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“Shay, I’m–”
“No, don’t say anything else. It was a mistake. I get it. We’re both tired. I had a few drinks. I–”
The door beeped behind her, and then opened. Faith Roy stood there, looking confused.
“And when you run point, you have to remember that, right?” Shay asked, trying to think on her feet.
“Right. Yeah,” Layne replied before she stood up. “Hey, Faith.”
“What are you doing in here?” Faith asked Shay. “I thought you said you were going to bed.”
“I was, but I ran into Layne. We were just going over a few things, but… I’m going to sleep now, so… I’ll see you tomorrow. Both of you, I mean. I’ll see both of you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Layne, I’m hopping in the shower, if that’s okay. Or were you about to go to sleep?” Faith asked as Shay’s hand reached the door handle.
“No, I don’t think I’ll be able to get much sleep tonight.”
“That makes both of us,” Shay muttered to herself as she pulled the door back open and hurried down the hall.
CHAPTER 8
A drunk make-out session with Shay Amos had not been on Layne’s 2020 bingo card. When Layne had first arrived at Dunbar University to move into the dorm, she’d been alone and a little scared. She only had two bags of stuff and nothing else in the car when she’d walked into the room she’d shared with a stranger for the first two years of her time at college. Luckily for her, she’d ended up with a decent roommate who had brought the mini fridge and microwave. The room didn’t have a TV, but that had been fine for both of them because they had their laptops. Layne’s was a lot older than her roommate’s, but it still worked fine.
They’d had a freshman orientation session with the RA, and there had been a mixer after the meeting. Chips and soda had been laid out on a long table, and Layne had stayed for about an hour. She’d tried to make conversation, but everyone there seemed to already have someone to talk to, or it had been easy for them to find someone to strike up a conversation with. Not for Layne. She felt so out of place there and hadn’t known anyone else coming to Dunbar. Most people from her high school didn’t even know Dunbar existed. So, she’d just gone up to her room and showered in a communal shower with short walls between each stall. It was, thankfully, empty. Despite playing a team sport for a number of years, Layne hadn’t ever showered in front of her teammates or after gym class in high school.
Being the only gay kid she knew in her school meant that she’d always been worried that someone would find out, and a locker room with girls in bras was an easy place for them to put two and two together. So, she’d kept her eyes to the floor and tried to keep a low profile. It was true that she’d had a girlfriend, but she hadn’t attended the same high school, so there hadn’t been any risk of getting caught in their secret relationship during the school day. Layne hadn’t been out, and she hadn’t planned on coming out as a high school student, either. She had things she wanted to do, goals to accomplish, and she didn’t want anyone’s opinion of her sexuality to get in the way.
As a walk-on, she hadn’t been able to move into the athletic dorm, so she hadn’t met any of her teammates in the halls of the dorm or at their own mixer, like the rest of them probably had. She hadn’t even met them at the walk-on tryouts. They hadn’t been there. It had been just for the women who wanted to make the team but hadn’t been offered a scholarship. Layne had made it and was the only player from that group of nine who had. When it came time for her first practice, that was when she’d seen Shay for the first time. Not expecting to actually make the team, Layne hadn’t bothered to look up the teammates she’d have. Then, she’d made it, and the next day, Shay had been in her first practice.
Shay was beautiful. She had this long blonde hair that she’d had back in a single French braid and these bright-blue eyes. Layne had loved her smile the most, though, and she’d pushed all of that down and out of her mind the moment they were running sprints up and down the court because she was still hoping that if she played well enough, she could be awarded a scholarship, which would make her life for the next decade so much easier.
When she’d been rewarded with one, after the coach left and the new one arrived mid-season, she’d been told that she could move into one of the rooms that a departing player had occupied for Layne’s sophomore year. Layne had been glad to be in a dorm with the rest of the team since it had always felt like they all got to go home together, and she had to be dropped off separately at her own dorm, but it also meant that Layne had gotten a new roommate and had to get to know her. Since the rooms weren’t assigned by sport, Layne had shared a room with a fellow sophomore who played tennis. They hadn’t talked much, but Layne knew that had probably been her fault since she had spent so much time studying and at practice.
She’d also spent a lot of time staring at Shay Amos, and on and on it had gone. It would be unfair to say that Layne had fallen in love with Shay. She didn’t know the woman all that well off the court. It would be fair to say that Layne had developed a massive crush on Shay, though, and when she’d found out that Shay was gay, like her, after overhearing her talk about some girl she’d gone on a date with during their sophomore year, that Layne had thought she might have a chance. Of course, Shay had had no idea that Layne had been interested; no one on her team had even known that she liked women, and since Layne wasn’t exactly the type to just walk up to a woman and ask her out, nothing had come of it.
In fact, the few dates Layne had been on hadn’t resulted because she’d done the asking. For one, she’d met her date in the campus library, and the other girl had done the asking. For another, Layne had been on a run outside and had seen the same girl reading or studying on a bench. One day, that girl asked her to have a seat. Layne had, expecting the girl to tell her that her shoe had been untied or something, but she’d told Layne that she’d watched her running and had wanted to talk to her. Layne had been a passenger in her own love life more than an active participant, and she planned to keep it that way until she had this job locked down coming out of her internship. Basketball would be over. School would be over. She could focus on her career for a bit, and maybe then, on finding someone.
Layne sat in her seat on the bus. No matter which kind of bus they took, she always seemed to find herself on the right side, about halfway back, and with no one sitting next to her. The bus was never full, even with all the players and the coaching staff, and the equipment was usually stored under in a big bus or in the back of a smaller one, so other players had their own rows, too, but Layne had hoped that Shay would sit next to her today. She never had before, but today was different.
They’d kissed last night. Shay had kissed her, and Layne hadn’t slept a wink after she’d left the room. Instead of Shay sitting next to her, though, the woman took one of the front seats, and her head was against the window for the entire drive to the airport for their short flight home. At the airport, they’d all gone through security. Normally, Shay was talkative, and that was especially true after a win, but today, she had on headphones and didn’t appear to be talking to anyone, Layne included.
They hadn’t been sat next to one another on the flight, and Layne was actually glad that Shay was behind her, or she probably would have spent the entire flight staring at the back of Shay’s chair. She had to pull herself together. Soon, they’d all be home, and the team would start preparing for their first game of the biggest tournament of their lives. She couldn’t let her little crush or the fact that Shay was the best kisser in the world – or, at least, the best of the very few women Layne had kissed – get to her. It was possible that Layne would get substantial playing time in the tournament, with Martin’s ankle still sore and Ledger not being as fast. Plus, Layne had finally proven herself to her team and her coach, so she might even earn a starting spot if she played her cards right. She didn’t need to be worrying about what Shay was thinking about their kiss. That wasn’t what Layne was all about. She didn’t worry about what other people thought of her.
Except now, all she could think about was how soft Shay’s lips had been and how amazing it had felt having Shay in her lap, straddling her hips. Layne had had her hands on Shay’s back. She’d been about to move them under Shay’s shirt when her brain had kicked in and suggested to her that Shay was, at minimum, tipsy and, possibly, full-on drunk.
Not only was Layne worried that Shay would regret whatever they were doing when she sobered up; if they were going to do that, Layne didn’t want Shay to be drunk in any capacity. She wanted Shay to want it, too, and she knew Shay didn’t, so Layne studied on the flight back, and when they got onto their bus at the airport, she put her own head against the window and couldn’t wait until she could get into her own room and block out the world until she had to eat something that day.
???
“Eliza, what are you–”
Just as Layne put her key in the door, her head turned on its own when she heard the name of Shay’s ex-girlfriend. Most of the players had already gone into the rooms, but Shay had stopped when she saw her ex-girlfriend standing in front of her door.
“Can we talk?”
“About what? You dumped me. Couldn’t wait, like, a day to get whatever stuff you have here?”
“Please,” Eliza said.
