juliette
present; narrative
Waking up next to Paige felt like a dream, knowing I could kiss her and express my feelings without all the dumb nerves about her not liking me back. I could stare at her without being worried she would catch me admiring her.
I called Jay that night basically explaining the whole story, deciding to be honest and he took it well. Congratulating me and Paige and continued to act like a friend. I honestly appreciated how supportive he was because he definitely didn't have to be but knowing he was made him feel like a true friend that I could trust.
Me and Paige were trying to keep us a secret until we had it figured out ourselves. Of course Jay, Rose and Azzi knew but that was it. The other girls on the team were still clueless to me and Paige sneaking a kiss between shots or how drawn to each other we were now. There were definitely looks that they gave us when we would come to every practice together or the way Paige would point at me after every shot but they never said anything about it.
I spent almost every night with Paige, either her at my dorm or me in hers, which is where we were right now, laying on her bed with my head on her chest and her fingers playing with my hair like usual. It was Saturday so neither of us had classes so now we were soaking up mornings with each other. There was a practice later today and then after that Paige told me it was finally time for her to take me on a date, 5 days after Valentine's Day but it's the thought that counts.
"P, Azzi you should've seen how bad Aaliyah fell up the stairs." Nika screamed, walking into the apartment. We weren't expecting visitors and I looked up at Paige, my eyes wide and her eyes matching mine.
"It was a small tumble." Aaliyah defended, thankfully Paige's bedroom door was closed but now it was either them find out or sneak out of the window because they weren't leaving without Paige.
"What are you guys doing here?" Azzi questioned, a nervous shaky tone in her voice too, for the same reasons me and Paige were nervous right now.
It's not that we didn't want to tell them because we know they all want it to happen and would be supportive but I don't want to get their hopes up until everything is confirmed and stable between me and Paige and right now it wasn't. We had just admitted our feelings and were just enjoying being with each other without all the tension.
"Well we have practice so we figured we could go eat then head there." Dorka responded and I could hear all of them shuffling into the small apartment, the whole team was definitely here.
Me and Paige continued looking at each other with panicked eyes, trying to think of a plan on the spot that wouldn't completely expose us in the worst way possible.
"Where's Paige she can't still be sleeping." Amari said and we heard footsteps start approaching Paige's room, our eyes almost popped out of our heads.
"WAIT! Don't go in there." Azzi screamed and I could tell all the girls were looking at her confused. "She's been studying non-stop because she has a final soon so she doesn't want to be disturbed till she has to." Azzi stuttered, thinking of an excuse which the girls fell for and I could finally breathe.
All the girls were sitting in the living room talking while they waited for Paige. We figured we had to get ready and go out there before we were late to practice and the girls came barging in. I got ready and once I was I saw an also ready Paige sitting on her bed, scrolling through her phone.
"You ready?" She asked, looking at me nervously. Obviously we were both dreading going out there to all their shocked and confused faces but we had no other choice.
"As ready as I'll ever be." I replied and followed Paige to the door. We hadn't come up with a solid excuse, hoping it would just come to us when we got out there.
Paige opened the door and walked out, me following closely. I tried not to look at the girls but it was hard to miss their faces. Some jaws dropped, some smirks and some completely baffled faces.
"Is this the walk of shame?" Amari asked, smirking at me and Paige walking out.
"Do not, she was helping me study that's it." Paige explained, hoping the girls would fall for it.
"You guys don't have a class together." Nika said, making all their suspicions raise.
"I did that class last semester." I lied and they nodded slightly, starting to believe us.
"Why didn't you come say hi." Ines asked, involving herself in the interrogation
"We were listening to music, didn't even hear you guys come in." Paige said and they finally stopped asking questions making me sigh in relief. I'm not sure how we managed to pull that off but seemingly we did so I wasn't gonna complain.
"Ok now that you finally graced us with your presence can we go? I'm starving." Dorka groaned and everyone laughed, getting up and walking out of the apartment.
Paige got dragged off with her teammates and I was talking to Nika and Azzi since they were my closest friends on the team. We got chick fil a and then got to the facility where they were just going over film today. I loved film days because it was pretty chill until Geno started yelling at something he saw.
I was sitting between Paige and Dorka while they went over the film. I barely understood what they were talking about so I spent most of the time sneaking glances at Paige, her catching me looking most of the time.
Film days didn't take long thankfully and then Paige told me to start getting ready for our first date. To say I was nervous was a huge overstatement. I was shaking with nerves, dropping almost everything I touched and it didn't help that she gave me a very broad dress code. The only real directions I got were to wear a bathing suit underneath but I had no real idea what we were doing.
Rose watched as I paced around the dorm, trying to make sure every hair was perfectly in place before Paige arrived. As I was running around I heard a knock and my stomach dropped, almost peeing myself from how nervous I was. I had never acted like this for a first date before, that just goes to show the effect Paige had on me.
I opened the door to Paige standing there, sunflowers in her hands. She remembered sunflowers were my favorite after I mentioned them once. My heart beat faster at the gesture, obviously it was nice but I would've never taken Paige as one for romantic gestures.
"Hey Jules, you look amazing." She said, looking me up and down before handing me the flowers. I walked back into the apartment to put the flowers away and motioned for Paige to follow.
"Aww you remembered." Rose exclaimed seeing the sunflowers in my hands. The excitement on her face mirrored mine perfectly.
"How could I forget?" Paige smiled as I grabbed a vase, filled it with water and put the flowers inside as Rose and Paige continued talking. I wasn't paying attention to their conversation, only focusing on carefully putting the flowers away. Caring for them like they were the most delicate thing I'd ever seen.
"You ready to head out?" Paige asked, noticing that I was just staring at the flowers in the vase now. I nodded and walked to the door, waving to Rose before we walked out.
Paige's arm went around my shoulder as she led me to the car, opening my door and giving me aux like she always did. We had very different music tastes but she never complained when I played mine, mostly watching in awe as I sang along or danced around at 9 am on the way to class.
"You know I've been planning this date since December." She admitted. My jaw dropped and I turned my head to look at her. Paige had spent over 2 months planning a date with me and I was completely clueless.
"You're joking right?" I asked, putting my head in my hands. There was no chance I was that blind for months, I figured I was much better at picking up on hints.
"Yes. The day we left Minnesota I knew I had to take you out so I started planning it, making sure every detail was perfect." She said honestly. Paige was never a perfectionist when it came to anything but basketball and now knowing she had put this much work into just one date made my stomach do backflips.
Now I was even more nervous. Paige had perfected this to everything she knew I loved, already scoring points with the sunflowers. My mind raced with ideas on what we could possibly be doing.
"Just know that I had so much stuffed planned that I had to split it in half so our second date's already planned." She smiled, feeling very slick because of that.
"Who said you're getting a second date?" I asked, trying to stay serious but a small laugh escaped my lips and Paige smiled, hiding it by licking her lips.
"Trust me I got that second date." She said confidently and I could see her smirk spread across her whole face.
Her confidence even made me smile. She boosted up everything she did knowing she could support it, especially when she played. She talked a lot but she always had the skills to back it up.
We parked and I looked around noticing we were at the beach. I talked about the beach a lot. I loved it, the sand, the water, the peace that it brought me was just beyond compare. I hated beaches back home in New York but here it was just so small and calm that you couldn't help but love it.
She opened my door, grabbing my hand and leading me across the beach. Towards the most quiet part of the beach there was a whole picnic set up. A pink blanket spread across the sand with snacks and drinks on top of it. The sight made me want to cry. I turned to Paige in complete awe.
"When did you even have time to do all of this?" I asked shocked, continuing to take in the sight. I noticed the little things she had. My favorite candies, fruits and drinks along with one of my cameras that I had lended to Paige and one of her hoodies folded to the side.
"I had some help." She shrugged before sitting down, me taking a seat next to her. "What do you think?" She asked so nonchalantly. Little did she know this was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me.
"It's perfect." I said honestly and she turned around to look at me. She looked into my eyes to see if I was telling the truth. "P trust me, it's perfect." I reassured her, putting my hands on her face. I saw her whole body relax when I said that.
"You have no idea how worried I was." She breathed out, finally relaxing and laying down. I copied her actions, staring at the sunset on top of us.
"Paige you could've taken me to Chick fil a again and I would've been happy. Of course all this makes me happy but just you makes me happier." I admitted. I wasn't good at being vulnerable but that's a sacrifice I was willing to make for her because she deserved it.
I felt her head turn to look at me again and I met her eyes, staring into them. The orange hues of the sky made her eyes even brighter. You could see all the different colors in her eyes and I just admired them. I put my hand on her cheek again, pushing her hair behind her ear and kissing her softly. It was a short kiss but her face went pink and she looked down in an attempt to hide her face.
We spent the time talking, eating the food she had brought before we decided to take a swim. Of course Paige had to make it a competition, racing me into the water to which I obviously lost. I really needed to take up track if I wanted at least a chance of winning.
She tossed me over her shoulder, tossing me in and soaking me head to toe. I got out of the water and glared at her until she started laughing and I had to try really hard to keep up with my glare. She came closer, pushing the wet hair away from my eyes and bending down to kiss me. How could I stay mad when she did that?
She grabbed my waist and picked me up, making me groan before she dived down with me in her arms, soaking us both. We got back up and just laughed, not even mad anymore. She set me down so I could stand on my own but kept her hands on my waist. It was dark out now, the only light coming from the moon reflecting on the ocean. Very much having our Bella and Edward honeymoon moment.
"Jules." She said, grabbing my attention as I turned away from the moon and looked at her. "Look I'm not good at this stuff but I really like you, to the point where it drives me crazy not being around you. I don't wanna spend any more time away from you." She said and I just looked at her with a stupid smile on my face. How nervous and scared she was to admit her feelings was adorable.
"What are you trying to say?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Will you be my girlfriend Jules?" She asked and somehow my smile grew 10 times bigger.
"Of course I will." I said, wrapping my arms around her neck and pulling her down into a hug. She let out a breath she was obviously holding in and pulled away from the hug, connecting our lips again.
It was official, Paige Bueckers was finally my girlfriend.