jolivia•rini•hsmtmts

^recovery

It would be an understatement to say it was difficult, for them both. They both took very different approaches. Ricky basically remained in denial, as far as he was aware it was a temporary pause. They would be back together before the summer was over, he just needed time. His parents were fighting again and he just couldn't handle the pressure of being a good boyfriend to Nini while trying to be the glue holding his parents' marriage together. He spent the summer skating with Big Red and occasionally talking to some girls but all he could do was talk about Nini and how great she was. To put it simply, he was oblivious to the irreparable damage he'd caused. But this isn't about him, to be honest, a story about Ricky skating with Red and blabbering about Nini all summer would be pretty boring...  so let's talk about Nini.

- back in the summer -

"She's been in there for days Kourtney, won't even come down for dinner" Dana sighed,

"I know, she's barely been replying to my messages. All I know is something happened with Ricky, but I've brought pizza, hopefully it's enough to lure her out." Kourtney replied with a worried frown. Dana gestured upstairs with a small defeated smile. Kourtney nodded in response and headed up the stairs.

"Nini? It's me Kourtney. I've been worried about you"

"I don't want to talk right now Kourtney"  Nini replied from the other side of the door with a sniffle.

"I brought pizza?"

Silence...

"Okay, you can come in" Nini muttered quietly, Kourtney giggled slightly and pushed the door open.

Oh my lord

It was a mess.

The curtains were drawn, the room pitch black, clothes and pictures strewn about the floor,  cups and plates piled on the desk and in the center of this implosion of chaos was Nini. Her hair was messily put up, her face stained with tears. She was in an old pair of sweats and one of Ricky's t-shirts, sat with legs crossed in her bead surrounded by blankets and pillows.

"Nini..." Kourtney whispered as she walked over with her arms open wide. Nini climbed out of her bed, a fresh crop of tears pouring down her face as she crashed into her best friend's embrace.

"I-I told Ricky, I told him I loved him and all he could say was Oh..." Suddenly the pain turned to anger, "Who says OH?! What does oh even mean?" and then back again to pain "I really thought he loved me Kourt. But he wanted us to take a pause while I went to camp. A pause? That's just a nice way of saying break up." By this point she'd finished pacing and slumped back onto her bed.

"A pause?" Kourtney mumbled in thought,

"Yes a pause! Were you not listening to me?" Nini said in a challenging manner,

"Nini it's not be your mad at, your mad at Ricky." Kourtney said with a comforting smile as she perched beside her friend. Nini rested her head on her shoulder in defeat.

"I don't want to be. I love him. I really do"

"I know, I know... but you have to know this pain is only temporary. Do you know what's forever? Me and you. You'll always have me and you don't need Ricky to be happy."

"Well how do I start to be happy again?" Nini asked with a naive frown.

"I have no idea, but the first step is open those windows... because it stinks in here." Kourtney laughed,

"It does not!" Nini giggled back, after quick inspection, she replied "Oh wait it kinda does"

"I told you so" Kourtney said grabbing Nini's hand and dragging her to the window, "Let's let some light in, change your clothes and eat pizza."

"Will  you stay the night? I don't wanna be alone"

Kourtney nodded with a small smile as she scooped up all the clothes and dumped them in the laundry basket. " Come on Nini, I'm not doing it all by myself"

"But I'm sad" Nini smirked.

"Wow... playing that card are we? I can't believe you" Kourtney retorted,

"I'm kidding" Nini smiled, for a second she forgot about Ricky, she forgot about their relationship status being up in the air, she forgot about the impending theatre camp and just tidied her room with Kourtney. They listened to music and danced about the room and barely noticed Carol and Dana standing at the door watching.

"We've got our daughter back" Dana smiled,

"She needs a good shower but she's back" Carol replied with a jokey smile as they both walked in to help.

By the end of the evening, all four of them were sat on the floor of her room scarfing down pizza. All the Ricky related artifacts had been boxed away and hidden, both the room and Nini were relatively tidy and clean, but most importantly Nini, for the first time in days, wasn't thinking about Ricky.