"Evan, if you're going to be in your room all the time we're gonna have to make it look less..." Lucy scrunched up her face to try and think of the word she was looking for.

"Less what?" I asked, offended. I didn't think my room was bad, but why put effort into a space I'd leave in two years anyways? "And I'm not in my room all the time."

"Less monochromatic." She finished, "it's right up here." She pointed to a small, unnoticeable building that looked worn down and I pulled into their gravel parking lot. Next to it was a hardware supply store.

"My room is not monochromatic. I find it pretty interesting actually."

"Listen, it's not ugly or anything, I just think you need some more color... And life."

She got out of the car and I grudgingly followed her out, dragging my feet. We were at a nursery a few blocks from my house that I'd always thought was a rundown abandoned building.

"Lucy, I'm not getting more than one plant." She frowned at me. As she opened the doors, a pleasant chiming sound greeted us from the bells hanging above it.

"Three."

"Two. Any more than that and I'll forget about them and they'll die."

She smiled brightly, seeming to be perfectly happy with just two plants.

"Deal."

Lucy seemed to know what she wanted, and I followed her to the side of the store, where there were a variety of small to medium sized green plants under a large window.

"Okay well you'll need one of these..." She said, studying the bright green leaves that hung freely from their baskets, drooping down around the window.

"What is it?"

"It's called a pothos plant. I have three in my dorm room."

She reached up to grab the base, then handed it to me before turning on her heel. I followed her to the other side of the store, trying to keep up without harming the plant I was carrying.

"This is perfect." She reached a bigger plant with large but delicate leaves. It looked like a small chunk stolen from a tropical paradise.

"I don't know, that's pretty big..."

"Shush, you said two plants. Trust me."

Lucy heaved the plant onto a nearby cart. I kept my mouth shut and followed her like an obedient dog as she wheeled the plant through the store, stopping only to get a sandy-colored woven basket by the register.

A friendly woman in overalls greeted us and I pulled out my wallet, but Lucy stepped in front of me.

"If you don't put your wallet away right now I'll tell your parents the real story of how you sprained your ankle last winter. And paint your car bright yellow."

Memories of me drunkenly falling in her too-small heels followed by a very awkward discussion with the doctor flashed before my eyes.

"Lucy, it's for my room—"

"And it was my idea," she pulled out her phone. "You have three seconds to put it away before a very enlightening text goes out to your parents."

I quickly shoved my wallet back in my pocket.

"That's evil. I didn't know you gave me that dare for blackmail material."

She rolled her eyes and gave a charming smile to the employee who took her card, looking curiously between us.

"I have dirt on everyone, don't worry."

We carried the plants out to my car, and the leaves scattered in front of my face, clouding my vision. I set the plant on the hood and heard a laugh from nearby. I turned and saw a middle aged man chewing gum and watching me judgingly as I handled the plant. He'd clearly just come from the hardware store, and I rolled my eyes at him before turning to unlock my car.

"Excuse you." Lucy said loudly to him, and I turned to her in panic. "What's so funny?"

He looked at me and raised his eyebrows, before turning and getting into his car.

"Yeah that's what I thought." Lucy said to his back, and he shut the door behind him, staying silent.

"Lucy." I said, and she turned to me nonchalantly.

"Yeah?"

She'd been acting like an overly-protective chihuahua since the moment she landed a few hours prior. First she was aggressively glaring at people who dared to even glance at me on the street, now this?

"You didn't need to do that, he didn't even say anything."

Lucy shrugged, gently buckling in the larger plant in my backseat, her bright expression returning.

"He just seemed like he needed to be reminded to mind his own fucking business."

We got in the car and I drove off, feeling anxious.

"Anyway," Lucy said joyfully, all traces of her combativeness gone. "Are you excited to watch the game tonight?"

I subconsciously bit my lip, frowning at the light ahead of me. I wish I could tell her what'd happened between me and Rowan... But I didn't even know what that was myself. I felt weird, as if I were lying to her by not saying anything. My thoughts reminded me that she had likely seen me kiss that boy at Erik's party over the summer, and I felt my face flush.

No... She would've told me if she saw anything.

"You sure you wanna go?" I asked, hoping she'd have a quick change of heart.

"Are you seriously asking me that? They're literally playing Stanford for their first preseason game, of course I wanna go." She gave me a slight frown. "Anyway, aren't you like, friends with Rowan Williams now? Shouldn't you go regardless?"

Fuck.

"I mean, we hung out a few times. We aren't like close—"

"Ooh, you're totally friends with him. Well that means you're way too cool to be hanging with me anymore. Just drop me off at the next bus stop then, pretend you don't know me."

"Shut up." I said, wanting to smile at her humor, but instead I remembered the last interaction I'd had with him. "Anyway, who are you rooting for then?"

"Well, on one hand, Rowan went to high school with us, and it's my hometown team. On the other hand, shouldn't I be showing some Stanford school spirit? I mean, they're so far away from home, they'll probably have no fans tonight and I actually go there."

"Sure, but if you do that, you'll have to root for Creighton when the team travels to Stanford for their game. Because you know there won't be anyone supporting them out there."

Lucy sighed, and leaned her head back against the headrest.

"I'll just cheer on whoever wins." I shook my head.

"That's cheating, you gotta pick." I said, and pulled into the driveway. Lucy opened the back door to unbuckle the plants.

"Hey, it's the Bluejays versus Cardinals. Battle of the birds. Blue versus red." She said handing me one of them.

"Well you're definitely overthinking it."

"Ugh." She picked up the other one and followed me to the front door. I unlocked it with one hand, making sure I didn't drop the new plant before we headed inside. My parents were out on one of their weekly dates, so the house was empty.

We carried the plants to my room, and Lucy immediately got to work, adjusting the positions of the plants and moving them to different corners, seeing where they'd fit best. I tried helping and she said she wanted full creative control, so I ended up falling back on my bed, closing my eyes.

I wasn't prepared to see him. I wasn't ready. I still felt exactly where his hand had been on my arm when he'd pulled me back, as if his hand had burned a mark on my skin. But it hadn't, and my mind was overthinking, overthinking, overthinking.

Last time I'd seen one of Rowan's basketball games was last year. I'd gone with my friends and some others from our high school to one of his playoff games. I remembered the stands erupting every time a point was scored, and deafening cheers chanting Rowans name all over the arena anytime he had the ball. There were massive screens set in different parts of the building, repeating plays for people to watch with careful eyes.

I remembered thinking this is nothing like high school sports as the cheerleaders chanted his name when he came out of the locker room in the midst of deafening crowd noise, and the screens all over the building flashed with a handsome photo of him in his jersey looking fiercely down the camera, his most impressive stats digitally appearing next to the image.

I remembered wondering how can one person play so well under so much attention? As he easily drained a three pointer, seeming as if he were completely unaware that anyone was watching him at all. Didn't it distract him? All the men's division one college basketball games were streamed, how didn't the pressure of being on live television unsettle him in the slightest?

"Done!" Lucy said, snapping me from my daydreams.

I lifted my head, and saw the pothos plant hanging from my window, curled around it like it was a welcoming portal to a much more mystical world.

The larger plant was in the sandy basket decorating the corner of my room, the light from the window shining off of it vibrantly.

"That actually doesn't look too bad..." I said, sitting up and surveying the additions. Lucy swatted me on the shoulder.

"I know, it looks amazing."

***

Lucy and I reached Eriks house, and I locked my car as we headed up the steps I'd last seen Rowan on.

Lucy was more quiet, and I had a feeling she was slightly nervous to see Erik again.

Before I could even knock, the door was thrown open and he greeted us with a massive grin on his half-blue face.

"Are you joining the Blue Man group?" I asked, and Eriks face fell.

"I'm being supportive. And why are you guys not wearing blue?" He responded, his tone full of disappointment.

"Lucy wanted to be neutral, and I have no blue shirts. At least not in the same shade as their school colors." I said, and Erik shook his head.

"Come in, I'll sort you two out." He greeted Lucy with a hug, and we followed him to his living room, where a bowl of blue paint lay waiting.

"I'll pass on the paint." I said, and Erik rolled his eyes before running up the stairs to his room.

"One sec." He shouted down at us, before reappearing with a handful of blue shirts. I picked one up, it had a large white 'C' with the face of a cartoon bluejay centered. Underneath it said CREIGHTON BASKETBALL also printed in white. I looked at the other shirts, they were all the same.

"How the fuck do you have so many of these?" I asked in bewilderment.

"My club coach used to give these out to us to practice in. He was assistant coach for Creighton for a while."

Oh, the world of basketball. I know so little.

Lucy and I slipped on the shirts before Erik came at me with the paintbrush.

"No, not happening!" I said, dodging out of his path. He turned to Lucy, slowly wagging the paintbrush at her and she shrieked as he leapt towards her. She ran from him and laughed.

"Fine, fine!" She said, her hands up in defense as he chased her back into the living room, "don't paint my whole face blue though." She said, catching her breath.

"I'll only do a little, I promise." He said, laughing along with her. Lucy let him paint two thick blue lines under her eyes, and I swore I saw her face flush slightly at his proximity.

Once we were all ready I grabbed my keys and headed to the front door.

"What do you think you're doing?" Erik said, and I turned to him, confused.

"Driving us?" He laughed and shook his head.

"Evan, going to a basketball game with me means going to a basketball game with me." My eyes fell to a large bottle of vodka he pulled from the kitchen freezer. "I'm calling us an Uber."

A few minutes later we were sneaking shots in the backseat, though they didn't help my nerves about seeing Rowan again.

We were dropped off right at the entrance to the arena. Lucy and Erik were being slightly more obvious with their flirting, as the alcohol wore down any formalities they may have had earlier. They hurried towards the entrance as we heard the buzzer loudly go off from inside, signaling the game would start any minute. Lucy turned and called for me to follow. My feet seemed to be stuck, scared of moving forward.

I knew I was probably more nervous to be in the same building as Rowan than he was to play basketball in front of thousands of fans on live television.

Don't be pathetic. I thought to myself, and followed them into the arena.

***

***