❁starbucks❁

❁fifteen❁

Nini stood at the brown door to Ricky's apartment. Before knocking, she had double-triple checked that she did, in fact, have the right number. Next to the door, there was the number 610 colored in a deep bronze. 

She knocked twice, and could've sworn she heard a rushed gasp. A few milliseconds passed, and suddenly Ricky was at the door. He was wearing thick gray sweats and a big black hoodie. His cheeks were pink, which Nini attributed to his fever.

"Hey, Nini!" Ricky said enthusiastically. He internally pinched himself to see if he was dreaming. Was Nini really here, standing in front of him? The sunlight coming from the dingy window down the hall was just bright enough to shine light onto her face, almost as if it were an impromptu halo on an angel.

"Come on in." He smiled. Nini shyly stepped into his apartment and looked around. It smelled like him, she noticed. "Sorry about the mess."

"Oh, it's no problem at all. I came unexpectedly. How are you doing?" Nini looked into his eyes.

"Just tired." He said, eyeing the bags Nini was carrying.

"I brought some things." Nini said, listing off the items she bought at the store.

"Nini! You didn't need to! I'd hug you right now, but I don't want you to get sick."

"It's no problem at all. It wasn't expensive compared to all the coffees."

Ricky blushed. "I see a cute girl. I give her free coffee. Sue me." 

Nini could've passed out right then and there of happiness.

"Come on, sit down." Ricky gestured to the couch. 

"What do you wanna watch first? Your pick." Nini yawned as she sat down. Ricky sat down beside her, getting a blanket and draping it over their bodies.

Ricky shrugged, taking a sip of soda. "We can watch this one." He said, pointing to a documentary that Nini had googled and found had 3.7 stars on IMDb. It was about the lack of academic freedom, and according to one of the comments, was full of "Lies, high bias" and was "the very definition of idiotic". This made Nini decide to pick it.

"Alright." Nini said and they began to watch the documentary, occasionally making witty comments to make each other laugh when they saw fit. 

Eventually, the credits rolled.

"The IMDb reviews I read online were not wrong." Nini laughed.

"Seriously. If it wasn't for our creative and hilarious commentary, that would've been a waste of time for both of us." Ricky snorted. "You read IMDb reviews?"

"I made sure every movie I picked out was appropriately bad for us to make fun of." Nini said. "If it had less than 5.5 stars and had horrid reviews, it was in the running. I had a whole system."

"We are so different." Ricky laughed.

"I know we are. That's what makes us good..." she paused. "Together." She looked deeply into his eyes. 

"We are pretty good together, aren't we?" Ricky grinned. "Big Red never stops asking if we're dating yet."

Nini laughed. "He's sweet."

"Ever since he got together with Ashlyn a few months ago, he stopped asking as much, but that kid is relentless."

Nini didn't really know how to respond to this. She wanted to ask him if he liked her so badly, if he wanted to make her dreams (as well as Big Red's, apparently) but she couldn't get her courage up to do it. She could hear Kourt in her head pressing her to do it, but her overanalyzing self ultimately won their internal battle.