Once again, thank you for all the support via follows, favorites, and reviews. It means a lot when you take even a moment out of your day to express appreciation for a story. Originally this chapter was going to be much longer, but I decided to break it up into two. Meaning I should be posting another update with the next few days.
Our kiss was slow but chaste, going on longer than friends would kiss but not deepening. I could still feel Paige's body pressing harder against mine before she reluctantly pulled away.
"Let's go grab your suitcase?" She whispered, gazing into my eyes before glancing over at the carousel. "It's only about a half an hour back to my place." She added.
Once we got my stuff, she took my hand and led me out in the chilly night air to grab a taxi. We got in, and after she told the driver the address, her hand met mine in the middle of the backseat. Our fingers moved against one another, tracing each other's palms. Even touching her hand made me want to pull her against me and kiss her till we could barely breathe.
But I tried to content myself with her soft, subtle touch and the scenery racing past us.
"This building right here." Paige paid the driver and grabbed my luggage, leading me through an open courtyard with honest to God palm trees.
"I can carry that." I yawned out, gesturing at my suitcase in her hand. She just smiled and shook her head.
"Don't worry about that. We are almost there and I desperately need sleep." We walked up a set of open stairs and she started to unlock her door. "So I set up an air mattress for you…" But she trailed off as she walked inside her apartment. I could see why once I poked my head in pass the entrance. There were at least seven women crowded around a coffee table, the air mattress propped up against a wall to make more room for the guests. They all turned and looked at us, most returning to their chatter but a few, particularly a blonde with a passing resemblance to Samara, eyes us suspiciously.
"Seriously Alex?" Paige asked, looking at one of the girls. The one that must have been Alex stood up and walked over, almost tripping over one of her friends.
"Shit dude I'm sorry! We had to move the party over here after the bar." The girl then turned and appraised me from head to toe. "So you must be the Emily Fields." Alex was a curvy Hispanic girl with black, thick-rimmed glasses and a black Northface jacket on. From her build, I assumed she wasn't another swimmer.
"Uh yeah I guess I am. And you must be Alex?" She nodded, still eyeing me up as if she was trying to figure me out simply by my appearance. Since walking into the apartment I had the distinct feeling of being a fish in an aquarium. I didn't like the feeling.
"That's me. Paige's roommate. I'm guessing you expected another swimmer, huh?" I smiled, realizing the shock of my face must have been apparent. She was curvier than I would expect a Division One swimmer to be. It surprised me Paige wouldn't be rooming with a teammate.
"Yeah I guess so. Not that there's anything wrong with that." I winced. "I mean, with not being a swimmer. Sorry I'm still exhausted from the trip."
"And now where is she supposed to sleep?" Paige asked while gesturing towards the air mattress propped against a wall. Alex shrugged dramatically and slowly flashed a mischievous grin, waggling her eyebrows. Paige just rolled her eyes, and it struck me these back and forth conversations were probably common between them.
"I mean…I guess…I just guess she'll have to sleep in your room with you? Again that's just a guess." Alex winked at me as she finished, shrugging and then holding her palms up in the air. I coughed to try and break up the weird tension. At least the other girls had returned to the drinking game they seemed to be playing. Then I noticed one girl, the blonde from before, looking at Paige intently.
"Hey Paige." The blonde said in a deadpan, barely smiling. She looked tense.
"Hey Anna." Paige nodded at her, but Anna was busy looking me up and down. I stuck my hands in my pockets, not knowing what to make of this exchange and the weird energy in the room.
"I mean that's fine with me? Sleeping in your room I mean." I said quietly, risking a glance at Paige out the corner of my eye. I grew afraid at her annoyed looked that she didn't want that to happen. Maybe I had misjudged her readiness to try and start something again.
"I guess that's what we'll have to do." Paige quietly said, tugging my luggage with her to a door a few feet away from the main living room. "Just try and keep it down out here?" Paige added, shutting the door behind us. She turned on a desk light, leaving the room dim, then walked a few steps inside before turning around and facing me. Her room was almost military-style neat and orderly, so different from the Paige I knew in high school who constantly lost her swim googles and DVDs in different piles of papers and books. She had a small student desk in one corner, with her laptop and a few textbooks piled next to it. The walls had a monthly calendar and one cork board with some swimming pictures, both personal and of famous swimmers Paige admired.
Her nightstand had an alarm clock and a picture of her with her parents, along with a couple of books. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Probably for a class…I hadn't known Paige to read classics for fun. She had a queen sized bed that was made with a dark blue comforter. It looked inviting but almost too neat to touch, like a freshly made hotel bed.
"Sorry about that. I love Alex, but she seems to enjoy throwing impromptu parties whether or not we have class or I have practice the next day." She explained.
"It's fine, it's college after all. You seem upset…that I have to spend the night in here with you." Her chin was angled down, and her large eyes looked up at me from under her eyelashes, betraying nothing of how she felt about the situation.
"I just don't want to pressure you into anything. I can sleep on the floor." She quietly said. I noticed her eyes rake over my body, taking me in. I stepped closer to her, shaking my head.
"Paige…I didn't come all the way here to sleep on the couch...did I?" A burst of muffled laughter broke out from the living room, and I could hear Alex trying in vain to shush the group. Paige shook her head and looked at me with the same longing I remember from years ago.
We both stepped toward one another but her momentum won, her lips pressing against mine. The action nearly made my knees buckle, sending an electric jolt through my body. I moaned and wrapped my arms around her neck and into her hair, gripping it to keep her pressed against me. She dropped my suitcase and her arms found my waist, pushing me up against her closed door. The sound of my body softly thumping against the door caused the party out in the front room to hush down and probably gossip about us. But I didn't care.
"Em." She gasped, deepening the kiss. I started to pull off her jacket because all I could think about is feeling her skin against mine. Once I got it off I let my hands roam over her arms, appreciating the lean muscle there. She broke away from my lips, but didn't waste a second before moving to my neck, biting down to leave a hickey.
"Please Paige." I pleaded helplessly. I dropped my hands to the hem of her shirt and started to trace my way under the fabric and up her skin. Then I did something I would live to regret. Just as things were starting to heat up, as I pushed Paige back towards her bed, my body somehow remembered how exhausted I was. So I yawned. She immediately stilled against my neck, her back shuddering as she laughed.
"Did you seriously just yawn?" She asked, looking up at me and grinning. I was so embarrassed I could feel my cheeks turning red.
"It was a really long, restless flight." I mumbled, resting my head against her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head.
"I understand. Besides…I have way too much planned for you. And we have to be up in about three hours for practice. Let's get to bed." We both took turns brushing our teeth and changing into pajamas. I approached the bed and she was setting her alarm, and then turned out the light.
When I crawled in next to her, I was suddenly nervous again, butterflies circling the pit of my stomach. She was sprawled out, her limbs flung apart and stretched like she was in the middle of doing a jumping jack. At least the bed was a queen-size so she wasn't encroaching on my space. I was laying on my side, facing her, taking in her shadowed outline. Her long, wavy hair…the slope of her neck…the rise and fall of her chest; she was beautiful. And then her eyebrow arched, her eyes never opening.
"Come here." She whispered, and I complied, nuzzling against her and draping one arm over her stomach. Her breath seemed to catch for a moment at my touch as she drifted off to sleep, me following her close behind.