delicate - rini au (sequel)

chapter 14: 129 days

21 minutes

That's how many minutes they had left until Ricky had to go to his gate.

129 days,
or 185.760 seconds.

Until they see each other again.

106 hours.

How much time they were with each other this past 5 days. They were now, hugging in the back of Nini's car. Trying to absorb every little thing of the other. It was only 129 days, but it felt like an eternity. Ricky had the worst of it, tho. He had to be far away from her and her friends. In the middle of nowhere, with people he didn't know, in a really small town where the only place to sell coffee was open only 5 hours a day. He only had talked to this really nice girl, Maya. She was around his age, she was playing her girlfriend in the movie so all of her scenes were with him. But not even twenty Mayas could replace half of one of his friends. He was going to have a free week at the end of October, but it was almost three months away, and then he had to leave for another month and a half. He tried to look for signal those past few days he was there, but it was pointless. Only the people that lived there had signal and it was so expensive and exclusive, they could only afford one call a week for 116 seconds. Less than 2 minutes. Maybe he could convince one of the 50 people who live there to let him use that call.

"You should get going." Nini sobed. Tears were fully visible and they weren't stopping.

"I don't want to. What if you come with me?" he said. He was in the same or worse position than her. His arms were still wrapped around her body. Her fist holding into his shirt while her head was in the crook of his neck.

"You know I can't. I have to get the album ready and do promo. I can't leave." she whispered.

16 minutes.

"You know I love you, right?" he broke the silence. She sat down so she could see his face clearly. He was a mess. Puffy and red eyes, he was not dealing with this well.

"I know."

"We are going to be apart for four and a half months."

"Yeah, I know that too." they stared at each other. They knew what that meant.

"Live your life, Ricky. I'll be here when you come back." she said while playing with his hair.

"I don't want anyone else." "But if you do, you can-"

"I know, you too." he said, beginning to cry again. She nodded.

3 minutes.

He grabbed his backpack and suitcase. And opened the door of the car. He had his hoodie on and she had sunglasses and a big long hoodie of his. They held hands until his gate. It was really late at night and no one was there, so they didn't have to worry about paparazzi or fans. They tried to make them believe he was staying for another two days. When they arrived at the door, they hugged each other. Still with their arms around each other, they joined foreheads.

"Are we really this dramatic?" they both laughed at his comment.

"Well, I did write a song about being mad about the end of Game of Thrones. And you are a dramatic actor. So yeah, we have our right to be like this." they laughed until the man on the gate told them he had to board in a minute. They broke apart and with a final kiss, they said their goodbyes.

"Have fun, take pictures and we'll see each other when you come back, okay?"

"I love you." he whispered, not breaking the intense and sad eye contact.

"I love you too." he squeezed her hand and turned around. He was about to disappear from her sight but he turned around and mouthed an / love you.

"129 days. We got this." she whispered to herself, trying to convince herself somehow that it was going to be okay. She turned around and left the airport. Hard months were coming but, when did life turn out to be how they planned?