King of the Court

The next day, Ben has a game, and I finally drag myself back to the Caltech campus. It’s the Saturday before classes resume after spring break, and I can no longer put off the inevitable. I have nearly fifty unread emails that are waiting for responses, not to mention my friends are all back in town. Kayla greets me when I walk into our room with a huge smile.

“Someone had a very good, very sex-filled spring break,” she says, stopping me dead in my tracks.

How does she know? Were we not as careful as we thought with the paparazzi?

My confused expression makes her roll her eyes. “Me. I had a sex-filled spring break,” she says before unfurling a huge gloating smile. “Not only did I see Daniel AKA Mr. Break My Heart Senior Year of High School, but he was looking fine as shit. One thing led to another, as it always does when I’m wearing that Revolve dress, and well…let’s just say the boy is begging for a relationship.”

By this point, she’s inspecting her fingernails as if the entire topic bores her.

“And? Are you going to do it?”

She looks offended. “Absolutely not.”

I laugh and she looks up, shooting me a playful wink before turning back to finish unpacking her bag. And by unpacking, I mean dumping out the contents onto her bed in one big heap.

“Anyway, what did you do? Tell me you didn’t languish away in Cahill. So help me god, if you—”

The door to our room slams open suddenly, and I leap back as Julia and Ryan come to a screeching halt, catching their breaths as if they ran all the way here.

“You!” Julia shouts, pointing at me before bending over and holding her knees.

She nudges Ryan as if to get him to continue whatever she was about to say, but he can barely function either. He stands and sucks in air, waving his hand in circles.

“You and—” he manages.

“Ben,” Julia finishes.

“What in the hell is wrong with you two?” Kayla asks with a snappy tone. “Are you on drugs? I specifically told you not to leave me out if you were ever going to try something and now look at you, high as kites. What was it? Mushrooms? A little molly? Did someone bring pot brownies into the computer lab again and leave them for unsuspecting freshmen?”

“Ben Castillo!” Ryan shouts, having finally gathered the strength to speak.

Kayla looks at me for an explanation. “What is wrong with them?”

At this point, I should take pity on everyone and explain the situation, but I’d rather see how far Julia and Ryan are willing to take this.

Julia stands and points at me, shouting in one go, “You and Ben Castillo are dating!”

Kayla screams at the top of her lungs. It’s ear-piercing and glass-shattering and it seems to go on for a solid minute.

“WHAT?!”

The remainder of my afternoon is spent filling them in on everything I’ve been withholding. They sit on the edge of my bed, listening, mostly mute except for the occasional “Wait a minute” or “How did you two meet again?” or “Just how big are we talking?” (That comes from Kayla, of course.)

By the end of my explanation, Kayla still thinks we’re all trying to pull some big prank on her, which is understandable given how extremely unlikely it is that I would be dating a professional athlete.

“FaceTime him right now,” she says, pointing at my phone. “If you’re really dating him then FaceTime him right now.”

I laugh and reach for my phone. “Okay, but he has a game later so there’s no telling what he’ll be doing right now.”

I scroll to his name in my contact list and press the FaceTime button. It starts to ring and we sit patiently for a few seconds. I highly doubt he’ll answer. He’s undoubtedly busy, but then low and behold, the video call connects and Ben’s handsome face fills the screen.

Before he can even say hi though, Anthony ducks into the frame. “Sorry Birdie, Benny-boy is in the locker room right now—you two can’t have phone sex.”

Kayla’s scream fills the room again as she flies off the bed. “THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING! I AM LOSING MY SHIT!”

I look down at Ben, who’s smiling good-naturedly despite looking thoroughly confused.

I wink. “Call me after your game?”

He nods.

“Good luck.”

“Love you.”

It’s Anthony’s turn to shout in the background. “I knew it! I fucking KNEW IT.”

Then the call cuts off and three sets of eyes blink at me in shock.

I have a feeling this will take some getting used to for them, understandably. I’m still getting used to it.

“Y’all look like you might pass out,” I tease.

Kayla closes her gaping mouth, narrows her eyes, and crosses her arms as if preparing for a proper interrogation. “Okay. Right. Start again from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out. You met him at a gas station? Like…what? How? Do I need to go hang out at QuikTrip all day so I can meet a professional athlete too?”