a fake arrangement | wlw |

six | did you?

A few hours past and Valentina still couldn't get over the quick kiss Hazel and her shared, and when she tried, it was always in the back of her mind. After leaving the tennis court, she followed the track back to the Grayson Estate to clear her mind, however absentmindedly going to the gazebo in which she visited not so long ago.

With her mind confused and her morals now questioned, Valentina wondered what her motive truly was. Of course, she wanted money, and Hazel knew what she was getting into when she received her file, but why did it feel like she was losing herself in the process.

Her hands seized the wooden exterior roughly, white patches began to form on her hand from gripping too harshly. Valentina let out a long exhausted sigh as she reflected on her previous decisions.

"What does she think of me now that I practically ran away from her?" Valentina whispered under her breath, annoyed by the way she acted without thinking beforehand. But soon came a flash of their kiss, her hand was instantly brought up to her lips, touching the last place Hazel touched a few hours ago. "God I'm so fucking stupid."

Valentina sighed against her palms that covered her mouth as she looked at the sunset in front of her. The girl was drowning in her thoughts, and she didn't know who could save her.

"Hey." A soft voice spoke behind her. Slightly flinching at the sudden voice, she turned around to be met with the eyes of the person she hid from, Hazel.

"Hi." Valentina replied nervously, taking a few steps back for safe measures.

"Why are you here, normally you'd be at the estate." Hazel questioned, noticing how the girl stepped back from her presence.

"I guess I just like it here." The girl slightly lied, sensing the uneasy tension between the two.

"Look, I think it's best if we just forget about the kiss." Hazel bluntly said as she also became uneasy. "I wasn't thinking clearly."

Now Valentina's questions had been answered, she did regret it. Honestly, a part of Valentina was hurt, but she knew nothing of romance, so she pushed whatever her feelings towards Hazel far away from herself. "Yeah, me neither."

••••

The four girls that lived in the estate were all in the living room, eating buttered popcorn from a large bowl and keeping their eyes trained on the move that played before them. With Mia fast asleep and Teagan also, it was just Valentina and Hazel awkwardly sitting on the other side of the couch.

Hazel's eyes flickered between the small proximately between her and Valentina, it was the only barrier from physical touch, something that Hazel unwantedly craved for. The blonde's mind also reflected on her encounter with the girl at the gazebo, and how she didn't take consideration into the woman's feelings.

It was a habit of Hazel's to speak her mind, but also shutting down ideas or things that she knew little of, or was too afraid to even figure out. She always wanted to be in control of situations, and if she wasn't it would scare her, so much that it causes her to realise the cruelty in how she was raised to behave and perform her actions.

Owing to the fact that Hazel shut down the whole sudden kiss and blamed it on her headspace at that moment, something about Valentina's defensive walls and her attitude always drew Hazel in, despite her morals and standards.

Loving someone was hard to do, for both girls. With Hazel, she didn't know how to, therefore whatever she did, it pushed others away. However for Valentina, she did know how to love once, but it was enough for her to realise that no one could treat her decently, letting her live a life of isolation and platonic relationships.

Unknowingly, the two girls were similar in many ways, but it would take time for them to realise their similarities and their differences.

Between the two women who were awake, thick air of tension was filling the room, causing the duo to feel awfully awkward. No one knew how to approach the other, let alone bring up the topic of the kiss, that both women, deep down, enjoyed it rather too much than they initially should have.

Hazel started to overthink her prior decisions at the gazebo, whether or not she should have shut down the whole 'bringing our relationship to the next level' kind of thing, because again, it scared her.

Still, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure Valentina out, as well as what she wanted in the future even though her life was already mapped out the day she was born.

"Hey... I um..." Hazel began, finding a way to say what she wanted to say easily.

Why does she never use my name?  Valentina scoffed internally as she replied with an audible hum.

"I didn't mean what I said at the gazebo, well not entirely... It's just that I-" Hazel stopped herself from saying what was on her mind, incorporating it up with a lie in order to name sure she didn't reveal the reason why she even brought this conversation up. "-I overreacted, I'll admit that. But I've never done one of these contract relationships, so I don't know what the boundaries are."

"Right." Valentina said as she nodded her head, not believing Hazel but deciding to play along with her little charade. "The contract said no physical affection unless consented and agreed on between the two fake fiacées." She said, sparing no glance towards the woman who had her eyes trained on the woman's lips.

"Does that answer your question, Ms Grayson?" Valentina questioned as she finally turned to the woman who looked at her confused about why she used her last name. "You would've known this if you actually read the contract for yourself."

The brief discussion left Hazel confused and targeted, now she didn't even know if Valentina felt the same thing she did after their conversation. But her thoughts were interrupted when Valentina got up and left the living room, making her way to anywhere else that Hazel wasn't at.

A.N - how are we liking the story so far?