Ethereal Love

Some Things Never Change

"Nini, are you okay?" Kourt asked when she suddenly stopped walking, frozen in shock.

"Neens, that new guy is staring at you." Jenny said shrilly, pointing to Ricky who scoffed and rolled his eyes. As soon as they parted gazes, Nini jumped into action.

"Sorry guys, I'm just tired. Um, Jenny, that's not a new guy. That's Ricky." She corrected her friend. She spoke loudly, knowing that if she tried to be quiet some of the confusion and fright and temptation would be obvious in her voice. She glanced over at Ricky again, and found herself unable to look away from the faded black eye.

"Whoa, Ricky? As in, Ricky Bowen?" Kourt gasped, eyes wide in shock. Nini nodded, dragging her eyes away from him.

"Whoa, he's hot." Nini's head whipped around to automatically glare at Kourtney.

"Kourt!" she instantly regretted the reprimand, not wanting anyone to notice her jealousy and think something of it, but luckily Kourt simply interpreted it as anger, knowing how much her friend hated Ricky.

"Sorry, I meant stupid! He's stupid! He probably thinks he actually looks good without his braces and glasses, but he doesn't, he just looks... stupid." She amended and Nini nodded, satisfied.

"Yeah, well, we all know that it takes longer than one summer to change things." She said loudly, refusing to meet Ricky's gaze again. She knew he would be hurt, but she had to let him know that nothing was different between them before he said or did anything to ruin everything.

They continued walking down the hall towards homeroom, and Nini refused to even glance at Rick as she approached. She was walking a little behind all her friends, and as they passed the mop of curls, she felt her heart speed up. She managed to refrain from looking at him, though... at least, until she felt him reach out and squeeze her ass.

"Ah!" she squealed, jumping in shock. Her friends whirled around, worried, and she glared at Ricky. He put his hands in the air to signal his innocence, but she could see the mocking glint in his eyes. He was daring her; daring her to make a scene. She just scowled and tossed her hair, catching up with her friends and assuring them that she was fine, she'd just seen a spider and gotten spooked.

LINE BREAK

Nini sat quietly in homeroom, ignoring Kourtney's many vain attempts to get her to talk, until Ricky walked in. He came in backwards, laughing as he said goodbye to a friend, and then turned around and searched for a seat. There were two; one at the front, where he usually sat, and one right at the back. Consequently, the second was also next to Nini. And, of course, he took that one.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as he approached the back row, smirking cockily. She just ignored him, staring straight in front of her. Kourt was too distracted by her phone to even notice that Ricky had sat there. Ricky took this opportunity to lean over and whisper in Nini's ear.

"Hey sexy." His warm breath on her ear made her shiver, which only made Ricky smirk even more.

"Bowen." Her voice was low; a warning.

"What?" he asked, expression innocent.

"You know what. I can't believe what you did! What if someone saw?"

"Nini, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone I slept with you."

"Yes, but if you suddenly start sitting by me in class and groping me in the hallway, people will get suspicious!" she hissed. He chuckled.

"I'm sorry, but you just look so good in those jeans... and it doesn't help that I can't get the image of you out of those jeans out of my head." She wanted to slap him, but she knew that wasn't meant to be crude. He was being serious; he honestly couldn't stop thinking about it. At least now she knew she wasn't the only one.

"What happened to your eye?" she asked, changing the subject. He laughed humourlessly.

"Gina noticed something was up, and I was telling her what happened...Red, Ashlynn and Ej overheard."

"Oh my God! Ej punched you?" she exclaimed. A couple people turned around at that, so she quickly faked a look of anger and disgust, while Ricky followed suit. A couple people murmured, suspicious, but most seemed to accept that they were just pissing each other off.

"Actually, no, Ej just called me a lying, cheating, backstabbing dickhead. It was Ashlynn that punched me. That girl has a mean right hook." He explained. She couldn't help but snort a little at that, before she realized that he was serious.

"Oh... so Ej did find out?"

"Yeah... sorry. I didn't want to tell him." He looked honestly apologetic.

"No, it's okay, I'm glad. I just... I liked him, maybe not in a sexual way, but he was really sweet and... I didn't want to hurt him."

"Tell me about it. We've never been the closest of friends, but this year we bonded a little more and I thought we had a chance of becoming real close, you know? But now he's going to hate me forever. Honestly, even I hate me right now." Nini winced, a little hurt that he would say he hated himself for sleeping with her.

"S-so you regret it?" she asked quietly. He furrowed his brows and opened his mouth to reply, but Kourtney interrupted.

"Uh, Neeners?"  she asked, finally prying herself away from her phone screen. Nini jumped, looking at her friend. She'd completely forgotten about Kourt... what if she'd heard their conversation?

"You and Bowen were looking a little cozy... I was worried about your sanity." She said, glaring at the curly haired boy over Nini's shoulder.

"Ha! As if. I was just explaining to him why he can't sit by me. Obviously he's so thick that he doesn't understand basic etiquette." Ricky sighed, rolling his eyes and getting to his feet.

"Fine, I'll move. But seriously? How old are you?" he barked, angrily making his way to the seat at the front of the classroom. Somehow, Nini knew that he was genuinely angry. And he meant what he said, but maybe not in the same way that Kourt thought he meant it.

"That guy seriously needs to grow up."

"Yeah, he does..." Nini agreed half-heartedly, and by some miracle, Kourtney didn't notice her reluctance to say it.