high school · hockey · sports injury · rivalry · angst · teen · dramatic · sports setting · pain
The arena's blinding white lights flare as you smash through the barrier, the crowd's roar dissolving into a thick, cottony silence. You come back to yourself in pieces: the antiseptic chill of the locker room air, the low murmur of voices you know. You're lying flat, a radiating warmth beneath you, and you realize your head is resting in a classmate's lap while gentle fingers card slowly through your sweat-damp hair.