AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah?”
“I’m really happy that you’re not done playing basketball. You’re amazing, and you deserve to have another shot.”
“Thanks.”
They hung up, and Shay thought about how she’d spent the majority of four seasons with Layne only playing a few minutes a game, but she wasn’t sure how she’d play on the team without her next year.
CHAPTER 16
“Hey, college graduate,” Shay said on FaceTime.
“Hey, not college graduate,” Layne replied with a little laugh. “What should I say instead? Hey, fifth-year senior?”
“How about just, ‘Hey, Shay,’ and we leave it at that?”
“Sure.”
“So, how does it feel, being done with school?”
“Weird,” Layne admitted. “I keep having that recurring nightmare of having a paper due on the same day I have a final, and I haven’t written the paper and didn’t study for the test, so I fail both and don’t graduate. I don’t technically have the diploma yet, so there’s a–”
“They held the virtual ceremony, of which you were on the graduate list, Layne. You’re good. You’re done.”
Layne smiled at her and said, “I am, yeah.”
“I wish I could’ve been there even virtually to support you, but there was something about bandwidth issues, so they could only have so many people there. I’m going to watch it when they send you the recording thing, though.”
“Watch other people give speeches from their houses for a couple of hours before they read off names of people who aren’t there to get their actual diplomas?”
“Well, I can fast-forward through all the boring parts. Your mom got to see it, though, right?”
“She had a night shift, so she was able to be there with me, yeah.”
“That’s so good. I’m glad, Layne.”
“Yeah, me too. She gave me my graduation gift, too.”
“What did you get?” Shay asked.
“Money.”
“Money?”
“Yeah. She’s been scraping by all this time and putting money away for me, too. It’s not, like, a million dollars or anything, but it’s enough for me to pay rent and a security deposit on a place.”
“In Chicago?”
“Well, not in Chicago, but close by.”
“When do you start your internship again? You haven’t exactly moved.”
“They got back to all interns and said that with COVID and everything going on, they wanted us to all work remotely. I got the computer they shipped me yesterday, and I’ve been setting it up and stuff. It starts on Monday. When things change, they said they’d give us a little time to make the move; like maybe a month or something.”
“How long is this internship? I had the idea that it was just for the summer.”
“No, it’s a whole program. That’s why it was my top choice: it’s for a year. Next April or May, they’ll talk to each of us in the program and either offer us the job or not. I’m hoping that I’m one of the few who gets to stay. The pay is crappy, but at least there is pay. I’m mostly in it for the experience, and it sucks that I can’t be there in person, but I’ll make do here while I can. It’ll save money, living with my mom, who refuses to let me pay rent, and… Yeah, I guess that’s my update. Not much else going on over here. What about with you?”
“Oh, not much? You just graduated from college and don’t want to celebrate?”
