𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 ~ 𝙝𝙨𝙢𝙩𝙢𝙩𝙨 (𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟔.

"That definitely is her boyfriend, Layla," Faith had said giving her friend an accusatory look. "Who is this chick anyway?" Faith asked Nini.

"I don't know, she's kind of our mutual friend but also not. But they got cast as Seymour and Audrey in Little Shop at our high school." Nini tried to stay casual, but her anxiety was growing by the minute.

"Did you read her caption?" Faith asked, reading it out loud, "'Learning lines with this cutie. You're all gonna love him as Seymour'? I'm sorry, but I'm not so sure about that one."

Gwen chimed in before Faith could get off on a tangent, "Yeah, but to be fair, that's a perfectly normal and platonic thing to post. I get why you might be uncomfortable with it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that anything is going on."

Nini felt as if Faith and Gwen were the devil and angel on each of her shoulders. One egging her on to post a backhanded comment on the photo, the other telling her that Ricky had never done anything that should make her question his fidelity.

Nini thought of how she had felt that morning, opening her phone to find that Ricky hadn't even texted her to apologize for missing the call they were supposed to have last night. She just kind of broke inside. She decided that she'd give everyone at EHS some space. Clearly, he was busy, and Nini was too. It seemed like everyone in the drama family was getting along just fine without her, she didn't need to keep draining them dry. She didn't want to say anything that she'd regret later, but she also couldn't keep doing this. She couldn't keep pretending that everything was fine. So she just said nothing.

---

Between a long rehearsal and the emotional exhaustion of ignoring all of her friends as they gradually became more incessant with their attempts to reach her, the rest of the week passed by in a blur.

Wednesday, February 5
Kourtney: We haven't heard from you all day. Ricky says he thinks you're mad at him. You want me to step in or are you okay?

Big Red: hey other half of the Ricky Protection Squad. hes pretty worried, you wanna tell me whats up?

Ricky: Nins? You there?

Thursday, February 6
Seb: Hey Ni, where are you? We miss you. Ricky's kinda freaking out.

Kourtney: Nins, where are you? Talk to me.

Carlos: Look, I know we don't talk that much but I'm here for you. Seb is really worried about you, we all are.

Gina: Nini, I don't want to get involved but is this about the musical casting? Cause you know that me and Ricky are just friends, but he's really upset. What's going on?

Nini read Gina's message with a humorless laugh. She flopped back on her bed and let her phone slip from her hand, onto the ground.

---

It was somewhere in the early hours of Friday morning and Nini was fast asleep when she was startled awake by her phone buzzing on her nightstand. She accepted the call without even thinking to check who it was, "What?" Nini asked both groggy and annoyed.

"Nini?" She was wide awake at the sound of just that one word from Ricky's voice. It was a bucket of ice water thrown in her face.

"Ricky," she choked out.

"Nini, I know it's three a.m. and I'm sorry to call you at such a ridiculous time, but I've barely slept all week, and I just can't keep doing this. What did I do? What is going on? Everyone is so worried about you. Kourtney, Seb, all of our friends. Your moms said you don't sound like yourself but you won't tell them why. You gotta talk," Ricky stops talking, cut off by Nini's sob. She hadn't even realized how much she needed him until she was hearing his voice, but it was like he had split her chest wide open and all of the things that she'd been burrying deep inside were suddeny spilling out.