Page 29

“Should we head inside?” Maya asked. Iris and I nodded, and I braved the herd of people walking in. I was a head above most of the people in the room, and inside, I caught the eye of even more people who definitely recognized me.

“Theo! Mom—Theo is here!” a kid nearby shouted. I kept my eyes straight ahead so we didn’t make eye contact with them, but I could feel everyone else looking my way.

“Oh my god, you are famous,” Maya said with an amused laugh. She dropped her voice low, her arm brushing against mine as she leaned in to talk to me. It was impossible to focus on the words she was saying with her skin on my bare arm.

“I’m not, it’s—”

“Yo, Theo! Can I get a picture with you?” a male student asked, stepping in front of us.

I was used to this, but I wasn’t used to navigating in front of Maya. And I definitely wasn’t used to navigating it in front of Maya and one of her friends.

“Oh, um. Sure, man,” I said easily. I glanced over at Maya and Iris. “Sorry. ”

“Take your time,” Maya said, and then turned to the guy who had stopped us. “Do you want me to take the picture?”

“Yeah, that would be great,” he said and handed his phone to Maya. “Thanks.”

He walked over and stood next to me, throwing up his hands in a low peace sign.

I appreciated that he didn’t bother trying to touch me; there were some people who weren’t great about personal space.

It was a bold choice considering I was stronger and taller than most of the people who stopped me to ask for photos.

“Smile,” Maya said, holding up his phone and snapping a few pictures. I couldn’t get a read on her expression. A gripping fear in the very back of my mind—from the deepest place of insecurity—worried that she thought it was annoying.

But the unfortunate reality was that this was what it was like.

This was life for me and for anyone else in it with me.

It wasn’t this bad everywhere, but there were times when people were going to recognize me.

And as much as I liked being around Maya, I couldn’t change it for her if she didn’t like it.

But even so, there was a tiny part of me that wondered if basketball could actually get in the way of us.

Navigating her cool girl, no strings attached attitude was one hurdle.

Basketball, and the attention that came with specifically me playing basketball, was something else entirely for us to navigate.

I smiled for the camera, forcing the thoughts out of my head. It was way too early into anything to start worrying about it. Maya and I were friends, and that was that. It wasn’t worth reading more into it.

Maya handed the phone back to the guy. “They look great.”

“Thank you,” he said, looking between me and Maya. “This is so fucking cool.”

As he walked away, Maya looked at me. “Did anyone tell him that you go to school here? He can get a photo with you whenever, technically.”

“I don’t know if I need pictures of what I look like in my nine a.m. lecture on business ethics floating around,” I said, and she snorted.

Just as I thought we were in the clear on photos, a group approached, followed by a few more people.

The group huddled around me and Maya, and I felt an instinctive urge to protect her from everyone walking our way.

I put my hands on her waist, holding her steady so she didn’t get swept up in the group.

It wasn’t a massive number of people, but having ten and then fifteen people approaching out of nowhere had a way of feeling like an ambush.

“Theo, can we get a photo?”

“Can you sign my shirt?”

“Theo! Did you see that Bendr said he’s flying out to your next game? So fucking cool, do you think you’ll get to meet him?”

Maya turned to me, the expression on her face a split between wide-eyed panic and amusement. It seemed like she didn’t really know if she should laugh or run .

“I’ll take care of this,” I said. “Go stand by the wall with Iris. I’ll see you in a second.”

Maya nodded, her hand finding my forearm. I wanted to reach out and take her by the hand, offer everything I could to try and check in on her, but that felt too far.

As I signed t-shirts and jerseys and answered random questions—including offering a diplomatic yes, I like Bendr’s music even though I hadn’t really listened to him before outside of house parties—I glanced over at Maya and Iris. They were up against the wall, talking to each other.

I wished in that moment I had the ability to hear from a far distance.

Or do a decent job at reading lips. I wasn’t picking up on anything they were saying, but I was nervous it wasn’t going in my favor.

I didn’t worry I’d done anything wrong necessarily, but Maya probably wasn’t used to attention like this in the way that I was—and even then, I was still getting used to it.

Jokingly posing for photos as if we were dating was different from actually being approached in public.

After posing for photos until my cheeks hurt from smiling, I forced myself away from the people still standing nearby. “Enjoy the game,” I said and walked over to Iris and Maya again, hoping everyone took the hint that I was done for now. They fortunately did. “Sorry, that was…a lot.”

“Sorry to bring you right into the middle of it all,” Maya said. “I feel bad. I should’ve known basketball fans were going to go nuts over you here. ”

I waved the apology off. “I’m the one who offered to come. I think my social currency has skyrocketed since Bendr, like, shared a clip from one of my games or whatever.”

“Bendr? Like, the dance music guy? He has that one song…” Iris hummed out the chorus of it, clearly trying to think of the name.

“Yeah,” I said.

Maya and Iris were quiet for a second, exchanging a look I couldn’t read.

My ego on the court was one thing but off the court, I was realizing quickly I had very little interest in being a public figure like this.

I just wanted to play basketball, maybe pose for pictures here and there before and after games.

I wasn’t naive enough to think I’d ever get away from it.

Part of playing at this level was being famous to a certain degree.

But I didn’t want Maya—or Iris, for that matter—to think that it was something I actually wanted .

Maya and Iris didn’t seem like the kind of people who’d be charmed by things like a crowd wanting to take photos or getting the attention of a famous rapper.

Walking to our seats from there was fortunately uneventful. I’d never been so ready to immerse myself in watching a game.

Iris sat down first, then Maya, and then me. I maintained a normal amount of distance from Maya, but it was hard to give her space when my legs were so long. As I settled in, my knee accidentally brushed against Maya’s and I nearly jumped a foot into the air and moved away from her .

But instead of doing the same, Maya’s knee seemed to find mine again a moment later. I kept mine against hers that time, waiting to see if she would move.

She didn’t.

Maya looked out over the court where the players were warming up. “Do you see him?”

Iris hid her face in her hands. “Stop, oh my god,” she said.

“I’m just wondering!” “I’m not telling you. You will never know my secret.”

“Come on ,” Maya pleaded. “You’re no fun. We’re already here. We might as well look for him.”

Iris shook her head. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Can Theo know your secret?”

My heart rate picked up at the sound of Maya saying my name. I was already having a hard enough time being present with Maya’s knee against mine. I could barely think straight, my thoughts wandering to how well Maya’s shirt fit her and how her brown hair fell over her shoulders.

Iris looked like she was considering telling me for a second and then suddenly looked between us. “This was a set-up. You guys are here to find him.”

“Not entirely—”

“Maya!” Iris said, laughing. She turned to look at me. “Ignore her. It’s not that serious.”

“It is that serious because Iris never has a crush on anyone. She had a crush on him before she even knew he was on the basketball team. She just saw the tall hot man with the dreamiest eyes and the softest smile—”

“ Maya !” Iris was nearly crying now from laughing so hard. Her face was bright red.

“You can trust us with this information,” Maya said. “I swear.”

“I can’t trust you with any information on a crush. You don’t even know his name, and you’re out here scheming. You even pulled out the big guns to make it look less suspicious.”

“Am I the big guns in this scenario?” I asked, and Maya cackled with laughter.

“Can you give me a hint, at least?” Maya asked.

“He’s on the basketball team.”

Maya threw her head back and laughed even harder. It was the most incredible sound I’d ever heard; I immediately committed the moment to my permanent memory. “I hate you,” Maya said.

The overhead lights dimmed, and bright white and green spotlights flashed, signaling the start of the game. The players ran back out onto the court.

Even though I didn’t want to acknowledge it, the energy was different at the men’s games. There were about one-quarter of the fans there as there were for women’s games, and it was noticeable in the volume of voices.

My guess was that they struggled under the weight of not having a true star player.

Danny was carrying them as far as he could, but it’d been years since they had someone who had major name recognition.

And in a program like ours that was always decent but never the team, we were quickly forgotten by anyone who wasn’t a dedicated fan.

I couldn’t remember the last time a men’s game had sold out.

Coach Darlene had told me yesterday after practice that the women’s had been sold out for the entire season so far, home and away—the first time ever in program history.

“Wait, so they always start the game like that?” Maya asked.

I nodded. “It’s the tip-off.”

“I promise I’ve been trying to teach her things,” Iris said.

I laughed. “It’s okay.”