⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ when did you get hot?
pairing: childhood friends/soccer!ellie x reader
synopsis: you’d known ellie basically all your life. she was your nerdy, comic-loving, space-obsessed childhood friend. but why was it only now that you were beginning to realize she was kinda… hot?
tags: soccer!ellie, childhood friends, fluff(?), suggestive if you squint, college au, reader and els r childhood friends
a/n: not proofread lowkey random but i just needed to talk about how hot ellie can be whilst being completely oblivious to it. i’m actually going crazy she’s so?? (find pt.2 here)
“watch out!” dina exclaimed mid-sentence, her startled eyes looking straight past your shoulder and onto the football field behind you.
the soccer ball hurtled toward you at a terrible speed, barely giving you enough time to turn back to see it.
oh fuck.
out of time, you braced for the impact. shutting your eyes tightly as your body tensed, waiting for the hit. and waiting, and waiting, and waiting…
a good ten seconds passed before you realized the hit hadn’t come, and probably wasn’t ever going to.
anxiously, you pried your eyes open.
the first thing you saw was a familiar pair of soccer shoes, blue with a bright red streak through them, firmly planted in the grass in front of you.
your eyes slowly trailed higher up your savior’s body, the figure growing more and more familiar as you did, before meeting a pair of concerned eyes you knew all too well.
“hey, you okay?” ellie asked you softly, worry lacing her voice. you stared blankly in response, brain still in shock.
ellie stood before you, softly panting from exhaustion. short, loose strands of her auburn hair hung over her eyes, still staring at you worriedly.
ellie held your previous assailant, the fiery soccer ball of doom, in one arm, the lean muscle slightly visible under the loose sleeve of her jersey, as the other hesitantly came to rest on your shoulder.
“hello?” she asked, louder this time.
you watched from inside your body as she seemed to look somewhere behind you. “shit, d’you have a concussion?”
“the ball didn’t even hit her, williams.” you heard dina’s voice respond from behind you. “girl, you good?”
the question seemed to shake you from your spell.
you turned to face the two.
“s-sorry-sorry,” you managed to force out. dina turned to face you—so did ellie, her eyes much wider than you expected. “i’m fine.”
instinctually, you lay a hand on ellie’s arm, oblivious to the way she seemed to stiffen before relaxing under your touch.
her eyes met yours for a few moments, lingering, before she flickering away.
you sighed in relief, a smile beginning to play on your lips. “thanks for the save, els.”
“y-yeah,” she breathed out, rubbing her neck bashfully, “anytime.”
her gaze lingered a little longer, eyes full of a longing you were completely oblivious to, as you glanced over awkwardly to dina.
“hey, williams!” a voice you recognized as abby’s called from further down the field, causing ellie to turn back, breaking contact.
“got it!” she yelled back in reply, her voice almost sounding irritated.
she turned back to you, eyes quickly scanning you from head to toe. “you’re okay?”
“yeah.” you nodded, holding up your hand in a thumbs up. “all good.” you smiled.
“good.” ellie nodded, beginning to shuffle backward to the field. “i’ll-uh-see you back in the room?”
you nodded as she drew further. “thanks again!”
you turned to dina once ellie returned to her spot on the field, only to find a curious expression on her face.
she just stared at you, her arms folded and eyebrow raised. “what?” you asked when she didn’t say anything.
“what do you mean ‘what?’?” she uncrossed her arms, waving them nonsensically in the air.
she pointed to the field. “what’s up with you and williams?”
you stared at her blankly, blinking a few times as her words sank in. a laugh suddenly erupted out of your throat.
“wha-me and ellie?” you restated incredulously, hardly believing her words.
another uncontrollable fit of giggles bubbled up when dina only continued to stare. “dina, seriously?”
dina’s face pinched together as if to say ‘um… yes?’
“ellie? she’s such a dork!”
dina’s face somehow grew even more indicative of disbelief, you didn’t even believe that was possible. “yeah, maybe to you.”
your brows furrowed in confusion. “what does that mean?”
“it means,” dina began, “that your ‘dorky best friend’ isn’t like that to most people.”
you raised an eyebrow, “and what exactly is she like to most people?”
dina waved her hands out ridiculously, “um, hot?!”
she punctuated her point with a sharp gesture to the centre of the field, arm directing your gaze to ellie’s moving figure in the distance, just having stolen the ball. “she’s, like, the hottest person on campus!”
you giggled. “what’re you talking about?” never had you ever heard your best friend described this way.
you turned to dina, determined to clear up whatever misunderstanding of ellie’s character this was.
“i’ve known ellie since she was two. she’s the type of girl who’d hole up in her room with her comics and nerd out about dinosaurs! she has, like, no bitches!”
dina scoffed incredulously, “hon, she has like a million bitches. every single girl in this school is her bitch.”
“and yeah,” she continued, “she’s nerdy in front of you. i’ve never seen her act the way she does with you, i was like ‘what the hell?’”
you shook your head, feigning disbelief, though your disagreement was beginning to wear thin. “i do not believe a single word coming out of your mouth right now.”
dina sighed, heavy and exaggerated.
“y’know what?” dina rolled her eyes, “i will not make myself late for class by debating with you any longer. you’re in denial and you’ll realize it soon enough.” and with that she got up and strode toward campus.
you sighed to yourself. dina don’t know what she was talking about.
you turned back to the field, looking for ellie’s jersey number through the crowd of uniforms.
ellie wasn’t ‘hot’.
the whistle sounded for a break when your eyes found the familiar ‘6’ on the field. you watched as ellie trekked over to the bottom of the bleachers.
you’d known her for years—hell, joel used to change your diapers! you definitely would’ve noticed if ellie had changed.
you watched the scene before you. there was nothing intriguing whatsoever, just ellie, your life-long nerdy best friend, walking over to a bench of water bottles.
then she did something unbelievable.
your eyes followed the shape of her hand as she lifted up the dark blue hem of her shirt and brought it up to wipe her face, exposing the sculpted muscle the fabric previously concealed.
she wasn’t hot. she wasn’t…
ellie picked up her bottle, long fingers gripping it tightly, before bringing it to her lips, tipping her head back as she drank.
beads of sweat dripped down the newly exposed skin of her neck, her throat bobbing as she drank.
oh. my. god.
with a final swig of her water bottle ellie looked up from her spot near the bottom of the bleachers, before slowly setting her bottle down.
her face lit up with recognition as she spotted you on your seat.
she reached up slowly, running her fingers through the front of her hair, as a the corner of her mouth drew upwards into a smirk.
her eyes met yours and, strangely, you felt your heart skip a beat.
what the hell was going on?
the eyes that stared back at you now no longer belonged to the familiar dork you’d known all your life.
no, they were different—longing, daring, dangerous. a disaster for your friendship.
you stared down at her, watching, a strange heat beginning to rush to your face.
she flashed you one final grin before finally turning away, leaving you frozen and flustered as you silently followed her number down the field.
oh, you were so fucked.
you buried your face in you palms with a muffled whimper. dina was right.
when did she even get this hot?
