Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Collision : Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

**Jace's POV**The locker room smelled like sweat and rubber, the usual mix that came after two hours of drills on the ice. I sat on the bench unlacing my skates, my shoulder throbbing low and steady, the kind of ache I'd gotten good at ignoring by now.Ryan dropped down on the bench across from me, toweling off his hair. "Yo, Carter. Heard your girl's writing another piece on the team."I didn't look up. "She's got a name.""Ariana, right." He said it slowly, like he was testing how it sounded. "Journalism major. Scholarship kid."Something in his tone made my jaw tighten. "What about her."Ryan shrugged, tossing his towel into the bin. "Nothing, man. Just saying. She writes one glowing article about you and suddenly she's basically embedded with the team. Kind of convenient."Across the room, Danny looked up from tying his skates. "Convenient how?""I'm just saying what everyone's thinking." Ryan leaned back against the lockers, arms crossed. "Girl shows up out of nowhere, gets atta

Ariana's POV My phone lit up on the bed while I was still buried in notes. I grabbed it and saw Jace’s name. Jace: Hey Ariana, you free? Practice just ended and I need a walk to clear my head. Join me? I smiled a little and typed back fast. Me: Yeah, sounds good. Meet at the big oak by the library? Jace:Perfect. See you in ten. I pulled on my hoodie and headed out. The evening air felt nice after being stuck inside. Jace was already there, leaning against the tree, hair still messy from practice. "Hey," he said, pushing off the tree with a grin. "Thanks for saving me from another night of staring at my ceiling." We started walking along the path behind the library. "Rough practice?" I asked. "Rough is an understatement. Coach had us doing suicides until I thought my legs were going to file for divorce." He shook his head. "Mike kept yelling ‘focus, captain!’ like I was daydreaming about tacos or something." I chuckled. "Tacos? Really?" "Don’t laugh. After those drills, taco

Ariana's POV The air conditioning hummed low against the quiet, and I stood there staring at my open bag like unpacking it required some kind of strategy I hadn't thought through. "You can use the bathroom first if you want," Jace said, sitting on the edge of his bed, already pulling his shoes off. "I'm not picky about order." "Thanks." I grabbed my toiletry bag and closed myself in the small bathroom, grateful for even a minute of separate space. I looked at myself in the mirror under the harsh fluorescent light, cheeks still a little flushed from the drive, from the burger place, from an entire day of feeling more like myself than I had in months. I splashed some water on my face and told myself this was fine. One room. Two beds. Nothing complicated about that. When I came back out, Jace had changed into a plain gray t-shirt and sweats, sitting cross-legged on his bed scrolling through his phone. He glanced up when I walked in. "All yours," I said, nodding toward the bath

Ariana's POVI woke before my alarm, the hotel room still dim with early morning light filtering gray through the curtains. Jace was still asleep on the other bed, one arm thrown over his eyes, his breathing slow and even.I lay there for a while, not moving, listening to the quiet hum of the air conditioner and the distant sound of a door closing somewhere down the hall. My mind kept circling back to last night, to the way his voice had cracked admitting his dad never once said he was proud, to the careful, unguarded honesty he'd handed me in the dark.I hadn't given him anything back. I stared at him and noticed how his chest rose and fell, my chest doing something tight and unfamiliar. Somewhere in the hallway a door opened and closed again, footsteps passing, and Jace stirred slightly at the sound, shifting under the blanket.I turned my head just as his eyes opened, blinking against the gray light, taking a second to place where he was."Morning," he said, voice rough with sleep

Ariana's POVThe morning air outside the restaurant hit me cold and sharp, I pressed my back against the brick wall beside the entrance, my chest still rising too fast, my lips still warm in a way that felt impossible to ignore.I pressed two fingers against my mouth without meaning to, like I could check whether something had actually changed there, whether the kiss had left some visible mark instead of just this ridiculous, thundering pulse in my chest.It didn't mean anything.I said it in my head, firm, the way I'd say it out loud if anyone asked. It was staged. It was for Ryan. It was for the whole stupid team.But my hand was still shaking slightly against my lips, and no amount of telling myself it was staged made the warmth in my chest settle down.I paced a small circle on the sidewalk, arms wrapped around myself, breathing in the cold morning air like it could clear something out of my head. A couple walking a dog passed by, giving me a strange look, and I forced my arms to