a new home (a rini au)

5 - go anywhere but here

Ej goes off to the kitchen to find Ash, and Ricky walks around a bit, making small talk and throwing occasional fist bumps around as usual. "RICK!" a deep voice yells out, he turns around, Blake is sitting on the couch, as usual in his letterman jacket, a bright red cup in his hand. The rest of the football guys, some of the basketball girls and most of the cheerleaders are there too, a couple theatre and dance kids on the side; all around a low coffee table. He walks over, Blake puts a heavy hand on his shoulder, patting his back aggressively as a greeting, saying something obnoxious. It doesn't faze Ricky, he's too used to it.

"Hey" someone puts a hand on his shoulder, he turns around, quickly hugging her, a bit more relaxed now.

"Hi Lils" He smiles, then walks towards an empty spot on the floor. She follows him, three beers in her hand.

He sits down next to Nick Nelson, one of his teammates. Lily passes Nick a beer, then gives one to Ricky. He sits down, Lily settling down next to him. He stares at the unopened bottle, twirling it around in his hand. Lily has her back to his arm and shoulder, leaning against him as she talks to someone opposite her.

They've been friends for quite a few years now, a little more perhaps, friends with benefits one could say, other than the obvious implication of that, the benefits also include attending events between their parents companies and some dinner or another. However, romantic interest was something they've never really had for each other.

Although this year they've been hanging out less, especially outside of school, Ricky's grandparents are not quite fond of Lily when she comes to the events, especially his grandfather.

"Hey, don't feel like drinking?" Nick asks him, watching him mess around with the bottle. "Not really, what about you? You don't look particularly chipper"

"Heh, just waiting for Char, he's late, also those two look particularly close today don't they?" Nick asks, gesturing to their friends, curled up in a chair by the couch. Zephyr's sitting on Wes's lap, fiddling with the sleeve of his turtle neck. He's holding her hands in his.
"He's smitten and she's oblivious, or pretending to be at least. Literally if we ask them they're gonna start with the whole 'we're just friends' routine."

"Even those two" Nick chuckles, pointing his bottle at Ej practically death glaring some drunk sophomore trying to flirt with Gina a few meters away from him. "Also, Faith has been staring at you for like twenty minutes"

Ricky raises his eyebrows, then glances to his right, she waves at him. He gives her a small nod, turning his attention back to Nick who's basically about to burst out laughing. Ricky rolls his eyes, starting to laugh slightly himself. Maybe tonight's not gonna be so bad. "Go ahead go put your sleezeball moves on her, though from the looks of her you don't even need to" Nick teases, knowing very well he's not going to go hook up with Faith Thompson. "Just shut up"

Lily turns to him then, whispering in his ear "meet me in the inside corridor in a bit" she winks then walks away. His face sinks slightly but he tries not to let it show, he acknowledges what she said, nodding and smiling though he isn't even sure if it looks slightly real. A few minutes later, Nick gets up, seeing Charlie across the room. Ricky stays where he is.
He opens the bottle, hesitating for a second, then bringing it to his mouth and drinking as much as he can in a sip, till he finishes the whole bottle.

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