Chapter Text
Ricky slowly dragged the back of his finger down the line of Gina’s throat once he stopped kissing her, drinking in her glowing pink cheeks and her eyes sparkling while looking at him, wondering when he became so lucky as to be on the receiving end of a look like that from her. He was in utter bliss in that moment, knowing that Gina was just as all in for this relationship as he was, high from the buzz of thinking about every moment that led them up to being right where they were.
“Of course you’re also perfect at songwriting,” Ricky whispered, using his wondering hand to tug slightly at the neckline of Gina’s comfy t-shirt, ducking his head to press a kiss to her collarbone, and mumbling into her skin, “ You’re perfect.”
He felt Gina shiver beneath his lips, a melodic sigh escaping her that sounded as sweet as any lyric Ricky could think up to describe her, and he already had plenty of those messily scrawled into his journal. Gina shifted slightly to pull Ricky’s face back up so he was looking at her, both hands caressing his cheeks in a way he was noticing was a habit for her, a position he would stay in forever if she let him.
“I’m not perfect,” Gina shook her head, giggling cutely, and Ricky could only stare, “You just bring out the best in me.”
“I could say the same for you,” Ricky countered, playfully rubbing his nose against hers to try and elicit another one of those adorable giggles he was obsessed with hearing, and he succeeded as he continued, “You’re literally the reason I even am still in the theater club today. I-I think about that night in my car after homecoming all the time.”
“I was thinking about it too,” Gina replied, rubbing her thumb over his cheekbone, “That really felt like the start of something for me. I kind of… always felt something was bound to happen with us after that moment. Maybe that sounds crazy.”
“It doesn’t,” Ricky rushed to reassure her, “I felt the same way, even if I didn’t totally realize that I did at the time.”
“You had a lot going on,” Gina hummed in support, and Ricky melted at her words, at the acknowledgement, at the way that she always validated his feelings, no matter if anyone else thought he was overreacting or not reacting enough or any other undesirable act.
“You always do that,” Ricky stared at Gina, in awe of her ability to so easily make him feel seen.
“Do what?”
“Find a way to - to validate me, even when no one else does. You did it with my acoustic idea of ‘When There Was Me and You’, and you’re doing it now, even when what I’m saying is stupid.”
Gina frowned slightly, and tilted her head, pausing for a moment to think. Her hands fiddled slightly with the drawstrings of his hoodie, and as she ducked her head down to look at her fidgeting fingers, the curls on her head brushed against the sensitive skin of his lips. Ricky took the opportunity to press a kiss to the top of her head, relishing in the fact that he could do that whenever he wanted, relishing in the act of Gina lifting her gaze with a soft smile, smacking a quick peck to his lips.
His body smoldered with warmth, and he thought he understood a little bit about what his dad was saying about his senior year love being the best moments of his life. Ricky didn’t know if he could ever feel happier than he did at that moment. Ricky didn’t ever want it to end.
“What you feel isn’t stupid, Ricky,” Gina finally said, “And your ideas aren’t stupid either. They’re yours to feel and think. I love– I mean...”
Gina stumbled over her words, and Ricky waited patiently for her to finish, his heart thumping in his chest for reasons he couldn’t quite define, “I just mean that I’m always on your side.”
“You always have been,” Ricky smiled.
“We do that for each other,” Gina relayed his own words back to him, and Ricky’s heart tumbled in his chest at the reminder of Valentine’s Day.
He stared wide eyed at her, the truth of that day at the tip of his tongue, wanting so badly to just tell her that even then, when they were awkward and estranged and weird, he was thinking about her. He was on her side, the way she was too. But, the thought of Gina’s mother, their newly established relationship with her being back in Salt Lake, made him hesitate.
He had some choice opinions about Gina’s mother, particularly with how stressed Gina seemed to already be feeling over making her mark that school year, despite her mom only having been back in her life for a couple of weeks. But, that didn’t mean that Gina didn’t love her, and who was Ricky to try and sabotage a nice (albeit fabricated) memory? Besides, they’d already agreed to start over last summer, to forget about the chocolates and move on from it.
He could remember everything else about their relationship. He had to let go of that one thing.
So, instead of commenting any further, Ricky simply leant forward to capture Gina’s lips again. He thrilled at the sound of her little hum of contentment, and tilted his head for better access to her lips, pressing deeper into her and trying to remind himself to breathe all at once.
The fabric of his shirt rustled as she reached forward to grip at it over his abdomen, and if Ricky thought he felt flustered before, he felt positively heated at her touch. He reached out to hold Gina’s waist, pushing into her further again, knowing she wasn’t going anywhere but wanting to make absolutely certain, her head gently knocking against the back of her bed as he hovered over her just slightly. When he pulled back, slightly elevated above her, his breathing quick and the sight of Gina’s blown wide pupils and parted swollen lips sending his brain into overdrive, he wanted nothing more than to just kiss her again and again and again until the world caved in and all he could remember was the taste of her lips and the sound of her sighs and the feeling of her heated hands running over her shoulders.
He was about to do just that – kiss her mercilessly until her mom came home and he was forced to leave – when her phone chimed. Ricky sat back down beside her with a pathetic whine – much to Gina’s amusement if her teasing look was anything to go by – as she reached over to grab it, and he tried to calm his breathing and mind in the meantime. Ricky was never one to be upstaged, and not by a phone no less, so while Gina was distracted, he grabbed her free hand and started peppering kisses against her palm, along her fingertips, over her knuckles, down her wrist.
Gina giggled and swatted him away, but not before laying her hand fondly over his cheek, her own cheeks still blazing with her blush, “It’s a text from Kourt. She says Dani has enlisted her help, but she’s being super vague about it.”
Ricky froze slightly at the mention of the Tiktok star, thoughts of her child star boyfriend coming to mind in partnership. Gina must’ve sensed the shift in his mood, because she locked her phone and put it down next to her, placing a hand on his thigh and rubbing soothing circles over his tracksuit clad leg, “What’s up?”
“Nothing, just, uh –” Ricky cleared his throat, reaching for Gina’s hand on his thigh and intertwining their fingers, “You never told me how it went with Mark.”
“Mack,” Gina corrected, and she frowned slightly, “That’s because it went terribly.”
“Oh?” Ricky replied, leaning closer to gauge her expression, noticing a slight frown on her features, unsure why he felt relief filtering through the uncomfortable sensation sloshing in his stomach, but figuring it probably had something to do with the irrational jealousy he was already feeling over Gina’s childhood crush being in town.
“You know what they say; never meet your idols,” Gina tried to play it as a joke, but Ricky could sense some disappointment in her tone, so Ricky decided to suck up his pride in favor of comforting his girlfriend.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Ricky reached forward to take her other hand, pulling them both into his lap and cradling them between his own, and he felt good at the sight of her small smile at his gesture, feeling useful that he can cheer her up even just a little.
She sighed, staring at their hands in his lap, “It’s just, that show was a big deal to me growing up. I guess in my mind meeting Mack would be like a full circle moment, that my insane childhood was worth it because I’m where I am today. I kind of thought it’d be a sign that this year will be better. Then, he was awful and basically kicked me out of his change room and implied I was just some crazed fan with no substance. It pissed me off.”
“Well, first of all, anyone who can’t see you for how amazing you are is an idiot,” Ricky tried for a comforting reply, lifting one of his hands to lay a finger beneath her chin, tilting her gaze upwards to meet his own, “And this year will be better. It’s already better because we have each other. We don’t need a sign from the universe to tell us we’ll be happy, because I already know that I am.”
Gina stared at him for a moment, a blush breaking out on her face, and she giggled happily for a moment, burying her face in his chest in embarrassment, “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“It’s all true,” Ricky enveloped Gina in his arms, pulling her into him and resting his chin on her head.
They stayed in each other’s arms for a moment, breathing each other in and content to be in each other’s space, before Gina pulled away slightly and resting her chin on Ricky’s chest, looking up at him through her lashes, “For the record, I didn’t mean to imply that I wasn’t happy right now. Being with you makes me the happiest I’ve ever been. I think my cheeks are permanently stretched into a cheesy grin because of you.”
Ricky chuckled and pressed a kiss to her forehead, before he let her finish, “My future has just always been so uncertain. I guess I’m always looking for cracks even when there aren’t any. But, when I look at us, it’s pristine. Not a crack in sight.”
“I get scared of the future too, trust me,” Ricky replied, “But, I’m not scared about us. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
“Me too,” Gina whispered, and what the hell, Ricky just had to kiss her again.
This time, Ricky was the one to cradle Gina’s cheeks in his hands, wanting her to feel how safe and contented he felt when she did it to him, and the kiss was present and meaningful and lingering, all things that made Ricky all the more confident that whatever happened in the future, nothing could ever break what they had right then.
Bring on the year. With Gina by his side, nothing could hurt him.
*
A picture of Gina swathed in one of his hoodies lit up on his screen indicating she was calling him, and even though he was mid watching a movie with his dad, Ricky leapt for his phone to pick up on the first ring.
“Gi!” he exclaimed, a massive grin on his features at the sight of her sleepy face, “I thought you were going to bed.”
“I was, but there’s just a lot on my mind,” Gina replied, hugging a blanket to her chest.
Ricky glanced over at his dad, who at this point had paused the movie and was watching him with wiggling eyebrows, and Ricky picked up a cushion and threw it at him before standing up and making his way to his room, “Give me one second, just getting away from my super invasive dad.”
“Keep the conversation PG-13, please, Rick!”
“Dad, stop being weird!” Ricky yelled, embarrassment flushing on his cheeks as he shut his door behind him, flopping onto his bed and rolling to his side, hugging his own pillow to his chest to look at his girlfriend, who looked equally as embarrassed as him, “I’m sorry about that. I think my dad has been feeling nostalgic for the good old days since I started my senior year.”
“It’s okay, it’s sweet how supportive he is,” Gina giggled slightly, smiling warmly at him through the screen.
“You know…” Ricky felt a warmth in his chest spread at the look of how cozy and comfy Gina looked, and he couldn’t help but tease her a little bit, “When I said I wish we were cuddling, I kind of meant in person. My screen is nowhere near as soft as you.”
Gina’s cheeks colored so dramatically he could see it through the dodgy video quality of the call, and she rolled her eyes, “I think you can go one night without my cuddles.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Ricky countered, “I have Gina withdrawals. Symptoms include religiously singing our song in my head, feeling the phantom weight of your body in my arms and thinking about kissing you all hours of the day.”
“Stop, you’re making me blush,” Gina giggled uncontrollably, her phone shaking with her laughter, and Ricky couldn’t help his own giggles tumbling from his lips, “You’re such a romantic, you know that?”
“Only for you,” Ricky whispered, and he realized deep down that he truly meant it. He’d always thought romance was sort of…well, lame, despite him feeling emotions as viscerally as he did. But, something about Gina made him want to be the corniest person alive. Maybe it was because she actually reciprocated his dramatics, maybe it was because he’d finally found his person, but he found he didn’t care as long as Gina was smiling and happy.
After a few moments of just staring dreamily at each other, only Gina’s soft breathing, tinny in its quality through his phone, heard between them, Ricky broke the silence, “So, what’s on your mind?”
“Oh…” Gina hesitated, picking at her blanket nervously before saying, “This is so weird, but… Mack followed me on Instagram.”
“Mack…as in Mark and Spark?” Ricky clarified, not wanting it to be true, but seeing in Gina’s eyes that it was. His stomach sloshed angrily at the thought of it, at the thought that Mack would want anything to do with her after how he’d made her feel so small.
And, he didn’t want to admit it, but also at the thought that if Mack were even slightly interested in Gina, he didn’t know how he would react. He didn’t have the best track record with jealousy, and he didn’t want to mess up the perfect thing they had going.
“Yeah,” Gina said softly, “I have no idea why. I thought he hated me, but… I don’t know, I just wanted to tell you. I don’t want to keep anything from you.”
At that moment, Ricky’s feverish thoughts settled. Gina hadn’t told him because she was excited by it, she told him because she didn’t want to keep any secrets from him. She wanted to be open with him, she wanted to tell him what was going on in her life. She was being honest, in the way she had always wanted from her relationships.
Ricky sighed softly, feeling his heart grow about ten sizes at the thought, and he vowed to try and be as open with how he was feeling as she was being, “H-How does that make you feel?”
“Confused,” she admitted, finally looking at him when she noticed he wasn’t upset with her, although Ricky didn’t know if he ever could be, “I want to be on good terms with him, especially with our featured extra roles, but also he was kind of a jerk. I don’t want that energy.”
“We can - we can just ignore him,” Ricky suggested, “Or I could beat him up for you.”
“Ricky!” Gina scolded, although her lips upturned in a way that indicated she was holding back a laugh, “No, I’m – I’m going to be civil with him. I’ll be a bigger person.”
“The high road,” Ricky tutted, shifting onto his back and lifting his phone above his head, “Something I’m not known for.”
“There’s always room to grow,” Gina quipped back, kissing her fingers and then tapping her screen with them, as if initiating a kiss. Ricky tapped his own screen with his fingers and placed them on his lips, imitating receiving her kiss, and Gina giggled all over again. The sound of it was like a lullaby to Ricky, sending him into a drowsy state.
In his lulled demeanor, Ricky muttered, “Can I be honest?”
“Always.”
“Sometimes I wish I could just keep you all to myself,” Ricky admitted softly, scared of her reaction, but wanting to be honest the same way she had been, “But I know that’s selfish. The world deserves to see you. Even if the world is Mack.”
“You do have me all to yourself,” Gina replied, her hand shifting to press over her heart, “No one else but you sees the real me. I think you helped me discover the real me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not… put off by my thoughts?” Ricky whispered, worried she would pull away from him because of it.
“Not at all, because I have the exact same one,” Gina replied, “But, our world is ours only. That’s why we’re keeping it to ourselves. We don’t need to worry about anyone or anything else. Let’s live in the moment, right?”
“Enjoy the ride,” Ricky nodded, reciting their lyrics back to her, and Gina smiled that gorgeous smile once again, the one she reserved solely for him, and at the sight of it he felt himself nodding off, hearing her whisper softly before he drifted to sleep completely.
“Goodnight, Ricky.”