A light || Ricky and Nini

Chapter 91

Nini POV

When we get back to the hotel Ricky pulls me into a hug. It feels nice to have his arms around me after such an uncomfortable day and I think he can feel the safety too. "Thank you for coming with me, Nini" he whispers into my neck and I nod, closing my eyes and bringing my hand to the base of his neck and rubbing gently. "Always baby." I whisper back and he lets go of me. "We have an early morning." He tells me and I nod. "Can I just hug you a little longer?" I ask and he brings his hands to my waist and sways us back and forth a little. "You don't have to ask" he mumbles, already enclosing me in his arms. 

Ricky POV 

The next morning, Nini and I are up and at the airport by 4:30. Nini is heavy in my arms as she leans on me by our gate and I look down at her to see her eyes are closed. "Hey sleepy head" I whisper and her eyes flutter open. She turns herself to see me better, bringing her arms around my neck. "You good?" I laugh and she smiles tiredly and brings her forehead against my chest. "Just tired." She says and I smile, rubbing her back. After a second she stands up straight, stretches and yawns. "I think they're about to board." She says and I kiss her forehead. "You can sleep on the plane." I tell her and she nods, pulling out her phone, groaning, and putting it away again. "It's so early." She whispers against my body and and I bring my hand through her hair soothingly, trying to contain my laughter. 

After some time, I'm awakened from the movement on the plane and I check the time to see that we're landing already. I look over at Nini and I smile when I see her face is snuggled into my shoulder and her hands gripping my arm as if she's afraid I'll let go. I feel her thumb moving against my skin gently. My heart swells as I look at how peaceful she is and I bring my other hand up to her cheek, rubbing her cheek bones softly. "We made it" I whisper to her and she smiles. "We did" she says, her eyes remaining shut. "I can't wait to go back to school" I laugh, and her eyes flutter open. "I hope EJ and Gina worked things out." I'm confused for a second and Nini's eyes widen but she looks like she shakes it off. "He just called me while you were at Starbucks, he and Gina got into a fight." I nod and roll my eyes. "Always something with that kid." She laughs beautifully and resumes her drawing on my skin as we feel the plane descending. "I also can't wait to see my dad." I say, looking out the window. Nini touches my arm gently. "I bet." She says and I smile softly, knowing that she gets it. "It's kinda nice that we have the rest of the day off, I need major sleep and major time with my moms." She says and I kiss her hand gently. "I'll drop you off at your house and then hunker down with my dad for the rest of the day. Might as well get started on some homework too." I tell her and she nods. "Sounds good baby." She kisses my cheek lightly and before we know it, we've touched down in Salt Lake again. 

After we get home the day passes fairly quickly. I move from homework to watching TV with my dad who know I'm not emotionally ready to leave him alone yet. "Bud, I've told you a thousand times, I'm fine." He says laughing. I roll my eyes. "If I believed everything you said-" he points at me, laughing. "Chill out." He says and I throw my head back in laughter. After a few moments of silence as I make popcorn, my dad breaks it. "So how was it?" He tries to ask nonchalantly. It was the elephant in the room for the majority of the day and he finally was acknowledging it. I sigh and grab a drink for me and him, walking into the living room and sitting on the couch. "It was a wedding." I shrug and he looks at me pointedly. "You don't have to sugar coat it Rick." I nod and let my head fall. "It was hard to be there. I was just constantly hearing about how she finally found the one and how the universe makes you go through the bad partners to find the good ones." I say, gesturing in annoyance. He nods and brings his hand to my shoulder. "I didn't really expect anything less and I'm really proud of you for sticking it out." He tells me. I nod and hang my head again. "Mom really came through in the end. Her new son... just a creepy dude and she really didn't let me down like she has for a while." I tell my dad. He smiles. "As much as I want to hear about why he's creepy, I've got a feeling there are some things you rather leave in Chicago?" He asks. I smile and sit back on the couch. "I thought so. I'm just glad you're home, son." He says and I sit back up to hug him. "I love you dad." 

About an hour later I hear the doorbell ring and I jog to get it, hopping it's Nini even though I was just with her this morning. "Oh it's you." I say when I open the door. EJ looks offended. "What is with you two?" He mumbles. "Can I come in? Oops already in. I need help." EJ says, pushing by me and shutting the front door. I raise my eyebrows. "Sure, I love helping respectful people." I say sarcastically and he shrugs. "Good. Now your girlfriend has already steered me wrong-" I laugh and cut him off. "I love how she's my girlfriend and not your friend when she's done something wrong." He waves me off like I'm irrelevant. "Look, the fight with me and Gina? Not great. I apologized, she didn't take it." I shrug. "Well how did you apologize?" I ask, walking to the kitchen to grab an apple. EJ follows me into the kitchen. "I'm sorry?" I groan and roll my eyes. "You're an idiot." He throws his hands up. "What? How is that wrong? SHE got mad at me for being TOO jealous even though I was just being polite to the guys in her class." I look up at him. "Polite?" EJ rolls his eyes. "Fine. Sarcastic. But whatever, who's taking notes? Now Gina won't talk to me and she said my apology was insincere and I don't know what to do." I sigh noticing that EJ is actually upset about this. "What did Nini tell you to do?" He looks at the wall. "She told me to apologize! She told me I couldn't charm my way out of my situations, which, by the way, it's not like I do that." I snort. "Come on dude, that's literally your motto. You need to prepare a REAL apology for her. She deserves that much. Jealousy is a nasty thing." He sighs and hangs his head. "Yeah I guess you're right. How did you deal with it yesterday? I mean that dude's hands all over Nini? I'm sure that stirred some emotion... and by the way how is she doing?" I freeze for a second and look at EJ. "Wait what?" The color drains from his face. "Shit."