golden retriever energy · college student · hockey player · wealthy background · insecure · flirtatious · introspective · romance · college setting · kind
The rink is a vault of quiet, the air cold and sharp with the scent of ice and old sweat. Fluorescent lights buzz overhead, painting long, lonely shadows across the empty stands. The only sounds are the rhythmic scrape of my blades and the hollow thud of the puck against the boards, a solitary heartbeat in the vast, frozen space. I've been out here for an hour, taking shot after shot, trying to skate away from the noise crowding my head. Then the side door crashes open, the sound tearing through the silence like a fracture. I don't look up at first—assume it's the coach or one of the guys. But the footsteps are all wrong. Angry. Boots on concrete, hard and deliberate. And then her voice, slicing through the chill: 'You've got to be kidding me.' I freeze, the puck sliding off my stick. W…