Don't Save Me, Stay | Paige Bueckers
Arianna Torres is used to surviving alone. It's not that she prefers isolation-it's that it's safer. After all, people leave. People hurt. And no one sticks around when they see the real her: the trauma, the mood swings, the scars from growing up with a drug-addicted father and a mother who overdosed in the bathroom while Arianna was the one to find her. Diagnosed with BPD and PTSD, Arianna is constantly balancing between craving love and being terrified of it. She plays for UConn now, but she's not there to make friends-she's there to earn her future and keep everyone at arm's length.
Until she breaks.
After an intense away game triggers a panic attack followed by a near-complete shutdown, Arianna is put on temporary leave and forced into a recovery plan that includes one thing she never asked for: support. And the one assigned to check in on her, stay with her, and-God forbid-care about her? Paige Bueckers.
The golden girl of college basketball. Charismatic, soft-spoken, patient. Everything Arianna isn't.
What starts as reluctant forced proximity becomes something far more complex. Paige doesn't try to fix her. She just... stays. She doesn't ask for Arianna's secrets. She simply offers warm silences, movie nights, and shared playlists. The closer they get, the more Arianna starts to crack-not in a bad way, but in the kind of way that feels like healing. Like maybe being seen doesn't have to hurt. Maybe touch doesn't have to burn. Maybe someone can stay.
But falling for someone when you're still learning how to exist is dangerous. Arianna's self-sabotage runs deep. Her fear of abandonment is a wildfire. And Paige, despite her calm, carries her own quiet grief-injuries, pressure, and the weight of being everyone's hope.
As they navigate late nights and raw confessions, tangled blankets and bruised hearts, Arianna must face the hardest truth of all: What if love isn't about being saved, but about letting someone stay even when you're at your worst?
