There is never a day and probably never an hour that Giants rookie defensive back Corey Ballentine doesn’t think about his best friend, Dwane Simmons.

“I think about it every day obviously because it’s somebody that was in my life every day and it’s hard to fill that gap,” Ballentine said Sunday at the Giants training facility in East Rutherford, N.J. “I haven’t filled it yet. Like I said, I’m trying to move forward.”

Moving forward means trying to cope with what should have been the best day of his young life turning into the worst. It means trying to deal with how hours after being drafted in the sixth round by the Giants in April, Ballentine and Simmons were shot while leaving a party about four blocks from the campus of Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.

Simmons and Ballentine, both 23, were teammates and best friends. Simmons died at the scene, while Ballentine was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to gluteal muscle that since has healed. Police have charged Francisco Alejandro Mendez, 18, with murder and attempted murder in the random shooting.

“It was just a tragic event,” Ballentine said, “and I lost my best friend because of it.”

They arrived at Washburn in 2015. Ballentine was from nearby Shawnee Heights in Kansas; Simmons from Missouri. Ballentine blossomed his senior year, earning the Cliff Harris Award as the Division II Defensive Player of the Year.

His selection by the Giants with 180th overall pick was a cause for celebration at Washburn. He was the first Ichabod taken in 11 years. A press conference to honor Ballentine was canceled because of the shooting. A candlelight vigil for Simmons was held instead.

“If he was here right now, he would love to see where I’m at and what I’m doing,” Ballentine said. “I spent the most time with him. I’m just going to try to keep him in my heart and at the same time try to strive for the goals of the team and my own personal goals and just do my best.”

Ballentine’s heart remains heavy. He said he has been seeing a team psychologist and is grateful for the support he has gotten from the Giants.

“Earlier on I was a little paranoid,” he said. “But now that I’m out here in New York I’ve got a lot of support from the organization and a lot of other people, too. I’ve been talking to Janice [last name undisclosed] the psychologist and just trying to get my mind off of it. I’m not thinking about it too much now. I’ll always have it on my heart, but I’m moving forward with my life.”

Mendez’s arrest earlier this month offers some closure for Ballentine, who is trying to keep his focus on making the Giants’ roster. He was one of three cornerbacks drafted by the team, led by DeAndre Baker of Georgia, taken in the first round, and Notre Dame’s Julian Love, selected in the fourth. Sam Beal, selected in the third round of the supplemental draft last year, is also on the roster.

“They’re not going to wait for me here,” Ballentine said. “They’ve given me time to think about it and ponder on everything that happened and recover. I think personally it’s time for me to be strong. I can’t keep dwelling on it. I have to move forward. If I’m going to make this team, I’ve got to learn the plays. I’ve got to execute.”

The tragedy of losing a friend was compounded when Ballentine learned of comments in the media questioning his character and the Giants’ decision to draft him.

“Nobody was there and nobody knows what happened and at that point nobody knows who I am,” Ballentine said. “So for somebody to say those types of things made me upset. I don’t think I’d be here playing for the Giants if I was a bad person.

“The right people know that everything that happened was out of my control and there was nothing I could do about it. I’m just moving forward with it.”

Ballentine says he is thinking of getting a tattoo to honor his slain friend. It would be his first.