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Falling in love was something Maddy vowed to avoid at all costs, especially after the whole thing with Nate. But as she silently sat in her living room while Rue and Cassie spat curses and taunts at each other while they held the Uno cards in front of their faces, she couldn’t help but feel the inevitable.
That sinking feeling in her chest accompanied by the multitude of butterflies suddenly swarming her stomach over a laugh, the way heat rises to her cheeks and her palms get clammy over a simple look… She wanted to yell at the sky and tell whatever god is up there to fuck off for making her feel this way when she was around her.
There was just something about her. The way her smile gets so big when she’s around their friends that it reveals her gums and her perfect white teeth, or how her entire face lights up and her hair perfectly frames it at the mention of something she likes. Maddy could point out a lot of stuff, but she still would have no clue to what it was about her that had her feeling this way.
“Maddy.” Was it the way the light hits her in this room?
“Pst. Hey, Mads.” Or was it the fact that her eyes were bluer than the ocean?
“Maddy!” Cassie’s voice snaps her out of her thoughts, the blonde donning a very concerned expression on her face as she clutched the cards in her hand tightly, “Are you okay?”
The brunette’s entire face flushed when she realized that her mind had been elsewhere, lowering her head to the floor as she nodded, dropping a card on the stack while Rue and Lexi groaned. Cassie, however, kept her eyes on her.
“I’m okay.” She lies through her teeth and the blonde could see right through it, scooting impossibly closer to her that her skin rises at the slightest bump of their shoulders, “Are you okay?” She repeats and Maddy doesn't know how else to respond.
So, she leans her head against her shoulder, nodding her head slightly while Jules yells ‘Uno!’ so loudly that it drowns out the yells of complaint coming from the other two girls with them. Instead of pushing it even further, the skater hums, pursing her lips in a thin line while her arm wraps around the cheerleader’s waist.
They play another round before Lexi has started to beckon both Rue and Jules out to get pizza. Cassie volunteered to stay with Maddy and the shorter girl knew she was going to be questioned the second the three were out of the door.
One, two…
“Hey, Mads?” And there it was, Cassie leans against the couch with her arms crossed above her chest, watching Maddy intently as she sat across her, staring at her perfectly manicured nails and pretending that she wasn’t fazed at all by the blonde’s concern. Like her heart wasn’t hammering in her chest so loudly that she heard it in her ears.
She takes a sharp breath before she finally gets the courage to look up, “I’m fine.” She waves off, smiling slightly that it shows off the dimple in her cheek. Usually, she’d have the girl drop it and just accept that she was fine, but Cassie couldn’t help herself, crossing the gap between them to sit beside her, “Are you?”
“I am.” Maddy replies instantly and she winces at how defensive she sounded, the other girl could only chuckle however, turning her head slightly to take a look at her, offering her a knowing smirk, “We both know I can smell the bullshit on you.”
Rolling her eyes, the brunette pushes her away with a quiet laugh, “You can’t! And it’s not bullshit, Cassandra.” Her name rolls off her tongue perfectly, as if she chants it every single day without fail while she mindlessly thought of her.
Cassie beams, sliding her hand down until it finds the cheerleader’s own hand. And maybe it was her delusion that was driving this but Maddy finds it endearing that the blonde’s hand fits perfectly with hers—like two puzzle pieces that belonged together.
“Oh but it is, Madeleine.” She retorts, moving her head side to side with each word as if to mock the girl but it only makes her grin, biting her lip and hiding her face against her shoulder as she repeatedly hits her thigh lightly, “Shut up!”
Surprisingly, Cassie does. Her mouth was shut for at least a minute or two before the music that was playing through the home theater system changed into something slower and less upbeat than the music Jules had put on. It wasn’t until half into the first verse that the idea popped into her head.
She lets go of Maddy’s hand, suddenly standing upright with her hand outstretched in front of the brunette’s face, “Get up,” she says and the girl could only stare at her in confusion, “What?”
“Don’t overthink it.” She replies easily and the Latina just grows even more confused than before, albeit, she does take the blonde’s hand, getting on her feet with her eyebrows furrowed, “Don’t overthink what?”
To be completely honest, Cassie doesn’t even know how she was functioning, or how she was even thinking of what her next move would be. All she knew was that she wanted to make Maddy smile. And that she wanted to… she wanted to be closer to her. Yeah.
“Dance with me.” She whispers, taking the brunette’s arms and wrapping it around her own neck before her own hands find themselves around the girl’s waist, swaying along to the music perfectly that their bodies were in rhythm with each other.
Did they even need the music?
Whatever thought she had earlier was completely thrown out the window the second they started dancing, every single coherent thing in her mind was gone and Maddy could only blame the close proximity they were in that she could hear the blonde breathe against her. She could hear the way it hitches when she presses herself closer to her.
“Why are you doing this?” It was even a miracle that she got that out of herself, looking up at the blonde who had her mouth agape, simply taking in the fact that Maddy had pulled herself closer to her and didn’t back away.
There was no actual response from her. At least, not in the moment, because she was convinced having Maddy this close to her was making her brain short circuit. Like, she was wondering how she can even move along to the music and keep herself up while having her this close to her that if she leaned down the tiniest bit they would… they would be kissing.
‘Do I want to kiss her?’ She asks herself in her head over and over again that she feels like a hypocrite for beginning to overthink.
Finally, after the brunette accidentally steps on her, she gulps, tilting her head to the side, “Maybe I just want to be close to you.”
Great. Be honest. Yeah, Maddy digs honesty.
A look of shock washes over her face at her response though, and the blonde wonders if she had said too much and now Maddy wants absolutely nothing to do with her but instead she whispers right back at her, “Can I ask why?”
It was almost breathless—and it was, because Maddy definitely did not expect her to respond with that.
Cassie sways them back and forth, over and over again, humming along to the music until she twirls Maddy away and back into her arms until their chests are pressed against each other, until there is little to no space in between them that their hearts are synced together.
‘Don’t overthink it.’ She had told herself, she had told Maddy, so she did exactly that.
“Because I want to kiss you.”
‘Don’t overthink it.’ Cassie had told her and she tried to grasp the last of her coherent thoughts but at the moment there were none. So, Maddy smiles, leaning in with her heart perfectly beating against the skater’s.
She stops overthinking it, and then she does it. She kisses her without a second thought.