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“I know. You wouldn’t have let me, which was why I didn’t do it. But, Layne, I thought about that, and it scared me. I could see us both leaving here at the end of the year and me getting lucky and drafted somewhere. You’d be in Chicago, and we’d do long-distance until we found a way to not have to anymore. Like, I could see us living together, and not in a tiny dorm room.” Shay chuckled. “I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about any of that yet.”
“Neither was I,” Layne replied.
“Hey, you two,” Hilton said as she unlocked the room next to Shay’s. “Are we allowed to do that?”
“Do what?” Shay asked.
“Talk in the doors like that?” Hilton tossed her bag into her room. “It’s, like, six feet, at least, right?”
“I guess if Coach doesn’t know, we’re good either way, right?” Shay said.
“Not like you to risk Coach’s wrath, Amos. What’s gotten into you?”
Shay looked over at Layne.
“Ah. Forget I asked.” Hilton chuckled before she pulled her suitcase inside the room, letting the door close behind her.
“Hilton knows?” Layne asked. “Or, knew, I guess. She knew about us?”
“I didn’t tell you, with everything that happened, but she’s the one who told me about Jessop and the whole shower thing when you got sick. She was wondering why I was so worried about you, so I told her. She didn’t tell anyone else. I trust her.”
“I’m not really worried about that now,” Layne replied. “I guess I just didn’t know that she knew.”
“She was the one who kept me from beating down Jessop’s door and committing a crime.” Shay chuckled.
“What?”
“I called Jessop and yelled at her; you know that part. I told her to call Coach, which she did, and Coach kicked her off the team for violating about a million team and school rules. Before she left the dorm because she was off the team, though, I thought about beating down her door. I don’t really know what I was going to do. I’m not exactly a violent person, but I wanted to kick her ass. I wanted to yell at her more, maybe.” Shay shrugged again. “I had a lot of feelings about it that I needed to get out, but I called Hilton, and she talked me down.”
“You wanted to beat someone up for me?” Layne asked with a smile in her eyes.
“I’d beat up anyone for you,” she replied. “I can’t guarantee I’d win. I mean, Hilton could probably kick my ass. But I could’ve taken Jessop; I know that much. I just didn’t know how to deal with everything I was feeling, and yelling at her again seemed like the best way to get some of those feelings out. Breaking up with you seemed like the best way to deal with the rest.”
Layne looked down at the hideously patterned carpet.
“I didn’t want to,” Shay added.
“I know,” Layne said. “I knew that much, at least. I know you, Shay.”
“You know me better than anyone,” Shay corrected. “I was with Eliza for over a year, and she never even got close to how you know me.”
“Well, we couldn’t have sex, kiss, or touch, so we kind of only had talking. It’s easier to get to know someone when you can only talk.”
“No,” Shay replied. “It wasn’t just that.”
Hearing Layne use ‘had’ instead of ‘have’ hit Shay in a way she hadn’t been expecting. They had talked, but they weren’t together anymore, so they weren’t still talking.
“We should…” Layne nodded to the end of the hall.
Shay turned to see Coach pulling her bag with her up the stairs, looking like she’d hated every minute of it even though they were on the second floor, so it could’ve been worse.
“Layne…”
“Later. I don’t want you to get in trouble. You’re about to play your first NCAA tournament game and kill it out there.” Layne stood up. “Don’t risk it, okay?”
Shay stood as well and said, “Later.”
Coach walked down the hall, and Layne disappeared behind a closed door. Shay pretended like she was loading her stuff inside her own room just as Coach was about to go by.
