Page 86 of Making It Count

“What?”

“Coach is calling me. I need to talk to her.”

“I need to finish this lecture anyway,” Layne replied. “I have to at least keep up as much as I can in case I get worse.”

“Layne…”

“We’ll talk later. Just… talk to Coach,” Layne told her and hung up.

CHAPTER 28

“And?” Layne asked.

“And you’re good.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, all good. Negative.” The woman nodded. “And that’s three in a row. You’re cleared to practice and play.”

After over two weeks of feeling okay but getting back inconclusive or positive tests, Layne had finally gotten not one, not two, but three negative tests in a row. That had been more than the NCAA had required, but their coach had been insistent because Layne had gotten several inconclusive results mixed in with the positive ones. What was so strange to Layne was that after that initial small fever and a little coughing, she’d had no other symptoms. She’d wondered if maybe she’d never gotten it again after all and had maybe gotten a false positive. Then, she’d gotten a few more, so she assumed she’d just gotten a mild case this time.

In any event, it didn’t really matter. They only had one game left in the regular season, but with a record of nineteen and seven, they had guaranteed themselves a trip to the conference championship tournament. Three of the other teams in the conference had fallen apart; one of them more recently than the other two – they’d lost three of their stars to COVID and had a rough patch of games, losing eight in a row and then finding out another player had COVID just when they’d been able to get a couple of the others back due to negative tests. A lot of teams had been dealing with that this season, and Layne felt lucky that she’d been the only positive on the team, especially since she’d hardly gotten any playing time anyway. Losing her wasn’t a big deal to the team; losing Shay or Hilton, though, would’ve meant the entire season would have been over.

Shay had been texting more than calling in the past two and a half weeks, and Layne wasn’t an idiot; she knew that Shay was pulling away but still wanted to make sure that she was okay. Layne had only found out a few days after it had happened that it was likely that Jessop had been the reason that she’d gotten sick.

Jessop herself had texted her a novel, explaining what had happened from her perspective. She’d missed her boyfriend. She’d wanted to see him for a few minutes, and the shower had seemed like the best and safest idea since they’d been alone. Jessop hadn’t gotten sick, but she had been kicked off the team and had been incredibly apologetic for getting Layne sick. Her boyfriend had been tested after the day Shay had, apparently, yelled at the woman on the phone and Coach kicked her off the team, but he’d had it, so Layne guessed that Shay had been right and that she’d gotten it because of him.

Layne had wanted to be angry. She’d wanted to yell at Jessop, too, because not only had the woman cost Layne half a season and had risked her life to have sex in the shower with a guy she probably wouldn’t be with forever anyway, Jessop had caused problems between her and Shay as well. When Layne had gotten sick again, Shay had realized how much she’d been prioritizing their relationship over basketball, so while they’d only talked on the phone once after that last time when Shay had gotten back from the away game, Layne knew what Shay was going through, and she understood.

She supposed that was the worst part for her; she couldn’t blame Shay. The sole reason Shay had come back to Dunbar had been to play again and, hopefully, get on the radar of some scouts who might want her for the next level of their sport. Layne had gotten in the way, and she didn’t want to do that for her. All she wanted was for Shay to have that dream.

Layne, for her part, had reapplied for the internship per the firm’s instructions. She was already in but needed to fill out the paperwork again. Yet, she wasn’t sure if she’d be moving to Chicago at the end of the school year or if they’d want her to remain remote. Things were still up in the air with COVID. While the vaccines were rolling out, and Layne planned to get one, she also wasn’t sure what the company’s policy would be on those. What she knew was that she didn’t want to move back home and live with her mom again. If she absolutely had to in order to save some money, she would, of course, but she was hoping that she could avoid it by finding a place of her own, even if it was here, off-campus somewhere, or outside of Chicago should she need to be closer.

There was so much, yet again, up in the air, and Layne felt like she’d done all of this already. She’d had her final home basketball game. She’d had her final exam. She’d moved out of her dorm. She’d graduated. She’d done all of this before, but here she was again, and she was tired.

She also missed her girlfriend but wasn’t sure if she could even still call Shay that.

“Hey, welcome back, Stoll,” Hilton said when Layne walked into the locker room, carrying her things.

“Thanks,” she spoke quietly and sat down in the chair between Hilton and Shay. “Hey,” she said to Shay.

“Hey. Glad you’re back,” Shay replied and looked over at her.

There was so much in that look, but Layne didn’t know how to interpret any of it. She hadn’t laid her eyes on Shay’s beautiful face in weeks, and she’d missed it so much. She’d missed their nightly talks, their texting all day, their video chats, and even their practices where they’d pretended they weren’t together.

“Thanks. Me too,” Layne said.

Shay went back to getting ready after that exchange, so Layne did the same, and they didn’t say anything else.

Then, Coach walked in, gave them a pep talk, and reminded them all that this was senior night, even though there were no fans in the stands. There would only be cameras for the conference channel and, if they were lucky, a scout or two for Shay.

When they got to the court to do their warm-ups, Layne participated and felt okay, but she hadn’t practiced in weeks, so she knew she wouldn’t play.

The game against an easy opponent who had only won ten games that season began, and Layne tried not to think about Shay and whether they were still a couple or if this was Shay’s way of telling her that she couldn’t do this right now because Layne interfered with her life plan.

In the fourth quarter, they were up by nineteen points, with Coach taking Hilton out to give those who were in the gym a chance to applaud her since this would be her last home game. Shay took a seat next and got her applause as well. Then, Coach called for Layne and the rest of the actual seniors from the bench. Layne went in with three minutes left in the game and ran the point.

She took a shot and made it, grabbed a rebound, and when the buzzer sounded, it was time for her to come out and receive some applause for the next-to-nothing she’d been able to contribute all season. She sat down next to Shay because there was an empty seat there, and Shay passed her a bottle of water and a towel.