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

28. angel

R I C K Y 'S P O V

RICKY BOWEN's LIVING ROOM

nini and i are sitting in the middle of my living room (where the coffee table usually is) on an air mattress surrounded by an uncountable amount of blankets and pillows propped up into a little fort. we took chairs from the kitchen and draped some quilts over our heads and onto the couch, the only light source being the lamp from way in the kitchen and some colorful christmas lights we had in the coat closet strung all around the fort.

nini's busy painting my nails-she really didn't want to eat ice cream for some reason, so we decided to do this instead). she's doing light blue on some fingers and hot pink on others (usually when i have her paint my nails we just do black or dark blue, but i'm just letting nini do whatever she wants).

"stop moving!" nini giggles, twisting my hand so she can get a better angle. her dark hair is tied back into a loose low bun, a few pieces having fallen out to perfectly frame her face. she's sitting down on my leg having me hold the nail polish bottle because the air mattress dips unevenly with the two of us on one side like this. the sheer black tule fabric from her dress flows over my legs and onto the blankets around us as she sits.

"what do you want me to do? just not breathe?!" i laugh.

"no, you just keep fidgeting around, i can't focus!" she says as she slides the polish brush intricately along my pinkie fingernail, "here, blow."

i purposely blow air right in her face instead of my hand, which causes another round of giggles and laughs from both of us.

"you know what i meant," she laughs.

"sorry, sweetheart," i joke. that doesn't mean what it sounds like though, because sweetheart is another one of our little inside jokes-that again, would take way too long to explain, so i won't. i'll tell you later.

nini rolls her eyes, screwing the top back onto the nail polish bottle while i blow my nails dry. she doesn't move off of me when she's done painting my nails though, instead setting her head down on my shoulder and burying her face in my neck.

she exhales deeply, practically sinking into me while i scoot back so i can lean us up against the foot of the couch. the breakup seemed to be hitting her in waves-one minute she's painting my nails and laughing, the next she's holding onto me for dear life (which normally i would love, don't get me wrong, i just hate seeing nini like this knowing that she's hurting). i cradle her in my arms while i sigh into her and dip a hand under my tan sweatshirt-that she's wearing-to rub her lower back when my nails are dry. her skin is hot against my cold hand, the movement making her somehow sink into me even more and fully relax herself so that she's depending on me to keep her from falling off of me. i feel her warm tears drip onto my neck, which genuinely makes me almost cry, too.

"i'm so sorry, ricky," she sobs into my shoulder after a moment, holding me tight.

"wait, what? you're good, you know can cry around me, nins."

"no, i know, i mean..i'm so sorry about last night. i'm sorry i called e.j luvie, i knew it was wrong and i knew it would hurt you and i had just been feeling off all week and i swear i didn't mean it, i didn't mean it but i said it and i feel terribl-"