5.

Lori

It was not just because of Lucas. It was because of the person sitting on the opposite side of the stadium.

I looked up at the special seating section reserved for the varsity athletes. Travis sat right in the middle of his fraternity brothers, wearing his black football jacket. He looked good, but he was not watching the hockey game. He was leaning down, his head bent close to Elena. She sat a row below him, wearing her full cheerleading uniform.

Elena laughed at something he whispered. She threw her head back, her fingers brushing against his knee.

A real, physical ache hit me right in the chest. For half a year, he hid me from everyone. He treated me like a dirty secret. “The football team doesn’t need the distraction right now, Lor,” he had told me every time I asked. “Let’s just keep this between us for a little while longer.”

Every single excuse he ever gave me turned into a lie that made me sick to my stomach. Now, here he was openly flirting with another girl. The worst part is that he didn’t care that we had broken up less than twenty-four hours ago, and he was already showing her off to the world.

"Hey," Jessica’s voice interrupted my thoughts. "Please don’t look at that asshole. He would know that his stupid actions is getting to you."

"He's not getting to me," I lied. My throat felt incredibly tight. I forced my head around to look away from them. "I'm just angry."

"Good. Stay angry," Jessica said. "Here. Look at something that is actually worth your time. Go find Miller. He is about to take the face off."

My hands shook a little bit as I lifted the heavy plastic to my eyes. The lenses blurred out for a second before snapping into a sharp, clear focus.

I scanned past the white jerseys of the referees. I ignored the opposing team. Finally, I locked onto the giant number 97 jersey.

Lucas was gliding backward across the ice, his skates leaving smooth, deep lines in the white surface. He leaned his weight on his hockey stick, his broad chest moving up and down under his heavy protective pads.

I slowly tilted the lenses up from his jersey to his face. He wore his helmet, his features hidden behind the dark metal cage.

My breath stopped.

He was not looking at the referee. He was not watching the puck drop, either.

Lucas had his head turned completely toward our section of the stands. Through the heavy magnification of the binoculars, it felt like he was standing right next to me.

He slowly smirked at me. The look matched the one he gave me last night while he was on top of me.

I quickly removed the binoculars, while my heart kept beating fast against my chest.

"He’s going for it!" Ann yelled out, grabbing my other arm tightly as the referee finally dropped the black puck onto the ice.

Now that I knew he was watching me, it was impossible to look away. Lucas did not play hockey like the other guys on the team. He moved with a scary, fast speed that did not even look human. His massive body sliced through the defense like a sharp blade. There was a raw hunger in the way he chased down the puck.

With less than two minutes left on the clock, Lucas intercepted a bad pass near the blue line. He exploded down the ice, and the entire crowd stood up at the same time, screaming. The opposing goalie slid across the net, but Lucas was too fast for him. With a hard flick of his wrist, he slammed the puck straight into the top corner of the goal.

The loud siren wailed through the arena. The stadium went completely crazy. Beer spilled everywhere, and students were screaming his name over and over. Jessica was jumping up and down on the concrete, yelling at the top of her lungs.

But the celebration did not last long.

The defenseman from the other team was frustrated by the goal. He came speeding in from behind Lucas. He did not even try to slow his skates down. He slammed his heavy stick directly into Lucas’s lower back, throwing him violently against the glass right in front of our row.

The loud sound of the hit echoed over the noise of the crowd.

"Oh my god!" Jessica gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

I haven’t even wrapped my head around what was happening and the other player already had Lucas’s jersey collar around his fist. Next, he forcefully removed his helmet and landed a punch on his jaw.

A sharp wave of pure panic hit me. A loud gasp came out of my throat. My hands gripped the cold metal railing so hard that my knuckles turned completely white. No, no, no. My heart felt like it stopped beating. I found myself leaning way over the glass, my eyes wide with fear.

I cared and it didn’t make any sense. He was a stranger, a campus playboy, a mistake from a night where I just wanted revenge. But watching someone actually hurt him made my blood run cold.

Lucas’s head snapped back from the punch. A line of bright red blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. But he did not fall down to the ice. He did not even stumble backward.

Instead, Lucas wiped the blood away with the back of his heavy glove. A dark laugh shook his chest. The referee tried to jump between the two players, but Lucas pushed him off with one hand. He grabbed the other player by the front of his shirt, his face twisting into pure anger.

What happened next was a brutal, one-sided fight. Lucas threw three hard punches. Each one hit with a loud, sickening sound until the other player fell onto the ice, holding his bloody face. The stadium was totally wild now. The rest of the hockey team rushed off the bench to pull Lucas away before he could do any more damage.

The referees forced Lucas into the penalty box. His breathing was heavy, while he looked like a wild animal ready to attack.

But as they dragged him away, he snapped his head around. He looked past the coaches, past his teammates, and locked his eyes right back onto me.

I have forgotten about the binoculars besides me since I no longer needed them. Lucas was now standing so close. He was still staring with an intensity that shocked me.

“Oh my gosh,” Jessica cried beside me. The excitement in her voice was very loud as she saw the officials shove him into the penalty box. "Did you see that? He is an absolute animal. Whoever goes home with him tonight is going to get completely ruined."

I swallowed hard. The memory of his heavy hands pressing into my hips came back instantly. A cold sweat broke out across the back of my neck as I stared at the penalty box. The heavy weight of his gaze was still burning into my skin.

Jessica did not know the truth. Nobody knew. But as I watched Lucas spit a mouthful of blood onto the white ice without taking his eyes off me, I realized everything.

I was already caught in his trap. And he was nowhere near done with me.