With You

Chapter 1

Nini's POV

Walking into the door of East High School, I'm filled with a sense of happiness. School is a good experience for me. I have great classes, even better friends and to top it all off I have the best girlfriend I could ask for. My girlfriend Gina and I didn't start on the right foot, for me to say she hated me would be an understatement. Though her sabotage did annoy me to no end, I forgave her. Once we got past our differences I saw her in a new light. She apologized for her actions explaining that she was going through things at home and took her anger out on the wrong person. She told me that it didn't excuse her actions whatsoever but that she was truly sorry. Once I started talking to her more I realized I wanted to be with her and not with Ricky or E.J., the two boys who were fighting for my affection. Ironically now E.J. and Ricky are together and are probably the cutest couple. One point during the fight for me I'm pretty sure they began fighting for each other's attention instead of mine but after a cliche moment of kissing out in the rain they realized they wanted to be together and honestly they were meant to be together.

I was interrupted out of my thoughts by someone calling my name.

"Hey, Nini," Ricky told me flashing a tired smile. Looking at Ricky's face, I could tell he didn't sleep well at all. Knowing his situation he probably had a bad night at home.

"Hey, Ricky," I told him. "Was everything okay last night?" I was concerned because not only did he look tired but he was wearing a long sleeve and a jean jacket. Normally, that wouldn't be concerning but considering the fact it was pretty warm today was a huge red flag.

"Yeah everything was fine," He told me, but I didn't miss the glance down at his arms. Knowing he was lying to me I grabbed his hand and led him to an empty hallway.

"Ricky what happened last night and please don't lie," I told him. I stared him down knowing he'd give in and tell me.

"Well, my mom and dad got into another argument last night. It was about me sorta. My dad thought it was dumb that my mom was only living with us for my sake and my mom got mad saying she wanted to give me some peace of mind and from there it escalated to other things about why their marriage wasn't working and it ended with my mom leaving to go to a friend's for the night. Once she left, my dad turned on me saying he wished I was never born and how their marriage fell apart because of me. And in the end, I panicked and freaked out and I relapsed and I cut myself again.

"Let me see the damage," I whispered to him. He pulled up his sleeves on both arms slowly. Once both sleeves were up all I could see were angry red marks on his wrists. I pulled down his sleeves for him and pulled him into a hug. Once I pulled him into my embrace he broke down crying apologizing to me.

"Hey, Don't cry or apologize. Have you talked to E.J.?" I told him. He shook his head softly.

"I don't want him to be mad at me." He told me while wiping his eyes. "I don't want him to be disappointed."

"He won't be mad at you, I promise. I can't say he won't be disappointed though. I'm a little disappointed but only because I wish you would have come to me instead of doing that to yourself. We talked about it, Ricky. I'm always here for you." I told him.

"I didn't want to bother you." He said softly. Ricky was always worried that he was bothering somebody. No matter the millions of times that I or someone else told him that wasn't true. Ricky was never a bother.

"You're never a bother. I've told you tons of times." I replied to him. The bell rang signaling us to go to our first period. Luckily for me, I had that class with Gina. I walked with Ricky back to the main hall where all our friends were. Gina pulled me into a hug the moment Ricky and I joined the group.

"Hey, beautiful." She said to me. At that moment I blushed. Every time Gina called me some sort of affectionate nickname I blushed. I was a sucker for her.

From behind me, I could hear E.J. ask Ricky what was wrong. Ricky lied to him and said nothing was wrong and I knew E.J. being the concerned boyfriend that he was, was going to ask again but I mouthed not now to him and he nodded his head in response. No doubt was he going to be asking Ricky after school but for now, Ricky had time to get his mind off of things.

Gina grabbed my hand and we began to walk towards our first class of the day, Art. Art was one of my favorite classes because I got to be creative and put my feelings onto my canvas. The current painting we were working on was supposed to be a representation of our life. Mine was a microphone with people coming out instead of music notes. I chose to do that because I think my life got better once I did High School Musical. I got to play the lead role and meet different people. I'm really glad I took the chance and auditioned.

I looked over at Gina's painting and saw she painted a heart in the colors of the lesbian pride flag. In the center were her initials and mine. She caught me staring at her paper and smiled at me. Yeah, doing High School Musical really was the best decision of my life.