[a/n : ricky and nini are in their mid 20s in this story]
It was 7 pm on a Wednesday night when Nina Salazar-Roberts got the news. She was in her boyfriend's home, waiting for him to come home so they could have dinner together. As she sat on the couch scrolling through the Netflix home page, the phone on the side table began to ring and an unknown number flashed on the screen. Nini decided to ignore it, since it was probably a telemarketer or a credit card scam. But it kept ringing, and she decided that it might have been an emergency, so she picked it up just in case.
"Hello?" Nini said to the receiver.
"Hi, is Ricky home? I need to speak to him." The voice of the man on the other end of the call sounded hoarse and strained, he sounded like he was about to cry.
"Hi, this is Nini speaking. Ricky's still at work, but I can take a message for you." Nini offered. "Who is this calling ?"
"Nini, it's Todd.." Nini scratched her head for a moment, still unsure of who was on the other side of the line. Clearly she took too long to respond, because the man from the other end spoke again, clarifying his identity. "I'm Lynne's husband."
Oh. Now she remembers Todd. Todd is not very popular around here. He's the reason Ricky's parents are divorced, and why she moved to Chicago. Ricky had always felt that his mom chose Todd over him, and it caused a strain in their relationship.
"Oh. Todd. Can I take a message for you?" Nini asked nervously.
"It's Lynne. She's not doing very well. A couple weeks ago she started having fainting spells, and we decided to see a doctor. They said it's lung cancer, and it's pretty far along. We've been in the hospital for a week now, just checking everything, and finding out how we can treat it.. if we can treat it. So far two doctors have already told us that there's not much they can do. I think she would really like it if Ricky came to visit her."
Nini could hear the exhaustion in Todd's face, and imagined how many family members Todd has probably had to call to explain the situation to. She felt sorry for the guy, and she knew she had to tell Ricky, but she was nervous. His mom had always been a sensitive topic, and they'd always ended up fighting whenever it was brought up.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Todd. I hope she feels better soon. I'll talk to Ricky about it." Nini said.
"Please do. Thank you, Nini." he hung up the phone.
____
Nini sat nervously on the edge of her seat. She'd spent the last 15 minutes trying to find the right words to break the news to Ricky. She was going to gently tell him about his mom's condition, suggest that he visit her in Chicago, and that she would be there for him through it all. But when she heard the clicking of the lock, and the door opened up to reveal her boyfriend, she froze in her place.
"Hi babe, sorry I'm late, there was a power outage this afternoon at the studio, so we had to rearrange some schedules, and only just finished half an hour ago." Ricky said as he walked through the door and put down a paper bag full of take out on the dining table.
Ricky was a photographer, and he had set up his own business after graduating from college. He mostly did weddings and engagement photos. But it was currently graduation season and it had kept him pretty busy lately.
"It's okay, I know you're busy these days." Nini said distractedly, avoiding eye contact with him.
"Nini, what's wrong?" Ricky's voice was laced with concern. Nini sighed, he knew her too well.
She patted on the couch beside her indicating for him to sit next to her. He rushed to her side and took hold of her hands, rubbing slow circles on the back of her them soothingly.
"I have to tell you something," Nini started, "But you have to promise not to get mad."
Ricky nodded and squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"And I want you to know that I'm here for you, okay? Whatever you need." Nini said, taking a deep breath. "Todd called today."
As soon as Todd's name left her lips, Ricky let go of her hands and looked away. She reached for his wrists again, but he turned his body slightly so that he wasn't facing her.
"Ricky, your mom is sick, they said it's cancer, and she's been in the hospital all week." Nini said. She braced herself for what was to come as she carefully said her next words, " I think it'll be good for you to visit her, Ricky."
Ricky let out a quiet chuckle. It wasn't a happy one, like when she would tell him a joke, or show him a funny video on her phone. He was being sarcastic.
"Visit her? You want me to visit her?" Ricky said bitterly and stood up to walk away from her. "Tell me, ever since she moved to Chicago, has she visited me once?! Has she ever shown any interest in my life? Did she ever visit me when I was sick?"
Nini flinched as he started to raise his voice.
"Where was she at my high school graduation? Birthdays? Christmases? When I had a skateboarding accident, junior year of high school, DID SHE VISIT ME AT THE HOSPITAL?" Ricky continued.
Nini's eyes began to well up with the way he was looking at her, there was so much pain and anger in those eyes. She knew that it wasn't really directed at her, it was years of pent up frustration and hurt from the way his mom had treated him. She just wanted to hold him and tell him that everything will be okay, that they'll go through it together. In the past they would drop the subject and usually one of them would feel bad enough to apologize, and then they moved on with their lives. But this was different. Nini didn't want Ricky to regret this in the future. She knew that deep down there's a boy who still has love for his mom, it was just buried under all the pain.
"Ricky, please.. This is different. Don't you want to reconcile with your mom at some point? Todd sounded really desperate on the phone, I think he just-" Nini surprised by her boyfriend's cold tone.
"Get out." Ricky spat.
"Baby, please don't be like this, I was just trying to help-"
"I don't want to hear whatever you have to say. You're going to defend him now? After all that Todd has put me through, you're here defending him.. Next thing I know you're gonna run off to Chicago with him too.." He cut her off once more. "Everybody leaves, right? So why don't you just leave right now ?!"
Nini looked into his eyes, and she felt her heart break when she couldn't find the man she loved.
"Ricky, I'm not going-" She tried again.
"I said I don't want to hear it, Nini!" Ricky covered his ears, tears threatening to fall out of his own eyes. "In fact, I don't want to see or hear from you ever again! Just leave me alone. You're not my family. I just need you to go!"
"What?" Nini felt like she couldn't breathe, she thought he just wanted her to leave him alone so he can think, but to hear that he never wanted to see her again, and that she wasn't his family tore her apart. She was trying to comprehend what had just happened, but she was too distracted by the pain in her chest.
"Get. Out. Of. My. House. NOW."
_____
Nini woke up the next day in Big Red's basement, her eyes swollen and her head throbbing. She had shown up at her best friend's house, a sobbing mess, and he insisted she spend the night. It took about two hours for her to finally stop crying, and when Big Red finally asked her what happened, she just shook her head and cried again.
"Hey. How you feeling?" Big Red entered the basement, and set down a glass of water and a plate of breakfast on the table, "Here, you should eat something."
"I've been better. But thanks for letting me crash here, Red." Nini shot a thankful smile at her favorite redhead. Nini, Ricky and Big Red had been friends since kindergarten, and when they first realized they had feelings for each other, they'd both confided in Big Red. Other than Ricky, Big Red was probably the person she trusted the most with all her secrets.
"Anytime, Neens." Big Red smiled back. "So, wanna talk about it?"
"He broke up with me." Nini said simply. "We had a huge fight.. about his mom."
"I'm gonna kill him." Big Red had a scowl on his face. Nini knew that Big Red had made Ricky promise not to hurt her way back when they started dating, he'd given her the same speech too, he was the smallest of the three of them, but he was like their protective older brother.
"It's okay, Red. He's just hurting." Nini rubbed his arm soothingly, trying to calm him down.
"I know. But it's not okay.. He needs to work on his issues." Big Red said, "Sorry. I just get really frustrated with how stubborn he is sometimes. I'm sure you guys will work it out though, right? You always do."
Nini dropped her fork on her plate, as she tried to hold back her tears, remembering his words from last night. She felt Big Red put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm not sure we'll work it out this time, Biggy. It was different... He said he never wanted to see me again, and that I'm not his family. He said everyone leaves and I'm just gonna leave him." Nini wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "I just keep thinking, Red.. Was it not enough? Did I not love him enough? Is that how he felt this whole time? That I'm just gonna leave him."
"Shh. It's not your fault, Neens." Big Red pulled her to his chest and kissed the top of her head. "No one loves him more than you do. Everyone knows that. I think maybe Ricky just needs time to figure things out on his own."
_____
It had been two weeks since the break up, and Ricky had been MIA. He hadn't texted, or called or come by. So Nini figured he must have meant what he said before. It was really painful for to admit, but if it's really over, then she needed to move on. In fact, she was going do exactly what he said.
She had dropped by Slices to have dinner with Big Red, and it looked like he was just done with his shift. They sat together in their usual booth, Nini sat on the far right end, uncomfortable sitting in Ricky's usual seat.
"So, have you heard from Ricky at all?" Big Red asked before taking a bite of his spaghetti and meatballs.
"No. Why? Did he say something?" Nini asked hopefully.
"No. Sorry." Big Red offered her a weak smile. "So.. What did you want to talk about ?"
"You remember Kourtney?" Nini asked, glad for the change in subject.
"From college?" Red asked, Nini simply nodded. "Yeah, we all used to hang out a lot back then. What about her?"
"Well we've kept in touch, and she's working for this magazine in New York now as a stylist. A few weeks ago she told me there's an opening for an Assistant Editor, and she thought I would be a good fit for the job." Nini said between bites. "After ... everything went down, I kind of needed a distraction, so I actually applied for the job last week, and they want me there Monday!"
Nini had been working for the local newspaper as a columnist for a few years. She enjoyed her job, but to be honest she needed a new challenge, and the job Kourtney got for her was like a dream job.
"Wait. What? Neens that's awesome." Red leaned over to give her a hug. "But that means.. you're moving?"
"Yeah. I'm gonna miss you, Red." Nini said.
"I'll miss you too. But what about Ricky?" Red asked.
"I guess I'm just doing what he asked. He said he doesn't want to see or hear from me again, so I'm respecting his wishes." Nini said, playing with the food on her plate. If she was being completely honest, she wished he would stop her, make her change her mind, tell her that he didn't mean any of it and they could be a couple again. But in reality, they were over, and part of the reason she decided to take the job, was because it would be miles away from him. In Salt Lake, everything reminded her of him. She couldn't even drive past all the places they used to go to without thinking about him, and it hurt, because she still loved him. Distance would help her find herself again, and maybe someday they could find their way back. "Will you do me a favor, Red?"
"Anything." Red said reassuringly.
"Take care of him, okay?" Nini said.
"You know I will."
_____