บททั้งหมดของ Skating With Hearts : บทที่ 101 - บทที่ 110

When I came back some minutes to midnight wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, I couldn't help thinking that the rink had never felt so quiet.Usually, I liked the sound of the place when it's quiet— the hum of the ice chillers, the echo of blades slicing through frost, the low thud of pucks slamming into boards. Tonight, though, even those sounds felt too loud.Maybe it was because I knew this wasn’t just a rink anymore. That it was a stage now. A confession booth. A last chance.Everything was ready. The projector sat in the center bleachers, its glow spilling over the freshly resurfaced ice. Skylar’s art — bright, chaotic, and beautiful — flickered softly on the boards like a pulse. Her lines, her colors, her soul were in prominent display. I chuckled quietly as I remembered how I’d spent hours fine-tuning it all. Every transition. Every quote. Every brushstroke. The video at the end — the one where my teammates vouched for me — was the perfect icing on the cake and it touched me

The first thing I heard was laughter. Beautiful soft warm laughter that felt like the most melodious music ever. It flittered to my ears, making me smile subconsciously.It was the kind of laughter that got under your skin and rearranged your pulse. It was…hers. I plucked my eyes open and saw that Skylar was leaning against the counter in my kitchen wearing my hoodie— the same hideous gray one she’d sworn she’d never touch few months ago. Her curls were a mess, her cheeks flushed, and she was holding my coffee mug like it belonged to her.She had followed me to my dorm room to spend the night since it was closer to the rink than hers. Especially as my roommate was spending the night in the library.We had not done anything sexual but it had been the most beautiful night ever. I had wrapped my arms around her so tightly while she slept in my embrace. Thinking about it now made my smile as wide as river Mississippi.It really had been beautiful.“You don’t have milk,” she said now w

The text came at 8:47 p.m.Meet me where it all began. Midnight. No pressure. Just ice and us. Please.I stared at it for a long time, heart pounding so hard I could hear it echo in my ears.I stared at it for such a long time that my eyes began to ache not too long after. Ryans. Ryans…had texted me. For weeks, I’d tried to bury his name, his voice…everything about him and thinking, fearing that maybe he had done the same as well. But here was his text again, glowing on my screen like a ghost that refused to stay dead.I should’ve ignored it.Thrown my phone across the room and gone to bed.But instead, I just sat there, staring at the text as if I didn't for even a minute, it would go away. Meet me where it all began. Midnight. No pressure. Just ice and us. Please.He wants me to meet him at the rink. Really?My fingers trembled as I thought about the text and about him. My breath wouldn’t steady. My mind kept whispering reasons to forget him but my heart kept hammering on one da

When I left Ryans’ dorm room two hours later, I couldn’t stop smiling even if someone had paid me to.It was ridiculous…it was ridiculous how my cheeks hurt from grinning, how my heart still fluttered like a teenager’s after prom.By the time I got to my dorm, the sun was already climbing high, spilling gold through the hallway windows, catching on the dust motes dancing in the air. Everything looked brighter, louder, alive. Even the usually creaky door to my room swung open like it was in my good mood.I knew I was only seeing it that way because of my very good mood but it didn't matter.June was sitting cross-legged on her bed in her usual chaos — hair up in a pineapple bun, a green face mask smeared unevenly across her cheeks, laptop open to some true-crime podcast, and popcorn scattered everywhere. She looked up mid-bite, and when she saw me, her eyes widened.“Oh my God,” she said slowly, pointing her spoon at me. “You’re glowing. Did you rob Sephora or something?”I tried to pl

Dr. Hall’s office smelled like lavender and fresh paper when I walked in. It was the kind of scent that made you feel like you could finally unclench the parts of yourself you didn’t even know were tense.I had come to think of her office as my safe space. Infact, it had been almost two weeks since I’d last been here, but the moment I stepped inside, everything felt familiar again — the couch with its ridiculous number of throw pillows, the softly humming air purifier, and the old tabby cat, Charlie, lounging on the window ledge like it owned the place.I closed the door gently behind me, my reflection flashing briefly in the glass frame by the shelf — messy curls, faint makeup, oversized hoodie (Ryans’s, obviously). I looked… different. Lighter, somehow.The last time I was here, I had been exhausted, terrified and angry all at at once. God, how things had changed in the space of two weeks. “Skylar,” Dr. Hall said, smiling from her chair as she set down her mug. “You’re glowing. S