"you okay nini?" tj asked her as they all sat in the dorm lounge watching tv. he made his way into the couch next to her with a bowl of popcorn on his lap. howie eyed how close the two of them were to each other, but didn't say anything.
"yeah im fine," nini said with her eyes glued to her phone. tj tried to peak over to the girls phone and she immediately pulled it away.
"ooo someone's doing some stalking on instagram," tj cooed with a chuckle. howie quickly got up from the couch and sat down next to nini.
"who you stalking?" howie asked and grabbed a handful of popcorn. he had a witty smile on his face and nini
"some girl... that ricky was talking about," nini awkwardly said, "no big deal."
howie grabbed nini's phone out of her phone. before she could grab it back, tj wrapped his arms around her and held the girl back. "oooo.. ellie alves. criminal justice major, goes to UCLA, latina-nice."
"oh my god! can you guys not?" nini whined with tj's arms still around her. howie shook his head and started chuckling while they continued to read ellie's profile out loud.
"nini?" the girl heard ricky's voice call out. nini's head snapped in his direction. she saw ricky and red standing in the middle of the longe holding a bag of takeout food. nini looked back at tj who had his arms around and quickly got out of his grip.
"ricky! what are you doing here?" nini was flustered. she got up from the couch and hugged ricky and red.
"i came to drop food off to you..." ricky said. he glanced back at howie and tj who were awkwardly staring off to the side, "who are they?"
"oh! uhm.." nini's cheeks filled with embarrassment, "this is howie, one of ej's friends, and this is tj."
"tj.. howie.. this is red one of my closest friends," nini announced as the four of them walked up to each other, "and this is ricky-"
"her boyfriend," ricky sternly said and shook tj's hand with a smirk on her face, "nice to meet you."
nini looked down to the floor as awkward tension filled the air. the five of them didn't say anything for a couple of minutes so red spoke up, "hey anyways... neens wanna join us for dinner?"
he held the takeout back up in her face and nini let out a small smile. she nodded her head and the three of them made their way to nini's dorm room, "ill catch you guys later," nini softly said and followed the two other boys to her dorm.
ricky was mad. he didn't say anything for the next ten minutes as they all sat in the dorm eating panda express. it was mostly red and nini conversing while they watched friends on her laptop.
"look ricky. it's one of your favorite scenes," red happily said to the boy. ricky looked up from his plate and blankly stared at the screen with no reaction.
"ok. seriously ricky?" nini asked a bit annoyed. she dropped her fork on her plate and looked at ricky with a serious look on her face, "what the hell is your problem?"
"geez i don't know nini? maybe because it's only been one day and you're already flirting with some frat boy-"
"he's not a frat boy."
"YOU GET MY POINT!" ricky yelled and stood up from his chair. red awkwardly looked down at his plate not wanting to say anything, "LIKE GEEZ NINI? FUCK ME RIGHT?"
"he is just my friend!" nini exclaimed and slammed her fist into the table, "i can't have guy friends?"
"you can't have guy friends who hold you like that," ricky spat and started to gather up all his things, "god, you're so easy."
"excuse me?" nini yelled and stood up, "what do you mean i'm easy?"
"that it's not hard for you to let yourself go for guys," ricky said in a stern voice.
"ricky..." red warned him with an uneasy look on his face, but the boy ignored him.
"stop acting like a hoe nini," ricky spat and stormed out of the room. nini's jaw dropped to the floor and she immediately looked down. red saw as tears started to fall down his face and he pulled her into a hug.
"i'm sorry nini," red softly said, "he doesn't mean it."
"yes he does," nini cried, "it's okay red. just go. i wanna be alone." red took one last look at her and nodded his head. he pulled out of the hug and left the room without another word.
"RICKY STOP!" red called after him.
"red! i really don't need your opinion right now," ricky spat. red got taken aback and let ricky walk away. the boy made his out of their dorms and outside. it was already dark out and it was kind of cold, but not as bad as utah.
ricky found a bench outside of his dorm building and sat down. he felt someone sit right next to him and he looked to see ellie smiling at him.
"uhhh... hi?"
"hey.. ricky? right?"
"yeah.. ellie? right?"
"mhm!" ellie eagerly said, "so why you out here?"
"just kinda annoyed and irritated," ricky said and dug his hands in his pocket, "needed to clear my head."
"mmm... wanna take a walk and talk about it?"
"uhh.. no not really," ricky awkwardly shot ellie down. her smile soon faded away and she nodded her head, "sorry it's just.. i barely know you and i have a girlfriend."
"it's okay," ellie said, "is it about her?"
"yeah."
"hmm.. figures," ellie simply said and got up from the bench, "good luck ricky." she started to walk away and back into the dorm building.
"wait!" ricky called out. ellie stopped in her tracks and turned around, "ill take your offer on that walk."