the flaw in being perfect - rini au

fifty nine

It's been a day now since Nini announced to the whole school to mind their own business, and everyone seems a little scared of her if she's being honest.

Ricky and Kourt were really the only ones to try to talk to her — both of which consistently wondering about when she planned to meet up with Ashlyn.

Neither of them directly asked Nini about it, but they both mentioned it to Ashlyn to see what they could get out of her.

"She told me we can meet today," Ashlyn casually mentions.

"Oh my gosh!" Kourtney squeals. "My dreams are coming true."

"Kourtney, we don't know how it'll go," Ricky mentions. "Nini has been through a lot. I don't think we should have any certain expectations for her."

Ashlyn nods. "I'm with Richard on this one. This is about what she is okay with and ready for, not any of the rest of us."

Kourtney sighs. "Well, I know, but it's hard not to get excited over this when it's what she's needed for a year now."

"You don't have to tell me, but what exactly happened when she, quote unquote, 'almost died' last year?" Ricky asks curiously.

"I don't want to share too much, because it's more of Nini's story than mine, but she essentially overdosed on appetite suppressants. Gina's not too far off with her overdose story, she just doesn't know what drug."

Ricky furrows his eyebrows. "How did that happen?"

"She was taking them so she wouldn't have to eat, because, you know, her eating disorder, but she started to take too many too often. No one knew she was on them until she blacked out and started puking up blood," Ashlyn spews out quickly. "I called the ambulance."

"Oh," Ricky gets out. "Wow."

"Then when she was in the hospital, she didn't want to see anyone," Kourtney continues. "So she was sent off to rehab without any way contact anyone from home."

"Wow," Ricky repeats himself. "That's... intense."

Ashlyn lets out a humorless laugh. "Yeah."

"But that's over now," Kourtney reminds them. "She's doing a lot better."

Ricky nods slowly.

"We know that's a lot. It's okay to need to process that," Ashlyn reminds him. "I still have dreams where it happens again sometimes."

"You do?" Kourtney asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal, though." She shrugs.

"We'll talk about this later," Kourtney tells her before turning back to Ricky. "Don't worry about her. She's okay now."

"What if she relapses?" Ricky asks.

"She won't."

"She did."

"It won't happen again."

"But it could." Ricky finishes off. "What then?"

"Then we take it one step at a time. Until then, we have to trust that she's taking care of herself. She didn't want to relapse, she just didn't know how to handle her situation, which is completely reasonable," Kourtney explains.

Ricky sighs. "Okay."

"Now that we've covered that, what am I supposed to say to Nini later?" Ashlyn asks.

"You'll know when you're there, Ash," Kourtney assures her, placing a hand on her arm.

Ashlyn shakes her head. "I'm thinking about this too much. You're right, it'll happen in the moment."

The group falls into silence.

"She's okay," Kourtney says again.

"I'm going to find her," Ricky excuses himself.

Once Ricky disappears, Kourtney looks back to Ashlyn. "We really are talking about your dreams later."

Ashlyn sighs. "I know."

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omg y'all it's been taking me longer than normal to write chapters recently akdbdof ,, i'm nearing finals at school and it's really tiring but i want to keep up the content :(

i hope y'all are still enjoying this book tho!! please tell me what you think of it!

what do you think will happen next?

-jenna