wave after wave 🌊 [rini au]

we've been together hand in hand through it all ; 38

The cold of winter crept into a lovely cool spring, the surging waves calming down and the rain drying up. It was the Waimea Town Celebration in March and of course, as honorary Waimea residents, the Roberts family was involved in the celebrations. There was a flea market sale going on for a week — Nate and Emma thought it would be good if Nini sold their handcrafted souvenirs at the flea. She gladly accepted the offer to curate a new collection for the celebration, making an exclusive edition for the flea sales.

The girl was sitting behind the counter, busy stringing some flowers together to make flower crowns, working in an organised flow as she alternated the different colours, creating a pattern. Nini felt her phone vibrate on the counter as a call came in, her screen lighting up to a photo of Ricky in his lifeguard uniform. Why was he calling at this hour, he's supposed to be on duty. "Hello?" She balanced the phone between her ear and shoulder as she continued to work the flower crown in hand, her voice coming out a little strained because of the weird position she was in. "Hey Nini, Ricky's not feeling too good, he got heat exhaustion and fainted. We just thought to call you and let you know-" She immediately dropped the plants and string in her hands, and ran over to the cafe to ask one of the waitress girls to help her watch over her cashier. The girl ran as fast as her legs could take her and sprinted on to the beach to only one destination: the lifeguard tower. All she could think of was how she had nagged at Ricky to drink more water throughout the day and how he would tap her nose in response, never taking her seriously. Nini could only recall the number of times she told him to sleep earlier and hang up on his calls with her, or go home to sleep earlier but he would refuse, telling her all he wanted was to spend time with her. The strap of her top had fallen down her shoulder as she made her way to the beach, but she couldn't care less. She needed to get to Ricky.

As she approached the tower, she could hear EJ and Noah laughing about something; all she knew was her boyfriend fainting wasn't something to laugh about, the girl huffed and puffed in anger, slamming the door of the tower open. Nini was met with the sight of the two guys holding on to Ricky's phone, her boyfriend was nowhere in sight. The guys stared at her, mouths hanging ajar, clearly shocked and lost for words. "Well, I did not expect you to come here," Noah started off, looking at the force of the tiny brunette girl standing in the doorway. She frowned at his statement, asking, "Where's Ricky? Is he okay? Did Red send him to the hospital?" EJ stared at her with a stoic expression, casually spinning her boyfriend's phone between his thumb and middle finger, "Yea, he's not here right now. But, he's fine. You, dear girl, should go back to your cafe to do your job. What is Nate going to say when he finds out that you ran out during your shift?" Nini's eyes flickered between Noah and EJ, genuinely confused at their calm demeanor; their colleague had just passed out, for goodness sake, and no one was worrying about him at all. "We're lifeguards, Nini. We've seen tons of these types of things," Noah seems to reach her mind, answering her unasked question.

"Nins, what are you doing here?" The girl's head whipped around to find Red at the bottom of the stairs, looking right back at her. "Where's Ricky right now? Why are you here? Didn't you send him to the hospital?" Red's eyes widened in confusion, looking at EJ for some clarity in this situation. EJ shrugged, "For some reason, she thinks you took her boyfriend to the hospital." Nini turned her attention back to EJ, "But, you said, he-" The Ken doll, as Ricky liked to call him, shook his head, cutting her off, "Nu-uh, you're the one who thought so. I didn't confirm that thought, okay?" She glared at him, continually wondering where Ricky was. "He's on his way right now, don't worry, Nini." Red patted her shoulder and walked past her into the tower. At this point, Nini was getting anxious. Where the heck was Ricky and how could they have let him on his own, not even giving him his phone to bring along? She was spiralling in her thoughts, the guys could tell because she had stopped moving and talking; she was barely even breathing at that point, fists balled up, clenched so tightly, her knuckles turned white. They decided to leave her alone with her thoughts, keeping silent as they kept an eye on her.