#gulp gulp

Fandom: UConn Women’s Basketball

Pairing: Kelis Fisher x Reader

Summary: Unspoken pain builds walls, until love breaks through anyway.

A/N: i hope I do justice for you @iloveyou-lu

🏷️: @aubreygriffin , @authentic-girl03 , @atimelessheaven , @azziswrld , @buecker5s , @bueckersbucket , @cowboybueckers , @courtsidewithlani , @elalfywhore, @evry1luvzzae , @fairyblossomsav , @gabischeeseballs , @graceeeeeesblog , @iowahawkeyes22 , @intoblonde6ftwbbplayers , @issilovesherself , @jadasogay , @jupitermoonbaby , @kaliblazin , @kamspeaks , @latenighttalkinqwp , @lessi-lover , @let-zizi-yap , @lightsgore , @marleymarleymarleymarley ,@melpthatsme , @nicebellee , @paxaz535 , @paigeluvvr , @paigeshirleytemple , @private-but-not-a-secret , @runfor-roses , @sayurireidotcom ,@sitawita , @starfulani , @tenaciousglitternerd , @thatonesuschix , @unknowgirlypop , @vamptizm , @wbbszn , @yailtsv

I learned how to disappear without anyone noticing.

It started small. A text I didn’t answer right away. A call I let ring once too many times. Laughing a little less when I was around Kelis’s friends, sitting a little farther away during meals, excusing myself early with excuses that sounded believable enough.

I told myself I was protecting her.

That if she didn’t know how bad it was, she wouldn’t feel responsible.

Because how do you look at someone who already carries the weight of expectations, pressure, and a legacy she hasn’t even had time to build yet-and add this on top of it?

You don’t.

So I didn’t.

I swallowed everything.

The hate didn’t slow down. It multiplied.

Fake accounts turned into real ones. Screenshots of my face circled with arrows. Threads dissecting my clothes, my body language, my lack of posts.

She doesn’t even claim Kelis.

Definitely embarrassed of her.

She’s waiting for her breakout moment.

They didn’t know that I’d never wanted one.

I muted Kelis’s name on my phone. Muted my own.

Stopped opening anything related to basketball unless I absolutely had to. Even then, I kept my eyes down, heart pounding, bracing for impact.

And worst of all… I stopped telling my people.

My friends noticed first.

“You’ve been quiet,” one of them said after practice one day, eyeing me carefully.

“Just tired.”

“You keep saying that.”

I shrugged. “Guess I am.”

The truth was, I was exhausted in a way sleep couldn’t touch.

Kelis noticed too.

Of course she did.

“You don’t come to the gym anymore,” she said one night, standing in the doorway of my apartment. She hadn’t even taken her shoes off yet. “You used to sit through entire practices.”

“I’ve got stuff to do,” I said, not looking up from my laptop.

She crossed her arms. “You don’t even look at me anymore.”

That stung more than I expected.

“I do,” I said quickly.

“When?” she asked. “Because every time I try to talk to you, you shut down.”

I exhaled sharply. “Can we not do this right now?”

Her face fell. “Do what?”

“This,” I repeated. “The… interrogation.”

Her voice softened. “I’m just trying to understand.”

“There’s nothing to understand,” I snapped before I could stop myself.

Silence.

Kelis stared at me like I’d slapped her.

“I didn’t mean—” I started, panic creeping in.

“You did,” she said quietly. “And that’s what scares me.”

I opened my mouth to apologize, to explain, to undo it…but the words wouldn’t come.

Because if I started talking, everything would spill out.

So instead, I shut down.

I stopped hanging out with the team.

Stopped sitting near them at games. Stopped showing up to dinners. I loved those girls… they were loud and warm and protective; but I couldn’t stand the idea of them feeling like they had to choose sides if things got worse.

Distance felt safer.

Lonelier, but safer.

My sister was the only one who really knew how bad it was.

I called her late one night, voice already shaking before she even said hello.

“You okay?” she asked immediately.

“No,” I whispered.

She didn’t rush me. She never did.

“They hate me,” I said eventually. “Like… really hate me.”

“For dating Kelis?”

“Yes.”

She cursed under her breath. “That’s bullshit.”

“I know,” I said, tears finally spilling. “But it’s everywhere. And I can’t tell her. I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’ll feel guilty,” I said. “And she shouldn’t. None of this is her fault.”

My sister sighed. “Baby… you’re breaking your own heart trying to protect hers.”

“I just need to get through this,” I said. “If I make myself smaller, quieter—maybe it’ll die down.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

I had no answer.

I didn’t realize someone was close enough to hear us.

It was one of my friends, someone I trusted. Someone who worked closely with the WBB team, who’d stepped away to take a call of her own and overheard my half of the conversation as I paced the hallway outside the gym.

She didn’t mean to listen.

But she heard enough.

And it scared her.

Kelis found out two days later.

Not from me.

From her. Stephanie

Kelis’ POV

The training room felt like every other afternoon too bright, too loud, bodies everywhere, laughter bouncing off the walls while I sat icing my ankle and half-scrolling on my phone.

Normal.

Until someone said my name.

“Kelis?”

I looked up. It was her friend— Stephanie, the one who worked with the team. She looked… wrong. Nervous. Like she’d been rehearsing something she didn’t want to say.

“Yeah?” I asked, pulling my AirPods out. “What’s up?”

She glanced around the room. “Can we talk somewhere real quick?”

My stomach tightened before I even stood up.

We stepped into the hallway. The door shut behind us, muting everything, and suddenly the silence felt heavy like it knew something I didn’t.

“I don’t know how to say this without overstepping,” she started.

My heart started pounding. “What’s wrong?”

She hesitated. “I overheard something the other night. Y/N was on the phone with her sister.”

My chest constricted.

“She was crying,” she added quickly, like she needed me to understand that part first.

“What?” The word barely made it out.

“She’s been getting harassed. A lot,” she said softly. “People saying she’s using you. For your money. For your name. For fame.”

The world narrowed to a pinpoint.

“No,” I said immediately. “She would’ve told me.”

She shook her head. “She didn’t. She kept saying she didn’t want you to feel bad. That you already had enough pressure.”

That was when it all clicked.

The distance.

The silence.

The way she’d been pulling away like she was bracing for impact.

“How long?” I asked, my voice hollow.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But it sounded bad, Kelis. Like… really bad.”

My hands started shaking before I even realized it.

I nodded stiffly. “Thank you for telling me.”

I didn’t stay long enough for her to say anything else.

I left before anyone could see me fall apart.

Y/n Pov

She came to my apartment that night.

I knew something was wrong the moment I opened the door.

Her eyes were red. Her jaw was tight. She didn’t step inside right away.

“You didn’t tell me,” she said.

My heart stopped.

“Tell you what?” I asked, even though I already knew.

She laughed bitterly. “Don’t do that.”

I looked down. “Kelis—”

“You’ve been getting hate,” she cut in. “Bad enough that you’re crying to your sister. Bad enough that you’re pushing everyone away.”

My throat closed. “Who told you?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It does,” I said weakly.

She stepped inside then, closing the door behind her. “Why didn’t you trust me?”

“I did,” I said. “I just—”

“You didn’t,” she said, voice breaking. “Because you decided for me. You decided I couldn’t handle it.”

I felt tears burn. “I was trying to protect you.”

“And who was protecting you?” she demanded.

Silence.

She exhaled shakily. “I thought you were falling out of love with me.”

That shattered me.

“I would never,” I sobbed. “I just didn’t want to be another thing you had to carry.”

She crossed the room and pulled me into her arms before I could react.

“I want to carry it,” she said fiercely. “I choose you.”

I clung to her, finally breaking. “I didn’t want to ruin this.”

“You didn’t,” she whispered. “But you almost ruined yourself.”

I told her everything then.

The messages. The comments. The way it felt like being erased and exposed at the same time. The fear that she’d start to see me the way they did if I let her know how deep it went.

She listened without interrupting, arms wrapped tight around me.

When I finished, she pressed her forehead to mine.

“You’re not a burden,” she said. “You’re my partner.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She kissed my temple. “Next time, we hurt together.”

Later that night, she posted.

She didn’t ask me. She didn’t need to.

She defended me with a steadiness that made my chest ache, words firm and unflinching.

And for the first time in weeks, I slept without my phone face-down.

I slept knowing I wasn’t alone.

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                 -Thank You For Reading!💚💙

Some stupids things i did because why not

(please boi)