𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 (𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚) || hsmtmts au

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R I C K Y 'S P O V

"carlos, let us out!!" i groan, lightly banging on the door. a chorus of 'no!'s erupts from the group outside, neither of us knowing what to say.

"let's just do this already," she sighs out with a smile, shaking her head, "just kiss me."

"really?"

"yeah, let's just..get it over with."

"let's just do it."

"not a big deal, we'll just.."

"great, yeah, let's.."

"let's just do it," she says as i place my hands on her forearms, looking down at my feet nervously. i pull her closer to me by her arms, watching her eyes flicker down to my mouth.

"okay, cool," i breathe out, trying to keep my cool when in reality i think my heart's literally about to explode.

this is it.

somehow my dream and my worst nightmare. happening at the same time.

i haven't kissed anyone since last time i kissed nini (in the eighth fucking grade). i don't know where to put my hands, what to say, or even where to look (because i can't look down, nini still has her shirt off and i think i'm literally going to explode and die if i get even one glimpse of that)-

"why are you licking your lips?" she giggles.

"should i..not? do you want dry lips, or.."

"no, i.."

"then i'm just doing it to make it better," i say, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear before i move my hands to her shoulders, gently rubbing her bare skin.

"okay," she shrugs with a smile.

"okay," i grin back at her, looking her in the eyes.

"do it, bowen," nini whispers, our tone getting lower each time we say something.

"i'm doing it, sal-robs."

"fine, then do it."

"are you..like, a tongue-er?"

"AM I A TONGUE-ER?!" she bursts out laughing, putting her forehead down on my collarbone in a fit of laughter.

"well i don't want to put my tongue in your mouth if you don't like it!!"

"just kiss me already and you'll find out!!"

"okay, alright, great. that's what i'm doing."

"alright."

i put my hands on the sides of her face, my thumbs tracing over her cheeks as i stare into her eyes again. i'm trying to savor this moment, but it just doesn't feel natural. this isn't how i wanted our first (second) kiss to go-it's all a part of a stupid party game, and it's not going to mean anything like this. i wanted it to be special, and epic-like, coming of age movie, kiss in the rain to music epic.

but here we are now, in a fucking coat closet.

"ready?" i ask.

"been ready for the past five minutes, rickster," she jokes with a smile.

"okay, okay. one..two-i'm actually not gonna do a count, that's not.."

"that's fine by me."

"okay, i'm just gonna-"

"ricky."

"nini."

"it's just for a game, it's not a big thing. you don't need to be nervous. pretend i'm lana condor or something, it doesn't even need to be for that long," she laughs, "we can forget about it like it never happened right after, okay?"