kid krow | rini

twenty-five

Heather was upstairs when Ricky and Gina found her. They watched her pace back and forth, a towel-covered hand drying her hair and the other hand holding her cell phone to her ear. She spoke in quick but extended French sentences.

Ricky waved Gina toward him as he neared the foot of the bed and sat patiently on it as the girl continued to talk. She gave him a small smile when she realized he was there. "Did you take French?" he whispered.

"We literally sat next to each other in Spanish," Gina reminded him. "I don't know what she's saying but it sounds friendly enough."

Neither of them had bothered to close the bedroom door, so hearing it fly open and smack the stopper at the base of the floorboards caused all three teenagers to jump. There stood EJ, his face in pure shock as if he'd seen a ghost of some sort. Heather gestured toward him, clearly annoyed by his actions, and continued on in French.

Upon hearing his name thrown into her conversation, EJ scoffed, "She is literally always talking about me."

"Do you blame her?" Gina questioned quietly. "You torture the poor girl."

Ricky nodded in agreement. "You're kind of like... the worst, actually."

"Am not," the boy argued. Neither teen responded other than an exchange of looks that very clearly disagreed.

"Okay, yes, okay, Papa," she groaned playfully. "I love you, too. Bye!" When she hung up the phone, she let out an airy laugh and turned toward her friends and boyfriend.

"That was a lot of French," Ricky pointed out.

Heather nodded with a little laugh. "So the good news is that he said yes about taking the car. The only bad news is that EJ is banned from driving it."

"Do your parents hate me?" EJ questioned. "Am I allowed to have any fun?"

"You failed your road test three times, dude," Heather explained. "There's no way he's letting you touch a 1960 Cadillac."

While they bickered back and forth, Ricky and Gina mumbled to each other about packing for the trip. Gina eventually disappeared down the hall to EJ's room to separate their clothes for just a short couple of nights in Los Angeles. Ricky, on the other hand, was forced to listen to Heather explaining why EJ couldn't drive the car as he continuously interrupted her.

"EJ!" Heather snapped finally. "Just shut up! Stop talking, go to your room, go do something!"

When it came time, the group met in the foyer of the home, their bags in tow. Heather excused herself to the garage, allowing Ricky to follow close behind. This, of course, didn't come without commentary from EJ about how many cars Heather's family owned. Ricky squeezed the girl's hand comfortingly, encouraging her to not respond.

"I think Ash should sit with us," Heather suggested when the group began to pile their backpacks into the trunk. "Since she's the other driver, it would make switching less complicated."

Gina had seemed to put an end to whatever attitude was keeping EJ so tense and for most of the car ride, he was actually pretty quiet. The group found themselves inside of the heart of Los Angeles in an apartment building Ricky was sure could outsell his Salt Lake home. Heather seemed so nonchalant about it all as she showed her cousins their respective rooms. Overall, she seemed to be in a better mood.

Later on, each teen had been a few glasses of wine in when Gina pulled Heather's phone out of her hand and suggested the group go live on Instagram. She started it and then propped the phone up against the centerpiece on the kitchen table; ultimately, Heather on Ricky's lap filled most of the screen and the rest of their friends moved around behind and next to them, occasionally popping into the frame.

"Ah!" Heather squealed out, rather giddily. "Kourt just joined! Hi, Kourtney!"

And several hours away in Salt Lake, Nini sat against the headboard of her bed, Kourtney's phone in hand, scowling bitterly. "Are you sure you wanna watch this?" Kourtney asked, lifting her head off the girl's shoulder momentarily.

"It's fine," she insisted.

It was clear that the teenagers were drunk, laughing and talking loudly as if they didn't know the camera was there. At some point, Ashlyn mumbled something incoherently and Nini watched as Heather leaned so far out of frame that she nearly fell off of Ricky's lap until he steadied her by the waist. She leaned back against him happily and Ashlyn, somewhere off screen, began to imitate moans that the other teens laughed at. Ricky's cheeks burned a vibrant red and Heather rolled her eyes playfully, swatting at her cousin.

"I'm just saying that a jackhammer would make less noise than Ricky and Heather, I bet," Ashlyn commented loudly.

Ricky sighed heavily when he watched Kourtney's username name disappear from the live. "Can you not?" he groaned. He nudged Heather lightly, urging her to get off of his lap. "I'm going to bed, I'm tired."

On his way out to bed, he could hear EJ griping at Ashlyn on his behalf. He was going on about how gross it was of her and how annoying she could be. She didn't seem receptive to his ranting, but they were all rather drunk nonetheless. Either way, he found himself embarrassed and annoyed at the insinuation she made; there hadn't been any situations like that with Heather and he was now upset that Nini might think there had been.