9781250209153

We carry on, Tally setting the moves of the game until she misses a shot.
Then it’s my turn to set the pace. I sink a free throw. She follows suit. I line
up to take my next shot.
“Do you really like her?” Tally asks out of nowhere.
I freeze, the ball in my hands. “What?”
“Irene,” she says, like she has to force herself to say the name. “You
started dating her so quickly. I thought—never mind.”
“Tally, you broke up with me.” I don’t say it harshly. It spools from me
like a question. Because this—this—is what I need to understand.
“I know,” she says quietly. “But it wasn’t because I didn’t love you
anymore.”
I stop dribbling. My feelings are all over the place. My body is hot but
my hands are cold. I need her to keep talking even if I don’t want to need it.
“Transferring was the right thing for me,” Tally says. “At least, I think it
was. Maybe I won’t know for sure until we’re a few years out of high
school, but at the time, it felt like the right decision. I didn’t like Grandma
Earl. I was floundering there. I felt like I needed—I don’t know, a push. A
chance to start over.”
“But why?” I plead.
“Because I—” She shrugs her shoulders defensively. “I wanted
something more than I was getting. I wanted to go somewhere basketball
mattered. Where I mattered.”
“You mattered to me,” I say, my voice catching.
“Scottie, believe me. You were the only thing that made the decision
difficult.”
My heart splits. We stare at each other. Tally clears her throat and says,
“It’s your shot.”
I take a deep breath and dribble again. My free throw sinks cleanly.
Nothing but net. Tally sighs, and I point at my feet until she lines up in the
same position.
Her shot misses the basket by a full foot, but she ignores it and turns to
me.
“Scottie,” she says, and god, I missed her saying my name. “I really,
truly thought I was doing the right thing breaking up with you. I thought it