003

ASHER

My knee had taken a hit somewhere in the second period and I hadn’t let myself think about it until I was off the ice, pulling gear off in the locker room with a limp I couldn’t quite hide.

“You good?” Nathan dropped down on the bench beside me, already halfway out of his own pads.

“I’m not made of plastic.” I peeled the jersey over my head. “I’ll live.”

“Get it checked before it turns into something.” He clapped my shoulder and headed for the showers, and I sat there a second longer, working the strap loose on my shin guard, letting my mind go where it had been trying to go all day.

Leah.

I had seen her in English class earlier. She had not looked at me once, keeping her gaze pinned to her desk as if I were nothing more than empty space. Perhaps she was still carrying the grudge her brother had held against me all those years ago. Whatever the reason, it did not change the reality coiled tightly in my chest. I could not forget her. She was the first girl I had ever liked. Her being on this campus wasn’t helping. Every hallway I turned down, some part of me was already scanning for her without meaning to. And God, she’d only gotten more beautiful, which felt like some kind of personal punishment.

To make things entirely worse, her boyfriend was Noah.

That fact alone forced my hands. I kept my distance, watching her from afar, practicing the cruel art of pretending she did not exist while my chest burned every time she walked into a room.

Jake dropped onto the bench across from me, yanking at his own gear. “You prepping for the next game or what?”

“Been prepping my whole life.” I flexed the knee, testing it.

His eyes caught the movement and narrowed. “Don’t mess that up. Coach is counting on you more than you probably want to hear right now.”

“I’m not the only one who can play this game.” I shrugged the words off easier than I felt them.

“Easy to say when you’re the one he’s built the whole season around.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Jake smirked, leaning back against the lockers. “You know what’d help with the stress? A hot girl and a blow j@b. Works every time.”

I shook my head, my jaw tightening at the suggestion. "That is the absolute least of the things on my mind right now." I grabbed my dry clothes from the locker and zipped my gym bag closed. "I have got to go."

Jake frowned, looking around the locker room. "Are you not even going to shower?"

"I really have to go," I said, swinging the strap of the bag over my shoulder. "It is urgent. I will do that as soon as I get home."

“Take care of yourself,” he called after me, and I lifted a hand without turning around.

I walked out of the locker room, my bad knee clicking slightly with every step, though I refused to slow my pace

I rounded the corner outside the locker room and a voice stopped me cold — familiar in a way that hit somewhere below thought, before I’d even placed it.

My body moved before my brain could process the decision. I hurried toward the sound.

Leah was there, her wrist caught in a tight grip, struggling violently against the hands of her so called boyfriend. Noah was leaning in, his posture aggressive, entirely ignoring her resistance.

Every protective instinct I had spent months burying roared to the surfaced.

“You heard her.” My voice came out lower than I meant it to, harder. “Let go of her.”

Both of them turned. Noah’s face went from surprise to something closer to defensive.

“Mind your own business Romano,” he said.

I stepped closer, close enough that he’d have to look up if he wanted to hold eye contact. “Let go of her, or find out exactly what is going to happen next.”

He held on another second, long enough to make a point of it, then dropped her wrist and lifted both hands like he was surrendering something. “I don’t want a problem.”

He turned to her, voice softening in a way that made my jaw tighten. “I’ll see you soon, Leah.”

Without another word, he turned on his heel and hurried down the corridor, I didn’t let my eyes leave him until he’d rounded the corner and was gone. Then I turned to her.

She stood there rubbing her wrist, breathing fast, refusing to look anywhere near my face.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I am... I am fine." She stammered. She still hadn’t looked at me.

I studied her a second — the way her shoulders had drawn in. She was doing it again, refusing to look at me, treating me like a ghost in her world. The frustration that had been building up for weeks finally broke through my restraint. I stepped closer, blocking her path, forcing her to acknowledge the space we were occupying together.

“Leah.” I said her name slowly, testing it the way I hadn’t let myself do in years. “Do you really not recognize me? Or have you just been doing an excellent job pretending?”