"Paige are you ready to- OH MY GOD-" Adelaide pushes Paige away, coming back to her senses as a shit-eating grinned Nika covers her eyes with her hand after walking back onto the court floor, now wearing bicycle shorts and a graphic tee. "We were just-" a red-faced Paige starts before stopping herself, realizing she isn't prepared to explain to Nika exactly what she was doing. "I'm gonna," Adelaide says, eyes rapidly looking between the blonde and Nika, "I'm gonna go." She finishes, pointing to the door before quickly walking over to where her camera bag was, shouldering it, and getting the hell out of that room as fast as possible without sparing another glance to either girl.
Adelaide shouldn't be surprised when she receives a text after dinner later that day. She is, however, surprised by the contents of it. At first, she's scared. Sitting on her bed, books spread out all around her, she was looking for her favorite parts in romance novels. For no particular reason. She had just posted a photo of her on the kitchen counter that Angie had taken, so she half expected it to be a reply to that from one of her friends. It was not.
She was somewhere flipping between the last dozen pages or so in Lightlark by Alex Aster, looking for a specific page in particular, when the notification 1 attachment rang through the air. She had saved Paige's contact as paige :), deciding to keep it simple so she didn't grow attached to the now strictly platonic name. Only mildly scared to see what the photo was, she swiped her phone open, revealing a photo of her beloved Airpod case, a pink cow named 'smalls'. Smalls, however, was not the only thing in the photo. A photo of Paige in her car, hair soaked, sporting a mildly crazed smile, smalls sitting next to her in the passenger seat while she holds Ad's mic and mic pack. Her hair was now loose from the ponytail she wore during practice, but still in her practice clothes. Her practice clothes which were now see-through, soaked with rain, allowing Ad to see the black bra she knew all too well through her white jersey. Adelaide recalled how it began to drizzle on her drive home, the summer storm reminding her of Paige's smell. It must've gotten heavier once she was home.
Another text came in, reading, 'you left this lil guy by your chair', and another one, 'it started raining on our escape out'. The second one made her smile. Replying with a simple, 'thank you for rescuing him'. 'And the mic', she adds in a separate text. Thoughts of Paige had been embarrassingly filling her head, the same questions as before distracting herself from her task at hand, and the fact that the blonde has her things doesn't help. She wondered what it would be like to kiss her more than ever, having the chance stolen from her twice today. Slightly irritated at that fact, she tried to clear all thoughts of Paige from her mind, taking the interruptions as signs from the universe that the two shouldn't mix.
Deciding to take a break from her book search, Adelaide pulls out her laptop, looking for more pose inspiration for Monday, Media Day. Media Day was something she had been looking forward to since getting this job, excited to make cool tiktoks and have everyone post the photos she takes. Adelaide was not excited, however, to be forced to interact with Paige again. Why? Because despite her best efforts, she liked the way Paige looked at her. She liked the way her breathing hitched as she traced her collarbones. She liked the way she looks at the photographer when she makes a good shot, hoping Adelaide noticed. She really likes the way she feels in her arms, how the blonde's eyes never left her, even when they were interrupted on the court. Indulging her traitorous thoughts for another moment, Adelaide allowed herself to daydream about gray eyes, strong arms, and warm hands.
She didn't know when she fell asleep. All she remembered was waking up sometime around two am, surrounded by books and a still-running laptop, recalling gray eyes and kisses that never were. She blearily emptied off her bed, took off her bra, and got straight back under the covers, sending herself to dreamland, to be stuck between the now and the never will be, surrounded by lands and people she will never visit. Adelaide called it her favorite place to be.
YOU ARE READING
POSE - Paige Bueckers
أدب الهواة"Oh, you have got to be shitting me." Adelaide thought as she turned the corner into Gampel stadium, seeing a certain blonde she never expected to see again, let alone here. At her job. Almost three years later. 'After all these fuckin years' she th...
