Ricky & Nini : After All

Chapter 3 : Nashville

Ricky's POV:

Does her follow mean anything?  I think in the back of my mind. No, definitely not. It's been five years, Ricky.

I was sitting in the recording studio finalizing some things for my album, which was set to release in two days. Tour dates came out today. My excitement was through the roof because my dreams were about to come true. 

"How does this sound?" My music producer asked. I put my phone away and put back on my headphones. "Yeah, this is sick." I reply. 

My album consisted of 12 songs, and over half of them are about Nini. Some of them have been in the works for years, so that can explain them. But a few others were written much recently. Sometimes I get in this fog where I can't stop thinking about us and our past. The only way to move on was to write a song about it. 

Of course, I love Gina. She's supportive and crazy beautiful. Honestly, she's the only person I've remained close with from East High apart from Big Red. He's helped me through everything, especially when I was heartbroken about Nini moving to Denver. But now she's off in Canada being a successful actress. 

After my recording session finished up, I headed back to my apartment in Nashville, Tennessee. I moved here 2 years ago. Gina and I, at that point, had been dating for 10 months. She moved here to start a dancing school. She's so talented and is constantly teaching me new things. 

"Hi baby." Gina says as I open the door. She's sitting on the floor by the couch, stretching her splits. "Hey, cutie." I respond. She hops up and gives me a kiss. "Missed you." I said with a smile. "I missed you more." She said, leaving my arms and heading to the kitchen.

Gina and I have been living together for the past four months. We decided it was the best step we could take in our relationship. "How was your session at the studio?" She asked while grabbing a banana. 

"Great. Finalized everything for the album. How were your classes this morning?" I responded. "Not the greatest. I had my 5 and 6 year olds. They were extra insane." She answered.

"Well, I'm sure you handled them like a pro." I said, hugging her from behind. I plant a kiss on her neck. Then another. "Noooo... Ricky. Not right now. I have a class in an hour." She says, but she doesn't pull away. 

"Fine." I respond jokingly exasperated. 

Just a little bit later, Gina is off to the studio and I'm left alone on the couch. I resort to scrolling aimlessly through Instagram. Somehow or another, I end up on Nini's page. 

I scroll down pretty far. There are countless photos of her with guys. Friends? Something more? I couldn't tell. But deep in the pit of my stomach I felt a small knot forming. I knew what that was because it was the same feeling I had at the beginning of junior year when Nini and EJ started dating. Jealousy.

I pushed that feeling way down until it was unnoticeable. I wasn't going to let anything distract me from tour, my music, or Gina. 

My manager texted me and made sure I had an Instagram post scheduled to go up in an hour or so promoting my album. I reassured her that I had everything planned out already.

Once Gina got home, we made dinner and snuggled up on the couch. I let myself be consumed by the movie on the TV and Gina's warmth. I wanted to forget all of the feelings I had towards Nini. It was pointless feeling that way about something that was long, long over. Besides, we were 16. What did we think was gonna happen?