All Chapters of Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

By the time the sun came up, more than two million people had seen my face. Not because I’d done anything remarkable. Not because I’d won an award or broken a story or accidentally gone viral for something funny. Two point three million people had watched me discover, in real time, that my boyfriend was kissing another woman. The internet had already given me a name. Not Iris Bennett, senior sports journalism major at Northbridge University. Not the girl juggling classes, deadlines, and a future she was still trying to build. Just The Girlfriend. The one standing a few feet away while Northbridge’s hockey star celebrated a championship by locking lips with someone who definitely wasn’t her. The worst part was that I didn’t know any of that yet. At two-thirty in the morning, I sat on the floor of my dorm room’s tiny bathroom, staring at a cracked tile beside the shower. The room was barely large enough for one person to turn around comfortably, but it was private, one of the few

Two weeks later, people were still staring. Not everyone. Just enough. Enough that I noticed it whenever I crossed campus and enough that conversations occasionally dipped when I walked past. The scandal had stopped being news and settled into something more durable: campus folklore. People traded versions of the story between classes as if they’d been standing there for every second of it. I adjusted my bag and headed toward the journalism building when my phone buzzed. Lunch? Ava. A smile appeared before I could stop it. Only Ava could text as though the world wasn’t currently trying to chew me up and spit me out. Sure. The typing bubble appeared immediately. You look less homicidal these days. Progress. I snorted and slipped my phone away. Unfortunately, Ava was wrong. Things weren’t improving. They were getting weird. At first, the changes had been easy to dismiss. An athletic campaign I’d already been scheduled to shoot suddenly went in a different direction. A promo

The woman from downstairs introduced herself as Melissa. She led me through a maze of offices, glass-walled meeting rooms, and workspaces packed with people juggling three screens at once. Everywhere I looked, there was polished glass, expensive equipment, and the kind of confidence that came from people who knew exactly what they were doing. The deeper we went into the building, the more aware I became that I was very much the outsider here. “Right this way.” I followed her down another hallway, trying not to stare too obviously at everything around me. This was it—the interview that could decide whether I stayed in school. No pressure or anything. Melissa stopped outside a conference room and pushed open the door. Five people sat around a large table, and the conversation inside died the second I stepped through the doorway. Great. Exactly the kind of attention I was hoping to avoid. “Ms. Bennett.” One of them stood and offered his hand. “Thank you for coming.” “Thank you

By my second day at Easton, I had something that almost resembled a routine. It wasn’t comfortable, not yet, but it had structure—Northbridge during the day, Easton in the evenings, and whatever scraps of energy remained went into assignments and the quiet effort of holding myself together. It worked well enough to keep me moving. What surprised me more was how quickly it stopped feeling strange. A week ago, walking into Easton’s arena with a media badge would have felt like stepping into someone else’s life. Now I nodded at security without hesitation, navigated the hallways without thinking, and slipped into the rhythm of the place as if I’d always belonged there. Life didn’t wait for readiness; it simply adjusted around you until you caught up. “You’re late.” I glanced up from my desk to find Blake leaning against it, arms crossed, wearing the kind of expression that suggested he’d been waiting specifically to say that. “I’m three minutes early.” “Exactly,” he said, pointing as

Things had settled into something that almost resembled stability. Not the kind that erased problems, but enough that I could move through my days without constantly waiting for everything to fall apart. Tuition still loomed like a threat I kept postponing, my life still split awkwardly between Northbridge and Easton, and the internet still treated me like a storyline they could dip into whenever they felt like it. But I had classes, work, and a routine that held together more often than it didn’t. It wasn’t peace, but it was close enough that I stopped questioning it. That should have been my warning. Melissa didn’t knock when she walked in, didn’t hesitate, didn’t ease into anything. She moved like she always did—already halfway through her agenda before anyone else caught up. “I need a favor.” I didn’t bother pretending enthusiasm. I leaned back slightly, watching her over my laptop. “That depends entirely on what kind of favor.” “A media event.” Too simple. Melissa’s version