𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄 , 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬.

𝐢𝐱. 𝐨𝐛𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬.

'you've got me nervous to move. so i just won't give anything to you.' — nervous , the neighbourhood

it was as if her mind wanted to tantalise her for her thoughts. forbidden yet sweet as it suckled on her misery. misery because as paige drove home the only thing she could think about was victoria. as if she had grabbed her with tightened fists around her neck suffocating all air out from her lungs in some sadistic way to degrade her. victoria had managed to weasel her way into paige's mind poisoning everything in it's path with a lustrous trail.

paige's fingers gripped tighter onto the steering wheel. nails so deep it began marking the leather. not even the sounds of lauryn hill could drown out the notions of victoria.

how her body seemed to move smoothly and all in one motion as she slipped off her shirt. lips agape as she blew out the hairs from her face. hips tilting as she laid her knees onto the floor.

scrunching your eyebrows and turning up the volume won't blur her imagination. the vision was too clear in her head, too remembered to be vague.

paige didn't want victoria to scrutinise her even in the silence. the safety if her loneliness victoria still interrupted her peace.

paige could repeat the words 'i don't care' a million times in her head yet that wouldn't make any difference from the fact she does care. a lot. she cares that victoria hart has corrupted everything and everyone. penetrating her toxicity into the foundations of paige's life.

trying to talk badly about her won't stow away from her thoughts of her in her bra.

but let's play pretend for a bit?

the worst part about this was paige knew victoria wasn't thinking about her like this.

✧ ✧ ✧ ✧

"i've missed you!" victoria sat in the parking lot of her apartment. her phone propped up onto the dashboard as her current facetime call with jada had taken up her screen.

"you have no idea how much i missed you." jada sighed. "how's uconn treating you?" jada didn't want to have to get all sappy and sad knowing that the transfer for victoria must have been a hard decision— actually it was. because jada sat there helping her determine her future for 3 months before victoria had settled on uconn. it was sad having to see one of her best friends leave, she didn't want to be bitter and say she didn't want victoria to be happy in another team. though if she was, she didn't want victoria to love another team as much as she did at iowa.

"really good, it's been fun to catch up with my high school friends and meeting new people. the team has been really welcoming too..." victoria withheld from mentioning paige. knowing that if she did it would turn into an hour rant and rehashing of every horrible thing she has done from high school to now.

"why the hesitation?" jada read off victoria expressions. the decompressed frown forcefully turned into a smile which looked too stiff to be genuine.

"no, no, no. no hesitation. there was none." victoria shook her head, pupils widening as if that would emphasise the 'no'.

"oh my god is it paige?" a voice interrupted from behind jada. a very familiar face clearing into view as catilin stood with arms leaning into the back of the couch, neck craned over to the screen.

"oh hello to you too!" victoria chuckled, concealing her very bad attempt to steer the conversation into a new direction. but by their stares there was no way they were leaving until she'd spoken.

"yes. yes it is paige." victoria gave in, eyes rolled to the side at the mention of paige. a revulsion in her mouth at the name and a scorned feeling sunk deep into her chest.