Multi-Fandom One-Shots Part 2

You Can Have Manhattan - Rini (HSMTMTS)

Six Months Ago

"No!" Nini said sharply. She spun around to face the man behind her and laid her palms on the granite counter top. "I won't be what holds you back, and I won't put my life on hold. I'm twenty years-old, Ricky! I won't just drop out of college half-way through my junior year, but I won't make you stay here, either." She shook her head as hot tears welled in her eyes.

Ricky raked his palms down his face and sighed deeply. "I'm not asking you to drop out, but I won't let this keep us apart! Your courses can be done online easily, Neens. You don't have to worry about not finishing your degree. It'll be the same, just a little bit away from here," he told her, pleading that she would see his side of the argument.

Nini's mouth dropped and her eyes widened. For a moment she had no idea what to say. How could he think this way? How could he think so little of her? She would be giving up so much - her friends, her family, her home. The tears began to fall in large drops.

"A little bit away?" she questioned incredulously. "Two thousand miles isn't 'a little bit away', Ricky! Are you crazy?" She began to pace around the small kitchen of their apartment, fingers threading through her hair. "Ricky, I have a life here! You're asking me to leave my moms, our friends! Just so that I stay cooped up in another apartment somewhere that I know nothing about?" She shook her head and stalked out of the kitchen and into their bedroom.

"Nini, please! Just try and understand from my perspective. This is an opportunity that I'll probably never get again, and I want you to experience it with me," he said as his voice broke and tears rolled down his cheeks.

Nini sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands. Her voice came out muffled, but Ricky heard her nonetheless. "I know how big of an opportunity this is, Ricky. That's why you're going to go, and I'm not. I won't hold you back from this, and I won't give up my life. You know that this isn't going to work just as well as I do."

Ricky sat on his knees at the foot of the bed, right next to where Nini was sitting. He rested his head in her lap as the tears continued to fall. "Please don't do this, Neens," he begged. But it was too late. They both knew it.

She choked back a sob as it became real. One hand covered her mouth to muffle the sound while the other made its way through Ricky's curls. The tears were falling freely now, neither of them trying to erase the salty tracks.

By the next morning, Ricky's belongings were almost completely gone, with only a cable knit sweater a a few socks that he had forgotten remaining. The sweater was Nini's favorite; she didn't think that he left that behind on accident.

Shutting the door behind him, she took a deep breath and steadied herself. Her eyes were puffy from the night that the two of them had spent together, crying and lying in each other's arms. Her head knocked on the wooden door as she slid to the floor.

Who the hell was she without him?

-

Present Day

Nini waddled into her kitchen, grabbing the jar out peanut butter and a spoon before making her way to the couch in the living room. She sat down, rather ungracefully, and twisted the lid off of the jar. A rerun of New Girl was playing on her TV, but she was hardly paying attention. She swung her slightly swollen feet onto the coffee table and picked up her phone.

There was a text from Kourtney at the top of her screen, asking if she had done the assignment for their chemistry lab, and another from Seb stating that he'd be over around 4:00 with a movie and a smoothie. She responded to both before returning to the jar in her lap. She'd had a lot of cravings over the past few months, but the most common by far had been peanut butter. Chunky, smooth - it didn't matter. She'd gone through an unimaginable amount of jars since the cravings had started kicking in.