My Brother's Best Friend Prologue 💗💜
Synopsis: At Hopkins High School, Azzi Fudd has always known one rule, her brother Jose’s best friend Paige Bueckers is off limits, no matter how impossible it is to stop noticing her. But after one quiet night at an end of year party changes everything, Azzi finds herself three days later trapped in a car between Paige and Jose travelling to their cabin for 3 weeks, trying to hide a secret that already feels too big to keep.
Soccer Azzi x Basketball Paige
A/N: Finally got the prologue out! took me way too long to edit this tbh I kept getting distracted, but anyways I hope you enjoy reading and lmk if there is anything you want to see in this series I'm down to listen to some ideas to make this better!
There were a lot of rules at Hopkins High School.
Some were written down in the student handbook and repeated so often that students practically had them memorized by the end of freshman year. No phones during class. No skipping assemblies. No parking in staff spots. No leaving campus during lunch. No fighting. No cheating. No running in the halls.
The kind of rules that existed at every high school in America.
Then there were the unwritten rules.
The ones nobody ever officially talked about but everybody somehow knew. The rules passed around through older siblings, teammates, and years of observation. Don't date your teammate's ex. Don't start drama right before playoffs. Don't embarrass yourself at a party and expect people to forget about it by Monday. Don't make things weird within your friend group.
And maybe the biggest rule of all?
Don't fall for your brother's best friend.
Especially if your brother happened to be Jose Fudd.
Azzi had known that rule for years.
Long before she ever walked through the doors of Hopkins High School as a student. Long before she made varsity soccer as a freshman. Long before she understood why seeing one particular girl could completely derail her train of thought for the rest of the day.
Because Paige Bueckers had always been there.
For as long as Azzi could remember, Paige had somehow existed in every chapter of her life. She was there during family barbecues, standing next to Jose with a paper plate piled far too high with food while she made everyone around her laugh. She was there during birthday parties and holiday gatherings. She was sprawled across the couch during endless video game marathons, arguing with Jose about something ridiculous while Azzi listened from the kitchen.
She was at her brother's basketball games.
At some point, Paige had stopped feeling like Jose's friend and started feeling like another member of the family. Nobody questioned it when she showed up unannounced. Nobody asked why she was there for dinner three nights in a row. Mrs. Fudd always made enough food for her. Mr. Fudd always greeted her like she'd been gone for months, even if he'd seen her the day before.
The girl who practically lived at their house, the girl who somehow managed to make every room feel louder the second she walked into it, the girl who remembered birthdays without needing reminders, the girl who checked in on people when they were having bad days, the girl who looked annoyingly good in a Hopkins basketball jersey.
At least that was what Azzi told herself.
Growing up, it had been easy.
She wasn't someone Azzi thought about in any meaningful way. She was simply part of the background of her life, like basketball games in the winter and family cookouts in the summer.
Then somewhere along the way things started changing.
There wasn't some dramatic movie moment where everything suddenly clicked into place. There wasn't a lightning bolt realisation or a single memory Azzi could point to and say, That's when it happened.
Instead, it happened so gradually that Azzi never noticed the shift while it was happening.
The change was so slow and subtle that by the time she realized something was different, it had already become impossible to separate her feelings from the person Paige had always been in her life.
One day Paige was just Paige, the familiar presence who had always been around and never seemed particularly remarkable because she'd been there for so long.
Then somehow she became the first person Azzi looked for whenever she walked into a room, her eyes automatically searching for blonde hair and an easy smile before she even realized she was doing it.
She became the first person Azzi wanted to tell things to, whether it was a good grade, a bad practice, or some random story that probably didn't matter to anyone else. She became the first person whose opinion actually mattered, the person whose praise could make her entire day and whose disappointment lingered in her mind far longer than it should have.
And by the time Azzi realized that was probably a problem, it was already far too late to do anything about it.
Mostly because Jose had gone out of his way to make sure she knew it.
The conversation had happened during Azzi's freshman year, and even now she could remember every detail of it with embarrassing clarity.
One stupid, completely meaningless look that shouldn't have mattered at all.
That was all it took for Jose to decide he needed to establish boundaries.
Azzi had walked into the gym after her soccer practice looking for Jose. Basketball practice was wrapping up and players were gathering water bottles, stuffing gear into bags, and talking about plans for the weekend. Coaches stood near the sidelines discussing something while sneakers squeaked across the hardwood and basketballs bounced lazily as practice came to an end.
Paige was sitting on a bench untying her shoes, her practice jersey damp with sweat and her hair pulled back after another long afternoon in the gym.
Azzi looked over without really thinking about it.
Paige happened to glance up at exactly the same moment.
Their eyes met across the gym.
Except neither of them looked away immediately, and for some reason that tiny moment seemed to stretch longer than it actually lasted.
Which wasn't surprising, considering Jose noticed absolutely everything when it came to his little sister.
Later that afternoon, Azzi happened to be walking past Jose's bedroom when she heard familiar voices coming from inside. She hadn't intended to eavesdrop on anyone's conversation.
Then she heard Jose's voice.
And before she knew it, curiosity had gotten the better of her and she found herself lingering outside the doorway.
Paige groaned immediately, sounding like she'd already guessed where the conversation was headed.
"My sister is off limits."
Even now, 2 years later, Azzi could practically hear the eye roll in Paige's voice when she responded.
"I wasn't even looking at her."
A long pause followed, the kind that usually meant Paige was deciding whether to argue or laugh.
The kind of laugh she used whenever she thought someone was being completely unreasonable and knew it.
"And you're not dating my sister."
"And you’re a sophomore."
Paige made another dramatic groaning sound that echoed through the hallway.
"I literally have zero interest in dating your sister."
At the time, Azzi remembered feeling something strange twist inside her chest, a feeling she couldn't quite put a name to.
Part of it felt like relief.
Part of it felt like disappointment.
Part of it felt like embarrassment.
She couldn't really identify what any of it meant.
All she knew was that she stood there staring at the floor long after the conversation ended, replaying Paige's words over and over in her head. Because hearing Paige say she had zero interest should have made her feel normal, instead it made her feel oddly sad in a way she couldn't explain.
Which should have been a warning sign.
Unfortunately, Azzi ignored it completely.
Then sophomore year arrived and somehow managed to make everything significantly worse.
Depending on how she wanted to look at it.
Because that was the year she started noticing things she had somehow overlooked before.
The way Paige smiled with her entire face instead of just her mouth, the way her eyes crinkled whenever she laughed at something genuinely funny, the way she remembered tiny details about people and casually brought them up months later as if she'd never forgotten them, the way she greeted teachers in the hallway and somehow knew all of their names, even the ones most students barely acknowledged, the way she made everyone around her feel important simply by paying attention to them.
And unfortunately, the way she looked in a basketball jersey didn't exactly help matters either.
At first Azzi tried convincing herself she was overthinking everything and turning nothing into something.
She wasn't special in that regard.
Except deep down she knew she was lying to herself.
Because her feelings didn't feel like admiration anymore.
They felt like something else entirely, something far more dangerous than a simple crush on someone popular.
Then she got a boyfriend in what was probably a subconscious attempt to prove something to herself.
For a little while she genuinely believed that solved the problem.
Because clearly she couldn't have feelings for Paige if she was dating someone else.
The relationship lasted a few months, and during those few months Azzi found herself making comparisons she never should have been making. Every joke reminded her of Paige. Every conversation somehow circled back to Paige. Every time her boyfriend asked what she was thinking about, she had to make sure she didn't accidentally say the wrong name.
Looking back, the relationship never really stood a chance against feelings she refused to acknowledge.
The breakup conversation still made her cringe whenever she thought about it.
They'd been sitting outside after school, talking about nothing in particular, when he suddenly looked at her with an expression she'd never seen before.
"You look at her differently."
Azzi remembered freezing instantly, every muscle in her body locking up at once.
Her heart immediately stopped.
For one terrifying second it felt like her entire body forgot how to function and her brain completely shut down.
Her boyfriend sighed and looked away.
Just tired in the way people get when they've been carrying around an uncomfortable truth for too long.
"I've seen the way you look at her."
Because what exactly was she supposed to say?
The worst part wasn't being accused of something.
The worst part was knowing he was right.
It wasn't just one moment he had noticed or one specific thing she did that gave her away, it was basically everything.
Every basketball game she attended, her eyes somehow always found Paige on the court no matter how many people were moving or how hard she tried to focus on literally anyone else. Every hallway encounter between classes where she would spot blonde hair in the crowd and instantly look over before she even had time to think about it. Every family dinner where Paige showed up at the Fudd house like she always did and somehow ended up being the loudest and most noticed person there without even trying. Every random conversation that should have meant nothing at all but somehow stuck in her head way longer than it should have. Every single time Paige walked into a room and Azzi just… noticed immediately, like her brain was trained to do it without her permission.
Even when she tried not to.
Even when she really, really wanted to act like she didn’t.
"You look at her the way girlfriends look at their girlfriends or boyfriends."
The words hit harder than anything else he'd said, not because he was yelling or anything, but because it was just so direct and real and it felt like he was saying out loud something she had been avoiding for so long.
Because suddenly someone else had actually said it.
Someone else had noticed the thing she had been trying so hard to ignore, explain away, or pretend wasn't happening at all.
And once it was said out loud like that, there was no going back from it.
The relationship ended a few days later.
There wasn't some huge dramatic fight that blew everything up.
No yelling, no screaming, no big scene where things got messy.
It was just… quiet, like this mutual understanding that neither of them was really where they were supposed to be emotionally and they both kind of knew it even before it ended.
Afterward, Azzi spent weeks trying to convince herself that he had just misunderstood what he saw.
Weeks trying to explain away feelings she honestly couldn't control no matter how much she tried to push them down or ignore them.
She kept telling herself she was just imagining things, that she just looked up to Paige, that it was normal because they've known each other forever.
But none of that really worked, not when every glance she took lasted a little too long, not when every smile from Paige made her stomach do that weird flip thing she didn't know how to explain, and not when she kept finding herself looking around crowded places for blonde hair and bright blue eyes without even realizing she was doing it.
And not when she would actually get disappointed if Paige wasn't there.
She tried distracting herself with school, soccer, friends, literally anything she could think of just to stop thinking about it.
Because the truth just followed her everywhere she went whether she wanted it to or not.
It followed her into school in the morning, into practice after school, into family dinners where Paige's name would come up casually like it didn't mean anything, and into her room at night when everything was quiet and there was nothing left to distract her.
And no matter what she did, it was always there.
Because Paige Bueckers was still Paige Bueckers.
The girl who basically lived at her house and had for years, the girl everyone liked without even trying, the girl who could walk into any room and somehow change the entire mood of it.
And the girl she absolutely, positively, under no circumstances was supposed to fall for.
The girl who was completely off limits.
Or at least she was supposed to be.
The end of year party at Hopkins wasn’t supposed to mean anything, just another one of those nights where everything felt louder than it should, where music bled through the walls too heavily, laughter came too easily from people who would probably act like they barely remembered any of it by the next morning, and where everyone moved around like nothing that happened here would matter once the sun came up again.
Caroline and Mackenzie had been with her at first, the three of them sticking together like they always promised they would, until both of them ended up getting pulled away by boys they met barely an hour into the night, but not before checking on Azzi a few different times and making sure she was okay in that distracted way people do when they’re already halfway out the door.
Azzi eventually drifted outside to the back porch, letting the door shut behind her as the noise from inside dulled into something distant and muffled, and for the first time all night her thoughts actually slowed down enough to feel like she could breathe properly again without constantly being pulled in different directions by everything going on around her.
The sky above was dark and open, the air a little cooler than she expected, brushing softly against her skin as she sat down on the steps and pulled her knees up slightly, just letting herself exist in the quiet for a moment without needing to explain anything to anyone or keep up with anything or anyone else.
And then the door creaked open behind her.
Paige stepped out, like she had been looking for her without needing to ask anyone where she went, and the moment she spoke her voice was calm in that way that always made Azzi’s chest feel slightly too aware of itself.
“Thought I would find you out here,” Paige said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Azzi glanced up at her and let out a small breath, tilting her head slightly as she responded, “Who told you?”
“Mackenzie did,” Paige answered almost immediately, a faint smile tugging at her mouth as she stepped closer.
Azzi shook her head a little, not even surprised, letting out a quiet, “Of course she did,” like it was exactly what she should’ve expected from her.
Paige didn’t say much right away after that, just lowered herself onto the steps beside Azzi in a way that felt easy and familiar, close enough that their knees brushed together lightly without either of them acknowledging it directly, though neither of them moved away either.
For a while, they just talked like everything was normal, like there weren’t any rules hanging over them or expectations waiting inside the house or a whole world of consequences they were both quietly aware of, and it almost felt like one of those rare moments where nothing complicated existed at all.
But eventually, the conversation slowed in a way that felt different, heavier somehow, like something unspoken had finally worked its way to the surface whether either of them was ready for it or not.
“Az,” Paige said quietly after a pause, her eyes fixed somewhere out in the yard instead of on her, “there is something I need to say.”
Azzi’s stomach dropped slightly at the shift in her tone, because she could feel it immediately, even before anything was actually said, that whatever came next was going to change the shape of everything between them.
Paige stayed quiet for a moment longer before continuing, her voice softer now, almost careful, as she added, “I see you as more than… Jose’s little sister.”
The words landed between them in a way that made everything else disappear for a second, and Azzi found herself completely unable to respond, unable to form anything coherent at all as her mind tried to catch up with what she had just heard.
Paige exhaled, looking away like she was already regretting saying it out loud, and then shook her head slightly as if trying to undo it, quietly starting to stand as she muttered, “You know what, forget I said anything.”
But before she could fully pull away, Azzi’s hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her mid movement, not even thinking through it before she did it, just reacting because the idea of Paige walking away right then felt worse than anything else.
“No,” Azzi said immediately, sharper than she meant it to be but not backing down from it, her grip still light but firm enough to keep her there, “say it. Keep going.”
Paige slowly turned back toward her, hesitating for a second before sitting down again, now fully facing her in a way that made the air between them feel even smaller than before.
And for a moment, she just looked at Azzi, really looked at her, like she was finally letting herself stop pretending there was nothing there.
“I think I’ve fallen for you,” Paige said quietly, the words steady even though her voice wasn’t completely, and after a brief pause she added, “not just recently… I think it started when you came into that gym your freshman year.”
The confession didn’t feel dramatic or rehearsed, it felt like something that had been sitting there for a long time finally being allowed to exist out loud, and Azzi felt it hit her in a way she couldn’t ignore or dismiss or laugh off.
“I did too,” she whispered after a moment that felt longer than it was, her voice softer now but certain, “and I don’t see you as my brother’s best friend. Not anymore.”
For a few seconds neither of them moved or spoke, just sat there looking at each other like the entire world had narrowed down to this exact space on the steps, like everything else had gone quiet just so this moment could exist properly.
Then Paige shifted slightly closer, slow enough that it didn’t feel like pressure, only intention, and her hand lifted carefully as it came to rest against Azzi’s cheek, not pulling her in, just staying there as if waiting for permission that she didn’t want to assume she already had.
“Is this okay?” Paige asked quietly, her voice low enough that it almost disappeared into the night air.
Azzi nodded once, steadying herself without breaking eye contact, and whispered back, “It’s more than okay.”
Her eyes dropped for a second to Paige’s lips before lifting again, and that small moment was all it took for everything between them to shift completely, because neither of them needed anything else said after that.
The kiss was quiet, careful, and unhurried, like neither of them wanted to break the fragile way the moment had formed, like it was something they had both been holding onto without ever admitting it out loud until now.
And when they finally pulled back, it didn’t feel like anything had been solved or settled, just like something new had started that neither of them could ignore anymore even if they tried.
But even knowing that, neither of them moved away.
And the rest of the night, they stayed hidden away on the porch steps, away from everyone inside, away from Jose, away from whatever complications were waiting for them in the morning, just choosing to exist in the quiet together for as long as they still could.
Later that day, Caroline and Mackenzie showed up at Azzi’s house like they usually did when they had that unspoken feeling that something was going on, not bothering with formalities or long texts or knocking properly in that careful way adults did, just letting themselves in like it was second nature, kicking their shoes off near the door and heading straight upstairs because they already knew where they’d find her before they even really looked.
They found Azzi in her room, sitting cross-legged on her bed in a way that looked almost too still, like she had been sitting there for a while already, waiting for something or avoiding something or maybe both at the same time, her phone resting loosely in her hands but clearly not holding her attention at all, her expression just slightly off in a way that immediately made both of them pause in the doorway.
They didn’t even sit down before starting in on her.
Something about her face had apparently already given her away.
“You look guilty,” Mackenzie said immediately, narrowing her eyes as she dropped her bag onto the floor and flopped down onto the edge of the bed like she was preparing herself for a long conversation she was about to force out of her.
“I don’t look guilty,” Azzi replied too quickly, way too quickly, which was exactly the kind of thing that made Caroline slowly tilt her head in that calm, observant way she always did when she already knew she was right and just waiting for Azzi to catch up to it.
“You absolutely do,” Caroline added as she sat down beside her, a little gentler than Mackenzie but still locking her in with that steady look that made it impossible to lie properly. “What happened?”
Azzi tried to brush it off, tried to act like she could just laugh it away or redirect the conversation or pretend they were imagining things, but the problem was that nothing about her felt normal anymore, not her thoughts, not her timing, not the way her heart seemed to react every time she even thought about Paige, and especially not the way she couldn’t seem to stop replaying everything that had happened on that porch even when she tried not to.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, grabbing her phone like it suddenly needed her full attention, scrolling without actually seeing anything, which immediately made Mackenzie sit up straighter like she had just been handed confirmation.
“Oh my god,” Mackenzie muttered, pointing at her like she’d just solved a case she didn’t even realize she was investigating. “Something happened. Something definitely happened.”
Caroline leaned forward slightly, her eyes narrowing just a bit. “Azzi…”
That tone alone was enough.
Azzi let out a slow breath, dropping her phone onto the bed like it had suddenly become useless, and for a second she just stared at both of them like she was seriously considering whether she could still escape out of her window and pretend this conversation never existed.
“It’s not a big deal,” she started, which was already a lie the moment it left her mouth, and everyone in the room knew it.
Mackenzie blinked slowly. “That sentence has never once in history been followed by something that was actually not a big deal.”
Azzi hesitated, jaw tightening slightly, then let her shoulders drop in a small surrendering motion like her body had decided before her mind did.
That was the moment it all came out.
“Okay,” she said quietly, dragging a hand down her face like she was trying to physically wipe away the panic building there, “fine. Something happened.”
Mackenzie immediately straightened fully like she had been waiting for that exact phrase.
Caroline’s eyebrows lifted slightly, more serious now, but still calm.
Azzi stared at the wall for a second longer, gathering whatever courage she had left before finally saying it out loud.
There was a beat of silence so sharp it almost felt loud.
Then Mackenzie practically leaned off the bed.
Azzi exhaled through her nose, half embarrassed already.
“And,” she added quietly, almost bracing herself, “we kissed. And not just once either.”
For a full second, neither of them reacted at all.
Just complete, stunned silence like their brains had briefly stopped working altogether.
“YOU WHAT?” Mackenzie screamed so loudly Azzi physically lunged forward and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down before she could say anything else.
“Keep your voice down!” Azzi hissed immediately, eyes wide as she instinctively glanced toward the door like her entire family might somehow hear the words and appear in the room in the next five seconds. “Jose is literally in the house.”
Mackenzie looked completely frozen, like her entire system had just shut down and rebooted halfway through.
“No you did NOT,” she said again, but quieter now, slower, still clearly not processing it properly, her mouth slightly open like she was waiting for it to turn into a joke.
Caroline, on the other hand, just stared at Azzi for a long moment, blinking once, then twice, like she was trying to make sure she hadn’t misheard a single word of what had just been said.
“You made out with Paige,” she said carefully, like if she said it too casually it might somehow break reality.
Azzi immediately buried her face in her hands.
“Stop saying it like that.”
Mackenzie pointed at her again, still frozen between shock and disbelief.
“No, no, no,” she said, shaking her head hard like she was physically rejecting the information. “You don’t just drop that casually. You don’t just say ‘oh yeah I kissed Paige’ like you’re talking about the weather. What do you mean you kissed Paige?”
Azzi peeked through her fingers, voice muffled. “It just… happened.”
“That is not an explanation,” Mackenzie shot back instantly.
Caroline finally exhaled, leaning back against the wall like she needed to create physical space just to process it properly, though her expression had softened slightly now, less shocked and more thoughtful.
“Okay,” she said slowly, “start from the beginning. All of it.”
Mackenzie nodded immediately. “Everything. Every look. Every word. Every second. I need context or I’m going to actually lose my mind in this room.”
Azzi hesitated for a moment longer, then let her hands drop into her lap as she stared down at the bed, realizing there was no version of this where she could leave anything out without them exploding anyway.
The party. The porch. The silence before Paige spoke. The way her voice had changed when she said her name. The moment Paige almost walked away. The way Azzi had grabbed her wrist without even thinking. The confession. The way it felt like something that had been true long before either of them said it out loud.
Every so often she stopped, not because she was done, but because her own words felt strange hearing them in the air like that, like they made everything more real than it had been in her head.
Caroline listened without interrupting, her expression slowly shifting from shock to something more grounded, more understanding.
Mackenzie, however, kept reacting in real time.
“So you just—what—locked in eye contact and decided to ruin your life?” she muttered at one point.
“Mackenzie,” Caroline warned quietly without even looking at her.
Azzi kept going anyway, her voice quieter now, softer at the edges, describing the way Paige had asked if it was okay, how careful she’d been even when everything between them had already been obvious, how Azzi had said yes even though it felt like the answer had already existed before the question was even asked.
“And then we kissed,” Azzi finished, almost barely audible, like saying it any louder might make it collapse under its own weight.
Silence followed again, but this time it wasn’t shocking.
Then Mackenzie slowly leaned back against the wall, staring at the ceiling like she was mentally running through every possible consequence at once.
“You’re dead,” she said finally, shaking her head. “Jose is going to actually combust if he finds out.”
Azzi groaned immediately, dropping her head into her hands again. “Stop saying that.”
Caroline didn’t smile, but her expression had softened even more now, watching Azzi carefully, like she was seeing past the panic and into something more important underneath it.
“Or,” she said quietly, “you’re in love.”
That made the room go quiet again, but in a different way.
Mackenzie stopped talking for once.
Azzi didn’t look up right away.
She just sat there, fingers curled loosely in her lap, staring down at the bed like the words had landed somewhere she wasn’t fully ready to touch yet.
Because the truth was, she didn’t have an answer for that.
So she didn’t give them one.
She just stayed there in the quiet, letting it all exist without trying to fix it.
And that’s how Azzi ended up here three days later, sitting in the backseat of a car that felt way too small for the kind of silence she was trapped inside, watching the world blur past the window as they headed out toward the lake house for what was supposed to be three weeks of friends, summer air, and pretending life was simple.
Paige was right there in the middle seat.
Close enough that Azzi was painfully aware of her without even trying.
Close enough that every small movement mattered more than it should have.
Jose was on the other side, completely unaware of the fact that the entire balance of the backseat had shifted into something neither of them knew how to name out loud.
And somehow Azzi had ended up on the opposite side of Paige, like the universe had a sense of humor and decided proximity was the easiest way to make things complicated.
The car ride itself wasn’t loud.
It wasn’t awkward in an obvious way either.
Jose was talking occasionally from the front or leaning back to comment on something stupid he saw on the road, scrolling through his phone, laughing at things that didn’t require much thought, completely comfortable in the kind of ease that only came from not knowing anything had changed.
Paige was answering him sometimes, short replies, relaxed tone, acting exactly like she always did around him, like nothing about the world had tilted sideways in the last few days.
Azzi was just trying to exist in the narrow space between them without accidentally giving anything away through her face, her breathing, or the way her hands wouldn’t fully stop fidgeting in her lap.
Because the problem wasn’t the car.
It wasn’t even Jose sitting right there.
It was the fact that Paige was close enough that Azzi could feel every small shift she made, every time her shoulder moved slightly when the car turned, every time her knee brushed the seat, every time she laughed quietly at something Jose said and tried to make it sound normal.
And none of it felt normal.
Not after the way Paige had looked at her like she wasn’t just an idea anymore but something real she was willing to say out loud.
Not after the kiss that neither of them had mentioned again since it happened, like if they didn’t speak it into existence it might somehow stay safely frozen in that one moment forever.
Three days had passed since then, and not once had either of them said a single word about it.
And that silence had somehow become louder than anything they could have said.
Azzi stared out the window for a long stretch of road, watching trees blur into each other and thinking that if she focused hard enough on anything else anything at all she might be able to slow her heartbeat down to something normal.
Because every time the car hit a bump or slowed slightly, Paige shifted just enough in the middle seat that Azzi could feel her presence again, sharp and immediate, like a reminder she couldn’t turn off.
At one point, Jose twisted around in his seat, holding up his phone like he’d just thought of something.
“Paige, are you good with music for the trip or are you gonna pretend you hate everything I pick again?” he asked casually, grinning like this was just another normal conversation between them.
Paige laughed lightly, shaking her head.
“I never said I hated it. I just said your playlist has no structure.”
“It’s constructive criticism.”
Azzi stared at the window harder, like it might open into another dimension if she focused enough.
Because hearing them talk like that so easy, so normal made everything in her chest feel even more tangled.
Because she knew what it felt like when Paige looked at her when no one else was watching.
Space where nothing could slip.
Or at least, that’s what it was supposed to be.
Her fingers tightened slightly in her lap when Paige shifted again, this time leaning back into the seat more comfortably, her arm briefly brushing the edge of the center console before settling.
It was such a small thing.
Her mind immediately jumped back to that night without permission.
To the way Paige had said her name like it meant something different than it used to.
To the way everything had stopped making sense in the exact moment it started making too much sense.
She swallowed hard and forced herself to look down at her phone, even though she wasn’t reading anything, just scrolling aimlessly like it could distract her from the fact that Paige was inches away and somehow still felt completely unreachable.
Jose eventually turned back around in his seat, still talking about something irrelevant training schedules, summer plans, random teammates none of which Azzi could actually follow properly.
Paige responded here and there, calm and steady, never looking out of place, never looking like anything had changed at all.
And that was the worst part.
Because Azzi knew it had.
She could still feel it sitting between them like something unspoken that neither of them had figured out how to carry yet.
The longer the drive went on, the heavier the silence between her and Paige became, even while everything else in the car stayed normal.
