LOGINShare
Collision, Again
publish date:
2026-08-27 14:26:32
Latest chapter
The Collision The Collapse
Jace's POVThe dressing room was loud before warmups, the way it always was on championship day. Somebody had the speaker going, and Ryan was singing badly along with it, slapping the lockers in time.Denise was waiting by the training room door when I came out of the shower. She didn't say hello. She just pointed at the table."Lift it," she said.I lifted. The arm came up to my ribs and stopped where it had stopped all week. She pressed two fingers along the top of my shoulder, and I didn't flinch this time.She looked at the clipboard. She didn't write anything new. She just read the page for a while, then tucked it under her arm."You're going to play," she said. It wasn't a question."Yes.""Then play the way you can, not the way you used to."I didn't answer. I got my shirt on with my left hand and walked out before she could say anything else.Kingsport was waiting for us at center ice, the same forwards as the final, the same blue jerseys. The crowd was louder than it had been
The Collision Engine Off
Ethan's POVThe mall car park was almost empty for a Friday afternoon. I had driven across town instead of going straight to the arena. I'd told myself I needed to get out of the house, and then I'd walked past two shop windows without going into either one. The radio played a song I didn't know, and I turned it off at the second light. Now I sat on the top level, facing a concrete wall with a painted number on it, the engine off.On the passenger seat was the ticket for tomorrow's game. I had bought it on Tuesday, the same week the tournament ended. The paper was stiff in my jacket pocket, and I'd taken it out twice already to check the date, as if it might have changed.I took out my phone and opened the contacts. Jace's name was near the top.I pressed it.The screen changed to the call view. His face from last year's team photo filled the corner, the one where the photographer had told him to smile and he hadn't. The ring came through the speaker, soft and even. I held the phone t
The Collision One Minute, Fourteen
Jace's POVThe Zamboni was still circling when I got to the rink, its engine a low growl across the empty stands. The lights overhead were half on, and the ice had that wet, glassy look it got right after a resurface. My breath fogged in front of me.I sat on the home bench with my bag at my feet and took out my phone.*Dad, 6:12 a.m., 1 min 14 sec.*My thumb sat over the icon for a while. Then I pressed it and held the phone to my ear with my left hand, because the right one wouldn't stay where I put it.The first thing I heard was a car door, then wind, then the faint sound of a parking lot. My father's voice came next, flat and even, the way it always was when he was reading from something in his head."Jace. Saw the game."A pause. I could hear him breathing, and under that, the hum of an engine that wasn't running."Good game."That was all. He didn't say anything about the assist or the shift in the third period or the shot that had gone wide. He didn't mention the arm or the st
The Collision Face Down
Ariana's POVThe scholarship email had been sitting in my inbox since Friday, and by Wednesday night it had gone from a reminder to a warning.*Please submit a brief statement of your current coursework and professional activities by Friday.*I opened it at my desk with the lamp on and my laptop humming. The dorm was quiet for once. Becca had gone to the study lounge after dinner, muttering about a chemistry problem set that she swore was designed to make people cry. The radiator ticked under the window, and somewhere down the hall, someone was practicing a song on a guitar.I read the email twice. Then I opened a blank document and typed the heading.*Statement of Current Work.*The first sentence came easily. I had a column in progress, a regular reporting shift at the student paper, and a seminar on long-form features that I was enjoying more than I expected. I wrote that down in plain words, the way I'd write a news brief, and I didn't add anything that wasn't true.The second sen
The Collision Destruction
Jace's POVThe arm found the wrong position around two in the morning, the way it always did.I'd been lying on my left side for an hour, my right arm tucked under the pillow where it couldn't pull on anything. When I rolled over to check the time, the shoulder caught, a hot hook under the bone, and I lay still until it let go. The phone screen lit the ceiling. 2:04.I should have gone back to sleep. Instead I opened the app.The clip was already at the top of the feed, sixty thousand views and climbing. It started with the crowd noise, then the horn, then the camera swinging across the rink. Someone had zoomed in on row nine. I watched Ariana in her black coat, Becca beside her with a red scarf, both of them still. Then the camera caught me at center ice, turning my head toward the north side.I watched my own face do it. I looked like someone who'd just lost a bet with himself.The video was muted. I didn't need the sound. I remembered exactly how the arena had been, and I remembere
The Collision Healing
Ariana's POVThe clip had fifty-three thousand views when I opened my laptop, and my face was in the first frame.I closed the app before the comments could load. Then I opened a blank document, typed my name at the top, and stared at it. The cursor blinked. Somewhere down the hall, a door slammed, and someone shouted about a bike lock.My phone sat face-down beside the keyboard. Becca came in twenty minutes later, her backpack hanging off one shoulder and her cheeks pink from the cold. She dropped the bag by the door and looked at me, then at the phone, then back at me."Did you see it?" she asked."Yes.""Do you want to talk about it?""No."She nodded slowly and sat on the edge of her bed. I waited for the joke, the one about how I was handling it like a professional. It didn't come. She just pulled her laptop onto her knees and opened a chemistry worksheet, and after a while she said, "Okay," very quietly, like she was agreeing with herself.I was grateful for that too.The libra
You May Also Like
CEO's Tears Over Pregnancy Test Discovery
Faith Shaw747.0K viewsDivorced My Cheating Husband, Married A Billionaire
LiLhyz876.2K viewsOne Night Stand
Favor V April1.0M viewsOur Billion-Worth Twins
Velvet Antler617.2K viewsMy Online Boyfriend Is My StepBrother?!
Tiffanie Campbell210 viewsThe Ruthless Alpha’s Obsession
Klaus pen game135 viewsSnowbound in Bed: Seven Nights With my Rival
Ella Jean Ross131 viewsTHE REPLACEMENT BRIDE
Genny123 views
