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22.Twelve Years
publish date:
2026-10-30 20:00:20Jace's POV
Liam showed up at my dorm a little after midnight, and I knew the second I opened the door that Blair had told him everything.
His knuckles were wrapped in a torn strip of fabric, dried blood visible at the edges, and his eyes had the kind of hollowed-out look that came from something worse than a lost game.
"Liam..."
"Twelve years." His voice was quiet. That was somehow worse than if he'd been shouting. "Twelve years, Jace. I've known y
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Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 34. Taking Space
Chloe found me sitting on my dorm room floor the next morning, still in yesterday's clothes, staring at nothing in particular."Okay," she said, dropping down beside me without waiting for an invitation. "Talk."So I told her everything,the photo, Jace's question, the answer I hadn't been brave enough to give anyone until last night. She listened without interrupting, which for Chloe was its own kind of remarkable."How did he take it?" she asked finally."Better than I deserved. He didn't yell. He didn't even really get angry. He just asked me to actually think about it instead of protecting everyone's feelings by staying quiet.""That's very mature of him.""It's very Jace, actually. He's always been better at seeing things clearly than I give him credit for." I picked at a loose thread on my sleeve. "We didn't break up. Not exactly. We just decided to take some space. Figure out what we each actually want instead of just holding on becaus
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 33. What Jace Already Knew
I didn't mean to fall asleep on Jace's couch with my old phone photos open.It happened by accident,I'd been looking for a picture of Chloe and me from freshman orientation for some group chat nostalgia thread, scrolling back further than I meant to, and somewhere in the process I'd drifted off with my phone still lit up in my hand.When I woke up, Jace was sitting across the room, very quiet, very still, and my phone was no longer in my hand. It was on the coffee table, screen still glowing, open to a photo from the week of the fake dating agreement ,Liam and me on the quad, his arm around my shoulders, both of us laughing at something neither of us probably remembered anymore."Jace.""You fell asleep," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "Your phone kept buzzing. I moved it so it wouldn't wake you up.""And you looked at it.""It was already open." He wasn't accusing me of anything. That somehow made it worse. "I wasn't trying to snoop.
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 32. Small Static
Three weeks after finals, life at Dalton had settled into something that almost passed for normal.Jace and I fell into a rhythm that should have felt like everything I'd wanted,study sessions that turned into lazy afternoons, dinners with Chloe where nobody had to pretend anything, a version of us that existed in daylight instead of stolen corners and locked doors. On paper, it was exactly the ending I'd chosen.So I didn't understand why, some days, it felt like static under a clear signal,nothing wrong exactly, just a faint hum I couldn't quite place."You're doing it again," Jace said one evening, not looking up from the game film he was reviewing on his laptop."Doing what?""Staring at nothing like you're working through a math problem I can't see."I forced a smile. "Just tired."He glanced up at that, studying me a beat too long before letting it go, and something in the way he didn't push made me feel worse than if he had.
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 31.After The Horn
The celebration outside the locker room was chaos in the best possible way.Half the student section had spilled down toward the exit, waiting for the team to emerge, and the hallway had turned into a sea of Dalton jerseys and champagne-colored confetti someone had smuggled in against every fire code imaginable. Chloe and I got separated almost immediately, swallowed up by the crowd, and I didn't mind at all,I was too busy scanning every face that came through the locker room doors, looking for one in particular.Jace found me first.He came through still half in his gear, hair damp with sweat, grinning in a way I hadn't seen from him in longer than I wanted to admit. He didn't say anything,just crossed the distance between us and lifted me clean off my feet, spinning once before setting me back down, both of us laughing."You did it," I said, breathless. "You actually did it.""We did it." He kissed me, quick and giddy, right there in front of God and half the student body, no hesita
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 30.Both of Them, On the Same Ice
The arena was packed an hour before puck drop, the kind of crowd that made the whole building hum with a nervous, electric energy I could feel in my chest before I'd even found my seat. Chloe had saved us spots near the glass, close enough that I could see the players' faces during warmups — Jace running through his usual pregame routine, three slow laps and a specific stick tap against the boards that he'd probably done since he was twelve. Liam skated beside him, calling out something that made Jace laugh, easy and unguarded, the two of them moving around each other on the ice like the weeks of stiffness between them had never happened at all. I found Reagan three rows down, wrapped in a Dalton scarf, waving enthusiastically every time Liam skated past. He grinned back at her the same way he had in practice, and I made myself watch it happen without flinching, witho
Caught Between Two Hockey Stars 29.The Version I Used to Know
Two nights before finals, Jace showed up at my dorm with takeout and a nervous energy he was trying very hard to hide."You're not eating," I pointed out, watching him push the same piece of orange chicken around his container for the third time."I'm savoring it.""You're stress-pushing food around a container. That's different."He set the chicken down and exhaled, some of the practiced calm slipping. "Finals in two days. Biggest game of my career, probably. I keep running through every possible way it could go wrong."I moved to sit beside him, taking the container out of his hands and setting it on the desk. "You've been playing since you were seven. You know exactly what you're doing out there.""Yeah, well. Knowing and believing it at eleven p.m. the night before are two very different things." He looked at me, something softer replacing the nerves. "Whatever happens tomorrow, I want you there. In the stands. I need to know
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