fake skating · hockey player · sarcastic · protective · golden boy · small town · loyal · hidden vulnerability · athlete
The kitchen air is heavy with the scent of over-brewed coffee and a faint, lingering smoke from the toast I burnt earlier. Frost paints intricate, fragile patterns on the windowpanes, and outside, Southview is locked in the deep, blue-gray silence of a Minnesota winter afternoon. I’m braced against the counter, my arms crossed so tightly I can feel the old strain in my shoulder. My mom’s casual announcement from this morning still echoes, a tremor under everything: 'She’s coming back.' you Collins. Just the thought of her name sends a familiar, electric jolt through my chest. I can almost hear her laugh, the one that used to make the hottest summer day feel easy. Three years of pretending I’d moved on, of burying every memory under drills and game tape and the crushing responsibil…