Chapter Text
When KK had suggested that Azzi should go out with her and her friends, Azzi’s initial reaction had been to laugh and give a polite but pointed, “Hell no.”
KK and Azzi had become friends the year prior when Azzi transferred from UCLA to UConn during her junior year. The transition to the team had been a little awkward, she was never the extrovert or the loudest person in the room and she had felt a little out of place interacting with all the new players who she knew were sizing her up the same way she had with them.
For that reason, exactly, her and KK didn’t exactly get off on the right foot. Azzi thought she was a little too loud and KK thought she was a little too stuck-up at first, but after a few games at the beginning of her first season that left her and KK being forced to sit next to each other on the PJ, they quickly became attached to the hip.
Which is why, despite her best efforts to do the preferred thing and stay indoors away from strangers and sticky crowds and bars, she found herself in the driver seat of her pick up truck wearing a mini-skirt and a black crop top, hair loose and long in curls down her back.
“I’m telling you Fudd, it’s going to be magical. You’re going to love everyone. P’s going to crack you up, I promise.” KK raves from the passenger seat, her excited gaze is fixed on Azzi.
“That’s like the fifth time you’ve said that since I agreed to go. I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think I’m going to fit in with them very much. Y’know the whole overwhelmed by extrovert’s thing.” She responds, her lips smeared with pink shiny lip gloss popping as she speaks, and her custom set of nails resting on the steering wheel.
She’s been following the directions to a bar in Jersey City where the gang had all planned to meet up. It was just over 6:00 p.m and from what KK had told her; the plan was to meet up at this bar with her friends and then spend the night at an AirBnB they had booked in the area. All very much out of Azzi’s comfort zone. Her idea of a wild night was to let herself indulge in a case of Ben and Jerry’s and binge-watch crappy horror movies with KK, Kayleigh, Morgan and Kelis and then skip gym in the morning.
Alas, it was a free weekend before the season officially started and with one scrimmage down, her only focus was the next and it was in two weeks. Unfortunately, an opportune time for a weekend away, her schedule would become jampacked after that with events and brand deals, and then finally the official start of her Senior year and 2nd season at UConn.
“Girl, you’re so dramatic. They aren’t going to eat you alive besides, I’m sure everyone is a fan of yours anyway Ms Popular Podcaster.” She huffs, shaking her head in amusement at Azzi’s hesitation.
“They do not listen to my podcast.” She refutes, the idea literally laughable.
“Everybody listens to your podcast. Nika literally sent me the clip of us bickering in the Fashion Week episode and made fun of me for losing to your team in practice.” KK fiddles with her phone while answering, skipping a Ken Carson song that doesn't match the chill RNB vibe she’s spent the past hour carefully curating, “I’m still mad at you for putting my business on the net like that b.t dubs.”
“Bt dubs?” Azzi giggles, turning to shoot KK a playfully judgemental look.
“You just don’t understand my lingo. This is why you need to meet Paige, aka my bestie for the restie.” She sighs long-sufferingly, a smooth SZA song playing gently now.
“And what am I chopped liver? I don’t see Paige driving you from freaking Storrs to Jersey.”
“You know you’re mom. Besides Mackenzie, Colleen, Ines… should I keep going? Who’s your favourite?”
Azzi laughs, reaches out her hand to slyly raise the volume in the car and gives KK a sneaky look to say she wouldn’t be answering that. KK pushes her slightly, causing a faux affronted gasp to leave Azzi’s mouth. The car breaks out into giggles, her nerves slowly ebbing away from their banter.
-
It’s was a little over 8:30 when Azzi and KK finally got to the bar, they spent 10 dollars on overpriced parking and checked their outfits a thousand times in the parking lot using poorly filmed tiktoks as their mirror.
KK was wearing a set she’d specifically bought weeks ago when she heard that Paige, Nika, Aaliyah, Kaitlyn and Aubrey would be in New York at the same time. (She told the Azzi a million times that she was anticipating some sort of hijinks ensuing.) It was a pair of brown leather and denim jorts with a matching long-sleeve cropped jacket. She wore a pair of sunglasses and a little bit of makeup.
Azzi was wearing her favorite mini skirt, a black crop top and an oversized leather jacket--her chic square shades sitting on top her loose curly hair. She didn’t bother going overboard with makeup or calling a makeup artist to help her out. She simply did what she could, which was mascara, eyeliner and lipgloss, and called it a day. Kayleigh said she looked natural chic when she left the apartment.
When they got to the door, KK whispered some phrase to the doorman who promptly led the two girls into a separate area with private rooms and pointed them to one at the very end of the hallway.
“This is so bougie.” Azzi whispered in shock as they pushed through the door into the room.
-
Azzi didn’t know to expect when meeting KK’s friends, aka the Uconn alums that won the 12th national championship, but she already knew a lot about them both from KK and being on the internet.
Nika Muhl was surprisingly friendly, not that she thought she would be unwelcoming. From the second the girls came in, Nika was next to Azzi, talking with her and asking her questions while KK’s was caught up in the excitement from the reunions.
Aubrey came with her girlfriend, a beautiful girl who seemed nice enough, but it was hard to ascertain much about her or her partner when the two were so wrapped up in each other. She hadn’t seen either of their faces since that initial ‘Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Azzi, KK’s friend.’
Aaliyah was really funny. She’d been keeping the group conversation alive, leaning forward from her middle seat on the opposite couch to Nika, Azzi, Aubrey and her girlfriend. She’d been regaling them with hilarious anecdotes about things she’d experienced in her two years of playing for the WNBA. She’d told the group about the time she got her period in the middle of a game and a had to fake an injury to get off the court and get an emergency tampon.
Azzi could relate but felt a little shy to just chime into the conversation. She really liked her though.
Kaitlyn sat by herself on an arm chair, chiming in with anecdotes of her own but mostly making fun of Aubrey's clinginess and KK's aggressive excitement.
KK was sitting on the couch next to Aaliyah and next to Paige.
Paige Bueckers, who definitely was not what Azzi had expected.
She’d seen the TikTok edits that started up while she was still at UCLA. She’d never actually played her due to her unfortunate string of injuries.
She’d heard KK’s stories about how chaotic she was, fucking with Geno at practice and trash-talking the practice players.
She heard the way Ice and Ashlynn talked about her spearheading the group at Teds, ordering too many shots for one person alone and yet managing to score 20 points against the practice players the next day.
Hell, she’d even watched the interviews with Paige, adorned in Dallas white and green, making some ridiculous joke about a ‘studeteer’ or displaying a shockingly low knowledge on anything which wasn’t basketball. (Azzi figured she had to have been joking for the cameras when she said that there were no green fruits other than grapes).
She’d always expected Paige to be like KK 2.0 when they met in person.
Now seeing her in the flesh, she was thrown for a loop.
Azzi had walked into the private room, trailing behind KK who was already yelling out Paige’s name and colliding into a very energetic hug with the blonde.
Aubrey and her girlfriend greeted her, Aaliyah got up and gave her a hug, Kaitlyn bumped her in the hip and joked that she was meeting a ‘Curry’ sister.
And then when KK and Paige’s intense hug was over, the two girls made eye contact.
Azzi’s brown eyes met blue and she swore she something in her flutter just a little.
Who could blame her though? It was Paige Bueckers. She was every gen z lesbian’s wet dream and Azzi had never been immune from appreciating the Tiktok edits.
The Dallas Wings guard was wearing a suit of sorts. She looked like she’d walked out of Sherlock Holmes, but with a sparkly white shirt and tie and a suit jacket with padded shoulders. Her hair was done nicely in a half up and half down style.
And that was it.
Their eyes met and then they never made any contact again.
Not a word as Nika dragged Azzi to her spot on the blue couch, not as Kaitlyn started making fun of Paige for overdressing which the girl retorted slyly that she had rushed over from her Coach photoshoot, and nothing when KK introduced Azzi as her dancing partner and newest best friend.
If she thought she was going to be swept up in Paige’s energy, she was wrong.
The WNBA player was incredibly nonchalant. She just gave soft smirks and headshakes when people made fun of her, quiet comments and “bruh’s” at Aaliyah’s stories, and had a goofy smile on her face when KK popped out of seat to dance to Headlines by Drake when it played on the restaurant’s speaker.
The night had mostly passed with casual conversation with Nika and listening to KK, Aaliyah, Paige and Kaitlyn tell stories about their time together at Uconn. She’d learnt a lot about freshman year KK that she was excited to get to use as blackmail one day.
It was right when they had finished dessert and headed to the parking lot that Azzi got to talk to someone one-on-one from the group, other than Nika and KK.
Aaliyah and Nika were discussing the next spot for the night hunched over in the passenger and driver seats of Aaliyah’s SUV. They claimed if they all didn’t wake up hungover it couldn’t count as a successful night.
Aubrey and her girlfriend were already making out in the backseat of said SUV, while Kaitlyn and KK were still in the restaurant, having decided to use the bathroom right when the whole group started going downstairs.
Azzi is leaning against her own car, fumbling with her phone to seem busy and avoid the awkwardness of just standing near everyone without saying anything, when a tall shadow is suddenly cast on her face.
“Sick ride. Madison Reed? They once made me dye my hair pink.”
She blinks, startled. Her thumb hovers over the screen before she lowers it, the reflection of sunlight sliding off the glossy black car door. When she looks up, she finds her, Paige Bueckers, standing there like something out of a highlight reel and a dream rolled into one, smiling down at her softly from the slight height difference.
Something about it makes her really glad she’d opted for the combat boots instead of the heels Morgan had been insisting would “complete the look.”
Paige’s hands are tucked into the pockets of her suit pants, jacket unbuttoned and slightly wrinkled at the back where it’s bunched behind her elbows. She looks effortlessly cool in some supernaturally natural way.
Azzi’s breath catches, her heart skipping unevenly as she fights the urge to let her gaze wander over her, her hair, and the way her collarbone peeks just beneath the crisp white shirt.
“Uh…thanks. I saw that, I think. It looked cool,” she manages, her voice a little higher than intended. Her anxiety flares, prickling in her chest like static. Azzi was never the best with new people; she never seemed to know what to say that didn’t sound forced.
Paige smiles at that, a small, genuine curve of the lips, as she ducks her head, her hair falling slightly over her eyes. For someone who carried herself like a superstar, the gesture is unexpectedly shy.
She was much softer than Azzi expected from the WNBA’s poster child—the record-breaking Rookie of the Year who’d already shattered two historic records in her second season. Paige Bueckers, quiet and self-effacing, standing in a parking lot looking like she might be a little nervous too.
“KK seems excited to see you. You two are really close, huh?” Azzi offers, desperate to keep the conversation afloat. She slips her phone into her bag, palms clammy.
Paige’s eyes flicker back to her, a spark of warmth in the blue. “Yeah, we’re locked in. It’s good to see her, it’s been a while.” She pauses, a faint grin tugging at her lips. “What about you? You two seem really close too.”
“Uhm, yeah,” Azzi says, nodding, the words spilling faster now that she’s found a rhythm. “She’s like my best friend at UConn. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her last year.”
She sneaks a quick glance at Paige, who seems to be listening intently, eyebrows raised, swaying lightly on her feet like she’s fighting the urge to interrupt. There’s an easy attentiveness about her, like she’s used to giving people her full attention and not the other way around.
“Yeah, I, uhm, watch your podcast and I always see you guys all over TikTok,” Paige says, her grin widening. “I can tell you’re having a lot of fun.”
“You watch my podcast?” Azzi blurts before she can stop herself. The surprise in her tone makes Paige’s head tip to the side slightly, her mouth twitching as though she’s been caught doing something embarrassing.
A faint pink colors her cheeks, and she looks away toward the parking lot, the corners of her mouth curling up almost sheepishly.
“What can I say?” Paige shrugs, pretending nonchalance, though her eyes are still dancing with something softer, quieter. “I’m a fan.”
Azzi lets out a loud huff of disbelief, shaking her head with a grin she can’t quite control. “You’re a fan of me? You’re literally Paige Bueckers. You’re so good at, like… everything.”
“I feel like ‘everything’ is a bit of a stretch,” Paige teases, one brow quirking up.
“Okay—everything basketball-wise then,” Azzi concedes, grinning now, her nerves slipping away. “I mean, I have heard you aren’t the best at spelling.”
Paige freezes, eyes widening, and then she bursts into an uncomfortable sort of infectious laughter. Her whole body is shaking as her head drops forward, blonde strands spilling into her face.
“Oh my god, bro. Don’t tell me you saw that? That’s humiliating. Major aura loss moment.”
Azzi’s laugh follows quickly, sweet and bright, a sound that seems to catch Paige off guard.
“It’s really not that bad,” Azzi assures her, still grinning. “It’s funny. Your fans loved it. Silver linings.”
Paige groans, dramatically covering her face with one hand. “Okay, bro, but I never wanted your first impression of me after so long to be that I can’t spell. Which isn’t true, by the way! I was just confused because Arike was throwing me off.”
“After so long?” Azzi repeats under her breath, furrowing her brow before realization hits her. “Oh! Team USA. We played together!”
Paige laughs, her head tilting, eyes bright. “We won, like, two gold medals together. I was the skinny white girl who wore number five.”
Azzi laughs softly, nostalgia flickering in her eyes. “I remember you. Well, I remember we were good together on the court, but I don’t think we ever spoke outside of it.”
Paige cackles, tipping her head back. “No, we did. Trust, I remember. I used to mess with you all the time. I’d follow you around, try to bother you. And then I took a flight home, and you went to Virginia, and we just… didn’t talk again, really.”
Her voice trails off at the end, the air between them quieting. The parking lot hums faintly with distant conversation and the chirp of car alarms, but for a second, it feels like it’s just them standing there, Azzi with her heartbeat in her throat, and Paige smiling softly like she’s remembering something she never quite forgot.
“You remember all tha—?”
“Azzi!”
She’s cut off before she can finish. KK’s voice rings loud and bright across the parking lot, echoing off the concrete like a sudden splash of cold water. Whatever soft, slow tension had been building between her and Paige vanishes in an instant.
Azzi straightens as KK bounds down the stairs toward them, her enthusiasm practically radiating. Kaitlyn trails behind her at a slower pace, her gaze flicking from Paige to Azzi with something unreadable in it, sharp and assessing.
Azzi’s chest tightens slightly. She suddenly remembers where they are, her surroundings snapping back into focus. The rest of their group is scattered near the other car, doors slamming, engines revving. Everyone seems ready to go except the four of them.
“Paige and Kaitlyn are coming with us!” KK calls, still halfway between a sprint and a skip. “They both took Ubers here, so I figured there’s enough space in your car for everybody.”
Azzi nods, suppressing a sigh. “That’s fine.”
The words come out polite enough, but there’s a faint edge of irritation beneath them—partly from KK’s interruption, partly from the reminder that she’d have to drive through the chaos of New York City at night. Azzi loved the city’s energy, but driving in it was a different story.
She rummages through her bag for her keys, fingers brushing against a lip gloss tube before finding the familiar metal. With a soft click, she unlocks the car as Paige and Kaitlyn approach. Kaitlyn gives her a small, genuine smile—grateful but reserved—while KK grabs Azzi’s arm in passing, practically bouncing on her toes as she pulls open a back door.
Paige lingers, her phone in hand, thumbs moving quickly over the screen. The blue glow washes over her face, softening her features, the light catching on her lashes. She looks completely absorbed, half-illuminated under the dim parking lot lighting.
Azzi hesitates by the driver’s side door, waiting for Paige to look up so she can gesture toward the passenger seat. But Paige doesn’t notice—doesn’t seem to, at least—even after slipping her phone into her suit pocket with a distracted little frown.
“Come on, get in,” Azzi urges, half teasing, half shy.
“Sorry,” Paige says quickly, eyes finally finding hers. “I was just checking the group chat. Do you know where the next spot is?”
“Good question.” Azzi glances around, as if the answer might be hiding in the sea of headlights and laughter. “I think if we just follow Aaliyah, we should be fine, right?”
Paige nods slowly, then tilts her head. “We’re going to a club a few streets over. The road’s a little stressful around there, so…” She pauses, tone casual but smile a touch too sweet. “Do you mind if I drive?”
It’s so smooth—so confident—that Azzi almost misses the way Paige says it, like she’s offering salvation instead of a favor.
Azzi crosses her arms, feigning consideration. “That’s a big ask. You’re asking me to just trust my prized beauty to a stranger?”
Paige gasps dramatically, pressing a hand to her chest. “Ouch, a stranger? We were literally best friends on Team USA, though.” Her pout is exaggerated, but her eyes are gleaming with playful mischief.
“Best friends?” Azzi repeats, arching a brow. “I don’t seem to recall.”
Paige grins wider, leaning forward just slightly, her voice lowering into something coaxing. “Mmmm, we definitely were. Come on, let me do this for you. You’ve literally just driven KK here from Storrs for, like, four hours straight.”
Azzi feels her resolve slipping, warmth blooming in her chest despite her best efforts. She tries, tries, to maintain a straight face, but her smile betrays her. Paige can clearly tell she’s winning.
From the backseat, KK lets out an exaggerated groan. “Can y’all, like, hurry up?”
Kaitlyn shushes her softly, the tone lilting, teasing, something about it makes Azzi’s cheeks heat, though she pretends not to notice.
Her attention stays fixed on Paige, who’s standing close now, grinning like she’s just won a silent battle neither of them agreed to fight. The smirk on her face is devastatingly smug, but somehow… charming.
Before Azzi can reply, Paige reaches forward, slowly, almost teasingly, and plucks the keys from her hand. Her fingers brush against Azzi’s palm, light and brief but enough to make her breath hitch.
“Thank you, bestie.” Paige murmurs, grin widening as she slips into the driver’s seat.
Azzi blinks, momentarily thrown off, and then laughs under her breath as she circles to the passenger side. The sound that escapes her is half giggle, half sigh, soft, surprised, and completely out of her control.
As she slides into the seat beside Paige, she catches a glimpse of the older girl’s profile—focused, confident, lit up by the dashboard glow, she smiles.