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“would you rather kiss paige or go on a date with a fugly guy that’s 5’3”?” ice asks bluntly.
she, yanna, sarah, and kk are squeezed into the back of paige’s car while azzi sits passenger. they’re heading back from the fudd house where they’d spent thanksgiving with azzi’s family.
paige’s brows furrow at the question, but she doesn’t say anything. azzi sees the muscle of her jaw clench.
“uhhh…” she says. “kiss paige?” saying it out loud sends a shiver up her spine, but she doesn’t think her choice gives anything away. most people would rather kiss paige than go on a date with a fugly guy. right??
“okay, but,” ice argues, leaning forward. “it’s paige. it’s not just a quick little peck, azzi, you’d have to make out with her.”
kk shudders. “gross.”
a vein starts popping out of paige’s forehead. azzi feels herself begin to sweat.
“i mean… the other option is to go on a date with a fugly guy,” azzi counters, albeit weakly. her voice is devoid of conviction, and she’s losing ground rapidly.
“yeah but you don’t have to kiss him,” yanna says. “or even touch him. it’s just a date. see him once and then never again.”
kk nods fervently. “yeah, what yanna said.”
“but with paige,” ice continues, “you guys are best friends. and teammates. so you’d have to see each other all the time after you literally swapped spit. and then just pretend like nothing happened or something.”
“or worse,” sarah adds, “not pretend like nothing happened. and then you gotta have that awkward ‘we’re just friends but we just made out’ conversation.”
discomfort roils in azzi’s stomach. “it’s weird that you guys are making a whole story out of this hypothetical.”
“we’re just saying,” yanna says. “it’s not as easy of a choice as it seems. one and done with a random or kiss. paige.” the way she says it sounds like a damnation. paige continues driving, looking resolutely forward as her knuckles turn white against the wheel.
“um,” azzi says. “i guess… go on a date with a short, fugly guy then.”
the girls in the backseat break out into murmurs of agreement. paige says nothing.
azzi is going to be in so much trouble.
they arrive back at school, and paige helps bring azzi’s bags over to her room. like she always does.
as soon as the bedroom door closes behind them and they’ve secured their first private moment in days, paige drops azzi’s bags forcefully on the ground, causing a large thunk that could earn them a knock from their downstairs neighbors.
but paige doesn’t care.
she’s glaring at azzi, her jaw sticking slightly forward in that cutting way that means she’s not going to be joking when she says what she says next.
“you’d rather date a fugly guy than kiss me?” she snaps. straight to the point.
azzi closes her eyes. she knows she deserves this. “i’m sorryyy,” she says, stepping forward and trying to take paige’s hands in hers. paige swipes her hands out of reach, frowning and pouting. “i didn’t wanna be obvious.”
paige’s shoulders slump and she tilts her head to the side with an unimpressed face, as if her whole body is saying, really? “so it’s suspicious to want to kiss me over going on a date with an objectively unattractive man? he literally has two traits, azzi: ugly and short. you really think anyone was gonna blame you for picking me?”
azzi purses her lips. paige is making a lot of sense, unfortunately.
“i just got stressed,” azzi confesses. “everyone was saying it would be really weird if we kissed, so i just gave in.” she reaches out again, and this time paige allows azzi to take her hands.
“you didn’t have to,” paige emphasizes, rolling her eyes and leaving her hands limp in azzi’s. “they were just trying to justify the question.” she meets azzi’s eyes again, and a new wave of irritation seems to wash over her, tension forming between her shoulders. “can’t believe you said you’d rather date a chopped man over kissing me.”
she pulls her hands out of azzi’s and climbs into the bed, turning toward the wall and away from her girlfriend.
“baby,” azzi sighs, climbing in after her. “i’m sorry.” she runs a hand up paige’s arm and over her shoulder. paige shrugs her hand off. “you’re just gonna stare at the wall?” azzi asks, disbelieving.
“‘m tired,” paige grumbles. “from driving all day.” she crosses her arms and shifts around, settling deeper into her pillow.
when they’d first started secretly spending nights together, azzi had only had one pillow on her bed. it had made for quite the stiff neck in the morning when one of them inevitably woke up with their head straight on the mattress, or a numbed arm if one of them had decided to use her girlfriend’s arm as a pillow.
so azzi had gotten two pillows. she’d been worried it would be too obvious, but none of her apartment mates had noticed yet. it was a wonder they’d never noticed paige sneaking out in the early hours of the morning, either.
watching paige’s back, azzi huffs a sigh. she could let paige stew in pettiness. leave her be. wait until she gets over it.
but azzi wants to cuddle now. she’d been looking forward to it all trip. as much as she loved seeing her family, she craved the rare moments she got to be alone with paige, and it was simply impossible in a house as packed as hers had been for thanksgiving.
“baabyyyy~” azzi singsongs, curling an arm around paige’s waist. she leans forward to press a kiss against paige’s shoulder and feels her stiffen. “i’m sorry,” she repeats. then she presses another kiss against her shoulder. “i’m sorry.” azzi does it three more times, punctuating each apology with another kiss before she uses the arm wrapped around paige’s waist to press lightly against her stomach, urging her to turn on to her back.
paige sighs and gives in, lying on her back and giving azzi a deeply unimpressed look. “what?” she snaps.
azzi flattens her hand against paige’s stomach and runs it up and down, over her shirt. “i miss you,” she says. she watches as paige’s gaze flickers with softness. but then she blinks, and paige is back to looking annoyed.
“why don’t you find a 5’3” fugly guy to hang out with,” she mutters, moving to turn back over to her side.
“noooooo,” azzi whines, pressing paige back down into the mattress. she swings her leg to rest over paige’s and moves her hand up to caress her girlfriend’s face. azzi shuffles closer to press a kiss against paige’s cheek. “of course i’d rather kiss you,” she says. “you’re my favorite thing to kiss.”
she presses another kiss against paige’s cheek and then uses her hand to tilt her face to the side. paige doesn’t look any happier than before, but she lets azzi lean in and press their lips together lightly.
azzi pulls back. she strokes her thumb across paige’s cheekbone and smiles softly. “hi, baby,” she says, smiling. she always gets butterflies when their faces are this close. paige is the prettiest thing in the world. azzi still feels awed that she gets her all to herself.
paige rolls her eyes, but her lips are fighting their way into a smile. finally, she turns toward azzi properly and puts her hand on azzi’s hip, leaning forward into another kiss.
they kiss and kiss and kiss until azzi is giggling through it and her arms are wrapped around paige’s shoulders. paige’s hand has snaked its way up her shirt to press into the skin of her waist, and their hips are flush. azzi is happy happy happy.
eventually, she pulls back, smiling. paige opens her eyes to narrow them in confusion.
“aren’t you tired?” azzi asks. she presses a quick peck against paige’s lips just because she can. “you can sleep,” she says. “i just wanted to cuddle while you did.”
paige pauses, as if remembering that she is, in fact, very tired. she sighs, lying back down. “i guess,” she admits. she looks at azzi and frowns. “just say you don’t wanna kiss me,” she murmurs petulantly under her breath.
azzi giggles and turns to drape herself fully on top of paige. “who said that?” she asks before leaning down and giving her girlfriend a nice, long kiss. paige’s hands come up to wrap around her back.
she doesn’t get to napping for a while.
in the living room, ice, yanna, sarah, and kk sit in various states of lounging, scrolling on their phones or watching the random episode of grey’s anatomy that kk had put on for them. every so often, azzi’s giggles can be heard from inside her bedroom. where paige had entered and never left.
“bro, they’re never gonna admit it to us,” yanna says, looking up from her phone.
“to be fair, if they were going to say it, it wasn’t gonna be in response to ice’s question,” sarah points out. “what would azzi say? ‘oh, i’d rather kiss paige and actually i already do because we’ve been secretly dating for the past year?’ yeah, right.”
“i didn’t ask the question to get them to admit it,” ice defends. “i asked it to be funny.”
“it was funny,” kk says. “p was so angry, she couldn’t even drive right.”
“i can’t believe she thought it wouldn’t be sus to not say anything,” sarah says. “if they actually weren’t dating, she would’ve been fighting the hardest against us.”
“instead she just laid over and accepted it,” yanna says with a chuckle.
the four of them return their attention to the screens in front of them as another giggle escapes from azzi’s room.