Tate POV
I felt like I screwed something up. I mean, I pulled away from Nika while we were kissing and told her we should go eat. I had to have screwed something. The drive was awkward, and I wanted to change that.
"I'm gonna play my fav song ever," I blurt out, the awkwardness making me say anything.
"Go ahead," Nika says, sending a small smile.
"Okay, you ready?"
"Is it bad or something?" Nika laughs out.
"No, but I don't know how you'll react to it," I shrug, putting on the song.
The song starts to play, phone ringing and the spoken words start spewing out of the speakers. Hi, it's Chappell, I know you just landed. And I know you're probably busy, but I would love to see you. So, call me when you can. I look over at Nika, she's already giving me a look.
"Stop judging it before it even starts," She rolls her eyes, shaking her head.
The first verse passes, the chorus coming up next. I take the hand of Nika's that's resting on the console, using it like a microphone.
"Touch me, baby, put your lips on mine!" I start to sing, Nika laughing pulling into a parking spot.
"I know you want it, baby, you can have it!" As I'm singing my heart out, Nika is just sitting there smiling at me.
"I know you want it, baby, you can have it. Oh, I've never done it, naked in Manhattan," I trail off, the music slipping to the background.
Touch me, baby. Touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me. I wanna explain to her why I pushed her away, so I took the hand I was using as a microphone and intertwining our fingers. Nika looks down at her hand.
"I'm sorry about earlier," She looks up at me, confusion held on her face.
"There's nothing to be sorry about bebo," She takes my hand to her lips, placing a couple of kisses on the back.
"Nika, I pulled away. I only did cause I didn't it go to far, and maybe I started overthinking things. I don't know, but I'm sorry," Nika's eyes never left mine, a smile etched on her face.
"You're so cute," She finally pulled away, reaching in the back for our food, "You ready to go eat these amazing subs pretty girl?"
"We're you not mad, or at least a little upset that I pulled away?" I questioned, confused by her reaction.
"At first, yes. But I thought on it, and maybe I'm being a little too much sometimes. So, I understand you pulling away, okay. Don't think on it too much, I would never get mad at you," She sends a smile, getting out of the car. She comes to my side and opens the door.
I get out, following Nika to where ever she had planned. We were in a park, a small pond, picnic tables everywhere, and a small playground in the distance. The cool autumn air hung around us, the trees almost bare from the shedding of their leaves. The ground was covered in orange and brown leaves, the scene was beautiful.
"How have I not been here the 4 years I've gone to UConn?" I say aloud, gaining a laugh from Nika.
She puts the bag of food on the table, sitting down items of hers in front of her and items of mine in front of the seat next to her, "I don't know how, a lot of people talk about this place. I think it's beautiful."
"Not as beautiful as you," I say, kind of under my breath, but loud enough for her to hear.
A smile takes its place on her face, "Here, this is yours. Come sit beside me and stop standing around," She pats the seat next to her.
"Alright," I hold my hands up as to surrender, and make my way to sit beside her, "It's just so pretty out here, gotta soak it all up."
"You can soak it up while you eat your delicious sub," She says, mouth full of her own sub.
"Is it that good?"
"Yes, now try yours pretty girl," She pushes the sub towards me.
I laugh, opening the sub, taking a bite, "Oh my god, this is that good."
"Told ya."
As we finished, two ducks came up to us. To say the least, I was terrified.
"I need them to go away right now," I said sitting up on the table.
Nika chuckles, "They're just ducks, baby."
"Nope, those are demons in disguise," As I say this, the ducks start to quack.
"See, they're agreeing with me," Nika throws her head back, laughing.
"They just want some of the food, Tate. Here," She throws a piece of bread, causing the ducks to sprint after it.
"What if they comeback for more, than what we gonna do?" I say, she rolls her eyes.
"We'll be fine, do you have like a fear of ducks of something?" Nika asks, titling her head.
"No, I just don't like them. They are nasty," I drag out the last word, she shakes her head.
"Welp, good to know not to bring you here in the future," I snap my head towards her.
"No, I definitely wanna comeback, just don't want those stupid ducks around me," I say, looking at her, "Honestly, I'd come again, even with the stupid ducks, to just be with you."
Nika gets up, moving to stand right in front of me, "Hmm, would ya?" She leans closer, our noses almost touching.
"Mhmm," I nod, trying to capture her lips in mine, but she stands up fully.
"You ready go back to your dorm?" She says, innocently smiling holding her hand out.
"You didn't let me kiss you," I pout, she gasp.
"I would never do such a thing. Can't believe you would say that. Maybe I should leave you here with the ducks," and with that, she's sprinting to the car.
Her being a D1 athlete came in clutch as she made it to the car way before I could ever even get close to it. She jumps in, locking the doors.
"Nika, please let me in," I hold out the last word, knocking on her window.
She shakes her head, laughing, "Nika, please!"
"Okay, okay," She smirks, "Under one condition."
"Anything."
"Baby, I want you to stay the night at my place tonight, you up for it?" She looks at me, false seriousness coating her features.
"Is that really what you want?" I laugh with the words.
"Is it too much to ask for, pretty girl," A shiver goes down my back, the way she said it, it just did something to me.
"Honestly, it's a lot less than I expected," She tilts her, "I would love to come stay the night at your place."
She unlocks the door, I jump in, "I'm glad you said yes."
She grabs the sides of my face, pulling me in for a kiss. I bring a hand up to her hand on my cheek, rubbing it slightly. She pulls away, resting her forehead on mine.
"I like you so much Tate. I hope you know that," She says, moving to where we were looking at each other in the eyes.
"Nika, I like you so much, it's almost concerning," We both let out a breathy chuckle.
We sit there for a second, just taking in each others presence. Before she pulled away, she left a soft kiss on my lips.
"So, you wanna go to your dorm to grab you some stuff to stay at my place?" I nod my head.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Nika POV
Before our little lunch date, I was so worried that I had gone too far. But, Tate somehow eased my worries with a couple of words. Now, we were on our way to her dorm so she could grab some of her things to stay at my place.
"I've gotta say, last night was the best sleep I've had in the longest time," Tate speaks out of nowhere.
"What, why you say that?"
"Well, being away from home sucks," She turns to look at me, "Which I'm sure you understand, I mean you're on a whole new continent. But you just never feel a hundred percent safe or comfortable in a new place."
"Yeah, I get it. A lot," She turns to look out the window, and the only thing I can do is admire her. She so beautiful.
"I've never asked you, and I've always wondered, where are you from?" I ask, her attention finds it's way back to me.
"West Virginia, a small state, in a small town. I loved living there, but UConn has always been my dream school," She smiles.
"What'd you like about West Virginia?" I ask, trying to get to know her more, or a least a little.
"The people, more than anything. Everyone is always so nice, well most of them. Oh, and how beautiful the state is. I mean. It wasn't the nicest looking place in some parts, but when you found the beauty in the state, you never wanna leave. I mean, the state is literally called 'Almost heaven'," I smiled, the way she talked about her state, it was almost the way I talked about Croatia.
"We should take a trip down there. Me and you, go and see your family. Just be down there for a little, ya know," The smile on her face grew, I couldn't help but laugh at how cute she was.
"Oh my god! That would be awesome! I mean, we could go see the New River Gorge, Oh, and Seneca Rocks! You also have to see the Grist Mill!" She stops, "Why are you laughing?"
"You're just cute when you talk about things you love," I say, taking her hand and intertwining our fingers.
"It's like when you talk about basketball, or your team. You get this look in your eyes, it makes them almost hypnotic, you can't look away," She says, gaining a smile from me. She talks about me like she talks about the things she loves.
I clear my throat, pulling into the parking lot of her dorm. She gets out, saying she'll be quick, and makes her way inside. I pull out my phone, tons of text from Paige and the team. I answer Paige back, getting a facetime in return.
"Wassup P."
"Where are you? Are you out with Tate? Is she you're girlfriend yet?"
"Paige?"
"Yes?"
"Why are you acting like this?"
"Ava told me that Tate and you were dating. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Paige, I did. At practice."
"I don't remember that."
"I told you, and you just kept rambling on about Ava. This is on you twin."
"Oh, wel-"
"Tate coming over again tonight. Just tell the team to not be weird. Especially KK."
"Okay. Can I ask why?"
"I like her being there. We have like this connection I didn't expect to have with someone so quick."
"What kinda connection?"
"I don't know how to describe it, but after talking to her today, it seems as if she feels it too."
"What'd sh-"
"Paige, gotta go. Tate's coming out."
"Okay, bye Niks."
"Bye, P."
Tate walks up to the car, carrying a duffel bag of stuff. I get out to open the trunk.
"What's with the duffel bag?" I ask, laughing a little.
"Well," She shrugs off the strap and throws the bag into the trunk, "I was gonna ask if I could stay with you a couple of days? I mean, if you don't wan-"
"No, I want you too. I didn't think you would wanna stay more than one more night," I say, blushing a little.
"Of course I do, now let's go lay in your bed for the rest of the day while I show you some of the best movies to ever exist," She hurries out, jumping up and down.
"Alright, alright. I guess I could get behind that," I chuckle, before bringing her into a hug, my head nuzzled into her neck.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I just love being around you."
I pull my head up to see her blushing, a smile etched on her face, "I love being around you too."
I place a kiss on her lips before saying, "Alright, I think you got some movies to show me?"
"That I do!"
A/N: This started as a filler chapter, then lead to an actually chapter. Also, the duck part, it came from something that happened to me. Like I was at a park with some people, and these annoying ducks kept trying to get food from us. Like the whole 45 minutes we were sitting there.
Also, I never see anyone use the state West Virginia. Like, do people forget exist. It's the perfect place for a small town romance kinda thing.
Anyway, I have so much fun writing these chapters.
Peace y'all, 'til the next chapter