All Chapters of My Pathetic Obsession With The Hockey Boy : Chapter 11 - Chapter 14

The team bus smelled of rubber, stale upholstery, and the sharp tang of energy drinks. I spent the first twenty minutes of the ride pretending to review my shot list, but my eyes kept drifting. Three rows up, Carlson sat wedged between Remy and a massive duffel bag. He was laughing at something I couldn't hear, his head tilted back, the sharp line of his jaw softened by a genuine smile.Team Analyst.I still hadn't digested the words, even seeing my name printed on the retreat roster Coach Whitman handed me that morning: Cheryl Hart, Team Analyst. Not a videographer. Not the girl who lugged tripods to the bleachers. An actual title.The retreat house sat on a secluded lake an hour outside campus. It was a massive lodge built of exposed timber and stone. The kind of place boosters rented out for programs with deep donor pockets. Behind it lay a private rink, its surface frozen solid and gleaming under the overcast sky.I was hauling my heavy equipment bag up the wooden porch steps

The phone buzzed against my nightstand at eleven. A single text from Brianna, accompanied by an image file.Thought you'd want to see this before it's everywhere.I stared at the screen for a long, quiet minute, waiting for the coldness to set in.It was a photo. Carlson Miller, hand in hand with my sister on the back porch of the retreat lodge. The lake was a dark mirror behind them, the golden hour bleeding over their shoulders. They were lit up in a way I’d never once managed to get out of him in three years of trying.I was used to rejection. It was a currency I knew how to handle. But being cast aside for Cheryl, quiet, limping, forgettable Cheryl, who had spent her entire life collecting dust in whatever shadow I happened to throw, was a humiliation I didn't have the vocabulary to survive.My fingers were steady as I dialed Megan. She picked up on the second ring."She's with him," I said. My voice was too quiet, too flat. "Officially. It’s disgusting.""I know. I saw," Me