ricky and nini's realizations

chapter 30

ricky's pov

the doorbell rings and nini goes straight for the door leaving me alone in the kitchen. as she opens the door, i begin to walk up behind her expecting it to be ej arriving. with just my luck, it was greyson. instead of joining her at the door like i was about to, i cross behind the doorway to go sit in the living room on my phone. luckily gina and kourtney come downstairs and join me, but all i can hear are him and nini chatting it up. the girls scroll through pinterest showing each other the poses they wanna do for pictures in a little bit. i keep my eyes on my phone screen, but my ears are fully tuned into their conversation. "i know what you said, but i got you this," greyson says gathering my full attention to look at them. he slides a corsage of white flowers onto nini's wrist while blushing. i'm seriously done with this dude being friends with my best friend. "awe," nini says in sort of like a sympathetic voice, "you really didn't need to, but thank you. they're really pretty," she tells him looking over the flowers. ej interrupts their moment walking up behind them resulting in greyson finally walking through the door. "hey y'all!" ej announces himself full of energy with big red trailing behind him. carol notices the rowdiness of the bunch and calls us to the backyard to get started on pictures. at first, all of us huddle into a straight line for a group picture. nini stands in between greyson and i. prefect placement right? nini looks up to me just as i grip her waist a bit tighter, but she doesn't say anything. just looks back to the camera. both carol and dana are there to snap photos of all of us. the girls branch off from us guys to get their own photos together. dana moves to the other side of the yard in front of their garden, while the rest of us guys have carol take pictures of us. eventually, everyone just starts taking pictures with whoever. mostly taking turns in pairs. big red and i were taking a silly photo when greyson makes his way over to nini. just watching him happily place his hand on her hip aggravates me. not only that, she seems perfectly fine with it. i pry my eyes away from them, so i didn't have to watch him gloat next to her any longer.

nini's pov

i've gotten good pictures with everyone, except for the most important person of course. "rickyyy," i draw out happily walking towards him across the yard. once i reach him, i pull on his arm to drag him towards my moms' pretty wall of vines for pictures together. "momma!" i call for her to come finish up picture taking with ricky and i. he slides his hand across the small of my back and settles lowly on my hip. that was a new feeling for me. momma snaps a photo and for the next one i bring my hand up to rest on his chest. i feel heat rise to my face, but i ignore it in hopes that it would go away quickly. i can feel him look down at me, so i turn my neck upwards to meet his eyes, "what?" i say small with a smile spreading across my face. "nothing," he says with the same smile. before i know it, he sweeps me up to hold me in his arms resulting in a funny picture. with my hands around his neck, he places my feet back to the ground, "very funny bowen." my moms walk back inside with their cameras. the setting of the sun signal it's time to go to the dance. "everyone ready to head out?" gina asks the group once we're all standing together in the backyard. everyone agrees, but we take a group selfie first. big red offers up his phone and hands it to ej, "you take the pic." ej accepts the phone, but says, "why? i don't wanna be the closest to the camera." "you're the tallest and have the longest arms," big red declares. ej rolls his eyes, "okay." kourtney and i make eye contact and snicker at the brief interaction between the two boys. we all scrunch together to fit into the phone screen. i don't let ricky's extra close proximity to me go unnoticed. he presses his cheek to mine causing me to smile bigger. he does however rest his hand on my hip like in our pictures earlier. it's not like you can see our bodies in the selfie though, so it catches my undivided attention we he does so unnecessarily. "ight, lets get going. i wanna go dance!" ej announces after snapping the final photo. kourtney rolls her eyes for dramatic effect, "you mean you wanna go dance with a bunch of underclassmen," she states plainly. "i mean if that's how you wanna phrase it," ej trails off while opening the gate for all of us to walk through. all of us burst into laughter at his remark. we reach the front of our house where my car, ej's, and kourtney's are parked. "so who's riding with who?" i ask as we approach the driveway. kourtney unlocks her car and gina follows behind her, "well ride over together. i've already got some stuff in her car," gina answers with a quick wave. "i'm going with nins," ricky chimes in. "sounds good," i say. i automatically assume big red is riding with ej, "greyson, what about you?" i ask him as i stand with my hand propped on the top of my opened car door. ricky stands across from me opening the passenger side, but stands like i do, not getting in just yet. i notice greyson look past me with a pause and he replies, "i'm just gonna go with the guys," he says shortly. "you sure? you can ride with us," i let him know. "nah it's all good nins. see you in a few," he says sweetly to me as he walks past me to ej's car behind mine. i turn to look at ricky and see the stern look on his face as his eyes follow greyson allowing me to put the pieces together. "ricky you've gotta let up on that boy," i say to him. "what? i didn't do anything" he says with a face of innocence. all i can do is giggle at his response. him not even trying to deny my statement. shaking my head lightly i get into my car with ricky following my lead. i hand ricky the aux cord and smile at him, "k lets go!," i say excitedly.