Last kiss // PAIGE BUECKERS

ONE//NEW YEARS DAY

(Victoria's POV)

I will admit, that I'm a fan of Taylor Swift. Paige on the other hand- never cared for her, though sometimes when we would listen to music I would put her on, and Paige never protested, with that, Paige learned a few of her songs. The list of songs she knows grew occasionally but one of her favorites was "New Year's Day" on the reputation album, I would catch her singing one line in particular all the time, which was "Please don't ever become a stranger who's laugh I could recognize anywhere." She would always promise me that she would never become that stranger to me. It's funny to think I believed her because now, she is that stranger.

The what and the why of how we stopped being "friends" is beyond me. It's been 2 months since April 4th 2021. The day that changed me, may sound dramatic but Paige was my best friend, my teammate, classmate, and almost family. It was so hard going through that big of a change where someone you loved so much, basically disappeared. and I have no understanding as to why our friendship ended, all I know is I was seen around with my now boyfriend, Nick and then we stopped talking, I feel as though our falling out was my fault, I didn't tell her about me and nick but for all good reasons. I wasn't trying to "hide" him, I was just waiting for the right time to announce it, but she saw it, stopped talking to me and that was it.

As upset as I was, it was so bottled up, we share the same friend group, and they all knew but didn't say anything. They tried not to talk about it in front of really anyone because if the media and my father especially found out, it was over.

My dad has always said that with being a Women's Basketball Coach, there is a lot of drama and he would make them solve it under pressure, and threaten them with things such as being benched, fewer minutes, etc, not in a mean way essentially but just to make them make up so there was no trouble on the court. so Paige and I made a mutual agreement(through Azzi and Nika) that we wouldn't tell anyone about what was happening behind the scenes if that was my dad, any other coach, or anyone who wasn't in our close circle. And that was the end of it. It hurts but it happened and there's no changing the past.