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2026-09-30 22:28:32
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MY STEPBROTHER IS MY HOCKEY RIVAL 60
NOAH MASONThe sound of a phone ringing dragged me out of sleep.Barely conscious, I frowned as I shifted beneath the sheets, trying to locate the source of the noise without having to open my eyes. It rang again, muffled and persistent, somewhere close to my head.For a moment, I couldn't remember why I wasn't alone in my bed. Then I opened my eyes properly and it hit me immediately.Takumi.He was still beside me, his arm wrapped around my waist and his face tucked close to the back of my neck. One of my hands rested against his forearm, while the other was trapped somewhere between our bodies beneath the sheets. The blanket covered us almost completely, and judging by the warmth surrounding me, we hadn't moved much since we'd fallen asleep.Memories of the previous night came back in pieces.The drive home. His quiet voice as he listened to me talk about my mother. The things I'd spent years trying not to think about, suddenly spoken aloud in front of someone else. And then, someh
MY STEPBROTHER IS MY HOCKEY RIVAL 59
TAKUMI WILLIAMS I’d learnt from an early age that some lies were needed. Like when my dad called in sick at work so he could watch my hockey match in grade 6. Or when my I told my dad my mum was the one craving pizza so he could pick it on his way home after I’d spent an entire week eating nothing but that same pizza. Those lies were harmless and in the long run, we had all laughed at it upon realization. It had been understandable and somehow, made me grow up to believe everyone always had a good reason behind their every action. But hearing Noah’s father had lied to the world, including my mum, about his ex-wife’s death, I suddenly questioned the very belief that had been ingrained in me for years.“I want to see her,” Noah continued. “I don't care what he says. I just want to see her.”“You should.”He looked at me.“I mean it,” I added. “If you want to see her, you should at least get the chance to try. Your dad can't just decide that for you without telling you anything.”Noa
MY STEPBROTHER IS MY HOCKEY RIVAL 58
TAKUMI WILLIAMSThe drive home was painfully quiet.Not the comfortable kind of silence that sometimes settled between Noah and me when neither of us had anything worth saying, but the kind that made me painfully aware of every little sound inside the car. The engine humming beneath us, the tires moving against the road, the occasional clicking of the indicator whenever I changed lanes.Noah hadn’t said a word since we left the parking lot.I kept glancing at him whenever I could without making it obvious, and every time I did, he was staring through the passenger-side window with an expression I couldn’t quite place.He looked exhausted.There was something about the way he was sitting, his shoulders slightly hunched and his hands resting loosely against his thighs, that made him look like he had forgotten what to do with himself. Noah was usually so controlled that even when he was angry, there was something deliberate about it. He knew what he wanted to say, how he wanted to say it,
MY STEPBROTHER IS MY HOCKEY RIVAL 57
NOAH MASON For a moment, I couldn’t hear anything. The parking lot hadn’t suddenly gone quiet, and the world around me hadn’t stopped moving, but my father’s words seemed to have swallowed every other sound, leaving me standing there with nothing but the same sentence repeating inside my head. She’s getting worse. I stared at him, waiting for him to take it back, to explain that there had been some misunderstanding or that the hospital had made a mistake, because there was no way he could have driven all the way here just to tell me something like that. “What do you mean she’s getting worse?” My voice sounded unfamiliar, and I hated how unsteady it was. “Why would she get worse? Why?” Compared to what the rest of the world was made to believe, my mum wasn’t dead. She had been alive all this time, locked away in a psychiatric hospital, while the rest of the world carried on as though she had never existed. I was eight years old when he told me she was suffering from b
MY STEPBROTHER IS MY HOCKEY RIVAL 56
TAKUMI WILLIAMS I spotted Wyatt almost immediately after stepping onto the ice. He was seated a few rows up from the rink, close enough that I could recognize him without having to look too hard, and the moment our eyes met, he lifted a hand in greeting as though we hadn’t already had a conversation about him staying away from me. I looked away. Of course, he had come. I’d told him not to, but apparently, that was another one of those things he had decided he could ignore, and I wasn’t particularly interested in dealing with him before a match. I had enough to think about already, especially with our opponents being a team we had struggled to beat the last match, Still, my eyes wandered across the crowd again, searching through the faces until I found myself looking for someone else. Noah. I wasn’t sure why I expected to see him, but I looked anyway. I scanned the rows closest to the rink, then the sections further back, trying to spot his familiar dark hair or the broad shoulde
MY STEPBROTHER IS MY HOCKEY RIVAL 55
NOAH MASON The silence that followed was immediate. Ethan blinked, while Summer’s mouth fell slightly open before she recovered and leaned closer across the table. “Guys?” I nodded once, suddenly finding the condensation on my glass far more interesting than either of their faces. “You mean,” Ethan paused, looking at Summer before returning his attention to me. “You’re attracted to men?” Takumi was a man. “Well, yes.” “Okay,” Summer said slowly, although the surprise in her expression hadn’t completely disappeared. “I wasn’t expecting that.” “Neither was I.” “How did you figure it out?” Ethan asked. “Did you meet someone?” “Did you fall for a guy?” Summer added, her curiosity growing with every second I remained silent. “I’m sorry how that sounds but like you’re Noah Mason. The Noah Mason. If anything I was beginning to think you’re asexual. So, did you fall for someone in particular?” My mind immediately went somewhere I hadn’t intended it to. I remembered the way his hai
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