They Could Care Less

41: Stage One of Grief

Thea was caught in a group hug consisting of everyone in the team as they screamed and screamed with joy. Thea was sure she had become deaf until they all parted to do seperate hugs and Thea was left alone, she still hadn't properly processed the last few minutes. A pat on her shoulder made Thea turn around and she was looking right at aunt Becca.

"Becca?" Thea said surprised and Becca pulled her into a rib-crushing hug.

"That was brilliant!" she said and let go. "I should've filmed that! I wonder if anyone filmed this..." she said and gradually began to talk to herself. "It won't be too hard to find considering this was live televised."

"That was filmed?" Thea asked loudly.

"Of course it was, it was just America's biggest college basketball tournament," she said sarcastically and smiled.

"Oh..." Thea said and Becca frowned, but before she could ask what was bothering her, Hussein interrupted.

"Hey, Smith! We're all going to celebrate, you need to be there, you're the hero here!" he said with an arm around another teammate's shoulders and a wide grin.

"Sure, just text me the address," Thea said and smiled back. Hussein nodded and went back to the celebrations. Thea turned back to Becca with a weak smile.

"Are you here alone?" Thea asked and glanced around quickly for any other familiar faces.

"No, your grandparents are here too along with Christina," she answered and hit one of Thea's sore spots at the moment.

"Let's find them and say 'hi' then," Thea suggested and she agreed. They walked up to the seats and began to scan the crowd, as they walked up and down, left and right, Thea recieved multiple congratulations and some even asked for a picture. Thea never had the heart to say no and soon she was swarmed with all kinds of people eager to share their moments of slight fame on social media.
Unfortunately for Rebecca, she had no way out of the crowd since the people had pushed her to Thea's side and Thea could easily tell that Rebecca was highly uncomfortable. Suddenly she began to laugh hysterically and Thea frowned as a flash went off in her face.

"What are you laughing about?" Thea asked and hid her face from more flashes.

"L-look at, "she paused to laugh even more, "look at your grandpa," she finished and pointed further up. Thea followed her finger and soon joined in on the laughter. Alan was also being swarmed by people that were unable to get near Thea, and they had instead chosen to approach grandpa Alan instead. He smiled his kind smile as a girl that was younger than Thea posed with him for a picture. Thea laughed and laughed until her face hurt from laughing. She held onto Rebecca as she laughed until she couldn't anymore. Now Thea wanted to get to her grandpa, but there was still a crowd around her and she didn't wanna elbow her way out.

"Excuse me," Damon said from the outer part of the circle. Everyone turned their head and suddenly they were all determined to selfie-attack him instead. Thea pulled Rebecca away quickly and they sneaked up.

"You look just like Brad Pitt," Thea said and grandpa looked up from posing with yet another young girl. "And you seem to be very popular with the girls too."

"And I thought I looked like Jonny Depp," he said and acted disappointed.

"Come on, let's eat dinner, I'll introduce you all to my friends," Thea said and linked her arm with grandma Irina's. Thea helped her carefully down two steps, before grandpa cleared his throat loudly and Thea looked back up. In the background Christina was standing all by herself, checking her watch. Thea chewed her lip as Rebecca gave her one of those looks. "You can come too if you want," Thea said as her phone went off, telling her she had a new text. Thea read it and looked back up at Christina. "We're eating at your workplace."