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Every time Theo got her hands on the ball, it was like the entire stadium held their breath to see what she would do.

As she hit effortless shots that even I knew were impressively far, she’d spin to look at the crowd with a look of fiery hot determination.

It was hard to imagine the soft-spoken, gentle-natured girl I’d met at a party could transform into the player in front of me.

It almost felt like two completely different people.

GJ hadn’t been kidding. I had to see Theo on the court to start to really understand her.

At halftime, the Lakeside Green Coyotes were up 40-32. The game was close, like Iris had told me it would be, but based on the reactions around us, she—and everyone else—weren’t expecting it to be this close.

The teams raced off the court, slapping low-fives to each other. As the teams jogged to their respective locker rooms, Theo was held back.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Halftime interview.”

“Wait, seriously?” I asked, leaning forward to get a better look. A woman in a nice pantsuit with a microphone was standing courtside next to Theo. A man holding a heavy, very legitimate-looking camera was pointing it at them.

“Yeah. This is serious business. People love Lakeside Green basketball—they’re watching it all over the country right now.”

“She’s talking to, like, ESPN?” I asked. “Actual ESPN?”

Iris chuckled. “I’m surprised you even know what ESPN is.”

“Hey!” I laughed.

“But yes, she’s talking to ESPN. The games usually get aired on major networks. You can watch your eye candy on live television during her away games if you want.”

I rolled my eyes but logged that information in the back of my mind for later.

Iris bounced her leg next to me. “I don’t know where the defense is. It’s like everyone wants to run the score up. They’re letting it turn into a close game. This is ridiculous.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” I said, teasing her slightly.

Iris broke into a smile. “It’s fine, you can make fun of me.”

“No, I think I get it,” I said. “I feel kind of bad for all of the times I told you to stop talking to me about sports.”

“Oh my god, hell has actually frozen over.”

I snorted. “Whatever.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. This is a good game to get you into it—I’m actually kind of nervous for them,” she said.

“Most of the games aren’t really like this.

There are the programs with money and recruitment reach, the programs that don’t have any of that, and then ours is somewhere in the middle.

We’ve historically gotten crushed by the Wildcats, but I think Theo might be what changes our fate. ”

“Right,” I said.

“They’re from Point Brook University,” Iris explained, and I nodded, now understanding. I’d heard their name before in passing in relation to other sports. “Cam Kerr—”

“ And another three for Kerr ,” I said, imitating the announcers from the games Iris would watch in the living room. I was usually fucking around on my phone and never actually paid attention, but the occasional piece of basketball knowledge would get committed to memory in the process.

“Exactly. Kerr is one of the other major college superstars right now. She’s a major shit talker—she’s already made it pretty clear she’s over the Theo talk.

This season will be the determining factor in where everyone ends up in the draft.

It’s not really a question of if they’ll go pro at this point; it’s who they’ll end up with and how good they’ll be when they get there. ”

I nodded. The players came back onto the court, ready to go into the second half of the game. “And for us, we have…?”

Iris smiled a little bit. “Nia Adams, small forward. She’s wearing twenty-two over there. Fast and versatile. She’s good, not a stellar shooter, but good glue to get a play done. And then next to her is Gemma Doherty. She’s the center. She and Mags are good friends.”

“And Mags is the hot one?” I asked. When Iris threw an amused glance at me, I rethought my sentence. “You know I’m not into femmes. The one who everyone says is the hot one on the team?”

“Yeah. She gets all kinds of brand deals. People love her. I’m sure she’s by far the wealthiest on the team. Being good helps, but being photogenic, interested in fashion, and good really helps.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. I knew their names and the numbers on their jerseys weren’t going to be committed to memory, but I wanted to try.

“You already know Theo and GJ,” she said, pointing them out as if I hadn’t kept half my mind on Theo the entire time we’d been sitting here.

As Iris moved on to the rest of the players, my gaze was fixed on Theo.

She was sitting with her legs spread, her elbows propped up on her knees.

She and GJ were talking about something, leaning toward each other; Theo’s expression suggested it was something deadly serious, but GJ’s expression suggested their conversation was something playful.

Part of my fascination with Theo had definitely led to an interest in her relationship with GJ.

Their dynamic was, unfortunately, very sweet.

There were so many clips of them together online, and it wasn’t hard for me to see why people liked them so much.

The more digging I did, the more charmed I was, and the more I felt like I was basically already friends with them.

I had to keep reminding myself that they were two random people I’d met at a party and nothing more, no matter how nice they seemed.

My eyes traced over Theo’s long legs, her muscular arms. Her jaw was a hard straight line. Looking at her, I didn’t know why anyone would ever suggest that Mags was the hottest one on the team.

As if finally feeling eyes in her direction, GJ glanced over at the student section.

She scanned the crowd and then landed on me and Iris.

She nudged Theo, who pulled her attention over to the student section, too.

She scanned the crowd and then, finally, I saw the recognition in her face as she registered who she was looking at.

I quickly glanced away, mortified. Part of me had wanted to be seen, like I was Gabriella in High School Musical, and a spotlight was going to land on me at some point to let Theo know I was there.

But another part of me had hoped we were far enough away and so hidden in the crowd that she wouldn’t actually see me.

But I knew myself and couldn’t deny the truth. I kept staring over there as if I’d been hoping to finally get them to see me. But now that I had, I wanted to run from the arena altogether.

I quickly turned away and then looked back, unable to resist checking if they were still looking over at me.

I had way too much pride to be the girl who shied away from their eyes on me.

Theo might make me uncharacteristically nervous and completely shake up my aloof, no-strings thing, but I didn’t need to make that obvious to her.

GJ waved and nudged Theo, laughing. They said a few words to each other, but it was impossible to lipread from so far away.

Based on their expressions, it looked almost like GJ was teasing her.

My stomach sank, and I wondered if there was a chance that they’d invited me here just to see if they could get me to come, like the popular athlete asking the nerdy girl to prom.

But I shook that thought away immediately. We weren’t sixteen, this wasn’t some shitty high school movie, and nothing about GJ or Theo suggested that they were bullies.

At the very least, they were people I could consider acquaintances.

They were friends with my friends. And that’s exactly what this was—a friend thing.

It had never been suggested to be anything different, and based on my behavior, I couldn’t be trusted trying to pursue anything more than that with her .

But it was fine. Because I could totally handle being just friends with Theo McCall—even if she was the most beautiful, most incredible person I’d ever seen.