folklore-Rini

my tears ricochet

ricky's pov

I sat down beside Big Red, in the back of the classroom. I'd always hated math, and now I had even more reason to. I was going to have to sit in the same room as Nini, without getting distracted.

"Ricky, you okay?" Big Red questioned, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm fine. You don't have to keep checking on me. I'm totally handling this Nini situation. " I replied, leaning back in my chair. Right on cue, Nini walked in and sat next to Kourtney a couple rows ahead of us. 

"Okay, then." He said, opening up his notebook and doodling. I looked over at Nini, as the last bell rang. She was working on the warmup on the board, but I noticed her left hand was in her pocket. I know it was kind of creepy for me to just be staring all the time, but I was still working on getting over her. Okay?

"Work on your warmups, students!" Our calculus teacher told us, but I just took out and my notebook and fake wrote in it. After a few minutes of fake writing, I stole a glance at Nini and saw her hand was out of her pocket. She was holding a piece of paper. I could see some writing and color on the paper, but I couldn't tell what it said. 

"Probably a love note from EJ." I whispered, quiet enough where even Big Red couldn't hear it. At that point, I was done with EJ-related stuff, so I actually started on my warmup.

At the end of the day, I sat with Big Red in Physics, bored out of my mind. Nini was in Physics too, so I had to figure out how to keep my mind away from her. Apparently, science was not the answer. 

"Yo, Big Red. Are you as bored as I am?" I whispered, elbowing him gently in his side.

"Yeah..." He whispered back, rolling his eyes.

"Ok. Talk to me, then. What's been happening with you? I feel like we always talk about me." 

"Uh...Not much, really." He said, shrugging.

"Come on. There's gotta be something. You like anybody, maybe?" I suggested, tilting my head.

"I mean...There's this one girl, but I can't." 

"Why not?" I asked, furrowing my brows.

"It's gotta do with a certain someone I won't be naming." He told me, looking over at Nini who was messing with that piece of paper again.  

"Nini?"

"Well, not Nini, obviously. She's like a sister to me. And you're in love with her, so that'd be crossing a line too...But, anyways, they have a connection to each other." He explained, but I still didn't get it.

"I'm lost."

"As always." He jabbed, earning him a glare despite the truth it carried.

"Dude, just tell me who she is. I swear, I won't be mad."

"Promise?"

"Yes." I said, a little too loud. I got some weird stares, including one from Nini, but just shrugged and spat out an excuse. "Yes. I actually understand the lesson now." I added, with a nervous smile. At that, everyone just turned back around and got back to what they were doing. I don't think anybody really cared, anyway.

"Yes." I repeated to Big Red, in a whisper.

"Fine...It's this girl named Ashlyn. You know her?" 

"That's EJ's cousin, right?" I replied, and he nodded. "Oh. That's why you said you couldn't date her...Well, that's dumb. You really thought I'd care if you dated my exe's new boyfriend's cousin?" 

"Kinda, yeah." He admitted.

"Well, as weird as this situation is, you're my best friend. I wanna see you happy."