wave after wave 🌊 [rini au]

summer ; 18

Ricky continued smiling at her as he sang, in a way to assure her that it would be okay. Nini's thumb instinctively rubbed the ring that was around her index finger, wishing that he wasn't on stage and beside her to hold her. "Cute boy toy, you have there..." Keoke made his presence known, settling into the chair opposite her. She pushed herself off the table, and leaned back into the chair, crossing her arms across her chest, in a physical rejection of letting her body be close to him. "He's not a toy, he's my boyfriend," Nini's voice came out thinner than she hoped it would. "He does know that you hate things that draw attention to yourself, right?" Keoke smirked, boating his knowledge of her as her childhood friend. She sighed, "You do know I'm not the same person I was three years ago right?" Keoke doubled over in a laugh, one Nini took as mockery, "Nini Roberts, you've been the same since we were five. You aren't going to fool anyone." This was not the reunion that either of them expected; while Keoke had been expecting Nini to be more or less the same as when he had last seen her, Nini didn't quite know what to expect. One thing was for sure, she did not expect him to become so egoistic. Keoke was a rather sweet guy, considerate towards Nini, which was why she had hesitated when she heard that he was back. "Even though that's not true, I wish that I could say the same about you," She retaliated in the same small voice. The boy opposite her was visibly taken aback at her firm comeback, and Nini turned her attention back to Ricky, who was singing the chorus sweetly, deciding she didn't want to engage in this spiteful conversation.

"How have you been, Nini?" He decided to change the topic to a less antagonistic one. She merely shrugged, not knowing how much to divulge; he used to be a safe place to confide in, but she really wasn't sure now, "I've been okay... I guess? I had to deal with the drama of the school knowing that you rejected me, although that died down quickly, thank god. High school was mostly as usual, drama and studying, not that you would know anything about it." It was true, he'd converted to online school to accommodate his training. "I ended up deciding to not go to college, but Gina and Kourt are going to colleges in New York next month. I've been happy with my relationship with Ricky, Nate got married and now, I'm here, I guess. What about you?" She hoped that he wouldn't notice her lack of interest in him, she knew herself that she asked out of mere courtesy, and for the deflection of attention away from herself.

"Well, I've been surfing, a lot. Oahu has been great, I've met so many good surfers who have taught me so much. I was really happy to place decently for the qualifiers, and it sets me up nicely for next year. I hadn't really seen Nic in Oahu though, was he there?" Nini was highly unimpressed at the mention of her WSL high-flyer brother, even more so because Keoke was supposed to know she didn't like to breach that topic. "He just goes wherever his coach takes him, but he's been visiting a lot more this year, to spend more time with family and his girlfriend." She made a subtle jab at him, who never saw the value in spending time with his family. Unfortunately, he didn't catch on and was only concerned about the time that Nic was losing, saying that it was time that he could have spent training for the WSL Championship tour.

At this point, Nini was done talking to him, his hunger for success was pushing her off a cliff. Thankfully, Ricky was coming down from the stage already, requesting the bill from the waiter. He took note of her slouched posture and her fiddling with the ring he had given her and decided it was best to interject and save her from the conversation with her friend.

"Nina, I brought you a glass of water," He placed the glass in front of her and kissed her hair, arm flung around her shoulders, giving a small squeeze. His girlfriend took the glass, whispering a word of thanks, before turning to him with a smile, remarking, "Aha- getting a lil fancy with the lemon." He combed his fingers through her hair, laughing at their inside joke: as a cafe staff herself, she thought lemon water was pretentious, though she'd serve it anyway, because it was the only water that people usually accepted. Ricky loved the scowl on her face when she recalled the number of times tourists commented, "Ooh, tropical," at a lame glass of lemon water.