A light || Ricky and Nini

Chapter 73

Nini POV

Ricky and I remain outside for a little bit, because when I say we arrived at school early, we arrived at school REALLY EARLY. "It's peaceful like this" Ricky says softly as he brings his hands to rub my shoulders. "That feels nice" I say closing my eyes. "And yeah I swear it's always loud here." I tell him. He leans down and looks at me with a bright smile. "You doin okay?" Ricky asks and I nod, though I'm deep in thought. "Yeah it's just... do you think I was a bit rude?" I ask him. "WHAT?" Ricky asks, coming from behind to kneel in front of me. "I don't know. Was I rude to Nate? I mean he already has to deal with-" Ricky cuts me off. "Nini you are literally the most selfless person I know. Nate fucking assaulted you. If anything, you were nice." I look at him a little unsure and I start to say something. "Can I kiss you since you won't shut up?" He asks and I start to stutter. He leans in and presses his lips to mine. "Too late" he mumbles against my mouth and he deepens the kiss a bit more. His tongue runs across my bottom lip and I let out a quick breath as his hands find my waist. "Yo this is my professional learning environment, if you guys are gonna get it on can it not be here?" We hear and we pull apart to see a fully showered EJ. I blush and duck my head into Ricky's arm. Ricky chuckles and rubs my arm. "EJ I can't thank you enough for-" I start to tell him and he shakes his head. "Nah Nini, that was the right thing to do." I look unsure. "But you lost a team member." I say and Ricky huffs. "Would you stop doing that? He deserves what he got babe." EJ sits down next to me. "He really did Nini. He physically hurt you. No guy should-" he cuts himself off and shakes his head. "Emotionally would've been bad enough but god." He finishes and Ricky nods, his hand tightening on my leg. "So stop beating yourself up about it Nini." Ricky says and I reach for his hand. "Okay" I manage to get out and I see both boys exchange a glance. "Not to mention, it took guts to stand up to him. I mean literally too. You deserve more credit than you're giving yourself." EJ says and I look at him and shrug. "Thank you." I say and he smiles. I reach my arms around the senior and pull him into a hug, he holds onto me tightly and if I could see what was happening, I'd guess he and Ricky were trying to talk through facial expressions. When I pull back EJ smiles. "Half of this was Gina's idea by the way." He says like it's a secret. I smile at the mention of my friend and he elaborates. "I was always gonna kick him off the team, but she thought it'd be good for you to have a chance to stand up for yourself." I nod and reach for Ricky's hand again. "I felt pretty strong." I admit and Ricky whispers in my ear. "You're the strongest person I know." EJ smiles at us and Ricky moves to sit on the bench. I lean my head on his shoulder and EJ grabs my hand to give it a squeeze before getting up. "I think I see Gina. Imma head over and meet her." He says pointing to a girl far off in the parking lot. I nod as he starts to head, but I jump up again and try to hop over to him before he realizes I'm trying to chase after him. "What's up?" He laughs and I bring my arms around him again. "I just wanted to thank you again." I say and when we pull away he smiles. "You've got a whole hell of a lot of people who will never stop defending you, because that's the energy you put into us." He holds onto my shoulders. "I'm one of those people Nini. I swear to god, you deserve the best." I tear up a little and nod. "Thank you" I whisper out and he smiles. "I gotta go meet my girl. But I'm always here for you Nins." He says and I thank him for the millionth time as he walks away. Ricky comes up from behind me, wrapping his arms around my body. "What did I do to deserve you guys?" I ask quietly. "Absolutely nothing. You're just perfect." He tells me. Damn, what a way to start the day.

At the end of the day Ricky asks me if I want to go to the park to do homework today, instead of one of our houses. I nod eagerly, excited about the spring like weather. "Let's do it" he says and we laugh as we get into the car, driving to the park. When he and I are all situated on the grass I look over to him. "Question." I say and his eyes meet mine. "Shoot" he says smiling. "This wedding thing... you're really jumping in?" I ask and he thinks for a second. "I have to, I might regret it someday." He says quietly and I nod. "It's okay to be sad about it babe. I'm already so proud of you for deciding this in the first place. But it's okay to be sad." He nods a little and his head hangs. "I just think that it'd be a good idea. Maybe someday I'm going to want her around, and I'd have missed everything." I nod, completely understanding. "I just know it's a lot, and I just want to make sure you aren't keeping anything inside." He nods and moves himself closer to me. "It's gonna be one of those 'let's just get it over with type of moments.' I already know we're sitting in the back row. I'm not walking her down the fucking aisle or dancing with her at the reception. And I swear I'm not having one heart to heart moment with Todd." I nod and take my hand. "So in other words, we're going to loiter and then blow out of there?" I ask and he chuckles, his genuine smile coming through. "100%" he says quietly. "Look I know we leave in two weeks, but is it okay if we don't talk about it much? I just want to stop picturing the whole thing even though it'll be a reality pretty soon. But if I can minimize the amount of times I live through it..." I pull his face to mine and kiss him deeply. "Deal."