The following week, Ricky and Nini's conversations and admissions to their friends felt strained, but they also felt like everything was finally fitting into place. They were both on the lookout for any signs that their friendship could be something more, which, according to their friends, they were both too blind to see.

Ricky did notice that everything Red told him was true, but additionally, suddenly Nini couldn't look him in the eye at all. Her eyes would always dart somewhere else when he made eye contact with her. Thankfully when they were alone after school things were mostly the same, but while they still cuddled on the couch when they were finished with homework, she was more fidgety than usual and sounded more distracted. She never said anything was wrong though so Ricky was left to think about in circles in his confusion.

He also noticed things about himself too. It wasn't just that he was always happiest when Nini was with him. Whenever he noticed one of the signs Red had told him about, like the way she always laughed with him, brighter than anyone else. He realized he always had fluttering butterflies in his stomach that only increased his happiness further.

Nini felt the same way, she forced herself to pay attention to all the signs Kourtney and the girls had shared with her, and the longer she did, the more she had to admit they may be right. Ricky always treated her with more care and affection than anyone else she knew or had ever seen him interact with. His eyes were truly always on her, and once she realized she didn't know quite how to look him in the eye all of a sudden. Anytime they touched seemed to electrify her, not just with happiness like always, but something else. Something she was nervous to name.

She wasn't sure if she liked that though, the fact she suddenly had this intense combination of happiness and nerves whenever she saw him now. She wasn't completely sure why though. Maybe it was all the new thoughts and ideas flying in her head. She would never call Ricky ugly by any means. She had to admit his dimples when he smiled or laughed were adorable, and while she knew he was still desperately waiting for his first big growth spurt, his arms were far from skin and bones, they had some muscle that she loved to feel wrapped around her after school. And don't even get her started on his adorable curls that she loved running her hand through in their private moments. She finally admitted to herself the thing she had already heard whispered in the hallways dozens of times so far this year. Ricky was cute, but she still thought there was no way Ricky would ever look at her as something more. Sure he complimented her outfits and any makeup or hairstyles she used all the time, but that was just him being her best friend, right?

Nini hoped she wasn't being too obvious, but at school, especially when she knew her other friends were watching them, she just felt hyper-aware and self-conscious about herself, and about Ricky. They had had dozens of classmates ask if they were dating or if they were in love with each other ever since elementary school, it was only now that Nini admitted to herself that those questions were warranted. So while she certainly felt weird yet happy around Ricky all of a sudden, she hoped he didn't notice. It also didn't help that Ricky seemed to be even more affectionate than usual. He had been reaching out to hold her hand beneath the lunch table, offering to carry her books to literally every class they shared. And holding her in a tight yet comforting embrace when they cuddled on the couch. But he never said anything new, nor did she think he was looking at her differently. So it was more like torture to Nini, showing her a possible glimpse of something she couldn't truly have.

Unbeknown to her, even though it terrified him for many reasons, Ricky couldn't help but try to test the waters between Nini and himself. Which is why he had been a bit more touchy this week than usual, but he didn't like what he was seeing. While Nini would initially lean into his embrace, or squeeze his hand back at first, after the first moment, it was back to her not looking him in the eye again. He knew her too well, there was something on her mind, but she was keeping whatever was bothering her a secret for now. He tried not to worry. (The key word being tried since he did worry, a lot.) He trusted her to share what was on her mind in her own time, even though the longer she held whatever it was, only served to stress him out even more.

They didn't want to go to their other friends for any more advice, largely because they didn't want to admit they were right so they should have nothing to fear. Although after Monday's lunch. Red and Kourtney could tell something was off about both sides of the pair, and so had shared some of the revelations their respective best friend had made. Both promised not to say anything to the people in question because both were ready to get this show on the road already. To them, it had been a long enough wait already.

But finally, on a Thursday after school, Ricky and Nini were at her house like normal, and deciding to enjoy the forecasted last warm day of Fall, they decided to take their homework up to Nini's treehouse. Thankfully or unthankfully they only had a few worksheets to do that night so they were done in a little under twenty minutes after they began.

"So," Nini began, "what do you want to do now?"

"I don't know." Ricky shrugged, and following her gaze around the treehouse's walls, he couldn't feel the spark of worry and sadness that Nini was still avoiding looking at him. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Nini." Ricky smiled genuinely at her. He reached out to grab her hand resting between them on the bench they shared. "You're my best friend, and I know when something's on your mind. There's no rush if you're not ready to talk about whatever you're thinking over, but if you're ready, you know I'll always be ready to listen to you."

"I know you are." Nini smiled at him, but to his dismay, she pulled her hand away from him. "Um… it's just something stupid, to be honest, something that I talked about with Kourtney, Leah, and Sarah last weekend."

"Well is it something I can help you out with?" Ricky asked, doing his best to hide his slight hurt over Nini pulling away from him. "I know Kourtney would never be mean to you, but whatever this is, it isn't bad, right?"

Nini shook her head, "No, no it's not bad per se, I'm just a bit behind the curve right now, especially compared to all of them."

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Ricky asked.

Nini had to sigh at just how oblivious Ricky was, it seemed he wasn't reacting to any of her hints all week. She knew it was safer if they just stayed friends the way they were now, but her stupid heart wanted them to be more, so much more. She knew she couldn't possibly tell him the truth, it was too big of a risk. Nini thought back to how Kourtney had described her first kiss, and maybe there was a way, just for a moment that she could try to find out the truth.

She reached out to hold his hand again, and she missed his happy sigh of relief at her simple action, mostly because she was more focused on avoiding his kind, friendly eyes that always seemed to bore into hers whenever they looked at each other. "OK, look, this really is a dumb problem, and I know I'm being irrational about this, but just hear me out, and no making fun of me. Alright?" Nini asked.

"Of course, you know if you have a problem, I'd never laugh at you," Ricky promised, squeezing her hand gently in an encouraging manner.

"Ok, so last weekend at the sleepover, we played truth or dare, and eventually we got around to everyone having to share who their first kiss was. And I was the only one who hadn't had one yet."

"Oh," Ricky said quietly.

"Oh? What does oh mean?" Nini asked.

"Um…" Ricky was silent because inside his brain was a tornado trying to find something to say to that. He glanced down at her lips for a moment before looking back to her eyes and feeling his face burn when it was clear he was caught. "It means that, is it a big deal?" Ricky asked awkwardly, "I mean we're only in the seventh grade right? I uh, haven't had my first kiss either." He prayed he wasn't blushing as much as he felt like he was.

"You haven't either?"

Of course not, you're the only girl I hang out with. Ricky thought to himself and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, who would I kiss? The only other girl besides you I regularly hang out with is Kourtney, and she's not interested. We all know she only puts up with my shenanigans for you."

"Yeah yeah." Nini smiled lightly, for a moment, but then frowned once more.

"Wait a minute, who was Kourtney's first kiss then?"

"That's not important right now," Nini said. "I guess I just don't feel like I'm falling behind on something like this. Yeah, we're in the seventh grade Ricky, thirteen years old. I don't know how that aligns with everyone else in our grade, but Leah and Sarah especially acted like it was surprising that I haven't had a first kiss yet."

"Ok, but what do they matter, and even if Kourtney knew you hadn't yet, she couldn't be surprised, right?"

"No, she wasn't surprised since she knows- I mean." Nini abruptly cut herself off. "Nothing."

"OK, and they didn't tease you or anything over this, did they?" Ricky seemed to have completely missed her almost confession.

"No, they didn't, they even encouraged me to find someone," Someone in particular. Nini kept out, "to get it over with, but I can't just do that."

"Well yeah, that I understand," Ricky said without any surprise in his voice.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Nini, your favorite movies have always been Disney movies where the basic plot is the princess finds her perfect prince charming, or Gabriella finds her Troy. Even all those Hallmark movies you force me to watch every Christmas do the same thing, Big city woman returns to her hometown and falls in love with the perfect handsome Christmas tree farmer. When you think about love and romance, it isn't just a small thing. You want to have a love like a love song. A love that creates a beautiful story and makes everyone's hearts melt. I would never judge you for something like that, and neither should anyone else."

Nini could feel a warmth spreading through her chest at the knowledge that Ricky truly did know her so well, probably better than anyone else in her life by this point.

"So I can understand wanting to wait so your first kiss can be something really special. I kind of want some of that too, you know?"

"Huh, what do you mean about you, Ricky?" Nini chuckled, "Yeah, I have to admit you're right about me, like always, but what do you mean by that?"

"Well, maybe some of your ideas of romance have rubbed off on me. I'm in no rush to be in a relationship or anything, but when I am ready, I hope I can find the girl for me and I'll put all my heart and soul into showing her just how important she is to me. So that when I'm brave enough to finally tell her…" Ricky looked at Nini for a long moment. "She knows I will be devoted to her always, because she always has been, and always will be the most important person in my life I can't live without her."

"Oh Ricky, that sounds so sweet." Nini felt her heart give a pang of regret. If only he could be hers, but it was so obvious he didn't think he found his one yet. What chance did they have of ever being anything more? "When you find the girl for you, she's going to be the luckiest girl in the world."

Ricky smiled back at her, but on the inside his heart broke slightly. Nini had no interest in being anything more, did she? Not even with the hint that the girl he saw himself with had always been part of his life? Nini will always be part of his life, but not in the way he sometimes dreamed about.

"Not as lucky as the guy who does finally earn your heart. Even though he'll have to go through me first." Ricky joked.

Nini managed to smile at that too, "Of course, and whatever girl finally snags you, she'll definitely need my approval."

"Of course, I would never date anyone without your blessing," Ricky said, entirely honest. "And we'll never let future boyfriends and girlfriends get in between us?"

"Never," Nini promised. "You know, with all the rumors about us at school already, it's the two of us above everything else. If some boy wants to date me but doesn't like us spending time together, he'll be gone faster than you can say Salt Lake City."

"And the same goes for any girl who wants to date me. You know, by some miracle." Ricky added sarcastically.

"Come on, you're, you're pretty cute. Let me repeat myself, any girl in school would be the luckiest girl in the world to date you." Nini said with complete seriousness in her voice, even if she paused slightly in between her sentences.

"And any guy would be the luckiest boy on Earth to date you, to make you laugh, and get to see you smile every day." Ricky sighed in happiness.

They both went silent for a long moment and for the first time all week, they were both looking deep into each other's eyes, not letting anything take their focus away, except for a few stolen glances down to each other's lips.

"You know Ricky, I've been thinking… I know you're right, and I do want my first kiss to be special and shared with someone special. Someone I know without any doubt will always be important in my life no matter what. And to me, only one person comes to mind."

"Who?" Ricky whispered.

"You, so what do you say? Let's share our first kiss, so we can get it over with, and not regret it?" Nini asked in a rush.

Ricky couldn't believe his ears. Did Nini just ask what he thought she did? Was he dreaming? Well even if this was a dream, he knew he couldn't say no to her. "If you want to…I can't imagine sharing my first kiss with anyone else either."

"Ok, so we're doing this?"

"We're doing this," Ricky repeated. They moved closer to each other and just stared at each other for another long moment. They broke down in awkward giggles, neither quite sure how to make the first move.

"Um, ok, here." Ricky gently reached out to cup Nini's cheek, and then slowly started to lean in closer, and closer. Nini closed her eyes and puckered her lips out after a moment, so he did too.

They were close enough to feel the breath puffing from one another's noses and then their lips finally made contact. Pressed against each other for the first time sent a shock through both Ricky and Nini equally turning their already nervous heartbeats into drumbeats in their chests.

Ricky didn't quite know how to describe it, but he knew kissing Nini made him feel good, really good. He really didn't want to stop. Nini was still pressing against him too, and she was making no signs of disliking it either.

He tried to think about everything he knew about kissing, and while he didn't know much, he could remember a few guys who talked about using their tongues while kissing, while the idea had always sounded gross to Ricky before, he was tempted to try it with Nini.

But then Nini opened her mouth just enough to lightly nibble his lip, and his mind went completely blank. His lips opened instinctively and she pressed even closer to him, or maybe he did to her, he honestly had no idea since his brain was melting in happiness for those first few seconds.

Because then they got too close to each other and suddenly his teeth started to hurt. "Ugh." Ricky opened his eyes in surprise and from the pain, he had no idea what was happening, why did kissing Nini hurt?

Nini stared back at him, with eyes just as wide and confused. She pulled her head back, but instead of pulling away, the pressure on Ricky's teeth increased and he was pulled along with her. "Oof. Ni! Wha?" Ricky tried to say.

"I don know.: Nini replied. Nini tried to move a little bit to separate them again, but nothing seemed to work. Anywhere her mouth moved, Ricky was forced to move along with her.

"Hold Min-" Nini ordered, and she slowly reached up with her finger to poke at their mouths. With their lips quite literally locked together, all either could see was the other's beet-red face. She tried not to think too much about sticking her finger in Ricky's mouth, or about how this had to be the worst kiss in the history of mankind. She lightly tapped between their teeth until she thought she found the problem. "Eh aces!"

"Huh?" Ricky asked.

"Aces." Nini repeated, pointing to her mouth.

"Ah aces." Ricky nodded his head, which only forced her to nod along with him. "Ah ee oo?"

"I don know. Jus old sill."

"O ay." Ricky replied and did his best to hold still.

Nini poked around a little bit more so she could find the wires that had been crossed together. She then carefully through several attempts to try to get it lose both with her fingers and trying to move her mouth, but finally after about 5 more minutes of awkwardness, Nini got them free.

The moment they did they both scooted back from each other along the bench and let out massive sighs of relief, taking deep breaths in to attempt to calm their racing heartbeats. But nothing could hide the matching, fiery blushes painting their cheeks. Right now neither of them wanted to look the other in the eye.

Ricky was already beating himself up. He did his best to relive the brief memory of happiness he had felt in the beginning. Kissing Nini was everything he had ever dreamed it would be for those first few seconds, but there was no way she was ever going to kiss him again now. He had ruined his one chance to possibly be something more. He was such an idiot. Why did he agree to this in the first place? Ok, he knew why, Nini had asked him to kiss her, there was no way he would ever say no to that.

Nini just wanted to run out of the treehouse as fast as possible. Why was she such an idiot to kiss Ricky? She had already thought of a dozen worst-case scenarios, along with plenty of great ones, but she would never in a million years worry about getting their braces stuck together mid-kiss. Who could have come up with that? Now she had lost her chance forever because Ricky would always have a big reason that they should just stay friends, that is if they could stay friends. Could they stay friends after this? It would be one thing if the kiss was amazing, which it had been, briefly, but now. The last thing kisses were supposed to do was hurt, Nini had no idea how they could return to normal after that.

"So…" Ricky said.

"So…" Nini repeated, both still avoiding each other's eyes.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault." Ricky and Nini said at the same time.

"What? No it's not. I should have, I should have…" Ricky trailed off, "ok honestly I don't really know what I did wrong but I should have just kept it simple and left it at that. I'm so sorry Neens."

"Hey, no it was my idea in the first place, and a terrible one." Nini corrected him. I shouldn't have pushed you, just because I was comparing myself to others. I'm sorry."

"No, this isn't your fault.: Ricky shook his head. "I pushed things too far."

"No, I definitely did."

"I did."

At their shared stubbornness, both managed to crack a small smile at each other.

"Ok, how about since obviously we're very inexperienced with kissing other people, how about we just call it the universe's fault?" Ricky finally suggested instead.

"The universe? Why would the universe care about us kissing?"

"I don't know." Although, maybe this is a sign we aren't supposed to be together. Ricky thought silently to himself, "I'm not the universe, but the important thing is that we don't blame each other."

"Of course not, and we can't blame ourselves either." Nini added. "but um are we still good?"

"Of course we are…but if you don't mind, I think I'm just going to ride my skateboard home now."

"Oh, ok, yeah I think that's for the best," Nini said, sadness creeping into her voice. "But we'll see each other at school tomorrow, right?"

"Of course, nothing will change that. Right?"

"Right." Nini slowly reached out to hug Ricky goodbye, and both silently thought this was the most stiff and awkward hug they had ever shared. But afterward, Ricky climbed down the ladder and then skated back home as fast as possible. He needed to get a handle on his head and his heart if he had any chance of figuring out what exactly happened up in the treehouse, and convincing himself that he and Nini would still be ok.

Nini watched him go sadly. She silently prayed this wouldn't be the end of them. She climbed down from the treehouse too, she didn't know if she'd ever be able to go up there again now. She went inside her house and then just laid on her bed, lost in a daze of questions and worries, and beating herself up over Ricky until eventually, her parents both got home.

She went down to dinner, and it was clear to her moms that something was off about her. Even beyond the rarity that Ricky was already gone by the time they arrived back home was already a clue.

"Sweetheart, is there something bothering you?" Carol asked after five minutes of watching Nini stare in a daze as she pushed her food around her plate with her fork.

"Huh? Oh no, I um… I'm just not very hungry tonight."

"You know, you can tell us anything Nini, we just want to help you out," Dana added.

"No, it's…fine, I don't want to get into details with you guys right now…I'm just worried I've made the worst mistake of my life."

"Oh Nini, sweetheart. We won't pry if you're not ready, but I doubt it's the worst mistake of your life." Carol tried to reassure her.

"Oh, it definitely is." Nini pouted and curled her arms around herself.

"No one's hurt or anything are they?" Dana asked.

"No, well…No no one's hurt, I was just really stupid and if I could take it all back I would.

"Ok, does whatever you did have something to do with Ricky?" Carol asked.

Nini looked up with a jolt and felt her cheeks heat up. "Huh? How did you know?"

"Nini," Dana chuckled lightly. "Every time you and Ricky fight you both think it's the end of the world until you make up again. So knowing that, and the fact that Ricky wasn't here when we got home…"

"Ok, it is about Ricky, but I don't want to share any more details, it's just too embarrassing. And horrible."

"Ok, but we know you and Ricky will work this out. Even if you need to take some time to figure things out, you two always do." Dana reminded her.

"But, I don't know if we can go back from this."

"Just be patient, if there's one thing I know, it's that when you're ready, Ricky will be ready for you too," Dana promised and shared another side hug with her daughter.

No, he won't. Not how I want him to be. Nini thought glumly to herself. "I just want us to still be friends like we always have been."

"I'm sure you will. What you two have is special Nini, anyone can see that. Whatever this is about, there is no way you two could stop being friends in one afternoon. The fact that you care so much to be so worried about this means Ricky means too much for you to give him up, so you won't have to, as long as you are willing to work through this, I know without a doubt that Ricky will too."

"Thank you Mama D." Nini smiled and leaned closer into the hug while she continued thinking things over. She knew in her heart Mama D. was right, but it was nice to hear someone else tell her how special her and Ricky's friendship is, without any concerns of potentially being more.

The next few days at school were complete torture for both of them. It felt like they were both strangers to each other or even scared of each other. Neither could look at the other in the eye, or barely say more than two words at a time. However, that didn't stop them both from casting longing looks at each other across their classrooms.

Most of their classmates didn't notice, except for at lunch when there was clearly something going on between them. Usually, they were either off in their world, or they acted like they were inseparable and finished each other's sentences. Kourtney and Red especially noticed how there seemed to no be some invisible wall between them. They weren't ignoring each other, considering all the longing looks they sent to their best friend whenever they weren't looking.

The next week's afternoons they didn't go home with each other once. They always found some excuse to not spend their afternoons together. Hanging out with Red or Kourtney, or attending some lesson or other after-school activity. No matter how much both wanted to move past last Thursday, they didn't know how. It was quite literally the opposite of how they had each imagined their first kiss in their daydreams. Just so awkward and embarrassing they didn't know how to even bring it up if they happened to be alone, and so they had avoided not only the topic but also each other as long as possible. No matter how much they hated it.

Red and Kourtney each tried to interrogate them, but they were equally tightlipped, both from the embarrassment, but also because of how scared they were about this whole situation potentially ruining their friendship for good.

Two whole weeks passed and Nini was riding home on her bike, alone. When she heard a shout behind her that made her heart soar.

"Nini! Wait up!"

She braked her bike and turned around without even thinking about it, she gave Ricky a nervous smile as he rolled up to her on his skateboard. "Yeah, Ricky?"

"Look, I've got to talk to you. Please? I…I hate this. I just want us to be…us again. So please, can we talk?"

"Yeah, of course we can." Nini agreed nervously. "Hey, let's stop at the park." Nini suggested and they rode their respective wheels to the nearby park, getting off to rock on the swings side by side.

"OK, look. First of all, I want to apologize I'm such a horrible kisser." Ricky blurted out.

"No, no, it's not your fault. It was my stupid idea, and I'm the horrible kisser." Nini shot back. "Don't go beating yourself up. I'm the one that should be sorry."

"OK, how about we just agree to disagree, and accept each other's apology? Because honestly I know I could never blame you."

"And I could never blame you." Nini repeated, "But sure, moving on."

"Second of all, these have been the worst two weeks of my life without you being my best friend," Ricky admitted.

"I know." Nini nodded sadly.

"Can we please be friends again? Nini, I'll do anything to have you in my life. Just give me the word and I'll do it."

"Yeah, I want that too." Nini thought for a long moment. "Can we just act like the kiss never happened? I want to forget it because things between us have always been perfect before. So let's just forget it, and then we can be best friends again."

Ricky paused, his heart breaking seeing that even if Nini didn't blame him, it was clear she saw no future of them being more if she wanted to remove any trace of them being closer like that from their friends.

"Yeah, sure. I think that's the best idea too. I just want my best friend back."

"I want that too. So, unofficially, we've had our first kiss, but beyond that, nothing else matters."

"Yeah, we have." Ricky stood up from his swing and walked around to surround Nini's shoulders in a hug from behind. "Is this ok?"

Nini gave him her first genuine smile in two weeks as she leaned back into his embrace. "Absolutely. I missed your hugs almost as much as I missed you these last two weeks."

"Well then, I better make up for lost time." Ricky hugged her tighter for a moment. "Although you know what this means?"

"No, what does it mean? Other than we're us again?" Nini asked.

Ricky chuckled in her ear. "Remember my bucket list? We can both cross off number 11. Remember way back in first grade, that was one of the things you swore you wouldn't do with me."

"Shut up you." Nini shook her ponytail in his face and he only laughed more. "You're lucky you're my best friend."

"Admit it, you can't live without me," Ricky said proudly.

"Only because I know you'd die without me, the light of your life."

"You know me so well." Ricky didn't bother to deny it, by this point he knew exactly how true that statement was for both of them. But since we haven't been talking much these last two weeks, how's life been?

"Well, not the greatest, I feel like I've just woken up from being a zombie." Nini admitted.

"I'm sorry."

"No more apologizing, either of us. We're moving on. But I guess I can share a few things, like this new song I learned on guitar…" Nini started singing her song, and both just simply relaxed in relief that they were slowly getting back to normal once more.