POSE - Paige Bueckers

11- why'd you stop?

"I kissed Paige," I said while laying in Angelina's bed, our hair a mess, bagels in hand, the sun long in the sky. Sometimes the morning after debrief was even better than the night out. The girl next to me froze at my words.

"You WHAT!" She half yelled, sitting up fully to face me. I think that was the most movement either one of us has done since I picked up our Einstein Bagels Doordash from the front doorstep. "We kissed," I say quietly like it's a secret only she can know, "like a lot, like a mini makeout on the dancefloor," I finished, my nails tracing the outline of my bottom lip, a nervous habit. "And I MISSED IT?!?" she nearly yelled at me, flopping back on the bed in exasperation. "I have been watching you motherfuckers dance around each other for weeks and the one time you finally kiss I'm drunk? Wait did you kiss her or did she kiss you? Was it like a kiss or like a peck or like dirty or like-" I cut her off there at her volley of questions.

"Definitely more than a peck, there was tongue, and her hands were like all up in my shit so you could say kinda dirty. And yes, I kissed her, I was completely sober too! And I sat on her lap in the Uber because Nika wouldn't leave you alone, we're totally coming back to that by the way, and we almost kissed again right before you puked at her place last night," I spiel out, giving her a rundown of my love life's quick advancements that took place in the last 24 hours.

"Woah," she replies, taking it all in. I almost can't believe it either. I mean I'm glad that I kissed her, it was a long time coming, but what now? I still work for her coach, and team, which reminds me I need to edit media day pics and look through the TikTok. Do I let her keep advancing on me? Or do I tell her it was a mistake? I can't do that to her, even if it's what I thought. There's no way that would be a mistake, kissing Paige was like finally giving in and eating that ice cream you've been craving all week, and it was really, really, good ice cream.

Paige was a good kisser, and those stupid stupid wandering hands drove me crazy all night, but I don't regret any of it. I do kind of hate this stupid crush thing though, and it's only gotten worse since I saved that single edit, because now, stupid edits of her come on my TikTok all the time, making it impossible to get the stupid blonde out of my head. UGH. STUPID STUPID STUPID.

Angie comes to my rescue, "Wanna go get coffee?"

"I love you," I say in response, because of course I want coffee.

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Hours later, my back is aching, my knees are locking, my fingers and cramping, and I think my laptop is minutes away from overheating, but all of my media day photos are fully edited. After sorting through and picking out the goods, each girl has a nice stack of photos to use however they please. All I have to do next is edit the videos and behind-the-scenes, and my first-ever media day will be done. Speaking of behind-the-scenes, I check TikTok after not being on my phone most of the day, seeing that the first few videos I posted have nearly blown up, the account amassing 200k followers in a week. Damn.

After setting Ang up with a large coffee and a Disney movie marathon, I sat with her on the couch with my headphones blasting in my ear as I edited the thousands of photos. Typically I would just copy and paste the edits to all of them, but between the different backgrounds, varying skin tones, and other factors, each girl had to be edited individually. I know it's my job, but these girls better appreciate how hot I made them look.

Specifically a certain blonde. It's not like I favored her photos over the other girls, they all look amazing, just that I may or may not have stared at them for an ungodly amount of time. This is very normal behavior. Her looking good might've been amplified by the fact that she simply always looked good, but I digress. And I mean, she always, looked good.