she's got a bad reputation - rini au

chapter 5: a bench

Nini couldn't waik home.She felt weak and if
she did another step she would fall down.So
she sat on a beach for a couple minutes until
she felt some eyes on her.She didn't have
energy to hear more about her.

"If you are here to call me out,please do it
some other time."

It took her all her strength to do it.It felt like
she had a knife in her throat,like if she spoke
again she was going to pass out. She didn't
hear an answer. She felt someone sitting next
to her. When she looked up,she saw Ricky. He
looked sad,as if her sadness was transferred
to him. She didn't know she was holding her
breath until she saw him. For some reason,
she felt safe,unjudged. On the other side of
the bench, Ricky was heartbroken by looking
at her. How could someone be so mean and
disrespectful to her? In his time at East High,
all he heard was shit about Nini, but she was
actually nice to him. She smiled at him when
their eyes found each other. One time, Ricky
broke his pencil,and she gave one to him, but
when he tried to give it back she said that he
could keep it, she had an extra one. But it was
not only to Ricky, in the last weeks, he saw
how small she was walking down the halls and
seeing people talking about her. He didn't
believe anything he heard about her.

"Ricky,if you are here to apologize for Gina
or...continue what she started, please leave."
She looked so fragile. She sounded fragile. At
that moment, she was vulnerable.

"I won't leave you. You must be freezing,
here... He put his jacket over her shoulders.
He wanted to hug her, he wasn't an effective
person, but he wanted to be one with her.
What was happening? He had no idea,but it
felt right.

"Thanks, you didn't have to." They stayed in
silence for a couple of minutes until Nini broke
it off. "Why are you here? You're friends with
Gina, and it's okay I don't need an explanation
or an apology.

"What? Nini, what she did was terrible. You
don't deserve it." He put his hand on her
shoulder and she looked at him. Even with all
her makeup made a mess, she was beautiful.
The smile she sent him left Ricky speechless.

"It's okay, really. I knew it was going to
happen, but usually it happens at the end of
the party, and I was planning on leaving early,
but not everything goes as planned."

"Wait,this is normal for you?" She nodded as
her response.

"Sometimes it's not that dramatic, just
someone screaming or tweets after the party."
She stayed silent after saying it. She knew he
was familiar with her reputation. Normally, she
didn't care what people thought of her, she
learnt to deal with it, but she did not want
Ricky to hate her. He was different. "They are
not true,by the way. The rumours, I mean. l
gained my "player slash heartbreaker" title
after my break up with my ex-" He cut her off.

"You don't have to explain onything to me,
realty. I don't believe in them." She sat ogoin
so her whole body was looking at him. He did
the same. He laid his arm on the bench and
put his head in his hand. God, he is so
beautiful was the only thing Nini could think.
She shook her heod and continued.

"We broke up oround a yeor ogo. His name was Ethan,you may know him. He plays
footboll in our school. Anyways, we dated for 5
months, when junior year started everything
started going downhill. He got really popular
and well, I didn't. I told him I wanted to break
up becouse he cheated on me. No one told me
that, I saw it. And he knew. He just- He didn't
care and even after seeing me, he turned
around ond grabbed someone else and kissed
them. I was heartbroken. I didn't go to school
for like a weak. Around three weeks later l
went to a party. It was around the same time
the gossip account was created. I went out,
had too much to drink and l kissed some guy, l
don't even know. What I do know, it was only
one person and the kiss didn't last more than
20 seconds. No one ot school knew that Ethan
and I had broken up, they knew that he
cheated but not that we broke up. So, Ethan
screamed that he was going to ruin me. I
thought it was going to last a weak, but
everyone started to hate me. They invented
stupid rumours, the first month was terrible
because it was the big gossip that blew up in
that stupid account. I guess they needed to
hate someone, I don't know. Then, they
started to blame me for everything. Everytime someone cheated, l was the nome
in that tweet. It was like I was the safe name. Everyone was going to believe it if I was the
person involved. So the guy would say that l
manipulated them into kissing him, bla bla bla.
Fast Forward until today, everytime someone
asks me out I know that they are going to do
something ond humiliate me. I learned it the
hard way. I'm sorry I'm teling you all of this, l just- I'm so tired of people hating on me for
things I didn't do. I don't want you to hate me
too." She was crying while looking of her lap,
playing with her fingers. She thought he wos
going to say something simple and get up and
leave. But that didn't happen. He grobbed her
hand and interlocked their fingers. She looked
at him, his expression was soft. They both felt
a million things when their hands touched, but
they were not going to admit it. Both of them
had their reasons, it was not the moment to
think about It now.

"Nini, I don't want you, not even for a second, to believe all the shit people say to you. They
don't know what they are saying, they do all of
that because they need to lead their anger
towards someone. I'm really sorry that that
someone is you. You don't deserve it. You ore
a great person. We don't really tolk a lot but, l
have this feeling like I know you since always. l
can't explain it. And what Gina did to you, I'm
sorry that I didn't prevent it. Carlos grabbed
me and forced me to stay there. I wanted to
tell her to stop, really. She was wrong and it
was completely immature and mean from her
to do. Both of them are obsessed with status
and being perfect. They don't care about real
stuff. One day I was sick and I went to school
and they didn't sit with me becouse l looked
ugly." He was talking to her like they were best
friends.He trusted her for some reason. Maybe it was a 4am decision to tell her all of this,but he didn't care. She was now smiing, knowing that the boy in front of her did not think about her wrong. He was talking to her. They were having a real conversation. And she
didn't realize what she said next until it left her
mouth.

"You ugly? Not possible." His eyes went wide
and her mouth opened and as fast as it
happened she let go his hand and started
apologizing. "I'm sorry. That was really out of
place, I mean l didn't lie but like, you were
being nice to me and I had to make a stupid
comment and ruin everything, god I'm so sorry
if I made you uncomfortable. I totally get it if
you want to lea-" Again,he grabbed her hand
and looked at her with the biggest and most
beautiful smile she had ever seen. She let go a
sigh and closed her eyes.

"It's okay. I mean, you can't complain when a
pretty girl tells you you are not ugly. I don't
wanna leave, really." Pretty girl. He called me a
pretty girl. Oh my god. I have to answer him, I'm pathetic. Her mind was running as fast as
it could.

"I totally understand what you mean. About
your friends. I deal with the same thing with
Madison. She just, I know she doesn't like me. She is using me but when you are in my
position of people not liking you, you accept
whatever you can. I have Kourtney tho, she's
great but I know that I hold her back
sometimes..."

They kept talking until they realized the sun
was coming out. He walked her home, even if
she told him not to. They exchanged numbers
and talked until they arrived at her home.

"So,this is my place. I would ask you to come
in but, you know..."

"It's okay, I should probably get to my house."

They looked at each other unknowing what to
do. He felt confident and hugged her. She
melted in his arms. His touch became her
favorite thing. When they broke apart, their
faces were really close. The only thing they
need to do is move forward to kiss, but they
were looking at each other too deeply to do
something about it. She just kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, for tonight. I really needed that. And please, don't be a stranger, Bowen."

Before he could answer, she turned around
and got inside. He started walking away, with
his mind full of new thoughts. He did what Nini
taught him while they were talking about rant
accounts, and all his thoughts ended up being
tweets.