persona || paige bueckers

Chapter 2

Kazzi Kovers was a walking, breathing contradiction.

It was troublesome for the people around her, moreover, troublesome for herself. She finds herself in these undesirable conditions, and wonders why, as if it isn't a direct consequence of her own actions. As such, she finds herself seated in class on a Wednesday morning, eyes glued to her phone as if the very reason for her spiraling isn't seated two seats away from her.

Paige Bueckers. Kazzi's favorite guilty pleasure, a thing that wouldn't be guilty if not for her loud mouth and penchant for self sabotage. It was embarrassing, spending months denying her attraction to the blonde before finally succumbing. As a result, she needed an outlet for her bottled feelings, and twitter had seemed the most reasonable choice, it was feral anyway. Kazzi posted, and posted, and posted, the more she tweeted, the more comfortable she got exposing her innermost desires.

Unfortunately, the months Kazzi spent denying her attraction (she swore she was straight) were not silent, spending every opportunity to openly antagonize the basketball player. The latter had been mostly confused at first, before taking it into stride and butting heads with Kazzi at every turn. Now that Kazzi realized the fire in her gut whenever Paige so much as looked at her was in fact not anger, but rather some sick form of lust, it was too late to revert back to the "nice to meet you, my name is Kazzi" stage.

It was stupid, but Kazzi had accepted her fate with amazing grace, opting to admire the UConn star behind a screen. She built a barrier between the deepest parts of her conscience, and now that Paige had discovered her twitter page, it felt like Kazzi's insides were being laid bare for her to analyze and decipher. Absolutely disgusting.

Kazzi chewed her bottom lip, wondering for the fifth time whether her @ is too obvious and whether she needs to change it. It contains the words "K" and "Azz", which is far too revealing if you ask Kazzi. Did Paige know? She would simply shrivel up and die, if that was the case. Just the thought of Paige finding out had Kazzi nauseous. Speaking of which, she could feel a familiar stare burn into the side of her face. "What is it, Bueckers?"

"You look sick."

Kazzi didn't fight the eyeroll. She levelled Paige with a flat look, trying to calm the harsh rhythm of her heartbeat at just hearing the blonde's voice. "What? Why do you care?"

The latter shrugged, a familiar teasing smirk stretching across her lips. She leaned back, eyes trained on the white-knuckled grip Kazzi had on her phone. "I don't. Just curious as to why you look like you're about to throw up your breakfast looking at your phone. Did your boyfriend cheat on you?"

"I don't have a boyfriend." Kazzi grit out, stomach twisting at the thought. Damn, how could she have ever argued that she was straight? the very thought of being with a man made her violently ill.

"For a reason." The other muttered, and Kazzi glared at the smug expression adorned on her face. She never noticed when the other had stopped looking confused and started returning her barbed remarks, but she wasn't exactly complaining. It helped cover her raging attraction. Plus, Paige being mean was hot.

"I don't recall you having a boyfriend either."

"That's cause I swing the other way, sweetheart."

Kazzi's eyes widened, attempting and failing to school her facial muscles. She had her suspicions, sure, and people loved to talk, but to hear it so blatantly from her had a whole new effect on Kazzi's brain. Paige noticed the sudden silence, and narrowed her eyes, "Don't go all homophobic on me, Kaz, I'll rock your shit."

Her words jerked Kazzi out of her reverie, and she scoffed, "Shut it, I'm not. I was going to say you don't have a girlfriend either, so your point is not pointing."