She finally looks at me, blue eyes dead serious. “Emotionally late. We’ve been waiting to judge your outfit.”
Jade looks up and smiles. “It’s the hoodie. She’s hiding.”
“I’m not hiding,” I say automatically, dropping my bag at my feet.
Blakely snorts. “You say that every time you’re hiding.”
I sit to lace my shoes, tugging the laces tighter than necessary. These two have known me too long. They know my tells. They know when I’m locking things down instead of letting them breathe.
We met freshman year during open gym, back when everything felt raw and uncertain and I was clinging to basketball like it was the only thing that made sense.
I’d shown up early—of course I had—already running drills by myself, the echo of the empty gym amplifying every bounce of the ball. I told myself I just liked being prepared.
The truth was simpler.
I needed this.
Jade joined in without a word. She didn’t ask my name or where I was from. She just slid into the drill beside me, matching my pace like we’d planned it together. We ran suicides. Shot around. Pushed each other without speaking.
Only after we’d finished a full set, both of us bent over with our hands on our knees, did she finally look at me and say, “You’re not bad.”
It was the closest thing to a compliment I’d ever gotten.
Blakely arrived ten minutes later, loud and unapologetic, took one look at us, and said, “Oh good. You’re both intense. We’ll get along.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“You good?” Jade asks now, voice soft but eyes sharp.
“Yes,” I say too fast.
Blakely’s mouth curves into a knowing grin. “That was a lie.”
“I’m fine.”
Jade lifts a brow. “Logan’s back.”
My fingers still on the laces.
Blakely’s grin widens. “There it is.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, resuming my shoes like my heart didn’t just kick into a faster rhythm.
“Sloane,” Jade says gently. “Your entire body just locked up.”
“He’s doing rehab for his leg at the hospital,” I reply. “He’s staying with us temporarily. It’s not a thing. Just convenient.”
Blakely laughs. “The phrase ‘not a thing’ has literally never meant that in the history of things.”
I stand, pulling off my hoodie. “Can wenotdo this before practice?”
Jade nods immediately. “Yeah. Later.”
Blakely sighs dramatically. “Fine. But I’m circling back.”
Practice is brutal in the best way.
Coach doesn’t ease up just because it’s January. If anything, he pushes harder. Conditioning drills bleed into scrimmage. Scrimmage bleeds into shooting. By the time we hit the final drill, my lungs burn and my legs shake.
