Chapter Text
“This is the last time,” Shelby sighs out from underneath Toni.
“Sure, Shelby. Whatever you say.” Toni’s heard that one before. It’s never true. She moves her fingers over the metallic button of Shelby’s pants, swiftly popping it open.
“I’m serious.” Shelby has always been a little bit of a liar.
“Uh huh,” Toni mutters back, distracted by the physical effort of getting Shelby’s pants all the way off. She falls back a little on the bed while trying to tug it past Shelby’s ankles.
“You’re not hearin’ me,” Shelby accuses.
Toni slowly kisses her way back up Shelby’s body, stopping to place wet kisses against the insides of her thighs. She pauses and takes in the furrowed eyebrows and serious, green eyes looking back at her. She just grins and says, “I heard you. I just don’t believe you. Now take your shirt off.”
Shelby lets out a huff, but she does as she’s told. She tosses her light pink t-shirt onto the floor. She closes her eyes and thinks to herself that this really will be the last time. Sure, she’s said that a lot before and it was never true, but this time it’s different; it has to be because she’s pretty sure she’s falling in love with Toni Shalifoe.
. . .
It all started about five months ago, after Shelby’s girlfriend broke up with her. They’d been together since freshman year of college, so the break up came as a surprise to junior year Shelby. She didn’t necessarily think they’d be together forever, but it still hurt to suddenly not have this person in her life anymore. Being that it was her first real heartbreak, she figured it would take her awhile to get over it. What she did not expect, was to end up in Toni’s bed only a week after.
Shelby is not the kind of person who does one night stands. She wants romance and dates, hand holding and cuddling. She makes a special exception for Toni.
Fatin demands her presence at whatever latest weekend party she’s hosting. Her exact words being something along the lines of “if you don’t show up and spend the whole night moping in your room alone, I swear to god I will punch you in the tit so hard the next time I see you” so Shelby decides she will at least make a short appearance as to not inflict the wrath of party god Fatin.
That’s how she ends up sipping a drink on the couch in Fatin’s apartment, wishing she was just watching TV in her bed.
“Hey, mind if I sit here?” Shelby glances up at the person talking to her. She thinks her name is Toni? Toni Shalifoe or something like that. She knows her as Fatin’s hot basketball player friend. They haven’t talked before, but Shelby has certainly noticed her around. Shelby gives her a short nod as she sinks into the spot on the couch next to Shelby.
“You’re Toni right?” Shelby asks.
“Yeah. What’s your name?” Toni scoots a little closer to her on the couch. Toni is a liar. She knows exactly who Shelby Goodkind is. Has even asked Fatin about her “cute blonde friend” on more than one occasion. She has too much pride to ever admit that though.
“Shelby.” She wonders why Toni is even talking to her right now. They’ve been at the same parties before but she always found Toni too intimidating to approach.
Toni gives her a small smile. “Nice to finally meet you Shelby. I think I’ve heard Fatin talking about you before.”
Shelby feels shy for some reason and prays that Fatin hasn’t run her mouth about the more embarrassing stories she has on Shelby. “Oh yeah? I’m a little scared to know what you’ve heard.”
“Hmm…well I think you’re the only Shelby that Fatin is friends with, so that must mean you’re the one who threw up in a pink cowboy hat last year? I think there was a part in that story where you then forgot that you puked in it and tried to put it back on?” Toni asks with a smirk on her face.
Shelby feels her face heating up. “Oh god. You heard about that? Fatin and her freakin’ big mouth…” Shelby drops her face into her hands in embarrassment. “The worst part was I really liked that hat too.”
Toni laughs at that. “I bet you looked good in it. Does this mean you’re also the Shelby who just got dumped?”
Shelby looks at her with wide eyes. “Okay, does Fatin just tell everyone everythin’ about me?”
“Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said that,” Toni starts, worried she’s offended her. “I just, well- I just figured if you are, I could try cheering you up or something.” Toni winces a little at her own wording.
Shelby just looks amused. This isn’t exactly where she thought her night would take her. “I guess I could use some cheering up.” She watches as Toni gulps down the rest of her drink. Toni is wearing a loose, checkered overshirt with a plain white t-shirt underneath and black jeans. She looks so effortlessly cool, and Shelby is starting to think maybe being single right now isn’t such a bad thing. She decides this is a good enough distraction for her heartache and slides her hand over the top of Toni’s knee. She knocks back the rest of her drink before asking, “Did you have somethin’ in mind?”
They end up sitting across from each other at a pizza shop. Toni sprinkles red pepper flakes across her slice of cheese pizza. Shelby dabs the excess grease off her slice with a folded up napkin.
“Okay, you have to tell me an embarrassing story now because you already know way too much about me and we literally just met,” Shelby demands.
“Oh is that right?” Toni fights back the growing smile on her face.
“Yup,” Shelby nods her head.
Toni sighs and leans back in the booth. She puts her arms behind her head and thinks for a minute, like she’s really trying to come up with something good for Shelby. “I’ve got one. You better not tell anyone about this though.” She looks to Shelby for reassurance.
Shelby sticks out her pinky across the table. “Pinky promise.” Toni moves to wrap her pinky finger around hers. Even this tiny amount of contact makes Shelby blush for some reason.
“In high school, I got in huge trouble on my basketball team because I threw my piss at this girl who kept fouling me in a game.” Toni avoids eye contact as she tells this.
“Wait-what? How-,” Shelby’s face scrunches up in thought. “Like logistically speakin’, how do you even do that?” She must admit she finds Toni fascinating.
“Okay, enough questions from you. I told you my embarrassing thing so now we’re even,” Toni says with her mouth full of pizza crust.
Shelby puts her hands up in joking surrender. “Fine, but don’t think I won’t bring this up later.”
“So what happened with you and whoever anyway?” Toni asks. “Your ex,” she clarifies when Shelby doesn’t say anything.
Normally, Shelby wouldn’t want to get into the demise of her relationship with someone she just met, but Toni did just buy her a slice of cheese pizza. She shrugs and gives the short version. “She wanted to go fuck other people I guess.” There’s more to it than just that, if Shelby’s really honest with herself she knows they’d been falling out of love for awhile. It just felt safe and convenient to stay with someone who knew you already, even if the feelings weren’t there anymore. Shelby frowns a little, remembering that up until a few hours ago she was still busy wallowing in her heartbreak.
“And what about you?” Toni asks, her voice lower than before. She’s looking at Shelby with a new kind of intensity.
“What about me?” Shelby asks back, confused by the question.
“Do you wanna fuck other people?”
Shelby feels her whole body heating up as she just stares back at Toni. A small nod is all her body can manage to do in response. Maybe that stupid saying when God closes one door, a window opens has some weight to it.
She ends up pressed against the front door of Toni’s apartment. They only managed to make it through the door when Toni couldn’t wait any longer, had to get her lips on Shelby’s. They’re kissing fast and hard, and it’s all making Shelby’s head spin.
She lets out a small whine when Toni moves down to her neck. Toni’s hands wrap around the small of her back and slip under her shirt. Shelby’s never done anything like this before, has always wanted emotional intimacy before anything physical, but Toni is turning her on so much that she knows her pants will be off in a matter of minutes.
They break apart for a second, both breathing heavily, and Toni grabs her wrist to start leading her to the bedroom. “Wait, can you take your shoes off?” Toni requests as she kicks her own black Vans off. Shelby laughs at the fact that Toni even has the forethought to ask this when all she can think about is kissing her again.
Shelby’s stripped down to just her underwear and Toni has settled between her legs on the bed, placing small kisses over the top of the damp fabric still covering her. “Please,” Shelby whimpers out. She thinks she might combust if Toni doesn’t fuck her soon, and then will combust once she does. She feels Toni smiling into the next kiss she places right where Shelby’s most sensitive.
“So polite,” Toni whispers with amusement in her voice. She pulls Shelby’s underwear to the side and groans when she tastes her for the first time. “You taste so good,” she says lowly as she pushes her tongue inside Shelby. Shelby moans and her back arches off the bed a little. She thinks this might not last as long as she wants it to.
“Oh my God , Toni.” She’s panting and squirming while one of Toni’s hands strokes over the soft skin of her thighs. She still has her underwear on, and something about how Toni has to keep pulling it to the side feels so hot and dirty to her.
She’s catching her breath after and realizes Toni somehow still has her bra and pants on. “You’re wearin’ too many clothes,” she teases, sitting up and curling her fingers into the belt loops of Toni’s pants to tug her closer.
“Why don’t you do something about it then?” Toni says suggestively. Shelby wastes no time in unzipping her pants and pulling them down her legs.
Shelby can’t help but stare once Toni has taken the rest of her clothes off. “How are you so hot?” she mutters as they both lean in to kiss. They kiss slower than before. Shelby lets her hands roam over Toni’s abs before trailing them down to between her legs. “Lie down,” she whispers. Toni’s biting her lip and sinks down into the pillows on the bed. Shelby leans down over her, pressing their bare bodies together as she strokes tentatively at her, feeling just how wet she is.
She’s carefully pushing two fingers inside of Toni. “Fuck,” Toni breathes out. It’s not long until Toni’s clenching around Shelby’s fingers and gasping for breath.
They pass out together on Toni’s bed, a mess of tangled and sweaty limbs.
. . .
Shelby wakes up to the sound of an alarm going off.
“Mornin’.” Shelby rolls over to look at Toni and offers a shy smile.
“Hey, sorry if that woke you up. I have to get to a morning practice.” Toni smiles back and then her face falls, like she’s just realized something. “Fuck, Fatin is gonna kill me,” Toni groans.
“Hm?” Shelby hums curiously.
Toni pulls the blanket up to cover her face to avoid looking at Shelby. “She made me promise her I’d stop sleeping with her friends. She hates getting put in the middle of my shit. And you’re like, one of her best friends. Fuck.”
Shelby tugs the blanket back down and looks at her with raised eyebrows. “You sleep with a lot of her friends?”
“Not a lot . Fatin just has a shit ton of friends and I have a bad habit of fucking things up,” Toni admits.
“Well, she doesn’t have to know about last night,” Shelby offers. “Besides, it's not like Fatin’s my mom.”
“Really?” Toni sounds surprised.
Shelby shrugs. “I’m good at keeping secrets.” She doesn’t really want to be on the receiving end of Fatin’s judgment either. Not that Fatin would judge her for sleeping with Toni, Fatin just knows that Shelby is a hopeless romantic and will probably advise against seeing her again until she figures her own shit out first.
“Cool.” Toni gets out of bed and starts collecting her clothes from last night to put into her hamper.
“I don’t, um, well I’ve never-,” Shelby trips over her words. “As you know, I just got out of a pretty long relationship, so this isn’t something I’ve really done.”
Toni just watches Shelby stumble over her words, trying not to laugh. She pulls a clean shirt out of her dresser and tugs it over her head. “It’s cool Shelby.”
She should probably just get dressed and leave, but Shelby finds herself wanting a repeat of last night. “We should hang out sometime,” Shelby suggests.
“Hang out?”
“Yeah, you know that thing people do when they enjoy each other’s company?” Shelby starts to get nervous that she’s misread the situation, that maybe Toni wanted this to be a one time thing. That would be fine, but Shelby would really like to see her again.
“Sure yeah. I just, uh, I don’t want to give you the wrong idea or anything…” Toni trails off, looking a bit guilty.
“Oh. I mean I’m not looking for anything more or whatever. I just thought you seem cool and I had fun last night so-” Shelby stammers.
“Here,” Toni cuts her off and hands Shelby her phone. Shelby decides she’ll ignore the smirk on Toni’s face. “Put your number in.”
Shelby convinces herself she can be chill and casual about this. She ignores the fact that her hands are starting to sweat as she types her name into the phone. She likes to think she’s not this susceptible to the power of attention from a hot girl.
For God’s sake, she’s supposed to still be piecing her broken heart back together. Did it really just take one night with Toni to get over a year long relationship?