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“Fuck you, Jessop,” she said.
“Whoa!”
“You wanted to have shower sex with your boyfriend, and Layne is sick.”
“There’s no way she got it because–”
“Have you called him to see if he’s okay recently?”
“He texted this morning.” Jessop didn’t say anything for a long minute. “Shit.”
“What?”
“He said he was really tired, but I’m sure that’s from classes and work.”
“Oh, my God,” Shay replied, and the tears started streaking down her face. “Call Coach now. Tell her everything. I swear to God, Jessop… If something happens to Layne because of you, I–”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine, Shay. I’m sorry. I missed him. We hadn’t–”
“You think we’re not all going through this? I have a girlfriend I haven’t been able to touch, either, Jessop. I can’t even take care of her when she’s sick, probably, because of you.”
“Wait. You and Layne?”
“Yes. I can’t be with my girlfriend right now, and I’m terrified of losing her, and that’s probably because you and your boyfriend wanted to get laid. You think about that when you call Coach to tell her about all the rules you broke and when you know we all have to go through those extra tests in a minute. I hope you’re negative; I really do. And I hope your dumbass of a boyfriend is okay, too. But if anyone else on this team is sick and you’ve cost them their seasons and maybe more, I will get you kicked off this team so fast, Jessop… Call her now. Tell her. I have to check on my girlfriend.”
Then, Shay hung up. Sniffling, she tried to get her breathing under control. Maybe everything would be fine. Maybe Jessop’s boyfriend hadn’t given it to Layne, and the whole team would be fine. Shay was supposed to go back downstairs in about fifteen minutes to take another test. Maybe she’d be fine, too. She showered before Jessop; she knew that much without needing to look at the schedule. Right now, though, she needed to call her girlfriend and make sure she was okay.
Shay took a deep breath and dialed Layne’s number. After four rings, Layne finally answered.
“Hey,” Layne greeted.
“Hi, babe,” she said, trying to pretend like everything was fine.
“What’s wrong?” Layne asked, sounding okay, surprisingly.
“Nothing. We just got back. I have to go to take another test in a minute, but I wanted to check on you. How are you? Did you just wake up?”
“No, I was listening to a lecture on my computer, so my headphones were attached to that and not my phone. That’s why it took me a minute to answer.”
“You’re doing schoolwork?”
“Yeah. I woke up a few hours ago, and I feel fine. My fever broke about an hour ago. I’ll keep an eye on it, though.”
“Your fever?”
“Uh… Yeah.”
“You had a fever?”
“I was ninety-nine point one. That’s as high as it got. And I’m normal now.”
“You didn’t tell me?”
“Shay, it was fine. It was just a little high and probably more because of stress than anything else. It’s not there anymore.”
“Fuck, Layne.” Shay rubbed her face with her hand again. “I’m terrified right now, and you’re over there not telling me when you have a fever? Anything else I need to know about?”
“I have a little cough, but it’s not how it was the first time. And–”
