Love and Volleyball | Paige Bueckers

15

This chapter is brought to you buy uggs (they need to sponsor me) anyway i realized since i changed the order of the chapters some thing's were off  y/n is still in a boot lol its been 7 weeks since she was injured.  This chapters a little longer because i feel like i've been starving yall. i also didn't proof read so uhm! also after this chapter yall are abt to get 3 back to back

Ever since that dumb argument with Carlos my life has been falling to pieces. Paige hasn't been texting me back as much for some reason. I texted her asking about her day and she gave me the driest response i've ever seen. Well the driest response she's ever given me. Usually she's full of details and so eager to tell me about how her day went.

"Tatum I think i'm just going to give up on her" I sigh flopping down on the couch. She just rolled her eyes as if saying 'I told you so'. She told me i should've dropped Carlos but look at me wanting to keep the peace. "I don't even know what he did, but he definitely did something" I sigh. "Don't beat yourself up boo, it'll work itself out" Tatum says getting up from the couch.

Today we were supposed to be going to the mall with Azzi, Paige, my sister and KK to look for Christmas sweaters but i wasn't even up for it anymore. I had a terrible feeling in my stomach about the whole thing. How could someone who lives miles away ruin my life in the matter of one visit.

"Tay why did you and Carlos stop being friends in the first place" I ask. She turns to me avoiding eye contact. "He's the one who spread the rumor around school that I had sex with our chemistry teacher" she says. Her gaze shifts to her nails as she starts picking with them. My jaw literally drops. "Tay why didn't you tell me that, i would've cut him off a while ago" I say. "Yeah but you and him were such good friends, i would've figured you would get rid of me before him" she mumbles still not looking at me.

Senior year of high school was when me and Tatum got really close. We'd been friends since middle school but senior year was when we became as close as we are now. I remember how toward the end of the year when finals were coming up and Tatum started to slip up in chem, she still managed to pass even though she had probably the lowest average in the class. It was no secret she kinda had a crush on our chemistry teacher but i didn't think it was Carlos of all people who started the rumor.

That summer was hectic for her, especially when the rumors got back to the chemistry teacher. That poor man almost lost his job and it wasn't even true. They had a meeting with her parents and everything, she almost had most of her scholarships denied all over someone being so petty. "Anyway i'm over it, i just wonder what rumor he made up about you" she says making my breath catch in my throat. "You think he started a rumor about me?" i ask. Tatum looks at me for the first time since i brought up the topic, "That's what he does. He's messy. No one back home even likes him" she pauses. "All he does is ruin lives, half the guys he talks to you about most likely are dating someone" she continued, my jaw dropped. Again.

I couldn't believe it. Well maybe i could, Carlos was being bitchy to me whenever i talked about liking Paige and everytime he mentioned one of the guys he was talking to it was clear he was holding back information.  It wasn't possible that this whole time his only intention was to hurt me, but it's no coincidence that the second i like someone more than just platonically he comes in and ruins it. I could never be happy, and it wasn't even Paige's fault at this point.

It's like there's always something getting in the way of me getting to her. First it was the whole phone incident now this. What's next she tells me she's transferring schools!? God forbid.

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We're currently walking through the mall looking for sweaters. It was pretty chill for the most part. KK decided she was the new Mariah Carey and her and my sister started singing christmas songs obnoxiously and very embarrassingly loud. "I wish those two would shut the hell up" Tatum says covering her ears. "I'm surprised Paige isn't singing with them" Azzi says making us laugh. Paige wasn't paying attention whatsoever.

I look at her before quickly looking away again not wanting to seem like i was staring. We all stop in Forever 21 noticing the giant christmas display they had, figuring they would have the sweaters we wanted. There was no luck in the last three stores, not stuff that we wanted atleast. All the sweaters we saw were either really kinky or really cringy there was no in between. Ice picked up this one sweater that said 'snowballs deep' it would've been great if we didn't have to explain to our parents why the hell our sweaters had male genitals on it.

"What about these?" KK asks pointing to a rack. It had all types of cute christmas sweaters on it. Some were actually funny and some were just really ugly. "We struck gold" Tatum cheers. We each start to look through the rack picking up sweaters that we liked before checking out. "Guys we should sit down for a second my ankle is starting to ache" i suggest. Walking around in this boot constantly wasn't comfortable at all. My ankle doesn't even hurt from the injury itself, it hurts because of this heavy ass boot.

"I can't wait until you're out of that thing" Tatum says. She couldn't wait!? Hell neither could I, i'm the one who's injured. We head down to the foot court finding a table that we all could sit at. I ended up sitting between Azzi and Tatum. I find it quite funny that we became a little friend group in such short time, and all because of my injury. "I'm not even hungry" i say. "That's a first" my sister mumbles under her breath. "First of all, you're making it seem like i eat a lot" i reply. "considering you eat atleast 4 times a day...that's a lot" Tatum says.

I actually don't eat 4 full meals a day. They got it all wrong. "I don't eat 4 times a day, snacks don't count" i say. "snacks do count and you eat a lot of those too" Ice says making everyone laugh but me. "Okay well go to hell" i roll my eyes. This wasn't all too bad.