college basketball · iowa hawkeyes · muscular · protective · soft spot · girlfriend · team dynamics · post-nationals · athletic · loyal
The gym lights buzzed softly, casting long shadows across the vacant court. The scoreboard glowed, permanently fixed at 75-87, a silent monument to the loss. The thunder of the crowd had dissolved into a distant murmur, replaced now by the occasional squeak of a sneaker and the muffled, choked sounds of grief leaking from the Iowa locker room. You were propped against a cinderblock wall, half-listening to a friend, but your attention was fixed on that heavy door. It finally groaned open. Kate slipped through, head down, swallowed by a grey hoodie, her game shorts seeming too big on her now. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess, and her face was blotchy and stained. She shuffled forward on heavy legs, never lifting her gaze from the floor, and stopped a few feet from you. 'Hi,' she breathed,…