Page 7

MAYA

The door handle to my bedroom jiggled and then opened.

“I’m coming in,” Iris said as she was already standing in my room. Her arms were full of green and white shirts, all of them school-related. “I know you don’t have a single item of school spirit clothing, so I thought I’d help.”

I smiled a little bit. Iris was right; school spirit had never really been my thing. The only time I’d ever worn something proudly promoting our university was borrowing a shirt from a one-night-stand.

Iris, on the other hand, was fully decked out. I knew how serious she was about college sports, but I’d never paid enough attention to actually realize. She even had eyeshadow on that matched our school colors.

“You’re the only person who can wear that shade of green like that, I hope you know,” I said.

“The green will look great with your eyes,” Iris said as she dumped the shirts onto my bed and dug through them .

I put down the book I was reading and sat up, knowing I was about to check out from my quiet evening.

Ever since I’d agreed to go, Iris had been over the moon.

She’d been playing down her excitement pretty well until now, knowing she’d probably scare me off if she was too enthusiastic too early in.

I really wasn’t feeling it—I mostly just wanted to be home tonight—but Iris was so excited that I couldn’t back out on her.

“Wearing a men’s basketball shirt on opening night feels like a betrayal,” Iris said. “Maybe this one?”

“Whichever one you don’t want to wear, you can give me,” I said. “I’ll wear anything.”

“The shirt I want to wear is already pulled out. It’s my lucky shirt.”

I didn’t even try to hide my amused smile. “You have a lucky shirt?”

“Yes, but you don’t pay attention to sports enough to realize I wear it when there’s a big game,” Iris pointed out and I resisted the urge to tease her. “I usually don’t bother when it’s going to be an obvious blowout, but games like today we definitely need it.”

“I probably know more about sports than we think I do,” I said. “We go to a school with a massive D1 sports program. Some of it must’ve crept in.”

“Do you know when the basketball season is?”

“Well now , duh.”

“When does it end?”

I picked through the shirts, wracking my brain. There was no harm in guessing incorrectly, but I did feel a little bit like I had a point to prove. “Um. February?”

“Close, that’s football.”

I bit my lip, genuinely trying to think of what it could be. “December?”

Iris shook her head. “Think March Madness. Think spring. Think draft in mid-April.” She moved her hands as she talked, trying to get the wheels turning for me.

“What’s March Madness?”

“Oh my god.” She looked simultaneously offended, surprised, and full of pity. I’d pulled a lot of different reactions out of her over the years, but that was the first time I’d seen all of those at once.

“My mom wasn’t exactly a sports person! That’s not my fault!” I said. “Okay, so March Madness is a big deal. I’m jotting this down.”

Iris looked at me like I was a lost cause. “You need to learn at least a little bit of this if you’re going to be WAG.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Iris snorted and then finally dug out a shirt from the pile, tossing it over in my direction. “I think that’ll work. It gets hot in the arena, so dress appropriately.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. Iris scooped the rest of her shirts up into her arms and headed for the door. Before she left, I said, “I swear I’m not not into sports. I just have to be exposed to it. I’m learning. No one’s ever taught it to me before.”

“You should have Theo do it. She’d be an even better teacher,” Iris said over her shoulder with a smirk as she exited my bedroom.

Annoyingly, I could tell I was spending far too much time on my makeup. I was using my most delicate hand when it came to my mascara, and I used more setting spray than I usually did just in case my makeup started to melt in the heat of the arena.

I wasn’t totally sure what I was walking into. I knew what a basketball game looked like—I’d seen One Tree Hill—but I didn’t know what a game at my specific university looked like. The clips made it seem lively, at least.

I smoothed out my borrowed shirt in my bathroom mirror. Iris was right—the green was flattering.

And, much to my own chagrin, I hoped Theo would feel the same way—if she even looked for me in the crowd. If she even remembered that we’d talked about me going.

I scoffed at myself, trying to physically force out the embarrassment I was feeling.

I knew I was going to have to be as unaffected as possible later when there wasn’t even so much as a passing glance from her before I left the arena.

I hated that there was even the tiniest bit of hope sitting in my chest that she would, at the very least, look at me.

I repeated what had become my favorite mantra leading up to the game: You are cool. You are smart. You are hot. You are funny. People like you. It doesn’t matter if Theo does. You don’t even like basketball. Who cares if you get the attention of one of the players? Who cares if you don’t?

I cleaned up the bathroom, putting all of my makeup away and unplugging my Airwrap.

It wasn’t like I was going for Theo, anyway; I was going for Iris.

She’d been the obvious basketball fan of the two of us.

It wasn’t like it’d be a surprise if she went, and I tagged along.

I was just being a good friend, engaging in her interests.

“You ready? We should start walking over now,” Iris called out from her room.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” I shut off the bathroom light and went to join her.

Iris and I met in the living room. Her face lit up like a proud mom when she saw me. “You look so cute!”

“Thank you for the shirt,” I said. The one she’d picked out for me was simple—all it said was Lakeside Green University with our logo on the bottom. It felt perfectly neutral. Not the wrong sport, but also not attempting to convince anyone I was more of a fan than I was.

“Of course,” Iris said. She threw her arms around me.

“I’m so excited you’re coming. I never want to invite you to these things after that time freshman year when you said following a sport is like being in a cult.

I know you have ulterior motives around coming, but I’ll be selfish about it either way. ”

For the entire time we’d known each other, Iris had been going to games with a handful of her friends from the nursing program.

She looked forward to it—the perfect combination of girls’ night out and her favorite sport.

She’d invited me a few times, but I was usually off getting dinner or drinks with someone, already booked out for the evening—and also not particularly motivated to change my plans around for a basketball game.

Iris having her group had always made me happy but now, I was feeling somewhat neglectful. I’d never once bothered to just go with her and see if I liked it. I’d completely written it off.

“No ulterior motives—I’m many things, but being the kind of person who uses my best friend to get closer to an athlete is not one of them,” I insisted. “It’s our last college basketball season as students. I should go at least once.”

Iris smiled. “I really do think you’re going to like it.”

I was skeptical. “We’ll see,” I said.

From there, we grabbed plastic water bottles full of vodka and lemonade, threw on our coats, and started walking.

We weren’t far from the arena and it turned out, the walk was really beautiful. We cut through mostly green space on campus, with benches scattered throughout and lovingly tended to patches of garden flowers that bloomed in the late spring.

Once we cut across the street closest to the arena, though, things looked a little different.

“There are so many people here,” I said. The parking lot was almost completely full, and there was a line of people waiting to get their tickets checked. Cars were lined up for what felt like forever with people trying to get into the parking lot.

“It wasn’t always like this,” Iris admitted.

We tossed our now-empty water bottles of alcohol into bins outside.

She turned to me, clearly thinking about how she wanted to phrase her next sentence.

“Theo is kind of a big deal. She’s been a huge draw for the program.

We used to barely fill one-quarter of the stadium for a good game, but she’s been pulling in massive crowds.

This game and the next four home games are already completely sold out.

It’ll most likely be her last year here, since I can’t imagine she’ll delay announcing for the draft until next year.

Everyone wants to see her before she goes pro.

” She paused. “I swear I’m not just talking her up because I think you should go for her. ”

“Kind of a big deal?” I asked because it was the only thing I could force out of my mouth that sounded somewhat normal. The more I learned about Theo, the harder it was for me not to be mortifyingly nervous.

“You’ll see,” she said.

After braving the line to enter, Iris and I were quickly enveloped by the heat of the arena.

We slipped off our coats, and I followed her through the crowd.

She was moving with the expert navigation skills of someone who’d been here a thousand times before.

I, however, was moving like a toddler who was scared of losing their parents in a grocery store.

Iris headed off toward our designated section.

The building, as far as I could tell, was basically a giant circle.

It was packed with people, all of them humming with excitement.

There were long lines waiting for food and merchandise, and people pushing by to get to their seats.

A couple of the stands had t-shirts on sale with player names and numbers on the back.

When I spotted McCall with the giant 25 underneath, I was hit with a combination of being starstruck and a little overwhelmed by Theo’s impact.