All Chapters of Boys Don’t Play Fair: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

128 Chapters

FAULT LINES

Noah woke up before his alarm went off.He lay there for a few seconds, just staring at the ceiling while thin gray morning light leaked through the curtains.Then the memory flooded in.After the game.His stomach clenched right away.He dragged both hands over his face and groaned into his pillow.“Okay,” he whispered. “You’re just talking to him. That’s it.”It sounded flimsy, even to himself.He rolled onto his side and grabbed his phone. Last night’s conversation with Jay was still there.Short messages.Careful ones.But messages, at least.He stared at them a little too long before locking the screen.“You’re being weird,” he admitted under his breath.Didn’t help at all.When he got downstairs, his mom was already halfway through her coffee, hunched over emails at the kitchen counter.“You’re up early.”He grabbed the cereal box. “Couldn’t sleep.”“Big test?”“No.”“Meet?”“Tomorrow,” he said.She nodded without looking up. “Mm.”He poured cereal into a bowl, then stopped.Tel

FAULT LINES ( Continue )

Lunch was louder than usual.Joe found him by the vending machines and shoved half a sandwich at him.“You forgot breakfast again?”“No, I ate cereal.”“You look like you didn’t.”They ducked into the library instead of the cafeteria.Much quieter.Joe dropped into a chair, Noah sat across.“You’ve been weird all morning,” Joe said.Noah unwrapped his sandwich slowly. “I’m fine.”Joe just looked at him.Didn’t buy it. But didn’t push either.The patience made Noah feel stuck, like he owed him an explanation he didn’t want to give.Joe still wanted to believe good things about Liam.Noah didn’t want to ruin that.So he just shrugged. “Thinking about tonight.”“The game?” Joe asked.Noah nodded.“You’re still going?”No question about it.Noah stared at the table for a bit, then nodded again.Joe smiled. “Good.”Noah met his eyes. “Even if it’s stupid?”“Usually the important stuff is,” Joe said.Noah snorted.Joe kept watching, then added, “Whatever’s making you hesitate... don’t let i

PRESSURE

Game nights hit different in the rink.Everything got louder. Sharper. Voices bounced harder off the glass, skates scuffed the ice, and you could feel the energy crawling up your spine. Kids filled the bleachers row by row, all draped in school colors, talking over each other until the whole place hummed. Somebody always smacked the railing up front. Westbridge banners draped from the upper balcony next to championship flags ghosts from earlier victories.Tonight felt heavy.Not because of finals. Not because a trophy was on the line.Scouts came.Everyone felt it.That pressure cracked through the air made everyone jumpier, quicker, maybe a little meaner.Jay waited at center ice. He rolled his shoulders, took Mark’s pass. Snap. Sent it back to Ryan.Ryan let one rip toward the net. Blocked."Again," Jay barked.No one questioned it. They reset.Across the rink, Easton Heights buzzed in deep blue. Bigger guys, more muscle. Their captain kept watching Westbridge’s side, itching for th

Don’t Go

“You said you wanted to tell me something.”Liam’s face tightened a little, like he’d hoped Jay might’ve forgotten. For a moment, he stayed quiet, watching Jay sitting there half out of his hockey gear, shoulders slumped, jersey pushed up to his elbows.Liam let out a slow breath."I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this for weeks," he said, voice low. "But I don’t think there’s a ‘right way.’"Jay pulled his hoodie down and leaned back. "Just spit it out."Liam let out a humorless laugh. "That easy, huh?""Yeah."He went silent for awhile. Jay just waited, eyes on the floor.Liam looked away first, jaw working.“I know I shouldn’t,” he started.Jay could already feel something heavy inside him.“I know we talked about it before,” Liam said carefully, “and you probably don’t want to hear this again.”The silence stretched until Liam finally said...“But I still love you.”He said it softly, which made it hit even harder.Jay’s hands froze on his skate laces.Liam snorted under

He Left Anyway

The locker room felt dead after Jay left. Too dead, really. Liam stayed put, staring at the closed door, hoping probably against logic that it might swing open again if he waited long enough.It didn’t.Out on the rink, life carried on. You could hear voices echoing down the hallway, skates scraping the concrete, someone laughing like they owned the place. A coach shouted something that Liam couldn’t quite catch.Everyone moving forward, like nothing had happened.Meanwhile, Liam just felt stuck. Like even breathing was a struggle.His ribs throbbed under the bandages, but honestly, that barely registered. Something heavier sat in his chest. Old. Familiar. Draining.He dragged his hand down his face, hard enough to make the skin burn.The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Annoying, but somehow fitting.And then the smell hit him. Sweat, melted ice, damp gear, athletic tape.Same smell as always. Same smell as years ago.And suddenly it was like he was fifteen again.{ FLASHBACK}“Ar

Someone Stayed

By the time Jay stepped outside, the rink was emptying out.The cold slapped him right in the face.It smelled like snow, even though winter hadn’t really shown up yet.Parents wandered through the lot, juggling jackets and coffee. Players from the other team laughed near the buses. Someone cranked up music for a second in their car, then peeled out.The usual.The usual sounds.Jay felt weirdly cut off from all of it.He dropped down onto a low concrete barrier near the side door, hockey bag thudding beside his feet, half his gear still on.His knuckles looked almost colorless from how hard he’d gripped the straps.The rink doors opened behind him.He didn’t even need to look he already knew.Noah stopped a few feet away.Neither of them said anything for a moment.The silence between them had started to feel different.Not really awkward.Just... careful.Noah hiked his backpack higher. “Hey.”Jay stared at the ground. “Hey.”Another pause.Then, quiet—“Is he okay?”Jay exhaled thr

People Stay Too Long Inside Hope

Saturday slipped in quietly, unnoticed.No games. No classes. No hallways packed with people pretending to be ready for each other.Just cold morning light dripping through windows and that strange emptiness you get after something hurts, but you know it’s finally over.Jay slept in for once not because he wanted it, but because his body just wouldn’t let him move. He lay there, staring up at the ceiling, too tired to reach for his phone.No texts from Liam.That shouldn’t have felt weird. But it did.Liam always texted first after fights, even if it was something random. Hockey clips. Complaints about school. Some dumb meme at 2 AM that barely made sense. Little things, enough to pretend nothing shattered between them.This time? Nothing.Jay pressed a hand over his face. His whole chest felt heavy, the kind of guilt that sticks around even though you know you did the right thing.That’s the worst kind of hurt, honestly when there’s nothing left to fix.Downstairs, Jay’s dad was alre

Leftover Guilt

Monday morning hit with that gray, bone-deep cold you feel before you even step outside. The whole school looked like it hadn’t bothered waking up yet just shuffling around in autopilot.Everyone dragged through the parking lot, coffee cups in hand, homework hanging halfway out of bags. Somebody blasted music from their car until security shouted at them. Backpacks thudded. Shoes squeaked. Voices mumbled.It was normal. Painfully normal.Jay hated it, honestly. How things kept rolling forward, even when you were cracked open inside and nothing felt right.He slammed his motorcycle locker a little too hard and took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders. Heading down the hall, he turned the corner and saw Liam standing near their usual lockers.Mark saw Jay too. He barely muttered, “Absolutely not,” grabbed his bag, and bolted like he was dodging a bomb, not a conversation."Coward". Jay almost laughed. Almost.Liam shuffled books into his locker. No drama. No tension. No anger. That alm

Pretending It’s Normal

By the time Liam and Joe reentered the gym hallway, most of the crowd had already scattered. The last stragglers dragged themselves toward afternoon classes, noisy in that restless, unbothered way people got after lunch.Joe ended up walking beside him, quiet. He didn’t stick close enough to feel like a friend, but not far enough to actually disappear. Liam clocked that immediately.“You don’t have your own friends?” Liam asked, not bothering to look over.Joe tucked his hands deeper into his hoodie pockets. “They got tired of my personality.”“Understandable.”Joe let out a short laugh. Liam didn’t.Whatever happened behind the gym already felt gone, like it had only slipped through for a few minutes before he remembered to close the door. That was always the deal with Liam: he could open up just a crack and then he’d slam it shut so hard it hurt both people. Joe got it, and didn’t push.They rounded the corner toward the science building just as the warning bell went off overhead. I

One Thing at a Time

The pool felt weird without Coach.Way too open. Way too quiet.Usually, you’d hear a whistle somewhere, instructions echoing, splashes mixing with sharp commands and the constant background grumbling. But today, it was just the steady hum of the filtration system.Marcus fiddled with his duffel bag by the benches, almost out the door. “Coach said recovery day. Don’t drown yourselves.”Noah snorted. “We’ll try.”Marcus pointed at him. “You especially. ‘Light practice’ means nothing to you.”Joe laughed under his breath.Marcus just shook his head and left, the heavy door swinging shut.Silence settled in.Joe looked around. “This place is creepy when it’s empty.”“It’s a pool.”“It looks like the beginning scene in a murder documentary.”Noah dumped his bag on the bench. “You watch too much crime TV.”“I watch exactly the right amount.”Noah rolled his eyes, already pulling his hoodie off. “I’m still swimming.”Joe blinked. “Seriously?”“I already came here.”“There’s literally no coa

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