I woke up to the feeling of cold water hitting my face.
"Agh! What the hell?" I bellow, rubbing my eyes and moving my now soaking wet hair out of my face.
"That's for not keeping your legs on your side of the damn bed last night." Ricky scolded.
Oh, yeah. Sharing a room did not go well last night.
- F L A S H B A C K -
last night
"Nini! Fucking wake up!" Ricky roared, aggressively shaking me in an attempt to wake me up.
"What the hell, Ricky?" I rub my eyes before opening them, only to be met with a very angry looking Ricky. I went to bed earlier than Ricky did, which is why I was asleep and Ricky wasn't.
"There's only one bed, Nini where the fuck am I supposed to sleep?"
"I don't know! I already claimed dibs on the bed before SOMEONE woke me up!"
"Well you need to get up because I am NOT sleeping on the goddamn floor."
"Ricky has anyone told you that you have a swearing problem?"
"I don't give a shit! Get up, I'm fucking tired."
"I'm not sleeping on the floor either! I was here first!"
"Fine." He lifts his shirt over his head, places it on the dresser and then walks over to the other side of the bed, pulling back the covers.
"What are you doing?" I furrow my eyebrows.
"I'm going to bed. Since neither of us want to sleep on the floor, you stick to your side and I'll stick to mine." He slides into the bed.
"Okay- just don't come over here." I make clear, scooting over further.
"Obviously!" Ricky turns over on his side so his back is facing me, and I do the same.
It was easy to fall asleep, considering I barely even felt his presence.
- E N D O F F L A S H B A CK -
"Okay well I can't control what I do in my sleep Ricky!" I get out of the bed and start to walk towards the bathroom that was in our room.
"It was fucking annoying. Your legs kept like- brushing against my back. It was weird." He follows me into the bathroom.
"In my defense you were hogging the blanket. You had most of the blanket last night." I grab a towel and start to dry off my hair.
"That doesn't give you the right to kick me in your sleep!" He yells.
"It's not my fault Ri-"
I get interrupted by a knock on the door.
"What?" Ricky and I shout in unison.
The door opens and a tall guy with gorgeous brown, somewhat curly hair and brown eyes walks in.
"Sorry to interrupt, Ej sent me to make sure you guys didn't kill each other last night." The man says, leaning against the door frame.
"I was considering it." Ricky adds. I scoff in response.
"Right, well Ej is making waffles so come down when you guys are done bickering."
"Ej? Cooking? Since when?" Ricky had a VERY confused expression on his face.
"Oh, by 'making' I mean heating up the store bought ones." The man clarifies.
"Thanks for letting us know," I pause, waiting for his name.
"His name is Noah." Ricky adds.
"I wasn't asking you." I snap, looking over at him only to see he was on his phone. I scoff and turn my attention back to the man whos name I now know is Noah.
"Thank you for letting us know, Noah. We'll be down soon." I clarify, looking at Ricky who was still on his phone.
Noah leaves and I grab Ricky's phone out of his hand.
"The hell?" Ricky reaches for his phone, but I pull it away.
"Being on your phone in the middle of a conversation is VERY impolite." I scold.
"Have you met me? I don't give a shit. Now give me my damn phone." He reaches for his phone again, but once again, I pull it away.
"You should care. Noah was being very friendly and you were just on your phone!" I hold the phone over my head, but I soon realize what a stupid decision that was.
"You realize that just made it easier for me, right? I'm taller than you, Sal-Robs. Also Noah is a world class dick, he wouldn't care that I was on my phone." He reaches for the phone again, but I have lighting quick reflexes!
Okay, that was a stretch.
But I do manage to get it away from him again. I do the thing that every female does when trying to hide someone from a male.
I put it in my bra.
"Nini what the fuck!" Ricky yells, taking a step back.
"It was the only option!" I defend.
"Or you could have just given me my phone like a normal person."
"If you want it so bad come get it!" I smirk, knowing I won this one. My smirk quickly falls when I see a look of fury take over Ricky's eyes.
"I mean, if you insist." Ricky takes a step closer to me. I quickly shove my hand down my shirt and take out the phone and toss it to him.
I don't care if he was joking or not, he was NOT about to put his hand down my shirt.
Ricky smirks, "Pleasure doing business with you!" And with that, he opens the door and leaves the bedroom.
"Screw you!" I shout, unsure if he heard me or not.
+
"Gina, I can't share a room with him! He literally poured water on me this morning. You need to switch out of that room! Ricky is rude, he is arrogant, he is glib, he is selfish, he's a blanket hog, he's a-" I ramble, but Gina interrupts me.
"Wait. What do you mean he's a blanket hog?" Gina raises her eyebrows.
"I woke up so many times in the middle of the night to see Ricky with most of the blanket. It was so annoying! And that bedroom is cold too so you can see how that didn't work out very we-"
"You guys SLEPT together?!" Gina yells as her jaw drops.
"Sure did. Condom and everything." I hear a low voice from behind me say. I don't even have to turn around to know its Ricky.
"Ricky can you please act like you have a brain for ONE second?" I turn around to see Ricky with a smug smirk on his face. I was so close to pouncing at him and wiping that stupid smirk off his face. But then I remembered he's a thousand times stronger than me.
"The only reason we slept together is because there was only one bed and someone was too selfish to sleep on the floor." I explain. Gina and I were sitting outside by the pool having girl time, until someone interrupted. *Cough Cough* Ricky. *Cough Cough*
"Anyways, Ej sent me to find you ladies. We're all going out to dinner," Ricky starts, "But there's not enough cars for all twelve of us so were splitting up. Me, you two, Ej, Noah and Chase are going in 1 car and the rest of the guys are going in another so do whatever lady stuff you need to do and meet us in the driveway in 15."
"Where are we going?" Gina inquires.
"I don't know, some pizza place." Ricky shrugs and walks away.
Going out to dinner meant I had to see Antoine.
And I was not looking forward to that.
I'll just avoid eye contact.
+
"Ej this place looks like its for fucking children." Some blonde dude with icy blue eyes says. I felt bad for him, he was the only blonde one in this group.
"That's the point, Kevin! I want chicken tenders and french fries so I made sure to find someplace with a kids menu!" Ej defends.
"Don't worry man, I'm just gonna order some Mac & Cheese." Chase pats Ej on the back. I know it's Chase because him and Ej would not stop singing Taylor Swift songs the whole way here.
"Let's just go inside the damn restaurant. The ladies are getting bored." Noah says, walking up to Gina and I and slinging both his arms around our shoulders.
We all made our way inside the restaurant and when I tell you it was PACKED. Ej walks up to the front desk and as soon as the lady working the front desk see's him, she pulls her platinum blonde hair onto one shoulder and starts twirling a strand around her finger. She was so obviously flirting with him.
"Table for twelve, please," Ej says, squinting his eyes to read her nametag, "Cora." Cora's eyes move to the rest of us who were standing behind Ej. Her eyes widen as she individually checks out everyone in the group except for me and Gina.
"It'll be around a 25 minute wait while we prepare your table," Cora informs, batting her eyelashes at Ej. "Would you like to put your name in so we can call you when your table is a ready?"
"Sure. Please put the name down as Ricky Salazar-Roberts."
My eyes almost pop out of my socket.
"Fuck you," I hear Ricky mumble while the rest of the group just breaks into laughter.
"Ricky. That's a hot name." Cora scrunches her nose at Ej.
"Good lord," Ricky whispers. "I'm going to take a piss." He announces.
"Don't fall in, mate." Kevin pats Ricky on the shoulder, but that just causes Ricky to flinch.
"Don't fucking touch me," He orders as he walks away, following the sign that says 'Bathrooms'.
"Thanks so much for all your help. Dora." Ej walks away from the front desk.
"Its uh- it's Cora!" She yells, but Ej was zoning her out at this point.
As soon as we all find a place to sit while we wait for our table, I take this opportunity to slap Ej.
Lightly and on the arm, but still a slap nonetheless.
"What was that for?" Ej furrows his eyebrows.
"For giving the devil my last name! He doesn't deserve my amazing and beautiful last name."
"Would you rather me have put Nini Bowen?"
"No! Why couldn't you just put Ej Caswell?"
"Cause that's no fun!"
"I thought it was funny, Ej." Gina walks up to him, putting an arm on his shoulder. Ej looks down at Gina and softly smiles at her. "Thanks, Gi."
"Ricky, did you wash your hands?" One of the guy's asks as Ricky comes back to where we were sitting.
"Go throw yourself off a balcony, Oliver." Ricky glares.
"It's Oli, RB. Or should I call you RSR now?" Oli jokes. Everybody in the group laughs at this, except for me and Ricky who just stand there awkwardly.
"Come on, Ricky! Lighten up! I'd love to have Nini's last name." An all too familiar french accent says, patting Ricky on the shoulder. Ricky, once again, flinches and pulls away.
"Don't fucking touch me." Ricky repeats. As soon as Ricky says that, there's a thick tension in the room. Apparently Ricky REALLY hates physical interaction. In fact, the only person I've ever seen touch Ricky without him flinching is Ej. That confuses me in more ways than one. I understand if you don't like hugs, but he literally doesn't let anyone besides Ej even pat him on the shoulder.
The room remains silent for the next couple minutes, before someone comes on the loud speaker.
"Ricky Salazar-Roberts, your table is ready. Please make your way to the front desk."
Once again, the group breaks out into laughter. Everyone besides me and Ricky, who just glare at everyone.
"Hardy Har, very funny. Now get your dumbasses up so we can go eat." Ricky demands.
We make our way to the front desk, and Cora is still there. She leads us upstairs and sits us down at this huge table. I sit down in-between Gina and Noah and directly across from Ricky, who was sitting in-between Ej and Kevin. Luckily, Antoine is sitting in the same row as me on the other end, which means I don't have to look at him.
"My name is Cora and I'll be your waitress for tonight. Can I get you guys anything to drink?" Cora asks.
We all go around and say what drinks we want, all of us getting some sort of soda except for
Ricky who just sticks to water. Cora leaves and the group breaks out into conversation.
"So Neenzee, how did sharing a room with Ricky go last night?" Ej asks.
"It was terrible." I admit.
"Yikes. Well, you guys only have to share a room for 2 weeks!"
"That's too fucking long," Ricky mumbles.
"Trust me, I'm not happy about it either." I glare at him. I get a scowl in return.
Eventually Cora comes back with our drinks, and then I have to pee.
"Hey, where are the bathrooms?" I ask Gina.
"I don't know, Ricky's the only one that went."
I turn my attention to Ej, who is having a conversation with Ricky. Something about why drop-kicking a baby is bad.
"Hey, Ej?" I interrupt their very personal and deep conversation.
Ej turns his head towards me, "Hm?"
"Where are the bathrooms?"
"I don't know."
"Fuck me," I hear Ricky mumble before getting out of his seat and walking over towards me. He makes his way over to my chair, grabs my wrist and yanks me out of my seat.
"What're you doing?" I nearly trip over my chair, that's how hard he yanked me out of my seat.
"Showing you the bathrooms." Ricky leads me away from the table.
"You didn't have to yank me out of my chai-" I begin, but get interrupted by Ricky turning around so he's facing me.
"You wouldn't have come with me any other way." He glares. If looks could kill, I'd be six feet under.
"Can you at least let go of my wrist? You're cutting off my circulation."
"I'm not even holding you that hard."
"Okay, irregardless! You may not be holding me that hard but if you continue to hold my wrist eventually the blood flow there will stop which means the blood won't pump to my heart which means I will die which means you will go to jail for murder. Do you want to go to jail, Ricky?" I try my best to sound smart, but judging by the look on his face, he's not having any of it. He groans and rolls his eyes, finally letting go of my wrist. "Fucking idiot," I hear him mumble.
"Hey! That is very explicit language!" I shake my wrist.
"Just follow me." He turns back around and walks away. I quickly follow. Soon enough we are standing in front of a door that says 'Ladies'.
"Thanks," He gives me a small head nod before turning around and walk away, but something didn't feel right. There was something I still needed to do.
"Wait." I grab onto his wrist, stopping him from going any further. He looks down at where our skin is in contact with each other, then looks back up at me.
"I just wanted to say thank you." I look down at the floor.
"You just said thank you?" A confused expression takes over his face.
"No, I mean thank you for helping me when I was drunk. If you took me home and my mom saw that I was drunk, I would have gotten killed. Not really, but like hardcore grounded. So it means something to me that you took time out of your day to help me, and give me clothes and stuff. I know you only helped me because of your car, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I might've gotten kicked out, even. I couldn't stop thinking about you ever since that lunch on Friday, and I kept beating myself up because I never really thanked you. I know it doesn't mean much to you but it really meant a lot to me. So, thank you." I return my gaze from the floor to his chocolate brown eyes, so he can see the sincerity and how much I really did appreciate that small favor.
We stay silent for a moment, just looking into each other's eyes. I think this is the most calm I've ever seen Ricky. His expression was soft, not aggressive like it usually is.
"No problem." He finally says, not breaking eye contact.
"Yo, RB! What's taking so lo-" Ricky and I immediately move away from each other at the sound of this voice. My hand falls away from his wrist.
"Shit, sorry. Was I interrupting something?" A boy from the group says, clearly seeing the awkward position we were in two seconds ago. He had black hair with hazel eyes.
"It's fine, Liam. Just go back to the table, I'll be there in a sec." Ricky reassures. Liam blows a kiss at Ricky before walking back to the table. Ricky turns back around so he's facing me again.
"I should go back, but um," he pauses, "I didn't help you just because of the car."
+
A/N
ej is such a fun character to write omg. anyways i just want to personally say thank you for nearly 600 reads on this story! i cant believe theres that many of you that put up with my terrible writing and plot holes. im getting better i promise! also sorry this book is kinda slow moving. i like slow burns anyways!! theres some major drama coming up these next couple chapters that completely shifts ricky & nini's relationship so their relationship will start to progress soon i swear. also i know the one bed troupe is kinda cliche but its one of my fav troupes ever so i had to add it in. anyways have a great day/afternoon/night!