LOGINTheo~The second the words left my mouth, I regretted them. Not because I did not want to know. Because I had absolutely no right to ask. The realization hit me immediately, but unfortunately my mouth had already beaten my brain to the finish line.Nobody spoke. The girl was still half sitting on Noah’s lap, looking between us like she had just walked into the middle of an argument she did not understand. Which, to be fair, she had.Noah stared at me. I stared right back. My heart pounded so hard it was annoying. I had just spent weeks convincing myself I needed distance. Weeks telling myself I was better off away from him. Weeks rebuilding some version of normal. Then I walked through the front door and apparently forgot all of that.Good job, Theodore. Really mature.The girl finally cleared her throat. “Um…”Nobody looked at her. That probably was not helping. Noah stood up carefully, causing her to slide off his lap onto the couch cushion beside him. “What are you doing home?” he
Theo~ Finally, we reached the game day we had all been training for. By the time we got to the third period, every single person in the arena was losing their mind. Including me. The score sat tied at three-three. Nobody had managed to break it for nearly fifteen minutes. Every shift felt heavier than the last. Every hit rattled through my body. Every time I jumped over the boards, it felt like somebody had turned gravity up another level. The crowd was not helping. They were loud as hell. Every near miss got a huge reaction. Every save got a reaction. Every check got a reaction. The entire building felt alive. I bent forward on the bench and sucked in a deep breath while Coach barked instructions that nobody was really listening to anymore. At this point, everybody knew what was at stake. Win this game and we advanced. Lose and we went home. Simple as that. Benito dropped onto the bench beside me. His hair was damp with sweat and his jersey looked like it had survived a small war
Theo~The thing about Benito was that he never seemed to run out of energy. I genuinely did not know how it was possible. The guy trained like a maniac, dominated most of the drills, and still had enough left afterward to drag people out for food like he had not just spent three hours getting slammed into the boards.Meanwhile I felt one bad practice away from collapsing face-first onto the ice.“You’re buying,” Benito said as he walked backward toward the restaurant entrance.I looked up from my phone. “What?”“You’re buying.”“Why?”“Because I’m pretty.”I stared at him. “That is not how money works.”“It should be.”He pushed the door open with a grin. I followed him inside mostly because arguing with Benito was pointless. It was like arguing with a tornado. The tornado would do whatever it wanted anyway.The restaurant was busy and noisy. We had to wait a few minutes for a table. Benito spent that time talking to random people. He did not know any of them, but that did not stop hi
Noah~The strange thing about trying to move on was that nobody ever warned you how boring it felt. Movies made it look dramatic and full of big moments. Books made it sound deep and meaningful. In reality, it was mostly about staring at your phone and forcing yourself not to do anything stupid and who was I fucking kidding with the Shakespeare shit, I was a miserable fucker.That was exactly what I had been doing for the last four days.Four long days of staying strong. No stalking Theo’s streams. No checking his schedule. No driving past the places he used to go. No searching his name online. Nothing at all. I deserved some kind of medal for it. Instead, all I got was this weird empty feeling that followed me around everywhere I went.Practice ended around noon. Normally I would have pulled out my phone right there in the locker room and started checking hockey updates. This time I shoved it deep into my bag and walked out with the rest of the team toward the parking lot.“Well, loo
POV: NoahThe problem with Nikolai was that he treated every decision like it had already been made. It didn’t matter what you wanted or what excuses you offered. Once he decided something was happening, your opinion became nothing more than background noise. That was exactly why I wasn’t surprised when he showed up outside the arena after practice and stole my car keys without warning.“What the hell?” I snapped.Nikolai pocketed them smoothly. “We’re going out.”I stared at him. “No.”“Yes.”“I just finished practice.”“Congratulations.”“I’m tired.”“I don’t care.”I rubbed a hand over my face, exhausted. “You’re unbelievable.”“I know.” The annoying part was how pleased he looked about it.A few teammates walked past and immediately turned around when they saw Nikolai. Smart move. No one willingly got involved when he was in one of these moods. I held out my hand. “Give me my keys.”“No.”“Nikolai.”“Noah.”I sighed. This was pointless. The guy was built like a tank and twice as s
Theo~The problem with Benito was that he never knew when to stop pushing. Most people would notice when they were making someone uncomfortable and back off right away. Benito noticed it and immediately decided to push even harder. That was exactly why agreeing to lunch with him after practice had been a huge mistake.Training had ended about an hour earlier. Most of the team had already scattered across campus, heading back to their rooms or grabbing quick rides. But Benito had somehow talked me into staying behind at the small diner near the arena. Now we sat across from each other in a worn booth near the window. I stirred a chocolate milkshake I had no real interest in drinking while he watched me with that familiar, dangerous grin, the kind that always meant trouble.I pointed my spoon at him. “Whatever you’re thinking right now, don’t.”His grin only grew wider. “Oh, it’s definitely about Noah then.”I nearly dropped the spoon into the glass. “Jesus Christ, Benito.”“What? I’m j
Joe~I had stopped pretending I was just passing by or be frigging okay.At first it was easy to lie to myself about it. I would tell myself I was just in the corridor for something else, just moving through the house like anyone else would. But it kept happening the same way. My steps slowing when
Theo~Practice started like normal and that already should’ve told me something was going to go wrong because nothing stays normal for long around Noah even when he pretends it does and I pretend I don’t notice it.He was already on the ice before I fully stepped out, stretching like he had all the
Melody~I told myself I wasn’t going to think about Reina today and that lasted maybe ten minutes after I woke up before my brain just went back there anyway like it had nowhere else to live.It wasn’t even anything dramatic when it started. Just small things. Random flashes that didn’t feel like m
Nikolai~I was halfway tying my gloves when I noticed it and I didn’t look up right away because I already knew what it was going to be.Jeremy.Of course it’s Jeremy.He and Noah were the only people who could make the entire room go fucking quiet when they stepped in and he loved to show up like







