All Chapters of THE ICE WE BREAK :Fake dating the ice king : Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

Maya The problem with pretending to be in a relationship for long enough was that eventually people stopped treating it like a temporary publicity arrangement and started building entire business strategies around it, because what began as a controlled narrative designed to help a struggling documentary had somehow evolved into a marketable brand of its own, while sponsors tracked engagement statistics, advertisers measured audience reactions, and marketing teams analyzed every public interaction between Leo and me as though our lives were products being prepared for sale rather than two exhausted people trying to survive a playoff season. I discovered exactly how far things had gone when Cassandra called an emergency production meeting early that morning, while representatives from multiple sponsors joined remotely and several university officials appeared unusually eager to attend, creating the kind of gathering that almost guaranteed bad

Maya The closer the documentary moved toward completion, the more chaotic every part of the production process seemed to become, because administrative reviews continued delaying approvals, Cassandra refused to abandon her preferred direction for the project, and staff members increasingly found themselves divided between competing visions of what the documentary should ultimately become, while deadlines continued approaching regardless of whether anyone was actually prepared for them, creating a level of pressure that often left me feeling as though I was trying to hold together a project determined to pull itself apart.Most days recently had begun with problems.Most days ended the same way.Somewhere in the middle I usually discovered three new ones.By now I was almost getting used to it.Almost.A particularly difficult afternoon found me buried beneath editing notes, production schedules, review requests, an

Maya The further Northridge advanced through the playoffs, the more difficult it became to remember what normal life had looked like before hockey consumed the university, because every hallway conversation eventually returned to the team, every social media feed seemed dominated by playoff coverage, and every public appearance generated attention that felt larger than the event itself, while the continued obsession surrounding my supposed relationship with Leo transformed ordinary activities into public spectacles that neither of us had ever agreed to participate in.At first the attention had been manageable.Annoying.Invasive.Occasionally ridiculous.Still manageable.Lately that had changed.The problem was no longer curiosity.The problem was entitlement.Somewhere along the way people stopped acting like observers and started behaving as though they deserved access to private mome

Maya The deeper Northridge pushed into the conference finals, the less the season resembled a university hockey campaign and the more it felt like a pressure chamber designed to expose every weakness hidden beneath confidence, because exhaustion had become permanent, expectations continued rising with every victory, and the entire program seemed trapped beneath a spotlight that refused to move elsewhere, while cameras followed every development and scouts evaluated every shift, creating an atmosphere where players were no longer simply competing for championships but also fighting for futures they had spent years trying to build.By Game Four, nobody looked rested anymore.Not the players.Not the coaches.Not the staff.Even the media seemed exhausted.The series had become physical enough to leave visible evidence behind, while bruises appeared beneath sleeves, movement became slightly slower during practices, an

Maya The final game of the conference finals carried the kind of weight that transformed ordinary moments into memories before they had even finished happening, because everyone inside the arena understood exactly what waited on the other side of the night, while one team stood sixty minutes away from the Championship Finals and the other stood sixty minutes away from watching its season disappear, creating an atmosphere so tense that even warmups felt unusually serious and every conversation seemed slightly quieter than normal.The entire campus had traveled with the team in spirit if not in person.Students packed viewing parties.Faculty members discussed line combinations.Former players returned to support the program.Even people who had never cared about hockey before suddenly treated the game like a national event, while social media exploded with predictions, highlights, and endless discussions about Northridge’s p