By the time the group chat finally stopped blowing up, Y/N had muted it.
Because despite what she told herself every time they annoyed her, she actually liked her friends.
Mochi was asleep beside her, curled into a tiny ball against the arm of the couch while Crush played on the TV for what had to be the hundredth time.
Y/N had stopped counting somewhere around sophomore year.
The movie was halfway over when the apartment door opened.
Samira stepped inside carrying a grocery bag and immediately spotted her on the couch.
"You still mad about the game?"
Y/N didn't even look away from the screen.
"You tweeted about it tho."
"I was expressing myself creatively."
Samira dropped the bag onto the kitchen counter.
"See? This is exactly the problem. Nobody respects artists anymore."
"You're acting like Trinity sentenced you to prison."
"No, seriously. Explain it to me."
Y/N finally paused the movie and sat up.
"What exactly am I supposed to be getting out of this experience?"
Samira already knew where this was going.
"No, because I'm serious."
"Who voluntarily spends their Friday night watching people throw a basketball around for two hours?"
"That's your final answer?"
"The energy. The crowd. Everybody's excited. The games are actually entertaining."
Samira grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
"I watch it for the girls."
"See? Now that's at least an honest answer."
"You literally lied to me about the tickets."
"I knew about the tickets. I didn't buy the tickets."
"That's basically the same thing."
Samira pointed toward her.
Y/N groaned dramatically and let herself fall back against the couch cushions.
"But don't ever ask me to go to another basketball game after this."
Samira took a sip of water.
Y/N had spent the last hour doing everything except getting ready.
The movie she'd been rewatching was long over, abandoned somewhere in the background while she scrolled through Twitter from the comfort of her bed.
Mochi was asleep beside her.
Exactly how Friday nights were supposed to be.
She tossed her phone onto the bed.
A second later, Samira's voice carried down the hallway.
Y/N stared at the ceiling.
"It is if you're creative."
With a groan, she finally sat up.
Apparently she was attending a basketball game tonight.
Against her better judgment.
Ten minutes later, she emerged from her room, phone in one hand and student ID in the other.
Samira looked up from the couch where she was tying her shoes.
"That's not what I asked."
Y/N slipped her ID into her wallet.
Y/N pulled up the digital ticket Trinity had practically forced upon her.
Samira stood, grabbing her keys from the kitchen counter.
Y/N looked toward the couch.
Still blissfully unaware that basketball existed.
"At least somebody gets to stay home."
Samira didn't even look back.
"You're going to survive."
Y/N grabbed her jacket from the back of a chair and followed her toward the door.
The second they stepped into the hallway, her phone buzzed again.
By the time Y/N and Samira reached Panther Arena, she knew two things.
One, Trinity had absolutely been counting down the minutes until this game all week.
And two, she had severely underestimated how many people actually cared about college basketball.
The sidewalks were packed.
Students moved in groups toward the arena, most of them dressed in PSU gear. Some wore jerseys. Others had navy and gold face paint streaked across their cheeks. Music echoed from somewhere near the entrance while people crowded around tables handing out shirts and rally towels.
"It's... bigger than I thought."
"No, I mean really bigger than I thought."
"Then why are you surprised?"
Y/N watched a group of students run past carrying a giant handmade sign with Parker Ellis' name across the front.
"I thought people were exaggerating."
A few feet ahead, someone suddenly started waving both arms in the air.
"Oh, my God," Y/N muttered.
Y/N considered pretending she didn't know her.
Unfortunately, Bailey spotted her.
The second they got close enough, Bailey grinned.
"She's smiling. Everybody look."
"I am literally not smiling."
Before Bailey could continue being annoying, another voice cut in.
Trinity stood near the entrance with Victoria and Dennis.
Victoria had a drink in one hand.
Dennis had what looked like an unreasonable amount of snacks tucked under one arm.
"How many people are you feeding?"
"That's at least four bags."
Victoria rolled her eyes.
"He bought enough food for a family of six."
"You act like I'm not willing to share."
Y/N immediately knew she wasn't going to like whatever came next.
"You purchased a ticket without my consent."
"I did not, and that's not the point."
Victoria looked away to hide a laugh.
Every single one of them.
"Can we go inside now?" Samira asked.
They joined the line moving toward the entrance.
Students shuffled forward a few feet at a time, phones and IDs already in hand.
The closer they got, the louder everything became.
The occasional burst of cheering from somewhere inside the arena.
Y/N glanced up at the massive building.
She still wasn't convinced basketball was worth all this.
For a season opener, PSU knew how to put on a show.
The music in Parker's headphones had changed three times in the last twenty minutes.
Then, somewhere along the way, Kirk Franklin.
The playlist made sense to exactly one person.
She sat in front of her locker, elbows resting on her knees as she adjusted the tape around her wrist.
The locker room buzzed around her.
A freshman was talking too much.
Another was redoing her ponytail for what had to be the tenth time.
Somebody's speaker played quietly from across the room.
A coach walked past carrying a clipboard.
Parker pulled one earbud out.
The noise immediately got louder.
Parker didn't even have to look up.
Yolanda dropped onto the bench beside her.
"You're doing the thing."
"The thing where you stare at nothing and start acting philosophical."
Across the room, Mel looked up from tying her shoes.
Parker immediately frowned.
Then both of them looked at Parker.
The truth was she wasn't nervous about the game.
The problem was everything else.
The constant questions about the draft.
The fact that every interview somehow turned into a conversation about what came next.
As if people were already trying to push her out the door before the season even started.
A basketball rolled across the floor.
Parker trapped it beneath her sneaker.
For a second, she glanced toward the whiteboard hanging near the front of the room.
There were only so many first games left.
Only so many home openers.
Only so many times she'd get to walk out onto this court wearing a PSU jersey.
Coach stepped into the middle of the room.
The room immediately changed.
Conversations got quieter.
Water bottles were picked up.
Everybody started locking in.
Parker stood and grabbed her warmup jacket.
The roar of the crowd filtered faintly through the walls.
Even from here she could hear them.
Yolanda bumped her shoulder.
A small grin pulled at the corner of her mouth.
"Let's go play some ball."
That, at least, was the easy part.
Y/N lasted exactly four minutes before checking the time.
The game had barely started.
To her left, Bailey was already standing.
The game had barely started.
The ball hadn't even crossed half court before Bailey started clapping.
Neither of them said anything.
There was nothing to say.
Completely lost to basketball.
The arena shook with noise.
"I'm trying to understand."
The student section started chanting something from the opposite side of the arena.
Thousands of voices joined in.
Y/N couldn't even make out the words.
And somehow everybody around her seemed to know exactly what was happening.
Dennis nearly launched himself out of his seat after a three-pointer.
Trinity screamed at a referee.
Victoria screamed at a referee.
Someone behind them screamed at a referee.
At this point, Y/N was beginning to think yelling at officials was part of the sport.
Much faster than she'd expected.
One possession turned into another.
Players sprinted up and down the court.
The crowd reacted to everything.
By the middle of the second quarter, Y/N found herself looking up more often.
Not because she'd suddenly become a basketball fan.
Mostly because it was hard not to.
Especially when twenty thousand people reacted at the same time.
The energy was contagious.
She'd never admit that out loud.
Across the court, Parker Ellis hit another three.
Y/N looked toward the giant screen hanging above center court.
Parker's face appeared across it.
The crowd got even louder.
A grin immediately appeared on Samira's face.
"Don't make this a thing."
"I understand why people come."
Y/N pointed toward the court.
"I'm still not watching this on television."
Samira looked entirely too pleased with herself.
Down on the court, Parker was laughing about something one of her teammates had said during a timeout.
The camera found her again.
Bailey cheered the loudest.
"How long until she's buying a jersey?" Y/N asked.
And before Y/N realized it, she had stopped checking the time.
The game ended in a blur of noise.
Students poured toward the lower sections almost immediately.
Some just wanted to be closer to the court.
Y/N wasn't entirely sure why she was following everyone else.
She just knew stopping would probably get her left behind.
By the time they reached the railing, the group had already started drifting apart.
Trinity spotted somebody first.
Before anyone could respond, she was gone.
Y/N watched her weave through the crowd.
A few feet away, Bailey was already waving at people.
Several people waved back.
"How do you know so many people?"
Bailey looked genuinely confused.
"That didn't answer my question."
Victoria looked up from her phone.
"Statistically speaking, Bailey knows an unreasonable number of people."
"That wasn't a compliment."
While Bailey argued her case, Y/N leaned against the railing and looked out across the court.
Players were still scattered around.
The energy from the game hadn't disappeared.
It had just changed shape.
Samira raised an eyebrow.
"It was better than I expected."
A small smile appeared on Samira's face.
Nearby, Dennis had somehow ended up talking to Mel.
The conversation looked easy.
A few feet away, Trinity was animatedly telling a story while Yolanda laughed at something she'd said.
Victoria had wandered off to look at one of the championship banners hanging from the rafters.
Bailey was still talking.
Y/N wasn't entirely sure how she had the energy.
For a moment, she just stood there.
The arena was still loud.
But for the first time all night, she wasn't checking the time.
A few minutes later, Parker finally made her way over.
Postgame was always the same.
Somebody's aunt wanting a photo.
A little kid wanting an autograph.
A former player stopping her to ask about classes.
By the time she reached Yolanda and Trinity, her social battery was hanging on by a thread.
"Look who finally made it," Trinity said.
Parker took the water bottle Yolanda handed her.
Yolanda ignored both of them.
Parker laughed and took a drink.
A few feet away, Bailey was in the middle of what looked like a very passionate story.
The girl treated every conversation like a TED Talk.
Parker recognized Samira standing nearby.
She'd seen her around before.
The rest of the group looked vaguely familiar too.
The kind of familiar that came from seeing people in passing around campus.
Or in the background of Instagram stories.
Or at random school events.
She didn't know any of them.
"Bailey's been talking for like ten straight minutes."
As if sensing she was being discussed, Bailey threw her hands in the air dramatically.
Dennis immediately started laughing.
Victoria was saying something that nobody appeared to be listening to.
The corner of Parker's mouth lifted.
Then her attention shifted.
Not because anybody pointed her out.
Not because she was trying to look.
Just because everyone else was moving around.
A girl in a black t-shirt stood slightly off to the side of the group.
Listening more than talking.
Watching more than participating.
The same way Parker sometimes found herself watching people.
At that moment Bailey said something.
Shaking her head before saying something back.
Bailey immediately looked offended.
Which probably meant whatever she'd said was funny.
Parker found herself smiling.
The question came out absentmindedly.
Yolanda followed her gaze.
Parker looked back toward the group.
"One of Trinity's friends?"
"One of her best friends," Trinity corrected.
"She's the one that didn't want to come tonight."
Parker glanced over again.
For some reason that made perfect sense.
"She's a homebody," Trinity said. "Getting her here was basically a group project."
That earned a laugh from Yolanda.
Parker looked back one last time.
Y/N was listening to Samira talk about something while Bailey interrupted every few seconds.
Completely unaware she was being talked about.
Nothing particularly interesting was happening.
No reason for Parker to think about it again.
Another person on a campus full of people.
A few minutes later Parker's attention was somewhere else entirely.
Or at least she thought it was.
Because later, while walking toward the locker room, she unexpectedly found herself remembering the name anyway.
For some reason, it stuck.
By the time Parker got home, it was almost midnight.
Exactly how she liked it.
She dropped her keys onto the kitchen island before heading straight for the shower.
Game days always ended the same way.
An hour later she was stretched out across the couch in sweatpants and an old PSU t-shirt, half-watching a documentary while scrolling through Instagram.
People posting pictures from the opener.
Then Bailey's story popped up.
Parker almost skipped it.
A blurry pregame picture.
A video from the student section.
The girl from after the game.
She remembered the name because Trinity had said it earlier.
Parker tapped the tagged account.
A handful of recent posts.
A picture of a loaf of banana bread.
A photo of a Jeep covered in fallen leaves.
The kind of profile that looked like an actual person instead of a carefully managed brand.
Parker followed without thinking much about it.
Then she tossed her phone onto the couch cushion beside her and turned her attention back to the documentary.
A few minutes later, she couldn't have said what Y/N's last post even was.
But if somebody had asked her name?
She would've remembered that.
Taglist Open// @rutherbelscum
