kid krow | rini

eighteen

Nini sat on her bed, her legs crossed, staring directly at the curly-haired boy that sat across from her. This was an improvement from what she had been doing before, which was staring down at her bedspread without the ability to look up at him as he went off on her about the fact that she basically went silent on him overnight only to pop back up and say that they needed to talk. She couldn't find it in herself to feel bad.

"I just don't understand what I did to elicit this sort of behavior. It's okay, really, but don't you think it's kind of petty?" he asked. Her first thought was that he wasn't really making it sound okay. "You were fine yesterday all day up until I started hanging out with my friends. Am I not allowed to have friends other than you now?"

She averted her eyes again, slightly ashamed because of the way he was reprimanding her. "I'm sorry. It wasn't meant to be petty. I just- you told me that you all were going to Ashlyn's and none of that was true? And you're flaunting her on social media and Gina's calling you guys the cutest couple?" She wiped her eyes, trying to keep herself calm. "How am I supposed to feel about that?"

"Nini," he sighed. "I didn't know, okay? I thought we were going to Ashlyn's and then after school, EJ told me there was a change of plans. He wanted me to show Heather around Salt Lake and he suggested it right there in front of her." He ran a hand through his messy curls. "He backed me into a corner, basically."

Nini gulped. "And your staring contest? It looked like you wanted to kiss her, Ricky." She felt weak after hearing her own voice crack.

"We didn't kiss," he groaned. He threw his head back, staring up at her ceiling. He whispered, "God."

"That isn't what I said," she pointed out. "I didn't think you would have kissed her. I said it looked like you guys wanted to. I wasn't even worried that you would actually do it." She began to silently wonder if she should have been worried.

The boy shook his head. "What is it about Heather that makes you feel so threatened? She's just new and EJ wants her to make friends. She's so nice, why do you hate her?" He may not have noticed it, but Nini recognized that he never denied wanting to kiss her.

"It's not Heather," she told him. "It's the fact that she doesn't know about us, so she's comfortable pursuing you but you're not comfortable telling her that you're not interested. I don't think it's fair of you to let her get her hopes up, either."

Ricky licked his lips and nodded. With a bitter chuckle, he told her, "You don't know that. You have no idea what she and I have talked about. You're jumping to conclusions."

"Is that supposed to help?" she wondered aloud.

Nini watched her boyfriend shake his head and stand up. "The bottom line is: I didn't know it was going to be just us, I didn't kiss her, and I need you to trust me more." He stepped forward and kissed her forehead. "I'm gonna go play basketball with EJ. Before you get worried about it: Heather will probably be there because she lives there. Isla will be there, too. Unless they have plans with Gina or something, I don't know. That's all I know, okay?"

"Okay," she told him quietly. "Uh... have fun." He muttered a goodbye and then left her room. She follow him down the stairs and locked the front door behind him.

Girls' night was originally canceled but in light of Nini spam texting their group chat overnight, Kourtney and Carlos made the choice to cancel their plans with their respective partners. Carlos arrived at the Salazar-Roberts residence first, ringing the doorbell just a couple of times before Nini let him in. She pulled the door open, her face red and tear-stained.

"Oh, honey," he cooed with a frown. "Men are trash anyway."

She looked down at the paper bag he carried in his right hand. "What's that?" she questioned.