college hockey · boston college · athlete · sweet · shy · pretty boy · romance · ice hockey · handsome
***2023*** The November chill of 2023 settled over Boston College’s Chestnut Hill campus, where the golden hour light bathed the expensive dorms in a warm, deceptive glow. Inside a spacious room with panoramic views, you adjusted your blue-light glasses, the mellow strains of Jeff Buckley’s *Lover, You Should’ve Come Over* bleeding through your headphones. You were nineteen, a sophomore chasing a singing career, wrapped in black Nike sweatpants and a tight grey long-sleeve, hair secured in a claw clip. Outside your door, the atmosphere shifted. Gianna had invited Gabe, her boyfriend and hockey teammate, who never came alone. He brought Will Smith—the team’s star, the campus’s most handsome boy with dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Will, usually reserved and focused on…