she's got a bad reputation - rini au

chapter 9: the begging of the mcu

At this point of the afternoon, Nini was sitting on Ricky's couch. He bragged about his milkshakes, so he was making her one. Those 7 minutes felt like eternity to her. Her mind was making a hundred questions and making pro and cons about this. They could lose some of their friends. But they could be each other's friends. What if the whole school finds out? What if they start hating him? He told her at least 5 times, he didn't care. What if she says something and fucks it up? Well, in that case they could pretend nothing happened, no one will ask questions (because no one knows.) She knew this plan was going to not end well, he knew it too. She didn't realize he had sat down next to her until she heard his voice.

"Stop overthinking. They won't find out." He softly said while giving her the milkshake.

"But what if they do? I can lie to Madison but Kourtney...we tell each other everything. I feel..."

"Guilty? Me too. But with Red and Ash. They are always so supportive and I know that if I tell them that you are here, they would be here in 10 minutes watching Iron Man with us. It's just for now."

"Yeah. Okay. Just for now." She sipped her milkshake and her eyes went wide. She looked at him surprised. "Oh my god. This is the best milkshake I've ever had. Hands down."

"l told you. Now, let's watch the beginning of the most iconic universe in the world." He grabbed the remote and started the movie.

"Let's see if it's worth all your hype!"

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Two hours went by, Ricky told her facts about the movie, and she asked a hundred questions. If they were at a cinema, they would have been kicked out. They were having fun, they were bonding, they were getting to know each other. All of their nerves and anxieties were nowhere to be found.

"Okay, I understand why you love these movies so much. They are really good. I wanna watch the next one!" After hearing around 12 times that if she liked this one, she will love the rest, she insisted on watching another one.

"l told you they weren't boring! At least one of us has good taste in movies." He said in between laughs, because she spent the first 15 minutes of the movie saying that she had better taste than him.

"Hey! When we finish these movies, I'll show you that I have a great taste. You can't oppose it. It's the fair thing to do!" She grabbed her phone to see if she had any calls from her moms, after seeing nothing on her lockscreen, she put it down and looked at him. He had a small smile on his face, even if his focus was on finding the next movie, she felt an explosion inside her. She shook that off, and laid down against the couch again. She was not going to ruin this friendship. She won't let it turn into something more. It was the first time in forever she felt comfortable with a boy. She couldn't mess it up.

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2 hours went by and now they were discussing
the movies.

"Honestly, I didn't like Captain America, I don't
trust him."

"You haven't even seen three movies! How can you decide if you like him or not only after a movie?" They were sitting in a way so they could see each other. He held his head with his hand while looking at her. She smiled when the memory of the same thing but from a couple of days ago came to her mind.

"l trust my gut. Look, I came to your house and we only had talked for a couple of hours. I saw Steve's story for two hours and I wouldn't go to his house."
"You wouldn't? I would marry him in a heartbeat."

"He looks like the type of guy who says I don't mind gay people but don't kiss in front of me but then has sex in public. I repeat, I don't like him." They started laughing and when the laugh ended they were looking at each other, silence filled the room. It wasn't awkward, it was strange. Not in a bad way, in an unknown way. But before they could figure it out, Nini's phone interrupted them.