Making It Count, page 18
Shay smiled and said, “Not only. But maybe a little, yeah. I was supposed to be a leader on the team, and here was this apparent great player who had been riding the bench for four years when she could’ve been helping us win more games, and I’d never even noticed that before. Then, we were talking, and I kept wanting to know more about you. It was like every time we hung up, I just wanted to call you again.”
“I felt the same way.” Layne smiled.
“Yeah?” Shay took a bite. “Shit. Hot.”
“Babe, give it a second. Have a pretzel.”
“I like when you call me ‘babe.’ I say it more than you do, so it’s nice. When I let it slip that first time, I didn’t think you heard it.”
“No, I heard it. And I liked it, but I didn’t want to say anything because I thought you might take it back.”
“Why would I do that?” Shay asked.
“Things have been weird for us,” Layne replied. “I mean, we have a four-year history of basically not talking unless we had to because of the team. Then, we finally talk. We kiss. It’s great. We don’t talk about it. The next day, we go into lockdown, and the season is over when it shouldn’t have been. Then, we’re at our homes, and I’m starting a job. You’re planning to come back here. My mom gets sick, and we stop talking. I get sick, and I don’t know how to tell you because I don’t want to worry you. And now, we’re here, on our first actual date, but you’re in another room, and we’re eating ramen on our beds.”
“But we’re doing it together. That matters,” Shay replied. She held up a pretzel. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” Layne said with a giggle.
“How bad was it, really, Layne? You were in the hospital.”
Layne looked away for a minute before she finally returned to look into Shay’s blue eyes and said, “My mom was worse than I was, but when I was a kid, I had asthma.”
“What?”
“It was never really serious. It only flared up at certain times. I had an inhaler, but I rarely had to use it. I worked on developing my lungs with sports. I do still carry an inhaler, but it’s for emergencies only, and I haven’t had one of those in a long time. Well, I had recent emergencies, yeah, but before COVID, nothing in years.”
“I didn’t know you had asthma.”
“No one but my mom and my old doctor knew. My inhaler was even expired because I hadn’t needed it refilled in so long. I had a mild case when I was younger, but I thought I was fine. Then, when I got sick, the asthma made it worse, so yeah, I had to go to the hospital.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Are you really okay?” Shay asked. “They’re starting to talk about how people have lingering symptoms, Layne. I looked things up after you told me you got sick.”
“I’m still struggling to breathe when we run, yeah, but I just got over it. It’ll get better. I get tired sometimes when I didn’t use to get tired, but other than that, I feel fine. Can we talk about something else, though? This is supposed to be a date.”
“Sorry,” Shay replied. “I wish I was sitting there next to you.”
“We wouldn’t be sitting.”
“No?”
“No. We’d be lying in this bed watching a movie, and I’d be holding you.”
Shay smiled and did that little head tilt thing she did sometimes.
“You’d be holding me, huh?”
“Yes,” Layne replied. “I want to hold you. God, Shay, I want to kiss you so badly. You have no idea.”
“Oh, I think I do.”
“I shouldn’t have stopped us that night after the game. I should have–”
“If you wouldn’t have, we both would’ve been naked, and Roy would’ve gotten quite a show when she walked in.”
Layne laughed and said, “God, could you imagine?”
“She has that high-pitched scream… I can see her yelling, ‘My eyes! My eyes!’ and running into the bathroom or something.” Shay laughed loudly.
“While we’re trying to get dressed again,” Layne added.
“No way,” Shay replied. “We’d get under the blanket naked. She could get her crap and take it to someone else’s room. Had it gotten that far, I wouldn’t have let her walking in stop us.”
“No?”
“Nope.” Shay ate a pretzel. “But I’m glad you stopped us, though.”
“You are?”
“I was tipsy that night, and we should’ve talked about the fact that I’d just figured out I had the big-time hots for you before I jumped to conclusions or something. Plus, imagine if we had done that…”
“I do. A lot,” Layne told her.
Shay giggled and said, “I mean, imagine it had really happened, and then, the next day, that was it; we couldn’t do it again.”
“We would know what it’s like.”
“Yeah,” Shay said, sounding disappointed. “When we finally do get to be in the same room together, I want so much time with you, babe. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Whatever we can have.”
“Me too,” Layne replied.
“Are you going to be okay when the season starts? I know it feels far off right now, but it’s really not. November feels far away when it’s only September, but it’ll sneak up on us.”
“I don’t know,” Layne admitted. “I can only keep working and hope I get back to a hundred percent.”
“I’ll help.”
“I know you will.”
“I’m going to ask you something. It might feel silly right now, given we’re on the phone and we’re eating pretzels and ramen, but I want… I know this is our first date, but it’s not really, is it?”
“I was just thinking about that earlier,” Layne said. “It doesn’t feel like it, no.”
“Can you just be my girlfriend, then?”
Layne laughed silently and said, “Romantic.”
“I’ll make you paper flowers if you say yes,” Shay told her.
“You really want to try this when we can’t even touch unless we’re on a basketball court?”
“I’ll let you cop a feel when you’re on D,” Shay offered.
“Oh, really?” Layne laughed.
“I want it, Layne. I know we have a whole season and maybe a pandemic to get through first, but I spent months talking to you every day and then had to go weeks without you, and I know I don’t want that again. I know what this is. It’s not friendship. It’s…”
“Special?”
“Yes,” Shay confirmed. “So, will you?”
Layne nodded, and Shay smiled.
CHAPTER 23
“How is it already the first game?” Hilton asked Shay.
“I have no idea. But here we are,” Shay replied as she laced up her right shoe. “It’s November. We have Thanksgiving break in, like, two weeks.”
“Hey,” Layne said as she sat down at the chair in front of a locker that was technically next to Shay but also several feet away.
“You don’t sound good. Everything okay?” Shay asked, sitting up and leaning back.
“I’m not starting. That’s all. I thought I might be, but Coach just told me the news.”
“You’ve practiced with first team from the beginning of the season,” Shay argued and looked around the room for their coach to complain.
“She’s starting Ledger. It’s fine. I know I’m not as fast as I was last year. And I’ve been getting back to my old self, but it’s taking a while.”
“Layne, you’ve worked your ass off these past two months. You’re better than you were at the end of last season.”
“Maybe. But I don’t have a ton of endurance. I can only play all-out for a few minutes. She wants Lisa out there to start because she can give her more minutes in the beginning. I’m sure I’ll go in at some point.”
“This sucks. I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to ask about you starting. I just figured you were.”
“So did I,” Hilton added and stood. “I’m going to grab some water to hydrate and because it gives me an excuse to spare my ears from this mask for a second if I do it behind that shower wall.” Hilton walked over to the table and grabbed a bottle of water before she disappeared behind the wall that separated the showers from the rest of the room.
“Babe, I’m sorry,” she whispered to Layne.
“It’s okay. I’m good at riding the bench. I’ll sit in my old chair. It’s probably still got my ass print on it, so it’ll be comfortable.”
“Don’t talk about your ass in here,” Shay whispered.
“Why not?” Layne laughed and bent down to slip on a shoe.
“Because I still haven’t seen it,” she whispered again.
Layne winked at her, and Shay grunted because Layne knew that Shay liked it when she winked at her like that.
“We’re not supposed to talk about that stuff when we’re in team mode, Shay,” Layne chastised.
“You brought up your ass,” Shay argued.
“In relationship to basketball. You took it somewhere else.”
“Why are either of you talking about Stoll’s ass?” Hilton asked as she sat back down.
No one on the team knew that they were together. They’d decided the night of their first official date that they wouldn’t say anything unless they had to, for some reason, because basketball season, especially this one, was too important for Shay. If she got this right, she might be able to go pro. If she didn’t, that would be the end of her playing basketball, and this time, it really would be the end. While the NCAA had granted everyone who wanted it an extra year of eligibility, that was all she’d get. Lincoln, who had been a freshman last year, had been able to red-shirt, meaning she hadn’t played enough for the NCAA to say she’d used up a year of eligibility, so with that, she still had four years of eligibility left, but with the COVID-year, as they’d all come to call it, she would have at least five full years of eligibility, and she might be able to petition for a sixth since she wasn’t likely to get on the court this year, either. Shay had started practically every game, so she had no chance of getting another year.
“Later,” Shay whispered to Layne. “And I’m sorry about the not starting thing.”
“That’s okay. I’m good with it. I want us to win.”
Shay smiled at her girlfriend of a little over two months. They’d decided not to count those first few months where they’d obviously been more than friends but hadn’t acknowledged it as being part of their new relationship, so their anniversary would be on the night of their first date where they’d had ramen and pretzels, and Shay had eaten a chocolate chip granola bar for dessert while Layne had a caramel chocolate one. By then, Layne had known that peanut butter were Shay’s favorites and that Shay didn’t really like caramel. Shay knew that caramel was something Layne could tolerate but didn’t love. She also knew that the caramel ones came in the variety pack Layne had bought because it had been cheaper and that she’d already given Shay all of the peanut butter ones before their date, which was why she hadn’t had them the night of.
It had been two months of video dates where they sometimes ate snacks, watched a show or a movie together, or sent links back and forth of songs or whole playlists for the other person to listen to and discuss. Sometimes, they just lay in their beds staring at each other and talking about what they’d do when they could finally be in the same room alone, without masks, COVID, or anything else in their way.
“Don’t make it dirty. Be romantic,” Shay had warned one night in October.
“You’re the one always making things dirty.” Layne had laughed.
“Layne…”
“Fine. Not dirty. Um… I guess if we’re not doing that first – which would kind of suck, Shay, because it will have been months and months by then, probably – I’ll say that I want to lie down next to you and just stare at you.”
“We’re literally doing that right now.” Shay had laughed.
“No, you’re on a screen. I want to lie next to you like this and just look at you like you’re really there. I want to be able to reach out and touch you, push your hair back behind your ear, and touch your face. Then, I’d lean in and kiss you.”
“I said not dirty.”
“I just said ‘kiss,’” Layne had argued. “Slow.”
“A slow kiss?”
“Very slow and very long; like we’re just making out for hours because we can, finally, and that’s it. That’s what I’d want.”
“God, that sounds good,” Shay had agreed. “I miss kissing. I’m twenty-two. I should be kissing someone, right? I’m supposed to do a lot of that in my early twenties.”
“Girlfriend is lying right here,” Layne had stated, glaring at her.
“I didn’t say, ‘Kissing every woman in a room.’ I want to be kissing you. I want to walk around campus holding your hand, drop you off at your building, and kiss you quickly before I have to run off to class, too. And I also want to find that evil bench where you and Sabrina decided to start something and make out with you on it for hours.”
Layne had laughed and said, “Where did you and Eliza make out? Can I make out with you there, too?”
“Her place, mostly, so probably not going to happen. My room a little. A few times at the campus theater.”
“We’re going to a movie there, and I’ll be in your room a lot, then,” Layne had said.
“Fine by me. You can stay over. Technically, you wouldn’t be breaking curfew since the rule says we have to be in the building, not specifically in our rooms.”
“That’s assuming we can do this before the season is over. The way it’s going out there, Shay, I don’t know, babe,” Layne had said.
“Okay… Only good stuff. That’s our rule, right? Unless we have to talk about it – on our dates, we don’t.”
“You’re right,” Layne had agreed. “You’re beautiful, Shay.”
“So are you,” she’d replied.
Shay ran out onto the court, high-fived the other three teammates out there, and moved to the side, waiting for Hilton to join them. She looked over at the bench, where Layne was clapping, and gave her a little wink. Layne smiled and shook her head at her. Then, Shay put herself into game mode.
“Everyone good?” she asked as they huddled together.
“Good,” Hilton confirmed.
“Yeah,” Ledger offered.
The others nodded before they all put their hands together and yelled, “Dunbar,” taking their spots on the court right after.
The team they were playing tonight was from a small college in Iowa that wasn’t in their conference. They were starting three freshmen and two sophomores who didn’t seem to have a ton of experience or a high game-IQ, so when Shay took the ball up the court in the second quarter, passed it to Hilton, waited for her pick, and rolled, her defender and the other one didn’t know if they should stay with their player or switch off. The ball came back to Shay. She took a step back and landed a three. Dunbar was up by twelve.
It got even easier after that, and all Shay could think about was that soon, they’d have one game down, with only twenty-six more regular season games to go. She had to keep herself and her teammates focused, with all of the distractions, and most importantly, she had to keep them all healthy. If a team didn’t have enough players due to COVID, they had to forfeit, and even one of those could impact their goal of making it back to the conference championship and beyond.
At halftime, the starting lineup remained unchanged, and Shay noted that Layne hadn’t come off the bench yet. Layne was fine with it because she was Layne, but Shay knew how much work the woman had put into getting back to her old self and then some, so when Coach subbed Ledger out for the fourth time that game, she was pissed to see that yet again, it wasn’t Layne coming in for her. She brought the ball up, but because of that distraction, the guard from Iowa stole it from her and went in for an easy layup. Shay silently chastised herself, pushed the concerns about her girlfriend’s playing time out of her mind, took the ball back up the court, and landed a jumper.
It turned out, getting angry at herself for messing up made Shay a better player. She scored six more points and got two more rebounds and an assist, along with a steal and a jump ball that gave Dunbar possession. In the end, they won the game by fourteen points, looking almost unfazed by the fact that they had to get tested every day by shoving long sticks up their nose and then pray for a negative result for themselves but also for everyone on their team, including their coaches and trainers and anyone else on staff.
“Great game, everyone,” Coach said when they all got to the locker room. “We shouldn’t linger in here too long, so I want everyone back in their rooms. Get yourselves hydrated. I got you all some electrolyte kits. Take those bags with you when you go and follow the instructions for me. Eat well. A late snack will be at your doors when you get back, and I want a full night’s sleep tonight. It’s the first game back. You’re all going to be extra tired. Tomorrow, we’ll do some light work outside and watch film.”
“Yeah? We can go to the film room?”
“No, we’ll do it on Zoom,” Coach replied. “I know… I know…” she added when everyone groaned. “We all hate it. I asked the university to buy us one of those big, inflatable projector screens so that we could watch outside, but they declined my request, so it’s a virtual film-watching session for all of us. But we could have some fun with it, at least. Why don’t we do a pajama film session? Everyone, dress comfortably or funny if you want.”
“Lame, Coach.” Roy laughed.
Everyone else followed.
“I’ll wear my unicorn onesie,” Ledger said.
“I’ve got a tiger one,” Jessop added.
“There we go,” Coach replied. “We’re going to make the most of it. Take care of yourselves tonight. I’ll see you all tomorrow for our workout. Then, we’ll go back to our rooms for film.”
“Yes, Coach,” they all said in unison, as was their practice.
“So… Pajamas, huh?” Layne asked, looking over at Shay.
“No.” Shay glared at her playfully. “Later.”
“Fine. Fine.”
They all changed out of their uniforms, and it took everything in Shay not to look over at Layne. She’d seen her in her sports bra and those boy shorts Layne always wore hundreds of times now, but this was the first game where they’d changed in the locker room together after becoming a couple, so she’d resisted looking when Layne had changed into her uniform. Shay was determined not to look as she changed back into her street clothes. When she saw Layne in her underwear again, she wanted it to be because they were alone and not because of basketball.
