nothing has changed the past few weeks between ricky and nini. hate act, sneaking out, studying together, and other usual things. they were glad enough because no one gets suspicious about them. they just hoped this stays this way until they got accepted to columbia.

being a reliable student to the teacher, nini takes this advantage to see the lists of college or university choices by the seniors that the school counselor have. she was glad knowing not many people choose columbia as their first choice. and she was more even thankful that none of ricky or nini's group are interested in columbia.

both of their groups know how important columbia is to them, and they are grateful that their group doesn't know what their enemies' college or university choice is, or else they might manipulate both of them to choose anything but columbia.

ricky is currently talking with his friends at zoe's locker with zoe herself, big red, ej, and zoe's boyfriend, greg.

"i don't know, man. she seems into me the last time i talk to her." ej says, referring to another hookups of his

greg chuckles as he wraps his arm around zoe's shoulders, "you're saying like you're somewhat into her."

ej's looking down the ground and everyone notice the slight mood change, "wait, are you into her?" big red asks

"nah." he says

"liar!" zoe exclaims

ricky smirks at his best friend for years who is trying his best not to blush, "just admit it, dude. maybe you do have a heart."

"oh shut it, bowen."

they were enjoying themselves teasing ej to make him admit he really does have feelings for his hookups when suddenly they heard a squeal coming behind them. they turn around and saw a jumpy nini coming to gina, ashlyn, and seb.

"huh," big red says, "what's gotten into her?"

"don't know, don't care." ricky mutters

that's a total lie

"what is up with you?" gina laughs

"my mom called me this morning and she said my dad and her will come home on friday!" nini squeals in excitement

ricky tries to hide his smile when he sees his girlfriend being happy. he knew that it's very important for her when her parents came home, and he's really happy for her.

"nini, that's amazing!" ashlyn exclaims

"i know! god, it's been way too long." she sighs

"wait, friday? as in two days?" seb asks

she nods excitedly, "i can't believe it! they usually tell me like a week before they go home, but now, two days? god i'm really happy!"

"aw, look at you!" gina pinches her cheeks and she scrunches up her nose, "we're really happy for you, neens. we know how important this is to you."

"gina's right. we can't wait for the updates!" seb adds

"i can't wait either, guys! i just hope they really came home to see me, though. not for business."

then gina, ashlyn, and seb gives her a weak smile, "i don't know about you, but this seems like an almost surprise visit for you!"

"ah, i hope so!" she sighs, "i just hope nothing is going to ruin my mood today."

"we're going to protect you from any harm, especially you know who, who is currently standing behind us." gina mutters softly

ricky could hear gina so he really did take notes not to ruin her mood today, and then he continued listening to his friends' conversation.

nini looks at the view behind gina and sees her boyfriend and his friends having a seem to be fun conversation, knowing laughters coming from them. she didn't know if ricky heard her, but she will definitely tell him.

"alright, come on guys!" seb says, "don't wanna be late for mazzara."

finally the four of them walk away from their spot and go to their first period.

many periods later and it was finally the last period, which means one thing.

nini and ricky don't always sneak out to the closet everyday, just when they knew something's wrong or when they really wanna see each other.

they both knew that today they have to meet, so they decide to excuse themselves from their classes. thankfully, they never have any last period together, so it's easy for them to sneak out.

nini cautiously walk to the closet and when she arrives there she made sure that no one's around. when no one's around, she opens the closet door and carefully close it.

she's greeted by a huge grin from ricky and she giggles softly. she jumps to his arms as she wraps her arms around him and he did the same. they hugged for a few minutes until nini pulls away.

"my mom and dad is-"

"going home this friday, i know." he chuckles as he wraps his arms around her waist

"you heard this morning?" she asks as she put her hands in the back of his neck

"oh come on, your voice was so loud maybe the whole hallways could hear it." he teases

"i'm sorry i'm just really excited!"

"i know! and i am so happy for you. it's hard for me not to smile, you know."

"thank you, baby. and thank you for not annoying me today."

"i heard you and gina says about hoping no one will ruin your mood and how your friends will protect you, so i backed off."

she shakes her head in amusement, "you're literally the best boyfriend ever."

he smiles as he pulls her more so that there's no space between them, "oh, i know."

"really?" she teases

"mhm." he hums as he closes the gap between their face and connect their lips together

the kiss isn't that long when about three minutes later ricky pulls away and she whines.

"tell me everything, okay?"

"i will! now shut up and kiss me. i'm in a good mood." she demands

"have i told you that you're hot when you're so demanding?" he smirks at her as he leans to her face closer

"all the time." she says as she connect their lips again

ricky pulls her to his body closer to close the gap between them as she deepens the kiss. his lips trail off to her jaw and neck and she lets out the sound that always make his knees drop on the ground. she pulls his head to connect their lips again.

the kiss turns into a desperate and hungry one moment later. ricky was even more turned on when she tugs his hair and makes him groan. his action made nini smiled happily.

"you really are in a good mood, princess." he says, panting, as he catches some air

she licks her lips, "yup! i haven't feel this kind of happy ever since my parents went away for business."

"i am so happy for you, you have no idea."

"you're literally my number one hypeman!" she exclaims and he laughs

"and it will stay that way!"

she smiles looking at him. she's happy enough she found him and knowing how in love she is with him just makes her happy even more. she didn't know if she never met ricky, maybe she would give up with her life already. ricky is really helping her going through with everything and sometimes she feels bad that he's always the one who help her and not the other way around, even though he always deny her that he says with her being around him, it's enough for him to have a reason to survive.

she embrace herself to his arms as he wrapped her body tightly. ricky rubs her back softly, just the way she likes it and nini rest her face on the crook of his neck. he can feel the smile on nini's face which made him smile. he's really happy that she's happy and he really hoped that she will always be this happy. nothing breaks his heart even more than seeing the love of his life cry.

"i love you so much, ricky. thank you for everything." she mumbles on his neck

"i am so happy for you, princess. i love you so much more. and i thank you for existing in my life. you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

hearing him say that, she tightly wraps her arms around him more. she's really happy with him and she hoped that nothing will come between them.

"can we stay like this forever?" she mumbles

"soon, princess, soon. columbia is waiting for us."

she pulls away from him but her hands are wrap around his neck, "i cannot wait for us to get away from this city."

"yeah, but i have to worry if i will ever get in or not." he mutters

"hey, hey, no. you will get in. your grades are getting higher and our counselor says that your grades and records are potential enough for you to be a columbia student! we'll get through this together, okay?"

he gives her a small nod and gives her a long kiss on her forehead as nini closes her eyes and smile. they are happy with this feeling and they hope nothing can come between them.

at least for now

the next day, as promised, ricky still didn't annoy nini, which seems pretty unnormal, especially to their closest best friend, gina and ej.

thankfully gina and ej are still good friends and they are actually trying to find a way for ricky and nini to be friends again. which is why instead of doing their assignment, gina and ej are currently talking about ricky and nini at biology class for their last period

"do you think it's kinda odd seing richard not annoying nini yesterday and today?" gina asks

ej chuckles, "you know, i told you to call him ricky when you're with me."

"right," she trails off and laughs lightly

"well, i asked him at lunch and he told me that they made a deal not to annoy each other so that nini will do ricky's math assignment." ej responds

gina raises her eyebrows and she suddenly zones out. ej realizes it and he shrugs her shoulders lightly.

"you okay?" he asks

"y-yeah, just confused." she blurts out

"about?"

"he told you that nini will do his math assignment if he won't bother her?" ej nods, "nini told me it's english, not math."

ej widens his eyes, "wait, what?"

"i'm sure i hear her right, how about you?"

"me too, i was sitting next to him anyway." ej defends himself

"huh...."

"this is...."

"suspicious."

"weird."

"suspicious and weird." gina chuckles

"they're definitely lying."

"d-"

"miss porter, mr. caswell, is your conversation relevant than the assignment i gave you?" their teacher call them out

"n-no sir. we're sorry."

the teacher sighs and let them continue their assignment

"we'll continue it when we're done."

few moments later the two are done with their assignment so they went back to their main topic.

"do you think they're hiding something?" ej asks

"i don't know, but the way they tell us different thing is making me suspicious that they really are hiding something."

"yeah, and we both know they're both good liars, even though sometimes i can tell when ricky's lying."

gina sighs loudly, "same goes to nini."

"well maybe nini promised to do both math and english? i don't know. this is our best friends we're talking about."

"you have a point. let's not jump into conclusions first. if they become suspicious again, we have no other choice but to find out." gina offers

"well, you're right." ej beams

"you know what? this is probably the longest conversation we have for awhile!" gina says laughing

"right? and again, the topic is ricky and nini."

"i miss them, i miss us." she frowns

"yeah, when we used to do things together, sleepover at nini's, movie nights at ricky's, swimming at mine, or eat breakfast to dinner at yours."

"those were the days." she sighs

gina suddenly has a thought, "this might sounds weird or crazy but why do i hope that the two of them secretly talking behind our back?"

"i know, right? you know how important and huge their reputations is and maybe they are hiding the fact that they're friends" he adds, "but then again, it's impossible. they hate each other to guts."

"yeah, and we still never know what happened. i asked my parents but they won't tell me."

"let's just hope for the best for them."

soon enough friday came around and to say that nini is excited is an understatement. this is probably the first time that nini is excited for school to be over. her parents have texted her that they are already at home since noon and she cannot control her excitement.

ricky decides to let nini spend her time with her parents because she deserves that. which is why they haven't seen each other since they met at the janitor's closet last wednesday. they text each other at night to catch up things.

sometimes he's jealous of nini because even though she feels alone, at least her parents rarely fight, not like his parents, but of course, he never tells her that or else he knows nini will feel bad.

while nini is catching up with her parents, ricky is at ej's house with his friends group, and again, except for jenny.

they are currently playing video games while zoe and lily, the only girls in the group, enjoy themselves by getting their nails done. it was always like that. boys with video games and girls with hair, makeup, or nails.

"dude! that's called cheating!" kenny complains at ej who's currently being his rival

"nuh uh, that's called talent." ej adds and everyone laughs

kenny groans lightly, "whatever. now come on, who's next?"

"i want!" mason exclaims and he turns to ricky, "dude, you in?"

ricky is so focused on his phone, waiting for updates from nini. his mind is filled with his girlfriend and how he hoped she's having an amazing time.

"earth to ricky?"

ricky jumps lightly on his seat, "shit, sorry. what's up?"

everyone turns their attention to him, "rick, you okay?" lily asks as she stops painting her nails

"i'm good, don't worry about me!" he lied

"you sure?" greg asks, "because you've been zoning out ever since we're here."

"i'm good, guys! don't worry. now come on, i wanna kick your ass, mason!"

mason laughs, "you're so on!"

ricky put his phone in his pocket so that no one can see if he get a notification from her and he starts the video game with mason.

few hours later they are all tired from playing so that everyone excuses themselves to go home. about twenty minutes before they went home, ricky felt three buzzes coming from his phone but he didn't bother to open it. so when he walk home and go straight to his bedroom, he widens his eyes seeing the texts.