ricky and nini's realizations

chapter 31

nini's pov

walking into the gymnasium, my eyes are drawn to the ceiling of twinkle lights. the decorations take my undivided attention. i'm lost in my thoughts of awe. entirely ignoring the herds of people around me, until i feel my hand being held to guide me through the crowd engulfing east high's large gym floor. my eyes flick down to my hand to see it being gripped by ricky's. my initial instinct is to yank my hand away, but i pause my thoughts for a second. this is completely unnatural territory, even though i'm the most comfortable around him compared to anyone else. but as i watch him maneuver around people ahead of us, i keep my eyes on him. we reach our friends soon enough. at first i take notice of ej, gina, and greyson dancing together like goofballs and laugh to myself. once we've fully approached them, i release my hand from ricky's no longer needing it. kourtney snatches me up to have a dance partner. i think ricky might've joined big red. her and i dance our hearts out to an upbeat song. our whole group is clustered next to one another and i can truly say that everyone looks really happy. we never take a break to go sit and chat. all of our energy is put into dancing tonight. many fast and loud songs later, a slow song finally comes on. all of us usually take this time to move off of the "dance floor" to grab some food or a drink to pass the time together. ej always finds himself a girl though. i begin following the girls when i feel my hand grabbed again making me jump. straight away, my eyes flick down to my hand for the second time tonight only to see ricky's hand gripping mine with his feet glued to the floor. his stubborn stance prompts me to shorten the distance between us. my eyes move from our hands to his eyes and i guess my scrunched up eyebrows gives away my confusion. "we're dancing nini," ricky states plainly with a hint of a smile. "i can see that," i respond tilting my head letting out a breathy laugh. he didn't say anything else like i expected him to. he releases my hand and both of his hands go straight to my waist. it's like my brain glitched for a moment because i didn't move. my hands just rested flatly on his chest. it must not have been as long of a pause as it felt though because ricky didn't make a comment about it. my hands slide up his chest to wrap around his neck loosely. "so..." i say pulling back just enough to see his face. he looks down to me from the feeling of me moving back, "mhmm?" he asks so nonchalantly. of course my face washes over with slight confusion once again. "you have never wanted to slow dance with anyone before," i say questionably. he just shrugs his shoulders with a faint smile and i feel his hands hold me just the slightest bit tighter. i guess that is his way of answering my question? i turn my head to the side looking around the room at all of the couples and wondering what the heck i am doing. ricky leans his chest into my front. i simply allow myself to relax for the remainder of the song.

ricky's pov

i have never felt more content than in this moment dancing with nini as the song plays. that is until i realize the song is ending any second and i don't know what to do now. do we start dancing to the next upbeat song, go look for our friends, do we talk about something? clearly i acted on a burst of confidence, rather than thinking of how this could play out. at the change of the song, nini pulls away slowly still keeping us connected. i let my hands remain on her lower back as long as she lets me. with my hands still placed here, she had moved her hands from my neck to wrap her hands around my arms that reach around her. her touch. her small, gentle touch. does something to my body. the slight brush of her hand can capture my full attention. the feeling of her gentle hands resting on my forearms right now makes me feel so connected to her. the loud music plays in the background of my hearing because all i can do is think about how i felt while slow dancing with my best friend. who is the most beautiful girl in the room. i like my best friend. "ricky, wanna go sit for a little bit?" she asks me kind of nervously. "you don't wanna keep dancing? i think they're about to come back over here," i say breaking my gaze from nini to pretend to look for our friends over my shoulder "um, no. let's just take a break from dancing and go talk for a little," she tells me. i feel the heat of my blush rush to my  face at my conclusion that she wants to stop dancing for us to talk. i'm nervous, but i feel good honestly. at this point, i just take a huge leap of faith and take her hand in mine, interlacing our fingers this time, for the third time tonight. except this time my reason for grabbing her hand is to simply hold it close to me. no other reason. if she didn't want this, then i wouldn't have some lame excuse like guiding her through a crowd like before. my heart skips a beat when she doesn't pull her hand out of my hold. instead she begins walking around people to lead us to a table. not even a few seconds of trying to get through the many students, greyson somehow manages to spot nini. he places his hand on her arm opposite of the side i'm on, "hey nins, wanna go dance?" his interruption pushes me to my breaking point. my body fills with pure boiling heat as i try to refrain myself from butting in. nini tilts her head sympathetically, "oh i'm gonna go take a break from dancing for now," she informs him. i take this as the end of that and begin to walk again to try and escape this never ending crowd to be alone with her. nini's body doesn't come with me making me come to a halt because greyson starts talking again. my eyes glue to his touch on her arm that he isn't removing. it's like he hasn't noticed me. "you're not leaving though right?" he asks her seemingly ina joking manner. i can't take it anymore. all i want to do is just go with nini, but this guy is always there somehow.

general pov

"dude she said she wants a break from dancing. take the answer for what it is," ricky speaks with complete malice in his voice without even trying. nini's head whips to the side of her body, where ricky stands, at the unknown tone of ricky's voice. greyson removes his hand from nini's arm maintaining eye contact with ricky. "bro, do you have a problem?" greyson returns in annoyance, but nothing compared to the strong emotions ricky has swarming in his body. "a problem?! you're my freaking problem bro!" he quickly says back with a raise in his voice catching the eyes of the people closest to them that are dancing. ricky angrily takes a fast step forward. with their hands still connected, nini shoots her free hand up to his chest with a shocked expression written on her face, but greyson speaks before she gets a word out, "seems like your problem is always me when nini's around," greyson scoffs, puffing his chest directly to ricky. "you're a real piece of-," ricky quite literally screams lunging forward, catching way more peoples' attention. nini slides out of the way from fear followed by disappointment in ricky. ricky is cut off mid sentence by ej forcefully engulfing ricky from behind to keep him back. "go somewhere else," ej demands greyson who is still standing his ground, "now!" greyson walks off to who knows where. knowing that the situation is handled. seeing that ej is still holding a fuming ricky. nini scurries off. ej talks into ricky's ear, "yo, you good?" ricky replies delayed, "i'm fine," he says while taking in his surroundings that had disappeared for a moment. ej doesn't release just yet because he needed to know what ricky would do seeing that his fists were still balled up. ricky looks around for nini only to see unimpressed looks of his classmates and no nini. nini collides with big red as she's speed walking to nowhere. "nini, hold up. are you okay?" he asks not understanding how redundant of a question he just asked, but with the best intentions. "can we go out in the hall?" nini asks him hoping for a quiet place taking a deep breathe for relief. they reach the halls and take over the bench in the empty hallway. "did you see?" nini hesitantly asks big red. "yeah," he replies. "he has never acted like this. like that. before," she says her thoughts, that leave her dumbfounded, aloud to red. "you've just never seen him when he feels like the most important person to him is being pulled away from him," he says sure of himself back to her.