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prelude
Ashlyn looked up from her conversation with Maddox by the piano just as Gina and Ricky bustled their way into the rehearsal room, their presence immediately made known by their incessant giggles, delighted and loud and tumbling past their lips as if whatever the other had said was the funniest thing they’d ever heard in their lives. Gina began to shrug off her jacket, revealing her athletic wear beneath, and Ricky quickly stepped behind her to gently pull it over her arms when she started to struggle with the awkward angle, leaning over her shoulder to smack a kiss to her cheek, causing Gina to giggle further.
Ashlyn rolled her eyes good naturedly when Gina turned around, raising her hand to his cheek and leaning into Ricky, their lips connecting for what Ashlyn guessed was probably the hundredth time that day. She wasn’t even sure if she could say she was being hyperbolic at the rate those two went.
“What’s up?” Ashlyn turned her attention back to Maddox, whose ruddy cheeks were heightened by her fond smile, nudging her shoulder into Ashlyn’s.
“Just Ricky and Gina,” Ashlyn replied, laughing under her breath, “They’re so sickeningly cute, I’d almost be jealous if I was single.”
“Good thing you’re not,” Maddox replied, and Ashlyn smiled widely at her before turning her gaze back to her two friends across the room.
“I honestly don’t think they could go a full day without kissing each other,” Ashlyn commented.
Jet piped up from his place on the mock stage behind the piano, lying down with his arm over his face, clearly having been eavesdropping on their conversation, “They couldn’t go a full hour without kissing each other. I’m surprised their lips aren’t permanently swollen.”
“It’s true,” Carlos piped up from beside Jet where he was scrolling through his phone, “I saw them making out behind the bleachers when they had literally been in class together the period before.”
“What are we talking about?” Kourtney bustled in with a takeaway coffee, shooting Jet a wink when he shot up from his lazing position, straightening his t-shirt.
“Ricky and Gina’s inability to go a single minute without kissing each other,” Ashlyn provided, nodding over at the pair, who had somehow ended up with Gina in Ricky’s lap as he rested his chin on her shoulder, reading over their script together and – as one may have guessed – leaning over to place soft kisses on each other’s faces with every second line.
“God, those two are clingy as hell,” Kourtney commented, now also looking in the same direction as everyone else, “They’re perfect for each other.”
Clearly having had enough of enduring the love fest, Carlos called out, “Are you two going to join us, or will we have to witness this disgusting display until Miss Jenn arrives?”
Ricky and Gina’s heads shot up in unison, and they turned to laugh softly at each other, before making their way over to the rest of the group. Ricky swiped Gina's hand and interlocked their fingers as they made their way across the room, before saying apologetically, “Sorry. We were just practicing the dialogue before Rewrite the Stars.”
“And you could do all that with your mouths attached?” Jet said in that typical deadpan manner, and both Ricky and Gina flushed deeply.
“They were not –” Ricky tried to defend, but Jet just cut him off with an effectively silencing look.
“It’s okay, you guys are just one of those overly affectionate couples,” Ashlyn said, smiling humorously at her friends, “It’s cute. You can’t go two seconds without kissing.”
“Yes, we can,” Gina defended, her tone flustered.
“Gina, honey, you wouldn’t last a day,” Maddox scrunched her eyebrows.
“Okay, that is just not true!” Gina spluttered, her already pink cheeks getting deeper in color, “We kiss because we want to kiss each other, not because we have to.”
“I bet you wouldn’t be able to last a week without kissing,” Carlos raised his eyebrow, ever one to stir the pot.
“I bet you we could,” Gina retorted, crossing her arms in defiance, and Ricky’s gaze shot to her in alarm.
“Now, wait a minute –” his voice grew alarmed, and it took everything in Ashlyn not to laugh at his face which looked as if he was a kicked puppy.
“Fine, you’re on,” Carlos grinned, his bait having worked, “One whole week of no kissing, starting from now.”
“Fine!” Gina exclaimed.
“Gina!” Ricky whined, clearly not on board with the idea, shifting from foot to foot.
“It’s just one week, baby,” Gina turned to him, lifting her palm to his cheek again, stroking her thumb across his cheekbone. Ricky melted at her touch, pressing his cheek into her hand, and pouting in the way Ashlyn knew Gina found adorable, if her late night squeals into her pillow during their weekly sleepovers where they spent gushing over their partners was any indication.
“Ricky is not gonna last a single day, I would put money on that,” Jet commented from the sidelines, and Ricky shouted out his objections that no one paid any attention to.
“So would I,” Maddox grinned.
“You are all underestimating just how down bad Gina is for Ricky,” Kourtney raised her eyebrow, “I would bet $10 she folds first.”
“Are we actually doing this?” Carlos bounced in his spot on the stage, “Because I’m team Gina folding first too. I have $10 on me right now.”
Maddox and Jet went to scrounge around for some of their own money, and Ricky and Gina rolled their eyes, moody and probably realizing their mistake a little too late, moping off into a corner to sit way too close together, Ricky fidgeting with Gina’s fingers as they whispered to each other. Something shifted in their demeanor when Gina leaned over to whisper something into Ricky’s ear, and he perked up again with wide eyes, nodding profusely at whatever Gina had to say.
Before Ashlyn could decipher what was going on, Maddox shocked her out of her thoughts with a hand on her knee, “What about you, Ash? Who are you betting against?”
Ashlyn thought for a moment, before turning to her group of friends and smiling mischievously.
1
Ricky looked over his shoulder as Gina and him stumbled into an empty classroom, one Gina had discovered during their secret dating days, one that hadn’t been used for teaching purposes ever since shooting for HSM4 took place. He was practically splitting his face with his grin, always overjoyed to hear the sound of Gina’s heavenly giggles tumbling from her lips.
“Are you sure we can do this?” Ricky asked her once he had turned back around, stopping her still by placing his hands on her hips.
“We only fail the bet if we get caught kissing,” Gina shrugged, clearly finding amusement in the loophole.
“This feels morally gray,” Ricky teased, squeezing her hips just slightly and grinning wider at the sound of Gina’s short squeak.
“I never said I would play fair,” Gina rolled her eyes, raising her own hands to run them over his biceps, up and down in a manner that was supposedly meant to soothe, but only excited Ricky, “Carlos was just pissing me off. I hate being underestimated.”
“Don’t you think we’re kind of proving their point if we go behind their backs to kiss?”
“Do you care about that?” Gina raised her eyebrow, before leaning forward and pressing a lingering kiss to the side of his neck. Ricky felt his stomach turn to mush immediately, his knees wobbling just slightly when he heard her soft voice beside his ear, “Because I don’t care at all.”
Her teasing voice snapped something within him, and he ran his hands down to her thighs to hoist her into the air, Gina immediately wrapping her legs around his middle and her arms around his shoulders, giggling into his neck and causing him to laugh along with her as he said, “Come here.”
He carefully placed her down on the closest desk, putting both palms flat beside her hips and leaning into her space, smiling lazily at her as he watched her face redden at his proximity, her hands having shifted down to his chest, pressing into him the further he leaned toward her.
Their noses nudged slightly, and Ricky took his time to drink Gina in, her beautiful brown eyes sparkling as she looked up at him, her flushing cheeks rounded and happy, a sight he simply could never get enough of. He was just about to press into her and close the distance, draw that gasp out of her that he loved so much whenever he kissed her slowly and languidly, when the door to the classroom burst open.
“You guys couldn’t last a single
hour
?” Ashlyn yelled from the entrance as Ricky and Gina sprang apart, Gina stumbling as she scrambled off the desk and took three hefty steps away from her boyfriend.
“We didn’t do anything!” Ricky defended, leaving out the fact that they were about a quarter of a second away from doing something – kissing each other until they were completely out of breath.
“This is just embarrassing guys,” Ashlyn crossed her arms in front of her, “I knew you were up to something in the rehearsal room. I could tell because Ricky no longer looked like he had been kicked repeatedly and was suffering the worst ailment of his life.”
“Fine, you caught us,” Gina flew her arms in the air, looking annoyed they had been interrupted, and Ricky could understand where she was coming from, “But, we didn’t kiss before you burst in, so technically we haven’t lost yet. So, there .”
“Fine,” Ashlyn raised her eyebrow, “I won’t tell the others about this, because they won’t be as forgiving as me. But, seriously guys, losing the bet literally the second after making it is insane.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gina rolled her eyes, and Ricky tried not to snort at his girlfriend’s behavior, pleased to see she was just as disgruntled over not being able to kiss him as he was.
“Are you coming to class with me?”
“Just give me a minute with Ricky.”
“Seriously?” Ashlyn scoffed, a skeptical look in her eye.
“I’m not going to kiss him!” Gina exclaimed at her friend, throwing her arms in the air again, and Ricky had to press his lips together because he truly felt like he was about to break into guffaws at any moment, “You ruined the mood anyway. It was hot before you stuck your nose in it.”
“Gross,” Ashlyn scrunched her face, backing out of the classroom, “You two suck.”
“We love you, Ashlyn!” Ricky finally spoke up, grinning stupidly at their friend, and Ashlyn only rolled her eyes.
“I love you guys, too.”
When Ashlyn officially left, Ricky swiveled back around to face Gina with a smug grin on his face, grabbing her hands and swaying them between their bodies. Gina rolled her eyes at him, “Don’t you dare say it.”
“I told you so!” Ricky sang, and Gina let go of one of his hands to thump at his chest. Ricky only laughed and placed his hand over hers, securing its position over his heart, a silent indication that it was beating, and it was beating for her, with her, because of her.
“I think I made a terrible mistake with this bet,” Gina pouted, flattening her fingers to properly feel the thrum of his heartbeat, “I love kissing you.”
“I love kissing you too,” Ricky nodded consolingly, using the hand interlocked with hers to run his thumb over her skin comfortingly, “But we can do it! No one works better together than we do.”
“You’re right,” Gina’s pout softened into a genuine smile, and she stepped forward to wrap her arms around his middle, instantly warming him from the inside out with her hug, her temple pressing against his clavicle, her hair tickling the underside of his jaw. Ricky wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her closer and swaying her dramatically, drawing another laugh out of her, making his heart sing at the noise, his favorite melody, a tune he’d never tire of.
“You’d better get to class,” he let go of her and then leaned down to attempt to peck her lips, before whipping his head back, his eyes widening, “Oh, wait. No, not that. I can’t do that.”
“We are so screwed,” Gina laughed, cupping his face gently before stepping away from him, continuing to laugh all the way out of the classroom.
2
There wasn’t a feeling Gina loved more than Ricky’s fingers twining with hers, and when he came up from behind her after the last bell rang to signify the end of the day, doing just that, she couldn’t help the pleased heat that flushed onto her cheeks. He whispered quietly into her ear, “Boo,” while she was mid conversation with Kourtney, and Gina had to remember to be a good friend and pay attention while Kourtney finished her goodbyes to her before turning around and grinning at her boyfriend.
She swayed toward him, painfully aware that she couldn’t kiss him, but she could at least get as close as humanly possible to it before actually doing the act. Nudging her nose against his, she felt her heartbeat tumble to her stomach at the look of awe in Ricky’s eye, a look she wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to. She couldn’t believe how special one person could make her feel, but by his gaze alone she felt like the orbit of his entire universe.
“Hi, cutie,” she whispered back, swinging their hands out beside her as she tugged him toward the exit of the school, “I don’t have anything to shoot today.”
“I know. I memorized your schedule,” Ricky swung their hands back to their sides, “It’s amazing what I can do when I actually apply myself.”
“Don’t joke about that,” Gina playfully whacked his arm with her free hand, “You’re doing really good with your grades. Be nice to yourself.”
“I’m only doing good because you’re here to be my own personal cheerleader,” Ricky nudged his shoulder against hers, smiling fondly at her, “And also because you FaceTime me every thirty minutes to check I’m still studying.”
“I take your education very seriously,” Gina joked and Ricky’s eyes flickered to her lips before he cleared his throat and swung their hands again, as if to give himself a distraction.
“Well, I take your breaks from shooting very seriously. I’m taking you on a date.”
“Really?” Gina asked, excitement coloring her tone and she couldn’t help bounce on the balls of her feet.
“Of course, you’re going to love this,” Ricky grinned at her, and by the sparkle in his eye and the dimple in his cheek, Gina didn’t think she’d ever doubt the face that belonged to the boy she loved.
Until she arrived at their destination.
“Ricky… Why are we at the skatepark?”
“Because, I’m going to teach you how to skate!” Ricky bounced on the spot, placing his skateboard onto the cemented ground, kicking at the rear of it to make it flip in the air.
“You can’t do that!” Gina tried to keep calm, but the alarm in her voice was evident, “Ricky, you know I think you look hot when you skate, but if I fall off that death vehicle and break my arm I think I’ll send Quinn to an early grave.”
“Okay, first of all, I did not know you thought I was hot when I skated. I will be skating around you more often,” Ricky pointed at her, and Gina’s eyes widened in exasperation. Ricky laughed at her expression, flicking her cheek gently, before placing his palm flat against it, caressing it in a comforting gesture, “And second, you won’t fall. I won’t let you. I promise it’s fun.”
Gina wanted to protest some more, but she paused when she noticed just how excited Ricky seemed by the idea. She had wanted to learn to skate, and she’d told him as much, she just didn’t think he’d get around to putting it into practice so soon. She guessed she shouldn’t have been surprised – Ricky really did remember everything she said, even if it was only said in passing. It was one of the things she loved the most about him; how much he truly listened to her.
She wanted to do the things that Ricky loved too. So, she sighed, dropping her head in compliance, before saying, “Okay. Let me put my sneakers on.”
Ricky whooped at his success and Gina only rolled her eyes fondly. Once she was prepared, she gripped Ricky’s hands and shakily stepped onto the board, trying to follow his instructions, but finding they were mildly muffled with the blood rushing through her ears in her fear. She didn’t know why skating freaked her out so much – when she danced she had impeccable balance.
She supposed it was due to the fact that it was new and unknown, and she could ask anyone and they would tell her that Gina had a tendency of wanting everything she attempted to be absolutely perfect on the first try, even if it was unrealistic of her to expect from herself. She blamed her mom on that front. She was learning to be less worried about it with the help of Ricky, who had the mindset that life was silly and fun and it didn’t hurt to give things a try, but that old nagging still lingered in the back of her mind in cases where she didn’t want to embarrass herself.
She wanted to learn to skate well, so it could be something Ricky and her could do together. She wanted to do everything together with Ricky. She was just glad Ricky had as big a tendency to be clingy the way she did.
“Hey, look at me,” Ricky’s soft words broke through her thoughts, and she snapped her gaze up to stare into her boyfriend’s doe eyes. Ricky’s hands had moved from gripping her own to her waist, holding her upright and slowly shifting them up and down her sides in comfort, and he smiled at her as he said, “There’s no need to be nervous. I’ve got you. I promise.”
Her rampant butterflies dissipated. She trusted him. She loved him. She wanted to kiss him.
Her gaze shot down to her sneakers, cursing Carlos and the stupid bet.
Gina fixed her hands on both of Ricky’s shoulders, and she cleared her throat and asked, “So, what do I do with my feet?”
“Okay, so, slowly you’re going to put one down on the floor and then push against it to propel yourself forward. Try not to shift your body weight forward when you do it, or you’ll lose balance.”
Gina nodded. She could do that. She steeled her resolve, and then as quick as she could, lifted her foot to try and do as instructed, aiming for speed to cut through her nerves.
“I said slowly!” Ricky yelped out in alarm, but it was too late.
In her haste, her body weight heaved forward and she started to tumble over, the board lifting off the ground rather than rolling along it, and Gina felt her stomach lurch in fear as she saw the cement inch closer and closer in her vision. She could vaguely feel Ricky’s hands tightening on her waist, could feel him pull her into him as she fell, could feel her center of balance skew as he positioned himself awkwardly in front of her.
When she eventually regained her senses, she felt something equally soft and strong beneath her, and blinking her eyes open, she could see Ricky had softened her fall, eyebrows scrunched and wincing slightly, back on the ground and arms wrapped firmly around her middle. Gina could feel their chests heaving against each other in their adrenalin, and once her mouth stopped working silently, she was able to exclaim, “Ricky! Are you okay?”
“Never better,” Ricky groaned, eventually blinking open his eyes and sending a pained grin in her direction, “Are you okay? No broken arms?”
“You’re the one who just landed on your back on the floor!” Gina replied, lifting her hand to brush his curls out of his eyes, her own eyes searching him to check to see if he was in any serious pain.
“Anything to protect my superstar girlfriend,” he smiled reassuringly, lifting his own hand to still hers, brushing his fingers along the line of her forearm, settling over her elbow, his thumb brushing featherlight circles onto her skin.
“You’re so sweet,” Gina cooed, relaxing slightly on top of him, her face dropping down over his, his steady breaths warm against her lips, “I think I’m bad at skating.”
“I think you’re bad at listening ,” Ricky teased, his hand at her elbow shifting to brush along her side, poking her and causing her to jump in shock, giggling under his touch, “I’ll make a pro skater out of you. Just watch.”
“I love it when you’re passionate,” Gina whispered, watching his eyelashes flutter tantalizingly as he looked up at her, his eyelids hooded with what she knew was his wanting look, the same look he used to shoot her before he was about to pull her into a janitor’s closet to kiss her senseless back when they were secretly dating.
“I love it when you indulge me,” he whispered back.
“I love it when you’re my knight in shining armor.”
“I love you, full stop.”
Gina practically burst into overjoyed giggles, her own love for him bursting at the seams, and she leaned into him, ready to give him the biggest smooch that was plausibly appropriate for a public skatepark, shivering under his touch when Ricky flattened his palms against her back and slid them up her spine, his eyes fluttering closed.
She practically choked when an image of Carlos jumped into her mind, and she rolled off of Ricky with heavy breaths, trying to cool herself down and not finding it all that difficult when all she could think about was their loud friend.
“The bet!” Gina gasped out.
Ricky looked like a kicked puppy when he sat up, his head falling back as he groaned loudly in frustration, “The damn bet. I forgot about that stupid bet. I hate you so much for that bet.”
“You just said you love me!”
“I do,” Ricky sighed, leaning forward to brush his thumb over Gina’s cheek, his face flushed with the anticipation of a kiss he never received, “That’s the only reason I’m restraining myself. I want you to win this stupid bet.”
“I’m guessing you think the bet is stupid,” Gina tried to tease, pointing out the fact that he’d said it twice.
“It is extremely stupid. I want to kiss my girlfriend’s face and bite her lip and make her blush.”
“Well, you only have to say it to make her blush,” Gina mumbled, and Ricky chuckled breathily.
“Get up,” Ricky grabbed her hand, pulling her up from the ground, “Get back on the skateboard before I act on my words.”
“Just imagine Carlos winning whenever you feel like doing it,” Gina said, “It’s a major mood killer.”
3
Hiding behind a bush with a bouquet of roses in your hand was harder work than Ricky initially thought it would be, and his thighs were starting to burn unpleasantly from his crouched position. He watched as security looped around Gina’s trailer, and thought to himself that she was more well guarded than a prison lot.
He didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed in Gina’s trailer. She was a rising Hollywood star – surely the rule of only cast and crew being on set could be overruled if she wanted to see him. But, the same security guard that had been around for HSM4 was adamant about only letting the Romeo and Juliet team onsite, and so Ricky was stuck waiting for the path to Gina’s trailer to clear as if he was Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, ducking his head whenever someone glanced in his general direction.
His chance finally came when the security guard received a message and started walking in the other direction, and he bolted as fast as he could on his wobbly legs, sore from crouching for so long. He ducked into the trailer, and hunched over trying to catch his breath just as he heard Gina yelp, “Hey!”
Ricky lifted his head to acknowledge her, and when she saw it was him, she immediately relaxed, “Oh.”
Ricky intended to explain his visit, he really did, but his mouth was stuck frozen, jaw dropped from seeing Gina in front of him, roses fallen to the floor with his laxed grip. She was dressed in her attire for the film – a soft blue gown, its bodice fitted, embroidered with gold; elegant, chiffon skirts floating to the floor, her hands and elbows covered with ivory satin gloves. Her hair fell in natural curls around her face, with a gold tiara encircled in leaf details resting over her forehead, giving the effect of a halo.
She looked ethereal. She looked stunning. She looked like the most beautiful person Ricky had ever laid his eyes on. He had to tell her. He had forgotten how to breathe – let alone speak.
He managed a single syllable: “ Wow .”
Gina immediately smiled at his reaction, her eyes crinkling with fondness as Ricky’s jaw remained slack by the sight of her. She took a few quick steps forward, shutting the trailer door and then grasping both of his hands, pulling him further inside, a teasing lilt to her voice as she said, “You’re going to get caught if you just stand in the doorway.”
“I think I forgot how to breathe,” Ricky finally managed to speak, though he was amazed by it himself, “You’re so beautiful. You’re the most beautiful person alive. Oh my God, my girlfriend is insanely beautiful.”
“You’re such a flatterer,” Gina giggled, her cheeks becoming rosy as she stepped forward to wrap her arms around his middle, tilting her head to look into Ricky’s eyes with an adoration he still pinched himself over.
“It’s not flattery if it’s the truth,” Ricky insisted.
Gina pursed her lips cutely, and something twinged deep in Ricky’s stomach at the sight of it.
I can’t kiss her, he thought to himself. Look away from her lips, Bowen .
His eyes stayed resolutely locked on her glossed smile. She hummed in delight over his comment, tilting her head adorably as she said, “What’s the most beautiful part about me right now?”
“I can’t narrow it down,” Ricky immediately replied, his eyes finally lifting away from her lips after much effort, and he lifted his hands to brush them over her waist, to drag his fingers down her spine, to flush proudly at the shiver he could draw from her, “First of all, you look drop dead gorgeous in this dress. This color suits you so well.”
Gina hummed again, silently prompting him to go on, her cheeks a pleasantly rosy hue, her eyes misted with an intensified look of adoration. Ricky continued, “And your eyes. God, your eyes . When you look at me like that, I have no idea what to do with myself. It’s like they shine just for me, and I never want to stop looking.”
Gina blushed even harder, cooing at his sweet words, “You’re so sweet.”
“I’m not even finished,” Ricky kept going, and Gina laughed at his antics, “Your adorable pink cheeks, your gorgeous hair, the way you glow like the stars when you’re passionate about something.”
Ricky took a slight gulp of air, before lowering his voice to ensure she could only just barely hear him as he finished with, “Your soft lips, something I miss tasting so badly I think I might go insane by the time the week finishes.”
“Ricky,” Gina breathed out, her hands now clutching the crook of his elbows. She groaned in annoyance, tilting her head back, and Ricky simply had to lean forward to brush his nose gently against the line of her throat, desperate to be close to her but not trusting himself to do much else.
“You’re so evil,” Gina finally said when Ricky leaned back with a sheepish smile on his face, “You can’t just say all of that and not make me go absolutely insane.”
“In my defense, you asked,” Ricky poked Gina’s side and she jerked slightly, giggling at the ticklish sensation.
“My turn,” Gina slid her hands from his elbows to his biceps, squeezing gently with a brilliant grin on her face.
“Is that so?” Ricky couldn’t help but melt at her touch, sinking into her, his forehead leaning against hers as he latched onto her every word, “What’s so beautiful about me, then?”
“Besides everything?” Gina replied and Ricky just about died on the spot.
He cleared his throat, “Besides everything.”
“Your long, fluttery eyelashes that I definitely don’t envy,” Gina started, and Ricky batted them at her in jest, grinning when he earned a giggle from her, “The way your hair falls into your eyes in a way that lets me brush them back, and how it’s just curly enough that my fingers get tangled in them when I kiss you.”
Ricky felt his stomach drop when Gina threaded her fingers through his hair, her fingernails lazily scraping against the back of his head. He licked his lips, trying to keep his composure when he noticed her eyes drop to take in his action. She kept speaking.
“Your smile, the way it takes up your whole face, and how it looks and feels like sunshine,” she smiled her own secret smile at him, before giving him a terribly executed wink and saying, “The way your arms look in those tight vests you like to wear.”
Ricky guffawed, not expecting the last one, and his hands twitching at her waist pulled her into him so they were chest to chest. He nudged his nose against hers, “Way to boost my ego, Gi.”
“It’s not flattery if it’s the truth,” Gina threw his own words back at him, and Ricky couldn’t help but grin, watching her intently as she kept speaking, “But, honestly, I find everything about you beautiful. I don’t think I’ll ever stop discovering beautiful things about you.”
Ricky felt his heart pound in his chest, thumping against his ribcage, and he pressed further into her, his nose nudging against her cheek as he sighed against her, her own warm breath fanning against his lips driving him insane. He whimpered pathetically, “Gina, I have to kiss you.”
“You can’t,” Gina gently reminded him, placing a hand on his cheek and pulling his face away. Despite her strength in the matter, she looked just as devastated by her words as he felt.
They truly were pathetic.
“But Gi,” Ricky pleaded, “You actually look like an angel, and what you just said was so nice I think I’m going to combust, and I haven’t kissed you in three days and I need to do it right now before I burst into flames.”
“The bet,” Gina gently reminded him, and Ricky threw his arms in the air in exasperation.
“Forget the bet!” Ricky exclaimed, cupping her cheeks and grazing one of his thumbs over her bottom lip. He almost dropped to his knees at the sight of her eyes fluttering closed, of the feel of her leaning into his caress with a look of contentment on her face, “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.”
“We’ve been here before,” Gina replied, but she didn’t seem all that opposed to the idea.
Then, and Ricky was truly in the mood for murder when it happened, Quinn burst through the trailer door, seeing the two teens’ heads pressed together and entirely unphased by it as she spiraled into her latest grievance with the crew, “Gina, your filming slot has been moved from 4:00PM to 3:00PM because the set crew apparently can’t do their jobs correctly. We need you in makeup stat. I’m going to run through my thought process on how I want the scene to look while you go – something I should’ve had an hour to do before filming began.”
Gina was still clutching onto Ricky when the ramble concluded, and Quinn sighed, “Time to go!”
“Right,” Gina snapped into her professional mode, only stopping to lift a hand to Ricky’s cheek as a way of saying goodbye, before she charged off to go be the movie star Ricky loved seeing her be.
Before Quinn left the trailer, she lazily glanced over at Ricky, “Word of advice, kid; if you’re going to try to sneak into the trailer, I would recommend not leaving a trail of bush in your pathway. You’re lucky the security team are hopeless romantics.”
Ricky flushed in embarrassment, “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“Yes it will,” Quinn deadpanned, and Ricky could only shrug, admitting that it absolutely definitely would be happening again, and there was really nothing the crew could do about it. Ricky was not going to let anyone stop him from seeing Gina – there were only so many ‘I miss you’ texts from her with adorable pouty selfies that he could handle before he had to touch her and look at her in the flesh.
As Quinn stormed out, barking something into a radio she had attached to her hip, Ricky turned around to gaze at the trailer. Gina had made a real home of it, keeping the fairy lights he had gifted her from her first set on High School Musical 4, and intertwining polaroid pictures between them. He spotted one that he had taken of Gina, the night of homecoming earlier that year. She was beaming directly at him behind the camera, and Ricky felt a warmth exude within him at the memory.
Deciding he would have to make do with what he had, he pressed the polaroid to his lips, giving Gina the kiss he wanted so desperately to give her. As he fastened it back into its position, an idea came to him, something he could do for Gina that didn’t involve kissing while they had to wait.
He remembered her busy schedule tomorrow, how she wouldn’t be finished until late, and he slowly smiled to himself when he noticed some unlit candles pushed off to the side of the trailer’s lounge area.
He might not be able to kiss her right then, but he could express his love in other ways.
4
Harshly prodding her fingers into the tenseness in her neck, Gina tried to relieve herself of some of the tension there as she walked back to her trailer. She had changed out of her gown of the day at the filming location, not keen on having to wrangle her flouncy skirts into submission as she trekked back to her trailer, so all she had left to do was collect her things and go home where she could get a good night’s rest – dinner be damned. It was too late to cook, and her mom was away on a business trip.
Gina must’ve been extremely tired, because as she trudged up the short way to her trailer, she could’ve sworn she smelt her favorite food in the whole wide world – Ricky’s lasagna, a recipe from Grandma Bowen that he had perfected in the days when his mom was still in Chicago. It was scary how good he was at bechamel sauce, and Gina craved it more than she cared to admit, despite rarely asking him to make it knowing how time consuming it was. He had his grades to focus on. Gina could get all the lasagna she wanted when they were married.
She flushed at the thought, her heart tripping in her chest at the idea of being domestic with Ricky, of being married to Ricky. But, they’d already said they were each other’s forever, and even if Ricky hadn’t meant it in that sense (though she highly suspected he had), she really couldn’t picture them with any other ending. Or beginning – depending on how one looked at it.
She giggled to herself at the thought, endlessly giddy at the idea of her forever with Ricky, finally pushing open her trailer door and floating into the space inside.
The first thing she noticed when she walked in were the blankets piled high around the trailer’s lounge area, and the candles flickering on the little table to the side of it, dishes around it and glasses filled with what looked like sparkling water and juice. Her eyes then gravitated toward the figure in the room, locking onto who she expected to see, but with the added surprise element of seeing him with his hoodie sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a backwards cap holding his curls back and her yellow frilly apron tied around his waist.
“Why are you always just that one minute too early?” Ricky exclaimed, as he stirred something in a small saucepan over the trailer’s tiny kitchenette stove.
“Are – are you cooking for me?” Gina asked, a smile slowly stretching over her features.
“I knew you had a long day today which meant you probably didn’t have much time to eat, and I hadn’t made you your favorite in a while,” Ricky smiled at her, his eyes crinkling as he caught eye contact with her, before he turned to the table where Gina saw food was already set up, and poured the coveted bechamel sauce on top of what Gina could now see were two evenly divided pieces of lasagna.
“Ricky, have I told you I love you today?” Gina ran up to him to hug him from behind as he placed the now empty saucepan into the kitchenette’s tiny sink.
Ricky laughed as Gina smushed her face between his shoulder blades, and with a free hand he intertwined his fingers with one of hers that was pressing into his abdomen, teasing her as he said, “You could stand to mention it more.”
“I love you,” Gina said, pressing her lips between his shoulder blades, and smiling up at him cheerily when he spun around in her grip, locking his fingers behind her and resting his hands at the base of her spine, “But I think I love your lasagna more.”
“Ouch.”
Gina grinned so wide she thought her face might split, so totally endeared by the boy before her, before she pouted and whispered, “Are you finished cooking now?”
“Yep,” Ricky nodded, walking her backwards with his arms still around her until her legs hit the couch and she fell onto it, Ricky tumbling over her and pinning her in place, a cheesy smile on his face, “Time to eat.”
“I think that might be a bit impossible with my six foot tall boyfriend on top of me,” she raised an eyebrow, lifting her hand up to push the ridiculous cap off his head, Ricky knowing how much she hated them despite his insistence on wearing them.
“I don’t know. I think we could manage,” Ricky mumbled, ducking his head down and nuzzling into her neck, his lips brushing against the skin connecting her neck and shoulder in a way that was so mind numbing, she almost forgot why she was even on the couch in the first place, “I could feed it to you.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Gina breathed out, threading her fingers through his curls and gripping gently, playfully pulling his head up so she could look at him, “I want to eat my dinner, and it looks like you set up the TV for us.”
“Oh, right!” Ricky exclaimed, sitting up and settling next to Gina, leaning forward to pick up their plates and handing her one, along with some cutlery, before he smiled wide at her, “I know how tense some of the scenes are in this film, and that they can be pretty emotionally draining. So, I lined up some of your favorite Mark and Spark episodes and I thought we could watch them while we ate to help you wind down.”
The comment shocked her, though she supposed it really shouldn’t have. Never had she met anyone who was as tuned into to her feelings as Ricky was, and the fact that he had sensed how she might’ve been feeling that day, and did something so thoughtful for her to combat any of those negative emotions, made her fall as deeply for him as she had a year ago all over again.
“I love you,” Gina whispered, awe in her tone at her devastatingly sweet boyfriend. She wished she could kiss him.
“I love you ,” Ricky leaned forward to grasp her thigh, squeezing slightly before letting go and settling into the couch beside her, pressing his shoulder into hers as he pressed play on the show and started eating his dinner.
As soon as Gina took a bite of her own, she sighed in absolute bliss at how delicious it was, pointedly ignoring her boyfriend’s teasing sniggers at her reaction. They sat and ate and watched in silence for a while, just enjoying being together, and eventually Ricky picked up her empty plate to wash it before plonking himself back beside her, reaching over to tuck them both under a particularly fluffy blanket and pulling her into his lap.
She did not complain, her back to his chest while he traced slow patterns over her tummy, his calloused fingers a pleasant sensation against her sensitive skin as he trailed over the exposed area of her abdomen where her (his stolen) sweater had ridden up. She shivered into him, sinking deeper into his embrace as she whispered, “You’re being extra attentive today.”
“You deserve to be treated like a princess,” Ricky replied simply, and Gina ducked her head in her giddiness, “And I can’t exactly kiss your sweet spot the way you like without wanting to actually properly kiss you. So, we compromise.”
Ricky nudged his nose into said sweet spot, just below her ear, and Gina shifted slightly, sorely disappointed by the development, before promptly distracted by Ricky pressing his hands back over her tummy and rubbing soothingly.
Gina was struggling to come up with a response, positively melting under Ricky’s touch, her mind slightly jumbled, putty in his hands. She didn’t have time to reply coherently when he spoke again, his voice low beside her ear, “You seem pretty tense today, baby.”
“I am. Like you said, there are a lot of emotional scenes on set. I tend to hunch,” Gina explained as best she could while in a state of absolute bliss as Ricky’s hands shifted from her stomach to her shoulders, neck and spine, massaging and pushing into her sore spots gently, causing her to practically slump into his chest, her sighs of contentment escaping her lips without her even realizing.
“Does that feel good?” Ricky whispered, and Gina could hardly muster a coherent response, feeling so relaxed she could very well fall asleep.
“Mhm,” she managed, and all she could think was that she wanted to kiss her boyfriend, the bet be damned. She wanted to make him feel as much as she was feeling right now, contended and hazy and buzzing and bubbly. She wanted to be able to kiss his own sweet spots – the dip in his clavicle, and the curve of his shoulder – and draw out his own sighs the way she knew she could. She missed the press of his lips, and the assuring weight of them moving against hers, and the warmth of his breath on her chin and jaw.
She was about to turn around and do it, risk it all, reward infinitely better than the risk, then Ricky shifted his grip back around her middle and pulled them down into a lying position. Then Ricky laid his head on her shoulder, his curls tickling under her jaw as his nose nuzzled into her collarbone. Then Ricky sighed comfortably and closed his eyes, his grip tightening around her as he rested, and Gina decided she could wait.
She could wait if it meant she could give Ricky the same comfort he was so effortlessly able to provide her. She knew how tiring it was for him to pay attention in class and do the best he could to keep his grades up – and then he had cooked her a time consuming meal on top of it all to boot.
So when Gina listened to Ricky’s breaths even out, indicating he had fallen asleep as he held her, she simply brushed her fingers through his curls and over the shell of his ear, smiling down at him and forgetting her favorite fictional dog was even on screen – her absolute favorite view a hair’s breadth away.
5
Ricky was many things, and a quitter used to be one of them. He was trying not to do the quitter thing anymore – not since Halloween – but it was extremely difficult when it seemed like someone was rooting against you; and in that instance, that someone was his own girlfriend.
There were two more days to go before they had won their bet, but something seemed to have clicked in Gina since their trailer date, and all of a sudden she seemed extremely flirty all the time. It was like she wanted him to kiss her, and he had to admit, he was extremely confused by it. Surely she didn’t want to throw away the bet she had been enforcing the entire time. Right?
Ricky couldn’t tell the answer for certain, but he was certain that he wasn’t going to cave. That wasn’t him anymore, he didn’t want to be branded as a quitter anymore, and he wasn’t going to risk it then just because it seemed like that was what Gina wanted. He would wait until she outright told him that’s what she wanted, and not a moment later.
But she was not making it easy.
He tried sit and listen to whatever Miss Jenn was saying about some scene that he was sure was very important, but it was extremely difficult when Gina was sat latching onto his harm, her lips featherlight as she brushed them over his shoulder, bringing his hand to her mouth to kiss the back of it, to kiss his knuckles. He shifted in his seat, Miss Jenn’s voice a muffled squeak behind his roaring heartbeat pounding in his ears.
Ricky turned to ask what his girlfriend wanted, only to be caught off guard by her already looking at him, a teasing smile set to her features, offset a perfected innocent look set to her eyes. She blinked up at him, and Ricky couldn’t help the butterflies that erupted in his stomach at the sight of her fluttering eyelashes. She was just so pretty, and he still could hardly believe she was his.
“What are you doing?” he whispered, nudging his shoulder into hers playfully, but suspicion colored his tone of voice.
“Nothing,” Gina replied simply, before leaning forward and pressing another kiss to his shoulder, near his clavicle, the place he knew that she knew drove him absolutely crazy for her.
He cleared his throat, shifted again, “We’re in rehearsal. Stop that.”
“What are you going to do to stop me?” Gina replied, her voice low and taunting, in a way that caused his jaw to drop for a moment, his stomach igniting in flames. His eyes immediately tracked down to watch her lick her lips, seemingly naturally, but when he managed to drag his eyes back up to hers, he could see the mirth behind them.
Ricky unconsciously leaned into her, his forehead bumping into hers, a moth to a flame, her desires a command in his mind, something he simply had to carry out no questions asked, until –
“Get your wallets ready, folks,” Ricky heard Carlos mumble from the side, in what he assumed was meant to be a whisper, but Carlos had never really mastered the art of being subtle.
Ricky loudly cleared his throat, shook his head, and sat back up. He determinedly paid attention to Miss Jenn for the remainder of her debriefing, truly believing he must’ve been God’s strongest warrior to do so with the way Gina was scraping her fingertips gently up and down his spine, sending pleasant chills all throughout his body.
“Alright, that’s all for today,” Miss Jenn finally announced, and Ricky shot up from his seat, ready to run to the bathroom and splash some cold water over his face and think about literally anything but Gina’s lips on his skin, on his lips, kissing him the way he’d been desperate for all week.
“See you a second, Gi, I just need the bathroom,” he tried to choke out. Gina simply smiled at him, and even the sight of her smile was driving him wild.
As he turned away, Miss Jenn called out, “Wait, Ricky!”
He winced, a frenzied buzz shooting through him from all the energy he had pent up trying to ignore Gina’s advances all class. He swiveled around and hoped he didn’t look too insane.
“If you and Gina could stay behind, I’d like to run through Rewrite the Stars one more time to work out some logistical issues,” Miss Jenn explained, shooting a quick smile over at Gina as well, “Carlos, could you stay behind to help, and Ashlyn could you jump on piano for us?”
Ricky couldn’t believe how unlucky he could have been. He needed to remove himself from the situation immediately if he had any chance of not messing the bet up for Gina, and now he was forced to be in close proximity with her. Gina quickly made her way to him, wrapping her arms around his middle and pulling him with her to the practice stage, before leaning up to boop her nose against his.
“You think you can hold it?” Gina asked, and he practically jumped. He knew she was referring to his white lie about the bathroom, but at that point it may as well be applied to his slowly withering restraint.
“Yeah, I – I wasn’t busting,” he managed to squeak out.
Miss Jenn was talking to Carlos for the moment, meaning Ricky and Gina hadn’t been tasked to do anything yet, and he swallowed thickly, watching Gina’s lips tick up slightly in what looked like a smug smile. Her hands slid up his chest as she leaned into him, her fingers toying with the collar of his unbuttoned shirt and the curls at the back of his head.
“This shirt looks good on you,” she said, her tone achingly flirtatious, and Ricky closed his eyes at the sensation of her fingers brushing through his curls, before they flew open with a gasp escaping his lips when she pressed her free hand flat against his abdomen below his shirt.
“Gina,” he croaked, repeating his earlier objections but with much less conviction, “We’re in rehearsal.”
“What’s your point?” Gina tilted her head, and Ricky was ready to risk it all at the sight of her red glossed lips parting in her question.
“Okay lovebirds, time to act!” Miss Jenn clapped her hands together, gesturing at Ashlyn to begin the acoustic rendition of the song.
All throughout the song, Gina was on a mission to drive Ricky as crazy as she possibly could without breaking character – at least that was how it seemed in his eyes. She would touch him, but instead of reaching for his hands like the script outlined, she would slide her own down his chest, or cup his face and bring him closer. She would sing to him, and maintain eye contact in a way that made Ricky’s throat run dry, her eyes deliciously flickering all over his face, drinking him up. She would dance with him, but always that step too close, close enough that his senses were doused in her addictive, musky scent, and the softness of her was momentarily pressed against him when he had to twirl or dip her.
By the end of it, Gina was supposed to walk away, the same way Anne did in the film, but she simply stayed holding his hand, twining their fingers and tugging him toward her, her eyes never leaving his. When he heard Miss Jenn ask Carlos for any opinions, he had to give in just a little, reaching his hand to caress Gina’s cheek, brushing his thumb over her soft skin, “You’re going to kill me.”
He was hardly surprised by how husky his voice sounded, and he hoped Gina wasn’t too put off by it, but he suspected the opposite when her eyes widened slightly and her cheeks pinkened. She cleared her throat, taking another step closer to him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Gina, I can’t be held responsible for ruining your bet if you keep touching me like you have been and looking at me with those eyes and saying insane things to me that make me want to push you against a locker and never let you come up for air again,” Ricky said it as plainly as he felt it, and he kind of reveled in the fact that he could make Gina just as flustered as she made him.
“Maybe that’s what I want,” Gina whispered, biting her lip slightly, and Ricky’s eyebrows furrowed, but he couldn’t help but sway toward her, his nose nudging against hers, her breath short and shallow, warm on his skin.
“That would mean you lose the bet,” he whispered, pushing his luck, inching his hand to the base of her spine and pressing her into him.
“I would only lose if I kissed you first,” Gina mumbled, her eyes locked on his lips, and in the haziness of being so close to her after so long, he almost didn’t process what she had said. Then, the statement clicked in his mind, and he narrowed his eyes, gently nudging her away from him.
“Wait a minute…” he said, tilting his head to look at her curiously, “You only want me to kiss you so that you can claim I lost the bet since I caved first, so you would still be branded the winner. You want to have your cake and eat it too!”
Gina’s eyes widened as she realized her mistake in telling him, and she laughed awkwardly, trying to cover herself, “What? No! That’s not – why would you think that?”
“I’m not a quitter anymore, Gi,” Ricky twirled her away from him, a newfound resolve settling within him, “We’re not cutting corners with this bet. We have to be strong together .”
“Don’t use the word together with me. It’s my weakness,” Gina whined, clearly expecting her plan to have worked.
“We’re better together,” Ricky sang mockingly to her, still holding onto her hand, but keeping her a distance away so she couldn’t work her magic on him – her magic literally being simply smiling at him and sending his brain into overdrive.
“You two are disgusting, by the way,” Carlos called out now that Miss Jenn was speaking to Ashlyn, “I almost wish you guys would just kiss and get it over with. Seeing you both pine after each other like Jane Austen protagonists is sickening.”
“Shouldn’t have bet what you couldn’t handle, Carlos,” Gina mocked, raising her eyebrow.
“Weren’t you the one begging Ricky to kiss you like five seconds ago?”
Gina narrowly missed Carlos’ head when she flung her script across the room.
1
“Well, the bell ringing in ten minutes signifies the end of the bet,” Jet said after checking his phone, pocketing it and leaning back onto his hands from his cross legged position, “I have to admit, I’m impressed.”
“I, for one, am utterly astounded that you didn’t fail,” Maddox piped up, writing some stage directions on Ashlyn’s script, using her back for something to lean on.
“I second that,” Carlos agreed.
“Thirded,” Kourtney piped up, flipping through a Lewis brochure she had already read about a hundred times.
“You guys had absolutely no faith in us,” Ricky laughed, latching his fingers to Gina’s from his position on the floor, “Thanks so much for that. I can really feel that caring and supportive energy every friendship group should have.”
“In our defense, you guys almost caved like a million times,” Ashlyn countered.
“Touché.”
Gina rested her head on Ricky’s shoulder, giggling at her friend’s antics, feeling contented by the fact that she had a friend group she could laugh with, and tease, and that they were there to stay. She didn’t mind so much if they ripped into her a little. She was ecstatic she even had people who knew her well enough to be able to do that.
“I can’t believe not one of you bet neither of us would cave, though,” Gina mused, “Whatever happened to probability and statistics?”
“Well…there was one bet that was slightly different to the rest of us,” Carlos spoke up, but before he could elaborate, he was interrupted by Ricky’s phone ringing.
“I, uh, I have to take this,” Ricky muttered, before scrambling away.
“Who takes calls these days? Old man!” Jet yelled out, and Ricky waved him off with a silly grin in his haste.
Gina watched after him, a little concerned about what the call could be about. He seemed nervous, shifting from foot to foot and using his free hand to tap against his thigh in an irregular rhythm. Gina mumbled an apology to her friends as she inched closer to her boyfriend, not wanting to eavesdrop on his call, but wanting to be close by so he could see she was there for him.
He shot a quick smile her way before paying attention to his call again, and then – his whole demeanor changed. He stood ramrod straight, his eyebrows shooting to his hairline and an excitable smile splitting his face as he exclaimed, “Thank you, Mr. Carlson! I won’t let you down.”
When he hung up the phone, he immediately turned to Gina and tackled her into a hug, spinning her around as she giggled into him, confused by his behavior but never one to deny him an embrace. When he placed her down, he simply laughed into her shoulder, his chest vibrating against her in a way that left her feeling warm and pleasant, ever endeared by Ricky's contagious joy.
“What happened?” Gina asked, taking her boy’s face in her hands and smiling wide at him, ready to listen.
“Remember a little bit ago, when Nini forwarded her producer’s number to me and told me he was expecting to hear from me?” Ricky asked Gina, and she recalled a little while ago when Ricky was in a frenzy trying to come up with some song ideas, stressed over needing the perfect track to encapsulate his musical identity.
“Yeah, I do,” Gina replied, swiping her thumbs over the creases beside Ricky’s eyes from his smile, “Was that him?”
“Yes,” Ricky nodded, placing his hands on her waist and picking her up to spin her around one more time, unable to contain his excitement, “I have a songwriting opportunity. They want me to write a small-time indie artist’s next track as sort of an audition. I can’t believe it.”
“Ricky, that’s amazing!” Gina squealed, shifting her hands to grip his arms, feeling a surge of pride shoot through her at her boyfriend, someone who had been working so hard all year to make a better future for himself, someone who was so talented she was hardly at all surprised by this new development. Still, she asked, “How?”
“Well, all the songs I was trying to come up with were duds. I couldn’t find anything I clicked with and then I thought to myself, anything I do is done better when I’m with you,” Ricky started to explain, and Gina was already halfway melting by his explanation before it was even through, “So, I decided to record Love You Forever, and I sent that through to them. They must’ve loved it. Unsurprising, considering anything you touch turns to gold.”
“Ricky, that song was all you,” Gina exclaimed, her jaw dropping at the news, “I’m so proud of you. This is huge!”
“So huge,” Ricky agreed, wrapping his arms around her middle and pulling her into him.
At that moment, Gina could only think of warmth and sunshine and skateboards and crumpled roses and creamy bechamel and fluffy blankets and stolen sweatshirts and she suddenly forgot why she cared so much whether she won a stupid bet or not. She could see Ricky was coming to a similar conclusion, if his leaning into her was any indication.
She wanted to kiss Ricky. She was so proud of him, of them, together , that she didn’t care anymore how they expressed it. Maybe it was annoying – whether said affectionately or not – to others, but Gina loved how much Ricky expressed his love for her through his touch, and she loved giving her love right back in the same way. There was something extremely comforting about the way Ricky always had the exact right caress for her, knew when to hug her stressed and aching body, knew when to kiss it better and when to kiss her into a dream state. She wasn’t going to deny herself of it anymore.
Meeting in the middle, they both locked lips at the same time, Gina throwing her arms around Ricky’s neck and Ricky sliding his hands up Gina’s back, pulling her close, leaning into her like she might disappear if he left even a millimeter of space between them. The feel of his lips against hers after so long was the most addictive substance she could ever imagine experiencing, and as he kissed her over and over for what was only a short while but felt like forever, Gina felt molten lava pool into her stomach, and butterflies tickle at her ribcage.
Now that she knew what going without his kisses was like, she never wanted to experience it again. Her entire childhood she was denied the things she wanted; she wasn’t about to self impose that on herself ever again. She was going to kiss her boyfriend whenever she damn well wanted to, and she didn’t care what anyone else had to say about it.
“Alright, we get it!” Maddox piped up from across the room, and Ricky and Gina finally pulled apart, flushed and thoroughly kissed and heaving just slightly. They both giggled into each other, foreheads pressed together for a moment, before they separated to head back to their friends.
“Are you guys going to tell us what that little moment was all about?” Kourtney asked, gesturing between the two, “You seemed pretty excited.”
“Not before you tell us what’s going on here,” Gina asked, also gesturing, but she was pointing out the money being handed over to Ashlyn.
“Well, like I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted,” Carlos paused for dramatic effect, “Miss Prophet over here bet that you would both cave at the same time. And you did, so the money goes to her.”
“How did you know that would happen?” Ricky asked, looking impressed.
“I’ve seen you guys’ development from the very start, ever since Gina was absolutely sick over you during Beauty and the Beast,” Ashlyn shrugged, counting her money nonchalantly, ignoring Gina’s cries of protest, “All the way to how god awful you were at hiding your relationship whenever Gina did absolutely anything. Have you told her how wow she looks lately?”
Ricky blushed hotly, having said that during the week at least five times.
“It was a logical guesstimate,” Ashlyn finished, “You are equally as obsessed with Gina as she is with you.”
“You’re incredible, Ash,” Gina cooed, “You know me so well.”
“And me, apparently,” Ricky still looked absolutely floored by her explanation, and the group started talking over each other over how well they knew each individual, and it was messy and chaotic and endearing and everything Gina loved so much about her little group.
She turned to Ricky, and he turned to her, and she leant up to press a slow kiss to his lips, uncaring about the fact that their friends were right in front of them, and Ricky smiled dazedly at her afterwards, his hand rubbing over her arm, “What was that for?”
“Just because I can,” Gina replied, and Ricky grinned wide.
He leant forward as well, taking her bottom lip between his own and kissing her a little longer again, his hand holding the side of her neck so he could better angle her face, and his thumb brushing along the line of her throat sent a jolt through her bones.
When he had finished, he murmured into her lips, “Just because I can.”
She giggled into him. She was in love with him. She could kiss him forever.
She would fight anyone who tried to stop her.