Page 34 of Making It Count

“You know I just want you to be safe.”

“I know, Mom. I love you, but I’m okay here.”

“It’s such a small room, honey.”

“I know.”

“Are you okay on food?”

“Yes, Mom. They deliver breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Plus, I have some snacks. I’m okay.”

“If you change your mind…”

“I’ll come home.”

“Okay. Text me every day. We’re in the same time zone now. I don’t care what time, though.”

“I will, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you, too, honey.”

Shay hung up the phone and returned to her computer to log in to the virtual session. She’d done this so many times now, and every time, it was the same. The professors had no idea how to teach a class on the computer, but that wasn’t their fault. They’d had no time to prepare. Most students had their cameras off. No one participated unless it was required. A million times, the professors would ask, ‘Can you see my screen?’ Then, the class would be over, and she’d either do homework or go on social media.

At the end of her only class that day, she checked the time and realized it was her turn to hop in the shower. They’d each been given a thirty-minute window and were supposed to respect it so that the showers and bathrooms didn’t get too crowded. She wore her mask and carried her usual supplies with her down the hall, showered as quickly as she could, and walked back to her room. She hadn’t ever been able to take long showers in the dorm, and she sometimes missed the long, hot baths she could take at home. Plus, her mom always had a stocked pantry with all of Shay’s favorite snacks. She’d have a whole apartment downstairs, with a kitchen and her own bathroom, too. It would be a lot more space, and there would be more to do. After she changed into sweats, her phone dinged, and she thought it might be one of her sisters, wanting to text in their group chat about how worried their mom was, but it wasn’t. It was Layne, and Shay knew the real reason she didn’t want to go home just yet.

They’d texted every day since the lockdown, but they’d still yet to talk to each other on the phone or FaceTime. Shay wasn’t sure why that was, but she knew that if she decided to drive home and stay there until the end of the school year, there was a chance she might not see Layne again. They weren’t from the same city, and Layne had some internship lined up in Chicago, where she’d be moving after graduation, so for now, Shay would wait to see what the university told them to do and hope that this would end soon so that she could at least see Layne in person.

They hadn’t talked in their texts about the kiss. With everything going on, Shay’s priority hadn’t been on that moment. It had been on adapting to virtual classes, getting food delivered, and feeling trapped in her room, unable to do anything outside of it. They’d flirted a few times, but nothing too overt and only through texts, so Shay hadn’t heard Layne’s voice yet after making one of her flirtatious comments. Weirdly, though, Layne had become the person Shay talked to about all of this stuff. Before that, if Shay had to say she had a best friend on the team, it would’ve been Martin, but in a few short weeks, that had changed.

Layne: Hey.

Shay: Hey. Do you have a class right now?

Layne: No. Why?

Shay: Want to talk?

Layne: We are talking.

Shay: I meant actually talk on the phone, Layne.

She rolled her eyes as she looked down at the phone, waiting for Layne’s response.

Layne: Okay.

Why was Shay nervous now? It wasn’t like she’d never talked to Layne before. They’d technically been talking every day since this whole lockdown thing had started; before that, even, during the tournament, but she hadn’t heard Layne’s voice since that last day before everything went to crap. Layne hadn’t spoken in the few virtual team meetings they’d had, and they didn’t have any classes together. Shay had thought about trying to purposefully bump into Layne at the bathrooms, but she didn’t want to possibly risk getting her sick or getting sick herself. Layne clearly had concerns, too, and Shay wanted to respect them.

“Hey,” Layne said when she answered Shay’s call.

“Hey,” she replied with a smile. “So, what are you doing right now? Wait… Let me guess. You’re doom-scrolling on the internet because the whole world is falling apart.”

“I am not.” Layne chuckled. “I’m studying. Or, I was, until you called.”

“Should I let you go?”

“No, I told you it was okay. Plus, I… I don’t have a lot of people to talk to.”

“You don’t?”