Winter break (Rini)

Its Winter break but we'll never break apart

Ricky and Nini are cuddled up on Ricky's couch on the first official day of winter break. Nini is dozing off as he runs his fingers along her back, hardly focusing on the movie playing on the TV in front of him. The moment is perfect and he smiles down at the girl in his arms, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

"Ricky, I'm home!" Mike shouts, effectively waking Nini up from her little nap. "And I decided that we should put the Christmas tree up this year."

"Wait, you guys weren't going to?" Nini asks, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "I was wondering why you hadn't done it as yet."

"It was more my mom's thing," Ricky shrugs nonchalantly. "And she isn't here so..."

He trails off and Nini cuddles further into him, trying her best to comfort him. She knows how difficult Thanksgiving was for Ricky. Christmas would be no different.

"Yeah this was definitely Lynne's thing," Mike says, coming into the living room. "But I don't see why we shouldn't get into the Christmas spirit just because she isn't here."

"We have no idea what we're doing dad," Ricky laughs. "We never do. We usually just watch mom or put things where she tells us to."

"But we have Nini."

Nini laughs and gets up from the couch, holding her hands out for Ricky.

"Come on, let's go get the trimmings."

Ricky rolls his eyes, allowing her to pull him off the couch and leading her to the garage to get the Christmas decorations.

Once back in the living room they sort through the trimmings while Mike stretches out the branches of their artificial tree. They had gotten one after Nini did a school project in like the 6th grade about how environmentally unsustainable it was for everyone to cut down Christmas trees every year. She argued that artificial trees have a much smaller carbon footprint in the greater scheme of things. Ricky smiles, thinking about all the ways Nini had intergrated herself into his life without him even realising- without his parents realising. The carton of almond milk in the fridge, one of her blankets thrown over the base of his bed, her pictures framed in his room. He could find pieces of her in every nook and cranny of his childhood home.

"Ricky, look at this."

Ricky shakes his head, moving towards Nini to see what she's found.

"We made these Christmas ornaments in like the 1st grade," she explains, turning the bauble over in her hand.

Sure enough, the ornament has a picture of 6-year-old Nini and Ricky on it, their arms thrown around each other and their smiles so wide their eyes were squinting. Mike comes over to look too, memories of the teenagers as little kids flashing across his mind.

"Yes, I remember that," he laughs. "Ricky came home asking for a picture of the two of you. We asked him if he maybe wanted to make it with a picture of our family but he insisted."

"Yeah whatever," Ricky rolls his eyes but he's holding back a smile. He takes the ornament from Nini and looks at the picture of the two carefree kids.

Nini starts untangling Christmas lights, checking to see if they were working. Ricky unpacks the rest of the Christmas ornaments, trying to ignore how odd this all felt. He and his dad were spending the holidays without his mom for the first time. She loved the holidays, and would decorate the house days in advance. Ricky would help her bake Christmas cookies and they would watch Holiday movies. This year, without her here, Ricky felt like a fish out of water. It just didn't feel like the holidays at all.

"Ricky," Nini calls, and he forces himself to get rid of the negative thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"I need some help hanging the lights on the top of the tree."