Since she and Ricky's first date, they'd gone out as many times as they could. It was mostly Nini hanging out at Ricky's apartment, or them going out for pies, or even a few double dates with either Carlos and Seb or Big Red and Ashlyn.

Nini was happy. Ricky made her feel safe; like everything was going to be okay. Was she on Earth or Heaven? If such a place existed, Nini didn't imagine the angels trumpeting or the pearly white gates with the fluffy clouds and beautiful colors; she imagined it as what she felt like when she was with Ricky. Every sweet text he sent, every coffee he made, and every smile he showed only aggrandized her feelings for him.

It'd been roughly a month and a half since their first date, and finals season was rolling around for Nini. Every day at 6:30 without fail, she would walk into Starbucks with a full backpack, ready to cram for her numerous finals. Nini was a double major in Psychology and Communications, so she had lots of finals to prepare for. 

Today was no different. 

Nini had a final in one of her most difficult classes the next day and was only focused on one thing; cramming for it.

She pulled into the packed Starbucks parking lot at 6:26 and walked into the coffee joint at 6:28. Not surprisingly, the place was full with other stressed college students from her school prepping for their finals. She noticed that the place got especially busy around midterms/finals seasons. As she found a table in the corner that was vacant, she looked around the place to see all the other kids. Some looked stressed, others mad, others calm. Some were adults simply drinking their coffees with nostalgic looks on their faces, perhaps remembering what it was like when they themselves were students and having to study so vigorously.

Nini sat down, put her earbuds in and turned on her carefully curated "study music" playlist and began to rewrite notes and look over past essays to prepare for her timed essay the next morning. She blocked out the noises in the coffee joint and focused intensely on her work.

Suddenly, after an amount of time Nini didn't know, she felt a light series of taps on her shoulder. She jumped, turned around, and saw Ricky smiling at her in his green work apron, holding her coffee.

"Hey." He said softly, once she took out her earbuds. He held her coffee in his hand. "I'm on break."

"And now I am too." Nini took a sigh of relief. Part of her felt like she'd been holding her breath. She took her coffee and closed her eyes as she took a sip. Ricky pulled out a chair and took a seat across from her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I needed a break too because of all these college alcoholics substituting caffeine for their alcoholism, but I can tell you really needed one. You were doing that thing where you were twirling your hair a lot." 

"Was I?" Nini gasped. "Shit." She giggled, looking at her hair.

"You were." Ricky laughed. "You're cute."

"You're cuter." She responded.

"Get a room, you two." yelled Ashlyn, who was cleaning a nearby window. Nini blushed.

"Only if you and Red get one first." Ricky shot back.

"Shut up. I'm not the one who's been giving her his free coffees for the past like six months." She rolled her eyes, saw Ricky's red face, smirked, and moved on to a farther away window.

"You do that for me?" Nini gasped. "You totally didn't have to."

Ricky shrugged. "For the first few weeks it was actually tough but then I forced Red to give me his coffee instead since he doesn't really drink his."

"Wow. Touching sentiment." Nini laughed.

"It's the thought that counts." Ricky protested.

"Sure." Nini laughed.

"So what are you studying today?" He asked, walking over to her side of the table to peek over his laptop screen.

"My news writing class. We've got to write for a scenario that our professor comes up with, and it's my hardest class." Nini groaned. "I've been studying for ages."

"Neeners. You'll do amazing because you're the smartest woman that I know. And probably the smartest woman alive. You just need to have faith in yourself and your knowledge." Ricky assured her.

"That's not true, but thank you." She smiled.

"I have like 8 minutes left on my break. Want me to help you study?"

"That'd be amazing, Ricky."

--

It was the next day, and she'd just left the final exam for her class to see the sun basking down on campus. She smiled. It was a comically beautiful day for all she and all her peers to be suffering through finals.

She'd tried her best on the final; and now all Nini could do about it was hope that it was good enough.

She checked her phone to see a few texts from Ricky.

ricky<3:
HIIII good luck on ur final i luv and believe in u <3

ik ur taking it rn but YOURE DOING AMAZINGGGGGGG

text me IMMEDIATELY and come to starbies for a celebratory cake pop and blonde roast im off shift today

Nini giggled at her phone and texted back. 

neeners<3:
Lol I'm on my way <3

bit of a filler for you guys:) just fyi i might not be updating as much until after ap tests are over bc i have my next one in 8 days for ap language and composition and i need to study lol wish me luck. i had us government today and wow it was something else,,,,,, i did it tho and now i gotta wait til july for my score hopefully it doesnt come out on my bday like last year 

four more weeks until the end of my junior year and i'll technically be a senior wow i am Old brb getting in my feels

stay safe and social distance! corona isn't gone! hope ur having a good day/night <3