Author's Note: I'm personally very relieved they didn't work EJ into the whole Gina/Nini/Ricky drama, but at the same time I'd love to craft exactly how EJ might react to it all in his usually cupcake, Gina-Simp way :)

Summary: Tensions reach a breaking point and Nini explodes at Gina because of the chocolates debacle.

Gina didn't like the sensation of walking on eggshells with someone, but that's exactly how she felt around Nini. Nina. Whatever she was being called these days.

Gina knew it was because of the stupid chocolates. If she was being honest, she wished she could just erase the first month or so of Spring semester, get rid of all the tension and flirtation she'd had with Ricky, all the moments where she'd almost left her life at East High. In short, she wished she could wipe clean the whole slate until the moment when things with EJ starting getting really good.

Because the whole erase-the-past thing was, of course, impossible, Gina's more achievable wish was that Nini would just let it go. But she didn't. It seemed like every chance she had, Nini made some sort of snide half-comment that could only be aimed at Gina. Gina tried to stay calm, she tried to take deep breaths and see things from Nini's side (she felt left out, she felt jealous, she had just gone through a break up), but finally her naturally defensive nature had just had enough.

"If you have something to say to me, could you just say it?" she snapped after Nini had made her dozenth backhand comment that rehearsal.

The room went silent, the cast already having picked up on the tension between the two women.

"Ladies-" Miss Jenn tried, wisely picking up on the fact that this couldn't end well.

"Maybe I do have something to say," Nini said, jaw tight.

"Why?" Gina shot back. "Because I thought Ricky got me chocolate for Valentine's Day? Because I made a mistake?"

"Because you didn't tell me!" Nini cried.

"Because you weren't here!" Gina exploded, throwing her hands in the air. "What was I gonna do, shoot you a text saying, 'oh hey, I thought your boyfriend sent me chocolates but it was my mom, haha, lol, laughing face emoji'? You weren't here, Nini. You left."

Nini glared at her, steam practically pouring out of her ears. The rest of the cast was watching with wide eyes, heads twisting back and forth like Nini and Gina's argument was a tennis ball. "Yeah, I'm sure you cared so much that I was off at a different school."

Gina glared back. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Ladies-!" Miss Jenn tried again, more desperately.

"I don't know," Nini said, her voice lowering angrily. "Maybe that you were going to eat up any opportunity to get close to Ricky while I wasn't around."

Gina froze, halfway between outraged at what Nini was implying and guilt-stricken at the fact that, in some ways, it was true.

But the words that made Gina stand still spurred someone else into action. "Hey!" EJ cried, stepping out of the clump of Beauty and Beast cast members and toward the two girls. "Nini, you need to calm down."

Gina spun to him, about to protest his interjection, but then it fully registered that he was on her side. He had just defended her to his ex-girlfriend.

Not only that, but he'd defended her when said ex-girlfriend was implying that Gina had been interested in another guy not all that long ago. Gina found herself torn in two again, but now it was between being touched and being terrified that EJ would get the wrong impression, maybe even retract the offer of the date that he'd just extended.

Nini had now turned her glare on EJ. "Don't get involved with this," she snapped. "It's not your business."

"It became my business when you started speaking to Gina like that," EJ replied, eyebrows crunching. "When did all this stuff happen? Like, months ago? And you're still going to make a big deal out of it?"

"EJ, it's okay," Gina told him. She was starting to fully register all the eyes on them and wished that she and Nini hadn't made so much of a scene.

"It's not-"

"It's okay," Gina insisted, walking over and grabbing his arm. "Let's just- let's go take a walk, okay?"

EJ relented, looking like he already felt a little guilty for taking a side in the first place, and allowed Gina to lead him out of the room.

As Gina shut the theatre door behind her, she felt like she could finally take in a full breath. She caught EJ staring intently at her and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see that, and that you had to get involved. I don't want to make bad blood between you and Nini."

"It's fine, we'll talk it out eventually," EJ muttered. He was still watching her, eyebrows lowering farther in a way that made him look both confused and sad.

"EJ…" Gina murmured. "How could you defend me back there? For all you knew, everything Nini said was true. Maybe I did try to get closer to Ricky just because she was gone."

"Look…" EJ put his hand on her arm. "You're right. I didn't know for sure exactly what happened earlier this year, but the thing is… I trust you, Gina. Even if you did have feelings for Ricky at some point, I trust you enough to think that you would never lead me on by agreeing to go on a date with me if you were still interested in him. Feelings are…. All over the place. They grow, and they change, and that's just the way it is."

"Do you think that- that my feelings for you will change?" Gina asked uncertainly. "Or that your feelings for me will?"

EJ shrugged cluelessly. "You can never know for sure but… I really hope not."

"You know what, EJ Caswell?" Gina declared, smiling incredulously. "The world doesn't deserve you."

EJ grinned sheepishly, sticking his hands in his pockets. He glanced at the theatre room door. "So… are we actually gonna leave or do you think we should go back in there?"

Gina thought despondently of a probably still bitter Nini and the staring, gossipy eyes of her friend group. "I'm sure they can handle a rehearsal without us," she determined, deciding that, for the first time in awhile, she was going to put herself over the prospects of her friends and the show. "Besides, I think we have some date planning to do, which obviously just can't be done over text."

EJ grinned again, turning and starting to head down the hall. "Nah, the chance of typos and the resulting confusion is much too risky," he agreed, spinning to walk backwards and face her.

"And we just can't have that," Gina agreed, practically skipping to keep up with his long strides.

Her feelings for Ricky had been complicated, to say the least. But her bond with him had been nothing, not even a tiny piece, in comparison to what she had going with EJ.

And, really, that was all that mattered.