for the holidays | rini au

eight

she shuts her phone off after setting the plans for tomorrow and closes her eyes. she briefly runs over the stuff she wants to cover, hoping it'll be an easy agreement with minimal arguments.

ricky tries to fall asleep, but he can't stop thinking of the past two days' events. they went from avoiding each other at all costs and cutting all ties, to him posing as her fake boyfriend. he can't help but laugh at the thought, angry at himself for agreeing to it.

he's never been able to say no to her, which is something he's always kicked himself for. it's not that she's persuasive, she just never asks for favors and he feels that the one time she does, he has to say yes.

when he finally feels tired, he turns his light off and shuts his eyes.

her alarm sounds at about 7 in the morning, however she was already wide awake. she had agreed to meet him at 8:30, not understanding why he made it so early, but agreeing nonetheless.

she quickly brushes her hair and teeth, moving to the kitchen to get a snack. once she puts her dishes in the sink, she goes back to her closet to change into normal clothes. she then sits on her bed and watches an episode of new girl, opting out of putting on makeup.

after about three episodes, she hears her doorbell ring. confused about who it could be, she closes her computer and checks her appearance in the mirror. opening the door, shes met with ricky.

"what are you doing here? i thought we were meeting there," she says once she's met with his smirk.

"we live right next to each other, it doesn't make sense to take two separate cars," he replies, stepping out of the way and motioning towards the pathway leading to the driveway.

she rolls her eyes and walks onto her porch, shutting and locking the front door behind her. they walk to his car, and ricky gets into the drivers seat, leaving nini to walk to the passenger side and get in.

silence overtakes the pair so ricky decides to turn on the radio. a taylor swift song starts playing, causing nini to perk up. he can't help but smile, knowing she's always loved the singer, turning up the volume a little bit. they sang along to whatever songs played the entire way there, avoiding conversation.

once they arrived, ricky gets out of the car and waits for nini to get out before walking towards the cafe. they sit down and ricky goes to order their coffee, after an argument regarding who would pay. he orders for both of them, remembering nini's order as it hasn't changed.

he sits down at their table, handing nini her drink.

"so.." she starts.

"so," he replies, unsure what to say.

the lack of conversation causes an awkward energy to loom over them, so nini quickly thinks of something to say.

"my moms are having a new years party, i need a date," ricky looks up at this.

"then i'm your date," he says, leaving nini confused.

"what made you decide to say yes?" she curiously asks.

"oh, uh. well i just broke up with my girlfriend and kinda need a distraction," he answers honestly.

"girlfriend?" she asks, causing him to nod, "how long did you guys date?"

"about a year and a half," he says.

she nods, an unreadable expression on her face, and he continues, "so, how long do you think we have to do this?" he questions, causing nini to think.

"well i'm going to need a date for like every holiday my moms care about, plus birthdays and-"

"all holidays? nini that's like an all year thing," he says in disbelief.

"i know but we don't have to date the whole time," she explains, "just post a picture here and there and make it look like we're together. we should also hang out once a month to make it more believable."

ricky thinks about it for a moment, they both live in new york, their apartments are twenty minutes away from each other, and their parents won't be seeing them everyday. they could pull it off, and in the end they both win in their own selfish ways.

"ok. let's do it," he says, causing nini to jump up and pull him into a hug, pushing him away once she realized what she was doing.

they leave starbucks and ricky drops her off at his house.

"one more thing," he calls after her as she's making her way to her front door, "don't you dare fall in love with me."

she can't tell if he's joking, but she laughs at his comment anyways. she completes the short walk to her house and gives him a small wave before walking inside.

an: i realized i left something out the first time i posted this so i wanted to fix that, sorry if i caused any confusion!! i'll probably post two parts tomorrow. thanks for reading! happy holidays <33