SACRIFICE ── HSMTMTS (ON HOLD)

⠀⠀17. new beginnings

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐙𝐀𝐑-𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐒' 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆. Just less than a month ago, if she had received the same text message from Ricky Bowen, she would've for one, been very confused that the brunette was even trying to contact her, especially knowing what kind of terms they were on, but she probably would've told him no, or even, to an extreme circumstance, have blocked his number.

But it was different now. Receiving this text message on a random Thursday afternoon, off the boy that she had shared affections with more times than she could count that week, excited her. She was more than willing this time around to leave the classroom she was studying in for her free period to meet the boy in the corridor, who was true to his word, and was standing there waiting for her.

It had only been a few hours since she had seen him last, but she still hugged him like she hadn't seen him in days. That's the way it was now. They were both being true to their intentions and making one another very aware that it was what they wanted, for things to go right between them. They were exploring each other's boundaries, figuring out where each other's hearts and heads were at, and it was almost like an adventure for Nini to try and scour her way through the mind-maze that was Ricky Bowen. The boy had so much more hidden depth.

"Hmm, I missed you," Ricky murmured into the girls shoulder as they hugged. "How was that chemistry exam that you were absolutely dreading this morning?"

"It was okay," Nini mumbled softly, pulling away from the boy to meet his gaze and smile at him. "It was harder than I thought, but I think it went okay."

Ricky smiled at her, his features soft, before he grabbed hold of the girls hand and began to drag her down the corridor. Nini chuckled, following him.

"Are you ditching class for this?" Nini chuckled as the two of them jogged down the school corridors - Nini had a feeling that Ricky was taking her to the football field, the twists and turns they were taking seemed to be in that direction. "I don't want you to be getting in trouble for wanting to spend time with me. You know you have me all to yourself once rehearsals have finished, right?"

Ricky chuckled, still dragging Nini down the corridors.

"I should be in class," Ricky started, quirking an eyebrow. "But my maths teacher didn't show up, so they let us go for the whole period. I have an hour and a half till my next class, so I wanted to spend it with you. Everyone else is in class."

Nini's heart bubbled as a warm feeling spread through it.

The two of them continued to make their way through the corridors of East High until they had burst through a set of double doors and made their way to the soccer field. Ricky guided Nini towards the bleachers, and the girl thought they were going to sit upon them to watch the jocks practise (it was something she used to do with Kourtney while she was dating E.J) but Ricky moved right past the bleachers and began to duck down underneath them instead.