Another win under our belt and it feels good, even if my body aches. I took a hard hit in the last minute of the game, and my ribs hurt like a bitch.

“You all right?” Rauthruss asks from the seat next to me.

I grunt a response as I close my eyes. Somehow that seems to make the pain lessen.

“I’m gonna video chat my girl. Cool?”

I wave my hand to let him know I don’t mind.

Rauthruss is the kind of guy who doesn’t care who hears his conversations with Carrie, so he doesn’t even bother putting in headphones.

“Hi, baby.” She answers. “Congrats on the win.”

I’ve only met Carrie a couple times. Seems okay. I don’t get why Rauthruss is so hung up on her, but he didn’t ask my opinion, so I don’t give it.

“Thanks. How’s your editorial coming?”

She sighs and goes into a long explanation. Rauthruss listens intently with his mhmm and oh yeah at all the right times. He’s good at listening. Has to be, apparently. She barely takes a breath between sentences.

I doze off and when I wake up again, we’re pulling off the freeway to Valley and the dude is still on the phone and she’s still doing most of the talking.

I sit up with a wince and check my phone, but only have a couple of texts from my mom and Nathan congratulating me on the game and checking in on my wellbeing. I tap out responses to both of them in the time it takes Carrie to get out a single run-on sentence.

How do two people have so much to talk about? It isn’t like they haven’t talked in weeks or something. She was at Valley visiting just last weekend.

As the bus pulls into the campus lot, they say their goodbyes with promises to talk later tonight before bed. When he hangs up, I ask, “Seriously? You’re going to talk to her again later?”

His hard, steel-blue eyes study me and then he chuckles. “You don’t get it, but someday you will.”

When I don’t respond, he clarifies. “Some girl is going to make you so crazy that you’ll want to talk to her all day, every day.”

“What in the world do you have to talk about after being together so long? Not even Scott talks on the phone as much as you.” I look across the aisle to where Scott is staring out the window.

“It’s different for him. He’s going to get off the bus and go see Taryn. I gotta take what I can get for now.”

“Sounds pretty awful,” I say truthfully. What’s the point of being in a relationship if you have to do it through an electronic device?