"Oh come on, you can't keep this from me."
"It's not my story to tell."
"You were there; you can decide for yourself."
"And I choose no."
Gina was dropping Aidan off at Nini's since she and EJ were having a date that night, and Gina managed to squeeze out a few minutes to ask Nini how her talk with Ricky went. She was obviously happier after that night, but she has yet to tell anyone why. "C'mon, Nini," Gina whined.
"I don't get what's so interesting about this."
Gina looked at her like she was crazy. "Uh, the love of your life came back from the dead. Of course, I would want to know everything that involves him!"
"How about this: I'll ask him if he wants to do a group hangout, and he can tell you for himself, yeah?" Nini tries to compromise.
"Aha!" Gina shouts.
Nini raises a brow. "Aha, what?"
"You didn't deny the love of your life part."
Her face reddens, but she tries (and fails) to hide it. "Do you agree or not?" she asks, ignoring her friend's comment completely.
"Ugh, fine."
Nini laughs at her disappointment. "You'll be fine." Gina jokingly rolls her eyes, quickly hugs her, and says bye before going out back to her and EJ's car.
Jayden and Aidan were playing video games in the living room, and Lauren was up in her room. For fear that the boys might hear her, Nini goes out onto the patio and calls Ricky. "Hey," he answers.
"Hey, guess what?"
"Oh no, what?"
She laughs at his scared voice. "It's nothing bad. Gina just stopped by and was wondering what happened a few nights ago."
"Oh, did you not tell her?"
"I didn't want to do it by myself. Plus, I wasn't sure what you were ok with."
"I'm ok with just about anything at this point."
"Anyway, since she's pushing to know what happened, I was wondering if you wanted to have us all get together, so you only have to tell the story once?"
"Oh, uh, sure. When and where?"
"You don't sound too sure."
"It's fine. When and where?" he repeats.
"Ricky, be honest with me. Are you ok to talk about this with more people?"
Ricky would be lying if he said he was 100% ok with this; talking about his past was so nerve-racking, but he doesn't think anyone else should be left in the dark. "Nini, they're gonna find out eventually. It'll be fine."
"If you say so." He didn't sound too sure, but if he's willing to, then they'll do it. "When?"
"I don't care."
"EJ and Gina are on a date right now, but I don't know anyone's plans for tomorrow."
"What about Sunday?"
"Uh, we'll have to check with everyone else, but that works for me at least."
"Ok, great. Should I text them or...?"
"It's fine; I'll do it," Nini offers.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, thanks. Tell me what they say."
"Kay, bye."
"Bye."
They hang up, and Nini finds his choice of day a little strange. Why Sunday? It's Tuesday.
A few minutes later, Jayden comes around the corner as she's going inside, and Nini almost instantly knows what he wants. "Hungry?" she asks.
"Yes," he laughs.
"Um," she turns around in their house to look in the pantry, "we have cereal, apples, bananas... or you could just eat cookies." When Nini looks behind her again, Jayden's just taken a cookie out of the box on the counter.
"What?" he says when she's looking at him.
"Nothing," she chuckles. "Is that all you're having?"
"Probably."
She just laughs, ruffling his curls as she walks by. "Of course."
"Hey," he says, a mouthful of cookie.
"Yeah?"
He swallows the food before talking. "Are you and Ricky ok?"
She feels the inside of her body freeze at his blunt question. "Yeah, what made you ask that?"
"Last time he was here he said you guys were trying to figure something out."
Nini approaches her son, watching as he nervously fidgets. "We're all fine. There's nothing to worry about. We've talked things through, and we're all good now."
He smiles a little. "Good." He desperately wanted to know what was happening but thought that question was better for a different time. "I'm glad."
Nini softens at how genuine he sounded and hugs him. "Me too."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday rolls around, and the gang all gather at Big Red and Ashlyn's. Nini offered to give him a ride, and he was beyond anxious.
Ricky's nervous as he gets dressed, constantly wiping his hands on his pants. He looks at himself in the mirror as he's about to put a shirt on. All the fucking torment that he's gone through had left physical evidence behind; his past was a permanent part of him, and there was nothing he could do to change it.
He sees her car come into the driveway from his window and quickly runs downstairs. She waves at him through the window and unlocks the car. "Hey, ready?" she says as he opens the door.
"Um, sure."
Nini knows he's nervous about this. "Do you wanna cancel?"
"No, it's fine. I'm sure almost everybody's probably already there."
"I mean do you wanna bring this story up at all?" They hadn't told the rest of them the real reason for this get-together; they just assumed it was their normal hang-out sort of thing.
"I'm sure. Let's get this over with." He didn't sound sure, but she wasn't going to question it any further. Ricky fiddled with his rings as they rode over there, scared out of his mind for people's reactions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There they are!" Ashlyn exclaims when she opens the door. She quickly hugs Nini and Ricky before motioning for them to go into the kitchen. "We've got drinks galore. Alcohol over there," she points, "and sodas and water over there." The pair nod at her and take in the environment around them; almost everyone was there as well as with a drink in their hands.
If they're drunk, they may not hate me, Ricky guesses. No, they should probably be sober, so I don't have to explain it more than once.
"So..." Ricky hears behind him. He turns around, and Big Red's approaching. "How's everything going with Nini?"
"Um, positively... I think. It seems fine right now, but I feel like it's gonna blow up again."
"Well, I don't see how it could," he laughs.
I do. "Yeah, um... yeah."
Big Red pats his shoulder. "You seem a little tense. Have a drink," he gestures to the various alcohol bottles.
"Thanks, but I'm good."
"You're joking, right? EJ!" he calls.
He glances over at the pair and tells Gina he'll be right back. "Yeah?" he says when he reaches them.
"Ricky says he doesn't want to drink."
Ricky just shrugs as his friends look at him weirdly. "Are you sick?" EJ says, bringing his hand up to Ricky's forehead, which he waves away.
"No, I just don't drink." EJ looked at him like he was insane.
"Again, are you sick?"
Nini was right; he would think I've gone crazy. "I'll talk to you in a minute," he laughs, going over to grab a soda instead.
"Bowen's lost his mind," EJ says, taking a sip of his beer.
Big Red chuckles. "It seems that way."
The two go back into the living room where everyone else was. "Do not get drunk yet. We've been here for two seconds!" Gina tells EJ.
"Don't worry about it." She gives him that look. "Look," he says, holding up his bottle, "I've barely had any of it."
Gina turns to everybody else. "I'm putting $20 down," Carlos says.
"Thank you so much for your faith in me."
Ricky finally joins them after grabbing his soda and carefully thinks through the best way to go about telling this story. He sits next to Nini in hopes of feeling a little better, which works until he realizes that it's actually time to start talking. "You got this," she whispers.
He nods and swallows the rock in his throat. "Guys?" he says nervously. It takes a minute, but eventually, the chatter goes down. "I, uh, I actually wanted to talk about something."
"More stories about your strange fifteen years?" Big Red chimes in.
"Red!" some people whisper yell. EJ flicks his forehead.
"Uh, yeah." That's one way to put it. "So, um, when my team and I made it back to the states-" His phone rings, and he looks frightened by the screen. "I, uh, I need to take this." He stands up and goes into the kitchen."
"Wonder what he's so nervous about," Ashlyn says, glancing into the other room.
"Probably something with his dad," EJ assumes.
The gang all continue to chat with each other, the parents talking about their children. "Yeah, Madi's really getting into dancing," Seb says.
"I'd love to see it at some point," Gina says. "Aidan's-"
Ricky's just come back into the living room looking like he's seen a ghost. "Ok, I'll be there soon. Just try to stay calm."
"I'm in a car in a ditch that's leaking gasoline, you fu- idiot!! Do not tell me to be calm!!!" Ricky held the phone away from his ear as a woman over the phone shouted at him.
Everyone in the living room looks at him, wondering who this mystery person was. He hangs up and looks at Nini frantically. "I need a ride."
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I've been struggling with titles recently😅