faking it | rini

three

"I'm here! I'm here!" Ricky exclaimed, bursting through the room, almost tripping on his feet along the way. He looked somewhat disheveled from the sprinting and stressing, but he liked to believe he was simply Casual Chic. He wasn't.

Quickly looking around the room, Ricky immediately spotted his manager shooting daggers with her eyes. He had no idea what kind of lie she has to tell to explain his absence, but clearly she resented him for it.

He let his eyes travel to another vaguely familiar face, Nini Salazar-Roberts. Ricky couldn't remember having an actual conversation with the young actress (except for the quick chemistry read they did a few weeks ago), but they had both attended several of the same awards afterparties, so her face wasn't foreign to him. That, and she was the main character of the most recent Hollywood cash grab, Supernova. He hadn't watched the movie, but Big Red had rapidly explained the plot and Ricky had no doubt that it was a thoughtless and big budget production to make millions. There wasn't necessarily something wrong with that, or with playing in one, but it simply wasn't the boy's taste.

But Gina Porter had told him that Nini was a phenomenal actress, a high compliment coming from competitive and performance anxiety filled Gina. Really, Nini sitting there was a good thing. The level of exposure her acting would bring was a good thing.

She looked up at him, her deep brown eyes meeting his, and Ricky immediately thought she was pretty.

The three other people were complete strangers to Ricky's eyes. One, he assumed from the way she sat close to Nini, was the actress' manager. The two other ones, he assumed from his high deductive skills, must be the producers of the TV show.

A small and smiling man waved at him, "Ricky Bowen, finally there!" He said it with joy, but Ricky couldn't help but remembering a vague feeling of school teachers passive aggressively scorning him for his lack of assiduity.

The brown haired boy scratched the back of his head, "Uh, yeah. Sorry." He sat beside his manager, her fury eyes boring holes through his skull.

The meeting seemed to drag on forever. Talks about dates, lines, plots, characters. Ricky tried his best to stay alert, to actively listen like Nini was doing, but he found himself turn his head in her direction and stare at her side profile once or twice. She was so focused, so wholeheartedly interested. She smiled widely when they made a quick bad joke, even put in a few giggles that somehow didn't sound forced, and obediently nodded her head when they asked questions. Ricky didn't like her very much.

It didn't make much sense, Ricky knew that. But it wasn't his fault! It was a question of vibes. Nini just didn't feel right, like something was so completely opposite him. She felt too put together, too perfect, too docile, too pretty. Ricky didn't hate her, obviously, but he did wonder what in the hell that chemistry reader could have seen.

"Now, our last point that we want to mention is a bit trickier. We don't want you guys to reject the idea immediately, even if it sounds crazy. Let's let it become a possibility first." Ricky was fully listening now. "We think, for the sake of the show and it's advertisement, that the main actors dating would be wonderful."

"But we're the main actors?" Ricky said, confused.

Nini furrowed her brows, "Yeah, and we're definitely not dating." What did that mean?

"Definitely not." Ricky repeated, a bit harsh, just because he was petty.

The producers looked at each other for an instant, before the blonde girl turned to them, a professional smile on her face, too big to be true, "Yeah, see. You're not. But the public doesn't need to know that."

"Fake dating?" Ricky asked, because they were saying too many words for what it was. The small man nodded. Ricky scoffed, "Absolutely not. No way."

"I agree with him," Nini added.

His manager turned to him, "Well, now, Ricky, let's not reject the i—"

"You knew about this?" Ricky exclaimed, shocked.

She hesitated, "Well, I—"

"Unbelievable. And you didn't tell me? Wow. Look guys, I'm not fake dating someone. I'm just not. It isn't who I am."

Nini nodded, "Yeah, it's a bad idea. I just don't feel comfortable with—"

The blond girl butted in, "Look, let's just all think about it. It's a possibility. We'll schedule a new meeting and talk about it again then."

"Fine," Nini accepted, and Ricky kind of disliked her for giving up so easily.

He got out of the meeting annoyed and with two many reasons to fully explain why.