nina slowly made her way over to ricky's house, working up the courage to talk to him about whatever he wanted to talk about, unable to stop her endless thoughts.

he's probably going to talk about him trying to kiss me, right? but what would he say? would he make something up? would he say that he has feelings for me? what if he does- i don't like him like that, do i turn him down? but that would only make things more awkward. maybe-

she looked up and saw that she was in his neighbourhood. specifically, standing right in front of his house.

she let out a deep breath before she walked up to his front door and knocked.

"i'll get it!" she heard someone yell from the inside of the house, "oh nini! come in, come in," mike greeted her.

"hi mr bowen," she smiled.

"please, call me mike. so, what brings you here?" he asked.

"um, ricky-"

"dad!" ricky exclaimed, grabbing the attention of both his dad and the girl.

"oh, i guess that's my cue. i'll be in the kitchen if you need anything," mike said before walking away.

"hi," ricky said to the girl.

"hi," she softly replied.

"um, wanna go..." he pointed to the direction of his room and she nodded as she followed him quietly.

"so um," she started as he closed his bedroom door, "what did you want to talk about?" she hesitantly asked.

"right, um, i just wanted to apologize for what happened... before."

"oh, um, it's okay," she replied, "it was probably just what felt right in the moment."

"yea-yes! that's why i did it!" he rushed out, causing her to laugh. "sorry, i uh- i've never done this before."

"don't worry about it, buddy."

"oh god," he laughed. "so, you're not mad?"

"of course not, why would i be mad?"

"i don't know, you were pretty-"

"you think i'm pretty?" she joked, interrupting him.

"no nini. i mean i do but like-"

"i'm just kidding richard," she chuckled.

"right," he breathed out, "i was saying, you were pretty cold towards me at school."

"oh," she awkwardly replied, "uh, i just didn't know what to say or do, i guess?"

"what do you mean?"

"i didn't know if you were gonna be all weird about it or if we were going to pretend it never happened, but then i came to chem early and freaked out so i asked kourtney to switch seats and then i just... didn't talk to you," she explained.

"oh."

"yea. sorry."

"no it's-" he cleared his throat, "it's okay."

"oh no, are we gonna be all weird about this too?"

"no, please no," he laughed, "lunch was the most awkward thing i've ever had to experience."

"please, did you see red?"

"yes! oh my god i thought he was having neck problems with the amount of times he jolted his head towards me," ricky said, making the both of them laugh. "so um, are you and red...?"

"huh?" she asked before piecing it together, "oh, no-no, he's just my best friend and then los and ash locked us out of her room last night while they took pictures on my phone, then i had to airdrop it to them so they could post, so we just made them pictures of us to annoy them," she laughed.

"oh," he replied, relieved.

"yea."

nina scanned the room and she the guitar once again. she ran up to it, picking it up before she handed it to ricky.

"another original perhaps?" she wiggled her eyebrows.

he took the guitar out of her hands as he rolled his eyes playfully. he played a couple notes before he remembered something.

"um, you know what? i wanna show you something," he mysteriously said.

she gave him a confused look.

"don't worry, it's not bad," he laughed, "come on."

he grabbed her wrist gently and lead her to another room in his house that was further down in the dim lit hallway, passing two other rooms, one on each side of the small hall.

"ricky where are you-"

she immediately stopped talking when the door opened, revealing multiple instruments all around the room.

"this is my secret music room," he said before walking in, seeing the girl admire it with her jaw slightly dropped.

"woah, you know how to play all these instruments?" she asked, amazed as she ran her fingers through the grand piano and sat down on the bench.

"yea, eliza- the girl i told you about before, she was the only one i've taken in here and we would just jam out, hours on end.

"does that make me special?" nina teased, "being the only other person you've brought in here."

he scoffed playfully, "sure, whatever lets you sleep at night."