Chapter Fifteen
GJ
Even though the crowd was roaring, it was all white noise to me.
My feet pounded against the court as I got into position to catch Gemma’s rebound. She’d been on it tonight—the entire team had. Even though we were playing an away game and the crowd wasn’t interested in letting us forget it, we hadn’t slowed down at all.
Gemma passed the ball to me, and I surveyed the court to see who was open. Defense had been tight on us, but we had one of the best offenses of the season in women’s college basketball, so we were hard to pin down.
I locked eyes with Ellie down the court and knew she was ready.
Having to make a split-second decision—my body moving before my brain could even fully process what I was going to do next—I sent the ball flying her way.
It was an effortless pass, and our opponents hadn’t been prepared for it, setting Ellie up well.
Ellie fired a ball up the court and swooshed effortlessly through the net.
She’d been so smooth with it that she looked like a starter, exactly what we’d been working toward during our one-on-one practice sessions.
As the ball fell back onto the court, caught by the other team, I let go of a breath that I’d been holding.
“Good! Good!” Coach Darlene shouted, clapping her hand against her clipboard. “Keep that momentum, ladies!”
Ellie and I caught each other’s eye on the court, the two of us exchanging a small nod. Ellie’s face, serious as always, didn’t betray much, but I was pretty sure I saw the smallest smile forming at her lips.
The adrenaline from that game carried us through to the next.
This was one of our hardest weeks—not that any part of our schedule was ever actually easy—since we had a game in Ohio, basically one and a half days of rest, and then a game in West Virginia.
Time zone changes like that were fucking killer.
But bouncing from Colorado to Ohio to Colorado to now West Virginia, hopefully, wouldn’t slow us down. We were still miraculously undefeated, but there were some games coming up later in the season that I was nervous about. There was still a lot of time to go—enough time for us to blow it all.
But it was easy to feel confident, mostly because we were playing a smaller program.
There’d most likely be a crowd because name-recognized schools were a huge draw, but it wouldn’t be anything like what we were used to back home.
We never framed a game as an easy win because that was asking for trouble, but it definitely helped keep my confidence up.
“I’m exhausted. I can’t believe we have a game tomorrow,” Nia groaned, throwing herself down on her hotel bed.
We’d gotten paired up as roommates this season because our typical travel game roommates both graduated.
I was fine with it—I would’ve picked her a million times over Anna.
Or rooming with some random on the team that I didn’t know as well.
I was all for building a team bond, but I didn’t want just anyone in my space like that.
“I’m definitely hitting that slump. Travel games are becoming a hell of a lot less fun now. ”
I looked over at her from my bed and shrugged. “We don’t have that many left.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason one of us is aspiring to go pro and one of us isn’t.” She took a deep breath, draping her arm over her forehead. “I love this sport, but I love my bed more.”
“You’re not planning on declaring?” I asked, surprised. Nia was really good; she wasn’t necessarily at the top of prospective draftee lists, but I could see her easily being a second-round pick.
She groaned, turning her head to look at me.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe I’m just talking out of my ass because my body is so sore that the thought of ever having to move again makes me want to cry.
And I’m so fucking luteal. I can’t believe we have to play even when our period hormones are acting up.
” She took a beat. “Talk to me again in a few weeks. There’s still time to figure it out. ”
“Not that much time.” I snorted as Nia waved me off and then reached for the remote to turn on the TV.
My phone vibrated on the nightstand, and I reached for it, hoping the person texting was the person I’d been hoping to hear from.
When I saw just a singular heart emoji pop up on my screen as the contact name—the best way I could think of to avoid accidentally exposing that Leah and I had been texting—I fought off a smile.
??
You’ve been looking good out there, how are you feeling about your game tomorrow?
GJ
Oh I looked good out there?
??
I’m sick of you
GJ
You miss me yet? I’ll be back soon to keep you warm in bed, don’t worry
??
Maybe a little but if you ever bring this up I’ll pretend someone else sent that text
I snorted, unable to help myself. I was so lost in texting Leah, thinking about her being here with me and what she was doing right now.
And also how she looked on the other side of the phone. Maybe she was wearing that shirt that I liked…
“You seem awfully giggly over there.”
I put my phone down immediately like I’d just been caught smiling at my phone by my teacher. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Nia looked at me sideways. “For being someone who has broken every heart on the Lakeside Green campus, you’re a terrible liar.”
I mulled over her words. “I mean, I own up to breaking hearts, but I’ve never identified as a liar. I might just stretch the truth sometimes.” Realizing I was thinking about it way too much, I waved the comment off. “Man, shut up. Stay out of my business.”
Nia snorted. “Oh, so you really like this one.”
I sucked my teeth, refusing to answer.
“Mhm. That’s what I thought.”
“Whatever.”
Nia snorted to herself. “She must be pretty amazing.”
I didn’t even have to think about how to respond. “She is.”
“Does she know that you feel that way about her?” She glanced over at me. “Don’t give me that look, I know how you are.”
“I think so. It’s complicated.”
She shrugged. “You’ll figure it out. Your ego makes it impossible to stop you or slow you down. You always manage to figure it out.”
“That almost sounded like a compliment.” I ran my hand over the bedding. “Thanks for defending me the other day, by the way.”
Nia frowned, confused. “What?”
“With Mags, when she was talking about Leah and me. I know my dating history doesn’t exactly reflect positively, so I appreciate you backing me up.”
“You haven’t been the most relationship-forward person on the planet, and you might stretch the truth or whatever bullshit you just tried with me, but it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. There is such a thing as just dating around.”
“Yeah.” I looked up at Nia and thought about the years we’d spent on the same team together. We’d always gotten along, and she was probably the person I liked the most and trusted the most as a friend outside of Theo. “Leah is the girl. But you can’t tell anyone.”
Nia threw her head back with laughter. “Oh, trust me, I know. I knew once Mags got all pissy about it. Mags might kind of suck, but that sibling intuition doesn’t lie.
But I do genuinely believe you can handle being friends with women either way—I wouldn’t defend it if I didn’t believe it.
” She looked over at me. “I’m happy for you. Don’t fumble.”
“I’m doing everything in my power not to,” I said, not one bit of that sentence was me stretching the truth.
After an easy win on the road, we got back home, and as soon as I physically could—outside of exams and getting some homework done—I invited Leah over. I hopped down my apartment complex steps two steps at a time just to get her more quickly.
When she saw me, she smiled. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
I was careful not to touch her in public, even though I wanted to.
It was one thing to sneak away from a party together, but if I’d learned anything from Theo’s time at Lakeside Green, it was that people would take random photos during the day like amateur paparazzi.
The thought of Mags seeing a picture of her sister and me making out in my hallway was hilarious, but I didn’t want to deal with that inevitable shit storm.
Leah seemed to be thinking the same thing. She looked around the hallway and back at the front entrance, and then bit her lip. “Just one kiss?” she whispered.
I grinned like a fucking idiot. “Okay.”
There was nothing quick about our kiss—we took our time, treating this like a reunion where we’d been apart for weeks instead of a few days.
Her lips were soft and inviting and felt like home.
I literally, physically, could not get enough of her.
I’d never minded having to be off campus for away games, but the thought of having to do this all over again in just a few weeks fucking sucked.
At least coming back home to Leah was nice.
We finally broke apart when the elevator dinged, and the two of us pulled from our daze. Leah blushed as the doors opened, and we saw the students on the other side. None of them even looked at us, all too busy on their phones to care.
We slipped on and headed up to my apartment. As soon as we walked inside, Leah gasped. “You didn’t.”
Not to suck my own dick, but I was pretty proud of the surprise. I knew how much Leah loved the Thai food place near campus, so after digging a little to get her order from her while I was away, I ordered it for us today.
Leah genuinely looked like she might cry. “You ordered my favorite. That is so thoughtful.”
I shrugged smugly, knowing I did a good job. “Just a little something.”
She put her arms around my neck and kissed me again, even more deeply this time, now that we weren’t at risk of getting caught. I let myself fall into it and didn’t stop my hands from wandering. I moved her hair to the side and kissed down her neck, making her giggle.
“I know you so nicely ordered us dinner, and it smells so good, but I think I’m distracted.”
“It’ll still be good in twenty minutes.”