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The Final Game

Penulis: Sophie Kingston
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-10-07 19:33:01

Ethan’s POV

Game day.

The words used to light a fire in my chest—adrenaline, anticipation, that clean rush before stepping into the arena.

Today, it feels heavier. More like a question mark than a rallying cry.

I stood in the locker room, the noise around me fading to a low hum. Jordan joked with Marcus in the corner, Coach Reynolds mapped out plays on the whiteboard, and I just… breathed. The brace around my knee felt snug, stable—but not invincible. One wrong move and everything could end.

Or maybe it already had.

“You ready?” Jordan's voice cut through my thoughts. He bumped my shoulder, eyes sharp but kind. “You don’t have to prove anything, man.”

I nodded, forcing a half-smile. “I know. Just want to leave it all on the court.”

“That’s the spirit.” He grinned, then lowered his voice. “And hey—she’s here.”

My pulse jumped.

I didn’t have to ask who he meant.

When we jogged out onto the court, the roar hit me like a wave. Lights blazed overhead, banners rippling, cameras flashing. Bu
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  • Crossing the line    Echoes in Motion

    Ethan’s POVThe first thing I noticed when I woke the next morning wasn’t the sunlight — it was the ache. A dull, familiar throb in my knee that reminded me I wasn’t twenty anymore, and that no matter how good recovery looked on paper, my body still had its own limits.I sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing at the scar that cut through years of ambition. Some days, it still felt like a warning. Other days, it felt like proof.The phone buzzed on my nightstand — Tyler.Tyler: Don’t forget the clinic starts at 10.Tyler: And don’t be late this time.I smirked, typing back:Ethan: You’re bossier than Coach ever was.Tyler: Someone has to be.He wasn’t wrong.The youth clinic was packed when I arrived — a blur of kids in mismatched sneakers and oversized jerseys, their laughter echoing through the gym. Cameras lined one end of the court, local news crews trying to grab quotes and B-roll before the drills started.It wasn’t my first event since the comeback, but this one felt different —

  • Crossing the line    The Court After Dark

    Ava’s POVThe message came just after sunset.Ethan: Meet me at the Southridge Gym. 8 p.m. You’ll understand when you get here.I almost ignored it.Almost.But by seven-thirty, I was already driving, headlights slicing through the quiet stretch of highway that connected Charlotte to the smaller districts. The night felt heavier than usual, like it knew I was heading somewhere I shouldn’t.Southridge wasn’t far — forty minutes from the city, tucked between worn-out warehouses and fading streetlights. The gym was old, local, the kind of place you’d miss if you weren’t looking.When I pulled up, I saw his car out front — same black SUV, same clean lines. He was leaning against the hood, hands in his jacket pockets, eyes on the pavement like he was waiting for a sign.When he looked up, it hit me all over again — how familiar it felt to be seen by him.“You came,” he said quietly.“You asked.”He smiled faintly. “I wasn’t sure you would.”“Neither was I.”He pushed open the door, motioni

  • Crossing the line    Tides Between Us

    Ava’s POVThe Chronicle’s office looked different the next morning — brighter somehow, even though nothing had changed. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was because I hadn’t slept.The words from last night still pulsed in my mind.Doesn’t mean done. I’d replayed them a hundred times between sips of cold coffee and the city’s restless hum.When I walked into the newsroom, Dana waved me over before I could sit down. “That feature on Cole? The board loves the angle — redemption, resilience, human heart. They want a follow-up. Something more personal.”My pulse skipped. “A follow-up?”“An ongoing series, actually. His comeback isn’t just one story. He’s the talk of the league again, and readers eat that up. They want depth — training camp, his foundation work, the family dynamic… all of it.”The family dynamic. My stomach sank before I could help it.Dana added, “You’ll coordinate with his rep. She said his brother’s managing his local outreach — a Tyler Cole?”I froze. “Tyler?”“Yeah. Seems

  • Crossing the line    The Comeback Press

    Ethan’s POVThe first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning wasn’t the ache in my knee — it was the silence. No rehab alarms. No trainers shouting. Just quiet.Six months ago, I would’ve called it peace. Now it just felt… empty.My phone buzzed beside the bed — notifications stacked like clutter. Mentions, tags, headlines. Everyone had something to say about the comeback.Ethan Cole Returns Stronger Than Ever.Redemption Story of the Season.Second Chances and Charlotte’s Golden Boy.All noise. All surface.The truth was simpler: I was still learning to trust my leg, my body, my instincts — and myself.I’d signed with the Charlotte Monarchs three months ago. Same city, different jersey, same pressure. A local paper had called it “a symbolic homecoming” — a line that made me laugh when I first read it. Because home? That word hadn’t felt solid in a long time.My old coach had moved on, but I still worked out with Marcus and Jordan in the off-season. Tyler came down on weekends

  • Crossing the line    Headlines and Heartbeats

    Ava’s POVSix months. That’s how long it had been since I boarded that bus — my heart full of hope, my future uncertain.Now my mornings smelled like coffee and newsprint instead of stadium sweat and adrenaline. My alarm rang at six, my inbox overflowed with press releases, and my desk at The Charlotte Chronicle was buried beneath story notes and deadlines.It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t easy. But it was mine.Byline by byline, I’d climbed from the bottom of the intern list to the editorial floor. Human-interest pieces. Small profiles. Then a feature that trended — “The Heart Behind the Game” — about an injured rookie rebuilding his life after losing his scholarship. That one caught my editor’s attention.It also caught something else. Something I tried not to think about.Because every time I typed the word comeback, my chest tightened. Every time I covered an athlete’s recovery, I thought of Ethan.Ethan Cole. Still headline material.He’d returned to the court three weeks ago, si

  • Crossing the line    Crossing the Line

    Ava’s POVThe morning I left campus felt strange — like standing between two worlds.Boxes lined the dorm hallway, echoes of other goodbyes mixing with laughter and the slam of doors. My room looked smaller now, the walls bare except for a single photo taped above the desk — me and Ethan after the final game, his arm around me, both of us smiling like we’d already figured everything out.We hadn’t.But maybe that was the point.Lila sat cross-legged on my bed, pretending to fold laundry but mostly watching me pace. “You know,” she said, “for someone who swore she wasn’t sentimental, you’ve been staring at that photo for ten minutes.”“I’m just—thinking,” I said.“Thinking,” she repeated, rolling her eyes. “That’s code for spiraling.”I sighed and sank beside her. “It’s weird. Everything’s ending at once—school, this place, the paper… and I still don’t know what happens next.”“You got the job offer, Ava. That’s what happens next. You go to Charlotte, become the hotshot journalist you

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