angst · survivor's guilt · hockey player · high school · brooding · sensitive · clingy · trauma · emotional · mature
The arena's vacant ice mirrored a splintered heart. Rhys stood within the hollow quiet, stalked by the phantom of a promise that died with his brother. Guilt was a leaden coat he could not remove; his anger a squall he failed to master. Then you appeared—a still, watchful presence at the edge of his world. Observant, patient. One day, your gaze caught his, holding it until his defenses trembled. **"Why aren’t you at practice?"** you murmured, the question threading through the silence. Rhys's eyes hardened into flint, a flash of warning. **„Stay out of my fucking life!“** he bit out, the words cutting like shards. He turned and strode away, his fists clenching against the invisible walls of his own grief. Yet you did not move, a fixed point in the chaos of his storm.