December Memories: HSMTMTS Holiday Imagines

December 9th: Dinner and Divorce Don't Belong Together (Rini)

Author's note: once again I'm sorry if my writing is choppy and needs editing. It's still finals week and I have a lot of exams and papers to work on. This story should make sense without all of my mistakes with present and past tense though. I wanted my stories to be more realistic rather than fluffy and fun.

Ricky: age 10

Nini: age 9

Ricky's POV:
Every year on the first day of winter break Nini always invited me to be her guest at her holiday dinner. This year things were going to be a bit different because I think I like her more than a friend.

My parents and I were in the car on the way to Nini's house when I finally decided to tell my parents how I felt about their arguments that they have been having.

"Dad please don't embarrass me in front of Nini's moms."

"What do I do that's embarrassing, son?"

"You always start a fight with mom. Please don't do that this Christmas dinner means a lot to me because I think I really like Nini this year, like more than a friend."

"Like as a girlfriend?"

"I guess so." I said nervously while sitting in the backseat.

"Ricky, you're too young to date." I heard my mom say from the passenger seat.

"Let him be in love. It's just kid love, nothing serious right? Rickster?" My dad said while focusing on the road.

"Here we go again." I mumbled to myself as my parents started fighting about my crush on Nini.

When we got to Nini's house, my parents started to act like they got along, which I was thankful for. Nini didn't know that my parents started arguing almost every day. I was hoping that this dinner wasn't going to turn into a disaster.

Mike's POV:

"Mike and Lynne, could you please grab the drinks from the fridge please?" I heard Nini's mom, Carol say from the dining room.

"Sure." Lynn replied before me while heading to the kitchen.

When we got to the kitchen, Lynne stood in front of the fridge and made her "I'm mad at you "look at me. Oh no,this isn't gonna be good.

"Why didn't you pick Ricky up from school the other day? I had to get out of a meeting because his teacher called me saying that no one picked him up." Lynne whisper yelled.

"You know, I have a job and I work too. You're not the only one who helps out in this family." I whisper yelled back.

"And Why did you buy so much food from the supermarket?!" I exclaimed.

"Because I'm the only one who cooks for the family and we need to eat three meals a day."

"Why do you think this counseling isn't working? You never communicate with me about your plans for the day and we just argue about everything, including whose going to pick up our child from school." Lynne said starting to cry.

"Lynne, please don't cry. We will talk about this when we get home."

"Every time we try to talk about our relationship problems to the therapist  we always end up fighting. I think we should get a divorce because therapy obviously isn't doing us any good." Lynne replied while looking away from me.

"That's a huge decision to make. It's going to effect our relationship and our child. Can we just pretend to be a nice couple, at least for Ricky's sake tonight?" I replied as I tried to comfort my wife.

"Yeah, let me grab the drinks." Lynne sighed while wiping a few tears away.

Ricky's POV:

Nini and I were sitting on the couch in her living room watching a rerun episode of Good Luck Charlie when I heard my parents arguing in the kitchen. This is not good. This is supposed to be joint family dinner not a fight with my parents.

"Ricky are you ok? You're not watching the TV anymore." Nini said as she nudged me gently.

"Umm... could we go to your room now? I need to tell you something." I said while playing with my fingers.

"Yeah of course, come on let's go. You've been there a billion times. You know where it is." Nini replied.

When we got to her room, we sat in silence on her bed that was full of blankets and stuffed animals. Nini kept staring at me as if I was supposed to say something first.

"Ricky why did you want to come upstairs to my room?" Nini said looking into my eyes.

"My parents have been arguing and fighting non-stop. I don't think they like each other anymore. Yesterday when I said that I was going to be picked up by Big Red's mom to go to his house, I was lying. My mom picked me up from school really late and my dad is mad now. My parents were arguing on the car ride here and I don't like it at all." I said while mumbling the last part.

I guess I will have to tell Nini about my feelings towards her some other time. I wish my parents would just stop arguing so that I could focus on my personal life.

"I'm sorry about your parents Ricky, I'll always be here for you whenever you need someone to talk to hug. Why don't we watch a Christmas movie to get your mind off of things until my moms call us down for dinner?"

"That sounds great. Thank you for listening Nini. You're the best." I said to her before I engulfed her in a big hug.

Halfway through watching the Grinch I fell asleep on Nini's bed since I haven't gotten much sleep due to my parents' fighting at night.

*********

*Back in the Kitchen*
Mike's POV:

"Mike could you please get the kids from the living room? And tell them that dinner is ready. They can go back and finish their tv program after dinner. I  recorded it for them." I heard Dana exclaim to me from where she was standing at the dining room table.

"Why do you let your kid watch TV before dinner?!" I heard Lynne exclaim to Dana before I could reply.

"Lynne, calm down. I'm going to go find our son so that we can eat dinner." I replied to the adults as I exited the kitchen.

I left the kitchen, and went  to the living room to find two black blankets laying on the couch, but no Nini and Ricky.

I knew from previous play dates, that there were only two other spots in the house where the kids could be, Nini's room or her treehouse.

First, I decided to look and see if my son was in Nini's room. When I got to the small hallways where her room was, I noticed that the door was left wide open.

From afar, I could see that my son was fast asleep, cuddling into Nini's blankets with her. Instead of waking the two kids up, I decided to go back downstairs and somehow enjoy dinner with the adults.

When I arrived back in the kitchen, the three women that I left at the dining room table were chatting away and didn't notice that Ricky and Nini hasn't run up in front of me.

"Ahem. Ummm. Ricky and Nini are taking a nap. They probably fell asleep after they watched TV. We could still enjoy this lovely dinner that you made." I explained to the three women who were waiting at the dining room table.

"That is perfectly fine. I'd let the kids sleep. It's been a long night. Ricky can sleep over since its technically winter break. I will make sure that he's home by tomorrow morning and get fed." Carol replied to me as I got seated next to my wife.

Before I could reply to Carol with a 'Thank You', Lynne took this as an opportunity to side eye me because of what I said back in the kitchen to her about acting like a nice civil couple tonight.

I sighed to myself as I placed my napkins onto my lap. This is going to be a long dinner. At least Ricky is getting some sleep. The poor kid.