UNDER THE MASK ✔️

🦸🏻‍♂️{24}🦸🏻‍♂️

Ricky's POV-
"Ricky come on you have to finish your math." Seb tells me.
It's now lunch time and I might have not done my homework last night.
"Ugh why can't the school day end so I can sleep over the weekend!"
"Dude, it's only Wednesday." Gina says laughing.
I let out a loud groan banging my head on the table.
"Hey who made Ricky upset?!" A deep familiar voice says.
I shoot my head up quickly making grabby hands towards EJ. He sets his tray down and sits next to me bringing me in his arms. I instantly relax melting into his touch.
"What's wrong curls."
"Your boyfriend here didn't do his math homework...again"
My face goes red as a tomato and I shoot a glare at Gina.
"He's not boyfriend!"
"I wish he was."
She smirks at me mouthing 'you wish'
"Curls, again? I thought you promised me that you wouldn't forget your homework again."
I make puppy eyes at my crush and he rolls his eyes taking the blank sheet.
"This is the last time Ricky, I'm serious!"
I perk up squeezing his side. "Thank you Eds." I whisper.
His face goes red and he writes down the answers. I stare at the side of his face smiling softly. It's so nice of him to do my homework for me, even if it's like the 10th time since school started.  My smile soon drops to a frown, what if I'm annoying him, what if he's tired of doing my homework but he just doesn't want to say no to me?!
"Hey guys!" Nini says sitting next to me.
Ugh why does she have to go to the same school as
"Ohh let me guess, you didn't do your homework...again?"
I roll my eyes and look up to see Big Red and Gina giving me a look. I then look up at EJ and see he's giving me the same look. It's because I rolled my eyes at Nini. They really want me to be nice to Nini and try to be her friend.
"Yeah, I forgot about it." I whisper.
She puts her hand on my shoulder and I stiffened. "Well, since we're in the same math class we could always do our homework together." She offered.
"Yeah, how about you go to Nini's house after school to work." EJ says.
I look up to meet his eyes and a smirk on his face.
"Oh my gosh we should do that Ricky! I'll text my moms."
Everyone started to talk about how their day was going and stuff they were looking forward to. I definitely am not looking forward to later on. The bell rings and we all get up throwing our food in the trash. We all separate in the halls, Big Red and Gina going to History, Kourtney and Ashlyn going to chemistry, Seb going pop to Spanish, EJ and Carlos going to English and me and Nini going to math, aka the worst class ever!
"Come on Rick let's go to class!" Nini says waiting for me. Ugh this is going to be a long day.
-3 hours of boringness later-
It's finally the end of the day but I'm not happy, I still have to go to Nini's house.
"Alright I'll see you guys tomorrow." EJ says.
He goes over to Nini and kisses her on the lips. I instantly look away trying not to gag at the couple. I then feel a pair of strong arms wrap around me from behind and I blush. Gina, Brook and Big Red laugh.
"Please try to be nice to her...for me?"
I sigh and nod my head. "Thanks curls!" He says squeezing me.
Nini comes over and sticks her hand out. I look at her hand then at EJ who's giving me his adorable puppy eyes. Ugh her hands are probably rough and sticky anyways. I grab her hand and she pulls me away from everyone.
She starts talking but I tune her out thinking of all the excuses I could use to leave her house early. Maybe I'll tell her that my goldfish died, I don't have one but she doesn't have to know that.
"...I know you're probably uncomfortable ."
"What?" I say as I finally get out of my thoughts.
"I was saying that you don't have to keep holding hand I know you're probably uncomfortable."
I look down at our hands which are still together. Her hands are actually really soft and warm, it's comforting.
"No it's fine." I say looking forward.
I could see from the corner of my face is in shock but has a big smile on her face.
We finally get to her house and she unlocks the door. We walk in to a warm house which is really nice. She starts taking off her shoes and I do the same. She leads me to the kitchen where I see two women sitting at the table.
"Hey Mamma C, hey Mamma D this is my friend Ricky."
They look over at me and I wave. Wow my social anxiety just kicked in.
"Hello dear nice to meet you, I'm Carol and this is my wife Dana please make your self at home while you're here!"
I nod my head not really sure what to say. "Thank you."
Nini once again takes my hand and drags me up to her room. She puts her bag down and I do the same while looking around her room. She has one of those chairs that hand from the ceiling which is cool. She has a bunch of pictures on string hanging on her wall. Some were with the gang, some were with just her and EJ and others were here when she was little. Of course I wasn't on there, I don't like people taking pictures of me and I don't take pictures of myself.
"I have to add you up there." Nini says standing next to me.
"You don't have to, I'm not a big fan of pictures anyways."
"Hey you still promised me that we would have a photoshoot sometime."
Shit! I was hoping she would forget about that.
"We can do it after we're finished doing our work."
Note to self: don't promise Nini that you would do something you would absolutely hate.
We start doing our work, well she's doing the math and just telling how she did it, the only thing I'm doing is writing down the answers.
"You know I could use some help here." She says laughing but I don't laugh.
"How about you do the last problem?" She suggest but I shake my head.
She nods her head. "Ok we can do it together. The first step is to multiply all the sides by 4, so what's 4 times 8?"
I shrug my shoulders not wanting to answer. I'm not good at math, I never have been.
"Come on Rick this easy, I know you know it."
I don't want to say the wrong answer because it'll make me look dumb. And knowing Nini she'll tell everyone about how I can't do simple math.
"Um 32?"
She smiles and writes down the number. "Yeah good job!"
For the first time I smiled at her. I don't think I ever have before.
I finish the problem with the help of Nini and we're done.
"Alright we're done with our work which means picture time!" She squeals holding a camera in my face.
"Nini I already told you I'm not a fan of having my picture taken." I laugh pushing the camera away.
She smiles back and sits down next to me. "Why don't you like taking pictures they're super fun especially when you're doing it with friends."
I look down playing with the sheet on her bed. I could feel her scooting closer to me, our knees touched and she grabs my hand.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"I just don't like some things about myself." I say looking up to meet her eyes. She has a shocked expression on her face.
"What are you talking about! What's not to like about Ricky Bowen?!"
I laugh at that because there's a lot of things to not like about me.
"Well for starters I think I'm really clingy which I think annoys people, I'm also kind of tried towards people when I'm jealous, I hate my smile and I can never dress nicely because my taste in clothes suck, I also wish I had a different eye color like green or blue, I feel like my ears are to big too..."
Nini suddenly grabs both my hands making me look at her, it's like she's about to cry.
"Ricky you're amazing just the way you are. You're ears are perfect, I love your adorable brown eyes, your fashion sense is unique but everyone loves it, and the only person you really stick by is EJ but he loves all the attention you give him. You're perfect just the way you are and I don't want you changing anything about yourself, ok?"
I look at her in shock, she really likes me the way I am. Maybe she really isn't that bad.
I give her a small smile nodding my head.
"Ok now let's take some pictures so I can show you how great you look."
She ends up taking a bunch of pictures of me and I do the same for her and they came out pretty good.