about an hour later, nina had gotten ready and was talking to ashlyn in the living room when she got a text from ricky telling her he was outside of her house.

she said a quick goodbye to her redhead roommate and put her sandals on before stepping outside and making her way to his car at the end of the driveway.

"woah, you didn't make up a story about a tow truck this time," nina sarcastically commented as she got into the passenger seat.

"what can i say, i'm changing my ways," ricky replied.

ricky pulled out of the curb next to her driveway and began driving. he gave the aux cord to nina and she chose to play some old taylor swift songs quietly as they had their own conversation.

"so, where are you taking me?" nina asked.

"just this small cafe place," ricky replied.

"hmm, okay," nina mumbled. "so we pretty much have everything finished. we just have to try and catch a firefly and put it in a jar so we can show the class, but it's not really needed, right?"

"yup, that sounds about right," ricky confirmed.

"great, so we're done! are you ready to present it?"

"um, physically, yes, mentally, no."

"what do you mean?"

"i've never been too fond of presenting things in front of a group of people," ricky started, "which really sucks cause i've always wanted to be a singer."

nina smiled widely and shifted her body to face him, "richard!"

"what?" he asked, thinking he said something wrong.

"you still haven't showed me your songs!"

"oh, right," he chuckled.

"so when will i get to hear a ricky bowen original?" she asked, going back to her original seating position.

"when will i get to hear a nina salazar-roberts original?" ricky smiled.

"hmm, well, i don't mind sharing my originals, but now that you don't want to share, i'm not going to."

"well then," the boy responded, "i'll let you know if i change my mind."

nina looked outside her window and saw the small cafe that ricky mentioned before as they pulled into a parking spot.

the two of them got out of the car and made their way inside the cafe and sat at a small table next to the window.

"this place is so cute!" nina squealed, looking around at all the decorations hanging on the walls and placed on the tables.

ricky looked at her and smiled at how she admired everything in the small space. she was wealthy, she's probably been everywhere, she probably has everything, yet she was still fascinated by the small things.

"yea," ricky replied, shaking his head out of his thoughts. "i used to come here a lot."

"i can see why," nina smiled.

the two teenagers let it get dark outside as they got to know each other better. ricky learned that nina didn't have very much friends back in la. her moms didn't let her go out as much, so that is when she would sneak out at night with ej. he also learned that her and ej's family were very close. the two grew up side by side and were never seen without each other.

nina learned that ricky was born and raised in salt lake city. he remembered meeting seb and kourtney in their kindergarten class at recess, being that they were in two different classes. despite not being in the same class for that year and almost all their classes leading up to middle school, they were the only two friends that stuck around with him- aside from gina, but the atmosphere was always different around her.

once it got dark, they made their way to the field so they could see if they could find any fireflies. sadly, they didn't.

they concluded the night by laying on the field, watching the stars in the sky, talking more in depth about their lives and now they both turned to music when something wasn't going right in their lives.