos suggested. "Maybe that's why you feel that way."

Nini wiped her eyes with her palms and turned to the boy. "So you feel like two different people when you're with us or when you're with Sebastian?" Carlos shook his head slowly. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

"Nini, we can't really help that you have an entire online presence with friends and stuff that's separate from us," Kourtney defended. "I know that you're the same Nini with me that you are with Ricky, but I think that the whole hidden identity musician thing has kind of made you feel like that, not us."

Nini couldn't lie to herself about this fact. Kourtney was right and it made her constantly feel like the only person who could see through her was Ricky. Still, she found it hard to let her two friends into her world when they seemed so far away from her boyfriend. She thought that maybe, she could change that.

"Would you guys be open to getting to know Ricky more? He thinks you guys are cool and always wants to involve you in things. Actually, he asked if you guys would wanna hang out today," she said softly. "I told him the answer was probably no."

"Well tell him yes," Kourtney said. "We'll hang with him."