Love was what everyone sought. It was what most ordinary 17-year old girls daydreamed about, used almost as the hottest jewelry to show off to their equal love-thirsting friends.
The one thing that you couldn´t buy nor demand to come to you merely by wishing for it.
Paige hadn´t wished for it, nor had she sought it. She avoided it like the plague, because she saw what it could cause sometimes;
A hysterical Vicky Sanders from Home Economics, dumped on valentines day.
How some people at school treated their boyfriends and girlfriends like underwear; switching them after one day of use.
The pizza delivery guy with a truck-load of gel in his hair, so blinded by his dopamine-flooded brain that he couldn´t take a hint from his "beloved" lady across the street from McCullers very own house. Probably the reason so many on their block ordered pizza, hulking in their windows as they stole a glance at the pizza guy attempting to serenade the annoyed woman, "his future beloved", when he was passing the area.
And finally, the utter disaster that´d been her own parents divorce. Tears, shouts, door slams, and the many arguments over Paige herself. Who she should live with, for how long a time, and why. Who wouldn´t spoil her rotten, and who would be so strict with her she´d possibly turn into a depressed shut-in when she got older.
Love was what could make you see the world in wonderful colors, but also end up shoving a knife in your eyes and gouging them out if you were unlucky.
And Paige didn´t do luck. Hard work, dedication and preserverance on the other hand? That was her jam. Because that was something controllable, which you could analyze and plan, wouldn´t leave you with having to put faith in elusive "possibilities", "what-ifs", and "if I´m lucky"s.
Paige couldn´t, no, wouldn´t let anything other herself have a say in her life.
But then, she thought to herself, why the hell was she here, doing this, in the first place?
A twig that she´d failed to notice smacked her straight in the shin, and thank god no one was here to hear that pathetic squeal she just made because of it.
But once she thought about it, she couldn´t help but cast a glance behind her, slowing her run to slow, slow, jogging.
The mountain trail she´d ran on for maybe 15 minutes stretched on past the thick vegetation she just had to swat and jump her way through, a result of neglected care-taking for an obvious long time. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus her sight on a possible purple apparition far in the distance. The only view she was awarded, was a mixture of white birch, some sort of pine trees and the spread out overgrown bushes and weed.
Paige was still ahead, but her heart sped up wondering just how far Emily was trailing behind.
There was a reason Paige had sourly called Emily "The Rosewood Cougar" after a small competition over who got be the anchor last year after all; although, Emily only got offended that it could be interpreted as, well… A female, erm, older woman, cougar.
Sure, Paige had speed and explositivity. But Emily had the drive and endurance.
Paige bit her lip, turning her attention back forward, swatting a branch out of the way before it could smack her in the face.
Emily had really thought this through hadn´t she? Paige mulled to herself, trying hard to keep her breath steady and rythmical whilst hearing her own labored breaths in between the sound of her shoes hitting the soil. The though made warmth spread across her cheeks and ears, tingling across her skin.
Thank god Emily couldn´t see her right now. Paige couldn´t possibly have survived that mortification.
The terrain turned thick, almost isolating. The barely open trail, with the fairly open landscape to her sides, preceded into an overgrown forrest, old and musk to the scent, enclosing her with only tightly grown trees and the still barely visible trail consisting of just-about exposed soil and tree roots.
If it hadn´t been for the bet, for the adrenaline of the competition fueling her, and knowing Emily was somewhere behind her, Paige would probably have felt her tiny share of claustrophobia make it even harder to breath properly. She already had trouble enough with keeping up a steady pace as it was, lungs burning and gasping slightly through her mouth.
In front of her, above the big fallen and murky pine tree, was the plastic ribbon with red and white stripes.
´That ribbon means there´s a little less than a mile left until the goal´ Emily had said, stretching and openly getting fired up as Paige had played it cool, dragged a foot around drawing patterns in the ground and given an elusive hum as an answer.
That must´ve been more than twenty minutes ago, at least.
Paige licked her lips, the dryness of her mouth and longing of a water bottle becoming a bigger and bigger grievance. If she was close to the goal, getting a small sip wouldn´t hurt, would it?
She glanced at the small trickling stream of water just to her left side. The glistening fluid looked tempting, delicious even, untapped or not. Rocks and moss and a hint of tree leaves wasn´t what Paige ordinarily would consider accepting in her possible drinking-water, but this time…
Paige halted, licked her lips, her chest heaving and throat dry with the feeling of sandpaper, and grumbled at the feeling of her already jelly like and slightly sore calves.
She needed the refreshment, as her body needed the break.
But as she´d barely put foot into the shrubbery to get to the stream just a few feet away, she heard the rustling from behind her.
And turning her head, there she was; a fluttering form of a purple jersey and black running tights, hair dark as the night fluttering in the wind even though it was restrained in a tight ponytail.
Emily Fields, the very being that´d both pushed Paige´s buttons enough for a decade, but also been the very existence that´d made all these years in high school bearable.
The purple danger´s appearance had Paige reeling, shocked to a jumpstart in abandoning the plan of getting some water, and had her stumbling back up on the mountain trail and try getting back into a run.
Although Paige had only had the briefest of moments to cast a glance, the look on Emily´s face had her chest squeezing, throat feeling like it was borderline suffocating.
Dark piercing eyes, narrowing down on their target, her mouth open but set in a determined line. Hair fluttering, like a silk veil in the warm wind.
Emily had sped up, like a predator, the moment she and Paige had noticed one another. Paige on the other hand, felt like the surprised little rabbit being hunted, and tried with all her might to get back into a good and fast-enough pace to keep Emily from catching her.
"If you just turn around and let me get you," Emily called from a ways behind her, breath heavy and words labored."then the ice cream´s all on me! You can get how many second servings you want!"
"You wish Fields," Paige shouted back, the warmth returning and spreading across her cheeks and ears. "I have a diet to keep!"
"We can just exercise it off later!" came the immediate reply. Paige stumbled, almost tripping over a tree root at the words, but catching herself just barely.
Her face was ablaze, burning, by the positively scandalous suggestion.
"Wha-you, keep it in your pants Fields!" Paige sputtered back, her running form slightly wobbly.
Emily grew quiet, running unrelentingly after her teammate in front, but hollered back after a couple of second, voice slightly panting but the tone of goading unmistakeable.
"I meant swim training you know!"
And at that teasing rebuke, it as if was the ground shifted, all the blood rushing to her face and disappearing from her legs.
Paige stumbled once and for all when her foot got caught in an ill angle against the soil; she imagined herself falling like a three-legged elephant, because that´s exactly how it felt like.
Graceless. Dumb. And teeth grittingly pride-wounding.
Her left knee and palms caught the brunt of the fall, but the immediate sting on those three areas had her let out a little hiss.
Now, if Paige had been a moderate person, not been born in the sign of The Oxe, and actually lived with her mother more often, maybe she´d laughed and said "I give up, you win. Congrats Cougar. Treat me to some of that ice cream?"
But such wasn´t really the case, of course. As if.
The adrenaline shooting, the mortification of this little mess up, and the message that it´d ultimately insinuate, had Paige scrambling back on feet and, in the panic of the moment at the sound of Emily´s footsteps just a few armlenghts away, Paige darted into the forestry and took refuge through the old murky trees, the uneven terrain of wet moss almost sucking in her shoes.
"Hey, that´s against the rules!" Emily called efter her, confused for just a moment but nonetheless hot on her heels, panting and sweating through her jogging shirt.
Paige heaved, her muscles burning from the lactic acid building up, and her scraped knee and palms wasn´t really making the final dash any cozier.
"Lucky you´re adaptive then!"
Paige just managed to get the words out, and enter a grassy patch no doubt having been the subject of felling years earlier. A firm hand grabbed her arm, squeezing tight, and Paige was almost pulled backwards at the sudden action.
Feeling herself loosing her balance once again, so hastily interrupted in her sprint, Paige just barely managed to twist around, Emily´s determined hand still gripping her wrist, unrelenting, and they landed in the dark green grass, smelling of summer and flowers.
The small seeds of the now white dandelions spreading through the wind from the two girls, dark tresses of hair spread out over them both, and Paige couldn´t move, wouldn´t, as Emily lay down on top of her, chest pressing against hers, only the sound of Emily´s breathing next to Paige´s ear.
"You…" Emily wheezed, laughing. "You´re impossible. You´d seriously run out in the middle of nowhere, just to avoid losing?"
Emily´s warm breath tickling her neck, the warm body not making any effort to move but rather to keep it´s contact with the one under it undisturbed, like a hug, and Paige had difficulty forming a reply, or even a thought. She wanted to swallow, heavily, but was afraid it would somehow expose her.
She stared up at the blue sky, tiny clouds like cotton sheets sailing across the vast blue, stealing glances at the black hair so unbelievably close to her left, long locks splayed over her chest.
It felt scary. Different. And yet so familiar and comforting.
"Well, I mean, you´re pretty fast so I thought you could need the challenge" Paige countered, swallowed lightly. Keeping her tone steady, light and professional. Or at least she tried her hardest.
"You know, spice it up for the prowling cougar Fields."
The words caused Emily to give tiny snort in response, and rise herself up to a straddling position just to give Paige a playful shove to the shoulder.
"Oh god just shut it with that nickname already" Emily laughed. "I sound like some 50 year old hunting for boys!"
Paige snickered, plucked a dandelion with her right hand, and flicked it up in Emily´s hair who gave off a squeal.
"Don´t worry, I´ll print it on a shirt and give you for your birthday. Maybe a matching set for you and your mom."
"You wouldn´t dare!"
"Oh we´ll see in November, cougar!"
Emily opens her mouth, in mock outrage, looking like she´d just been scandalized, and grabs hold of several still-yellow dandelions in her fist. She holds them just inches from Paige´s face, a smirk on her lips perfectly aware of how she still has Paige pinned on her back to the ground.
"Swear you won´t or you´ll eat yellow, McCullers!"
"Make me!"
The two starts squealing, play-yelling, and Paige grabs hold of Emily´s hands to avoid being mauled by the stinking flowers and end up looking like a clown. She remembers rolling herself across a field of dandelions in a white dress when she was a kid back at her gramps ranch in Nevada, and the yellow stains after never went away. Getting those blotched all over her face, by Emily no less, would make the rest of the team laugh at her for three days before the color fades.
Emily, biting her lip while suppressing a laughter, tries with all her might to overpower her teammate. It soon turns into a playful contest of physical strength, something Paige is more comfortable in than running. The two only goes back and forward with their hands, the yellow flowers inching closer to Paige´s face, before she manages to force Emily back once more.
Over and over, until Emily adds her bodyweight to get an advantage, and Paige tries breaking free of Emily sitting on her by rolling to the side.
"You´re a real kid, you know that?" Paige jokes.
"Look who´s talking!" Emily laughs, panting and fired up once more. She traps Paige to the ground once more, her palms on each side of her head, a lock of auburn hair from Paige´s ponytail caught between her fingers.
The moment they pause, only for a moment to look into each others eyes, they both grow still and quiet.
Surprised, almost cautious brown eyes staring into glazed darker ones.
The dandelions having fallen out of her hands, Emily pauses. As the flick of a light switch, they become careful, and the air between them a different kind of warm.
The position is intimate and only now does Emily realize, as piercing brown eyes looks back into her own, that she has her knee dangerously close to somewhere she only has had embarrassing, secret dreams about.
She feels embarrassed, but still emboldened.
And most importantly, Emily gets back on track for why she even came up with this idea, this competition between only the two of them.
She becomes impossibly warmer, a bit nervous, but tries not to let it show.
Emily knows by now that Paige is probably nervous enough for the both of them. And it´s quite wondrous, how Paige can be so decisive and secure in almost every other situation, but when it comes to this… It was oddly, well, adorable.
"So," Emily begins, looking into those cautious eyes of amber. "I won."
Paige swallows then, thickly. Emily notices a tinge of red spread across her neck and ears, and it makes her own heart beat faster, her stomach swirling a little.
"Yeah." Paige answers, her gaze flickers a bit. The reply is short, and sounds slightly short of breath.
"So, what do you say, is it a date? On saturday after we get back home?" Emily asks, gently, but her eyes not showing the slightest hint of uncertainty. "And I mean, I know we said you´d go if I won but, I won´t force you if you don´t want to."
Paige feels the blush spread further, her cheeks glowing and heart pounding. Emily´s gaze is so sure, so piercing and warm, so unrelenting of what she wants, that Paige has to look away for a second to find a way to breath easier.
She knows she´s been silly; liking Emily for a good six months while staying quiet, pining and just hoping the feelings will stop so she´d never have to deal with the things known as confessions and rejections, of trusting and letting people in.
Emily had thrown all her plans of staying out of relationships out the window.
And Paige wanted to take the step, of trusting. Getting involved. It´d just been so foreign, so new when Emily had said she´d noticed Paige´s affections.
And that Emily shared them.
But Paige had been her usual cautious, nervous self. Had played unknowing, even though her pining probably had been so obvious she was surprised Emily hadn´t outright laughed at it.
The step of trust, of starting a relationship, was something Paige had always been scared off.
Emily had coaxed her, tried to woo her the last whole week.
Then she proposed this bet; wether Emily could catch up to Paige before they crossed the finish line. If Paige won, Emily would buy her a new bicycle (in lack of better ideas).
And if Emily won, they´d go on a date. No doubt a first step before Emily would ask for them to properly go out together, a genuine couple.
And Paige couldn´t help but admit to herself, that Emily´s master plan had worked.
Paige swallows, and meets the intense gaze of Emily´s. Tries to keep a silly smile off her face by looking stern. Somehow, Paige feels it´s not really working.
"You´re buying me ice cream." she says.
Emily blinks, shocked for a split second, until a big smile spreads across her face. "It´s a deal!" she answers, unabashedly happy, and gets up on on her feet. She takes Paige´s hands and pulls her up.
They both have dandelion seeds and petals in their hair, yellow stains on their jogging clothes.
As they realize how silly they look they can´t help but break out in laughter, and they begin walking back across the field into the forrest.
"Well little miss smartass" Emily begins, sending a teasing grin at Paige. "You know I´ll blame you if we don´t find our way back right?"
Paige shrugs, trying not to be conscious at Emily´s hand right next to hers. "Maybe I´ll give your dad a prowling cougar Fields shirt as well…"
"Don´t you dare!"