Chapter Twenty
GJ
I’d been prepared for any and all emotional responses from Leah—tears, anger, annoyance—after fighting with Mags. She’d given me the play-by-play on the way home, and it sounded intense. But to my surprise, Leah seemed…okay.
Even in the days following, she didn’t seem that worried about it. She kept telling me she felt good about what she’d said—even with the cold war going on in their home—and felt good about us, and that was that.
Mags, on the other hand, had taken it upon herself to be even more of an asshole during practice than she normally was. But if the trade-off was that I didn’t have to keep things a secret with Leah anymore, it was more than worth it to me.
The only problem was that Mags being a little bitch made it impossible for the rest of the team to mind their business. Fortunately, they all cared a hell of a lot less.
“That explains her attitude,” Anna joked during practice while we were stretching. She was on the floor, her legs on either side of her body. She leaned over to touch her right toes.
I held my arm over my head and counted silently to twenty. “She’s always had one, even before this.”
“Oh, I’m not saying it’s justified.” She switched sides, moving her hair out of the way in the process. “I hooked up with a teammate’s sister at my last school. I get it. It’s not a big deal if you’re both able to be cool about it.”
“Is that why you transferred?”
Anna snorted. “Funny.”
As I exited practice, my phone rang. When I saw Theo’s name pop up on my screen, I immediately grinned to myself.
“Hi, who is this? I don’t think I have this number saved,” I said after answering.
“Yeah, yeah, okay, I get it. I’m sorry I’ve been MIA.”
“I saw your commercial running during the men’s game the other night—your acting could use some work.”
“Oh god,” Theo groaned. “My management has been booking the most insane shit for me. I always say yes for some reason, and then it actually comes to doing it, and I have no idea why I’m there.”
I headed the same way I always walked home, my phone to my ear.
It was cold, but the sun was blinding and hot, making it almost bearable.
“Oh, my name is Theo McCall, and I’m the new face of women’s basketball, and my life is so hard because I just got paid several hundred thousand dollars to do a commercial. ”
Theo laughed. “I’m humbled, thank you. I needed that. How are you feeling about the Point Brook game?”
“Easy work.”
“Yeah? Feeling okay?”
I wasn’t sure if okay was the right word.
I’d started feeling pre-game anxiety now that it was inching closer.
Point Brook had lost some of its momentum when their Theo McCall—Cam Kerr—graduated and was drafted.
Even a legacy school could feel when they’d lost a genuine superstar.
But they were also undefeated, like us, and much more consistent than we’d been.
Meanwhile, every time I picked up the ball, renewed fear that I’d lose all of the progress I’d made in the last few weeks knocked me on my ass.
Our biggest saving grace was that this was a home game; we’d play them again later in the season at their arena, which was even more daunting.
“It’s…you know.” But trying to connect with Theo on that was impossible—Theo was known for her dependability on the court.
She knew how to balance out a bad shooting game with assists, knew how to get her shit together when defense was riding her.
I’d never jinx her by saying she was immune to having a bad season, but so far, she hadn’t gone through the slump I had.
“Yeah, I know,” Theo said. “Well, you still have a few games at least until then. There’s time to prepare.” She took a breath. “Anyway. I miss you, dude. I’m hoping I can get to another game before the end of the season.”
“I hope so, you and Maya need to see me again now that I’m back. I have to make up for my performance at the last one.”
“Yeah, we’d love that. I never thought having to coordinate being, like, an hour away would be such a pain in the ass. We’re going to see each other more after you get drafted than we do now, living in the same state.”
I smiled. I knew Theo was probably just doing it to be nice, but hearing her so confident in me still going pro was exactly what I needed right now. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
With Nia still out on concussion protocol, I had a room to myself during the next away game.
It was pretty luxurious—and I definitely didn’t mind the texts and pictures Leah was teasing me with because she knew I was alone—but it was also kind of lonely.
I’d gone from my studio apartment to an empty hotel room, and I didn’t even have Leah here in person like I did back on campus.
I was flipping between TV channels and considering an early bedtime when I heard a knock on the door. I got up, curious who was stopping by. To my surprise, Anna was standing on the other side.
“Hey,” I greeted her after opening the door.
“Hey. I brought some snacks, thought you could use the company.”
God, she was so nice. It was ridiculous. The only saving grace was that I was feeling a little more normal about it now, finally. “You actually have perfect timing.”
I stepped aside to let Anna in, and she settled into the chair in the corner of the room. “The vending machine had some kind of issue and gave me a bunch of stuff I didn’t pay for.”
I snorted and sat down on my bed. “Of course it would. You being, like, weirdly super lucky totally makes sense. Do you find money on the ground all the time, too?”
Anna blushed. “No comment.”
I snorted. When she held up a bag of candy, I nodded, and she tossed it to me.
“You looking forward to this game with Mags tomorrow with the way she’s been acting?”
“It’s whatever. If she wants to be a brat about it, she can be a brat about it. I’m not going to dump her sister over it.”
“It’s nice you finally hate someone on the team more than you hate me,” Anna said.
“I guess I can’t really hate her since I’m seeing her sister,” I said, and then brushed it off. “Wait, no. I’m not going to be diplomatic about it—I don’t think I ever even liked her that much as a teammate, so now I really don’t have to pretend to like her.”
Anna snorted. “Sounds serious. With her sister, I mean.”
“I guess it kind of is,” I admitted, which felt both like a minimization of how much our relationship meant to me and an overstatement since Leah and I hadn’t officially talked about what we were doing.
We knew we were exclusive, and my feelings for her felt so big they were almost overwhelming, but that didn’t mean Leah was ready for more yet.
“She’ll come around. I’m sure the initial shock is weird. But the power of friendship has gotten us far this season, so I’m hoping she gets it together soon.”
I laughed. “I don’t know if I’d say we’re benefiting from the power of friendship, exactly.”
She shrugged. “I mean, we all started playing better once we got into a groove. It’s amazing what happens when you have fun on the court with your teammates. It’s, like, basically proven by science. And sports stats.”
I tossed a few more Skittles into my mouth. “Well, then I guess I'd better keep it together because I almost blew it for all of us.”
“Shooting slumps happen. You figured it out, that’s what matters.”
“Yeah, I guess. Let’s just hope that article was overstating people’s reluctance to draft me.” When I glanced up and saw the look Anna was giving me, I shrugged. “I’m just saying. It’s not like you have to be worried—you’re definitely getting drafted if you declare.”
Anna brushed my comment off. “I’m just not worried about it, period.
I had a really good run in college. If I’m talented enough to continue playing, that’s amazing.
If I’m not, I've gotten to do what a lot of people haven’t.
” She paused for a moment. “I do really want to go pro, though. I’m trying not to get my hopes up and whatever, but I don’t know. ”
“How do you keep yourself so cool about it?” I finally asked.
It was the question I’d been dying to get an answer to ever since Anna transferred here.
I’d been too caught up in being annoyed by how effortlessly she’d fit in and taken over the role I wanted to see her as the asset—and teammate—she was.
“Like, you transferred here your senior year and haven’t missed a beat.
You’ve been one of the best players in college women’s ball this season.
It’s kind of crazy, if you think about it. ”
“It is crazy. It’s also a lot of years of training.
And talking to the right people,” Anna said.
“Lots of time in regular therapy and with the team therapist, too. Coach Darlene was really big on making sure I was mentally and emotionally prepared to come here and deal with the level of attention that I’d be suddenly dropped into.
I spent, like, most of the summer working through all of the shit I was seeing online because I wasn’t used to it. ”
I quietly mulled over her words, thinking back to what Theo had said so many months ago. “The therapist actually helps with that stuff?”
“Honestly, yeah,” Anna admitted. “It feels kind of…embarrassing, I guess, to admit. Not, like, going to therapy. But having to go to therapy because people suddenly know who I am and really care about how well I play ball feels kind of dumb. It feels like such a non-issue in theory, but it’s hard. People can be mean.”
I inhaled slowly, not sure I was ready to admit to myself yet that Anna was probably right about it being a good thing.
Anna stood up and headed to the door. “I’m not going to speak on your season or tell you what to do because that shit’s really annoying, but it helped me.
You haven’t been given a lot of grace this season by the coaches or the fans, and sometimes you just need a place to put all of those feelings,” she said.
“But that’s all I’ll say. I’ll see you tomorrow for the game. ”