𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 [𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙖𝙪]

Chapter Sixteen

About half an hour after Miss Jenn and Mike left, Nini ran to the bathroom and pulled out her phone to call her friends, who were all together in the diner.

"Guys! Joe Goldberg is here!" Nini whisper-yelled as soon as they answered.

She heard a loud gasp, "can you get his autograph! I love his show!" Seb said.

"Sebby, I don't think-"

"Ricky?" Kourtney interrupted Ashlyn.

"Yes! He's Miss Jenn's stepson!" Nini continued to whisper-yell.

"It's meant to be," She heard Carlos mumble from the other line, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Have you talked to him? Is he nice? I just know he's really quiet." Kourtney asked.

"All he's said to me was his name, and then he ran up to his room when Mike and Miss Jenn left." The brunette explained. "Oh shoot, Spence is calling me, I'll fill you guys in later! Bye!"

"Nini! Are you done? Let's go play!" Spencer yelled, knocking on the bathroom door.

The teenage girl hung up the phone and walked out of the bathroom to see the small boy in front of the door, with a hint of annoyance in his face.

She laughed at his expression and let her eyes wander to the door in front of the bathroom. Ricky's door. She quickly looked away when she noticed she was staring, silently waiting for him to come out.

"Let's go back down, okay?" She said to the three year old, "What do you want to do? Do you want to bake cookies?" she asked.

Spencer's face lit up at the question, "yes, please! I love cookies! Let's make chocolate chip!" he exclaimed, walking back downstairs and into the kitchen.

+

After a couple hours of Ricky trapping himself in his own room, trying to avoid the girl who was now in his house, he heard his stomach grumbling.

"I knew I should've eaten something before she came," he mumbled to himself.

He stayed quiet for the next minute, to try and hear something, signalling that the girl was still in his house. After he realized that it was so silent, you could hear a pin drop, he left his room with the idea of getting a snack, hoping that the girl had left.

He began walking down the stairs but stopped when he heard laughter and the sound of a camera click.

"Spencer, I told you they're still hot!" Ricky heard the girl say.

"You just said not to touch them!" The little boy defended.

Ricky sat down at the end of the stairs and continued to listen to the girl break out into a pit of laughter.

"That doesn't mean you can pick them up with your mouth when my back was turned," she continued to laugh. "Look I even got picture proof."

The curly headed teenager oddly felt comfort in the sound of her voice. She was always his escape from reality when he would dream. But lately, it felt like he had been missing her because the dreams had stopped. She was never there anymore, the diner was never there anymore. He was just alone.

Hearing the laughter and the way she talked was so nostalgic, and gave him the warm feeling he was missing. He never wanted to let go of it.

"Okay Spencer, we have an hour before bedtime. What do you want to do?" He heard the girl start conversing again.

"I want Ricky to try the cookies!" Ricky's eyes widened at what he heard his brother say, "I'll go get him!"

Soon enough, he heard the sound of the little boy running towards the stairs and the girl following behind him.

"Um, Spence, let's not bug him. He might be-"

"Oh Ricky, you're right here! Come try these cookies Nini and I made," Spencer said before letting Nini finish her sentence. He grabbed his brother's hand and dragged him into the kitchen as Nini followed, a slight redness rushing to her cheeks.

The little boy grabbed a cookie off the pile and gave it to his brother to try.

"Wow," was all he could say, as he chewed on the cookie.

"Is that a good wow or a bad wow?" Nini chuckled.

He turned to face the girl. She was talking to him. Not in a dream, but in real life. His mind wasn't making things up anymore.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Nini said, when the boy wouldn't look away.

He was staring. Again.

"Uh no. Nothing. And it's a good wow. I've only ever tried store bought cookies, I've never made them." He managed to get out.

"What? No way, cookies are like the one thing that everyone makes. You have to have made them at least once." The brunette replied, with shock filled in her voice.

Ricky shook his head, "nope, never."

"You can help us make them next time!" Spencer exclaimed, "right Nini?"

"Um, yea of course. That is, if you want to." She replied, hesitantly, looking back and forth between the two brothers.

"Yea, sure," the teenage boy said smiling at the girl.

"Cool. Oh look at the time. Spence, you better start getting ready for bed," Nini said to the young boy, to which he groaned. "You can't say no! Remember last time I let you stay up? You were so cranky and your mommy told me I couldn't come back."

A look of realization struck the little boy and as fast as he could, he turned around and ran towards his room.

Ricky and Nini laughed at the sight of the scared little boy. She turned to him and said, "I don't think she meant it, she knows she can trust me." She chuckled, followed by awkward silence. "Um, I should..." she pointed towards the stairs.

"Yea, go ahead," Ricky replied, mentally facepalming himself for not maintaining a proper conversation.

After putting Spencer down for bed, Nini headed back down to clean up the mess that the two of them made while baking, only to see that there was no mess.

"Oh," Nini said, looking at the boy who was putting the last dish into the dishwasher. "I could've cleaned, I was just waiting for Spencer to go down so there was no distraction."

"It's okay, I wasn't really doing anything." Ricky said.

They stood in silence for the next minute, not knowing what to say next.

"Um, Spencer's passed out, so I should go. He doesn't usually wake up in the middle of the night so you're good." Nini spoke.

"Sure, yea."

She grabbed all her stuff and headed to the front door to put her shoes back on. She quickly turned and faced the boy before leaving. "Bye Ricky, it was nice meeting you." She smiled and left before he could say another word.