15. the walls are caving in

                                    

                                          
"he yelled at you?" ej asked surprised
nini nodded. she hasn't said anything since yesterday. the day she blurted out how frustrated she was with ricky. a part of her still felt the same, but another part was starting to feel guilty...
the group all noticed how down she was, especially since she woke up to an empty apartment, so they spontaneously took her out to the nearest mall to go shopping and get some food in her.
"you hungry?" carlos asked earnestly as he eyed the girl. she was pale.
nini shrugged her shoulders as she looked down aimlessly at the table and ej took a deep breath
"i'll go get something." gina said "anyone want anything?"
"i'll come with you." ej suggested
gina raised an eyebrow in confusion "why?"
seb, ashlyn and big red exchanged knowing looks meanwhile kourtney and carlos didn't take notice of what was happening as they were trying to get nini to smile just a bit.
the raven-haired boy laughed nervously and shrugged "uhm...y-you'll need help with carrying the food?"
gina shrugged "okay..."
the two walked off as big red snorted a laugh and ej turned around to shoot him a glare.
within the next couple of minutes, ej and gina came back with the food and set a tray of fries and milkshake in front of nini.
but she didn't touch her food and just rested her chin on the palm of her hand, staring out into space.
"neen...you have to eat something." ej said soothingly
nini shook her head and muttered weakly "not hungry..."
"come on, hun." kourtney cooed softly with an encouraging smile as she pushed the fries a little closer
the brunette sighed weakly as she hesitantly took a fry and nibbled it, slowly progressing with eating her food as her friends all looked at each other in relief.
"so, ash did you-"
"he's not my ricky anymore..." nini whispered 
they all stopped and looked at her.
"what?"
"my ricky wouldn't yell." she begun as her eyes started to well up with tears "my ricky listened to music and sung at the top of his lungs every minute of every day. my ricky always smiled around me. he always looked at me like i was his world. b-but —" she felt her breath get caught in her throat as tears fell from her eyes "n-now h-he—"
"hey..." big red said with a deep frown as he brought her into a hug and soon after, everyone followed, embracing the poor girl as she cried in their arms.
"h-he's g-gone..." 
"he's not gone." seb tried to comfort her "he's just..."
"lost his way." ashlyn finished as they all nodded but nini let out an incoherent sob
"i-i d-didn't tell you...h-he moved o-out..."
"what?"
"nini..."
"where did he go?" kourtney asked
"p-parents..."
"what??" ej asked in a sudden anger but gina gave him a look to say that now wasn't the time.
nini continued to cry for the next couple of minutes, her friends whispering calm things to soothe her and after a long while, her breathing started to become more steady and the pain in her eyes and heart had triggered a sense of exhaustion in her.
"you wanna sleep over at ours?" gina asked, as they all decided to get up and start making their way out of the mall, referring to herself and kourtney.
nini hesitantly nodded "i-if that's o-okay—"
"bitch, please, you're ours now." kourtney grinned, throwing her arm over her best friend as nini managed a weak and faint smile and the others chuckled