Page 58 of First Puck

He really had no idea how much damage he’d already done. Even though I couldn’t blame him when I was just as bad.

I bit back my urge to list off the myriad of ways he had broken my heart without meaning to. I couldn’t blame him for anything, because he didn’t know, and that was on me.

Brad swiped his backpack from between his feet, rustling around before his hand emerged with my blue Switch.

“I figured you wouldn’t bring yours,” he said as he handed it over with a wry grin.

The dimple I always loved appeared, and suddenly, my focus shifted to it. I was left staring at it as I took my Switch, and he pulled out his red one. And as easy as that, we moved on.

“I’ve got six hours to absolutely annihilate you,” I said, banishing the ball of pain stuck in my chest so we could go back to being friends.

I’d tell Lance the next time we were alone that Brad 9.0 had to stop. And then I’d continue on with the lie I’d become so used to it was like my second skin. The open lie that I didn’t love him.

Brad

Alex had forgiven me, we were on a fresh new rink, and life was great.

Coach said major scouts were coming, ones from the East City Wranglers.

It was my last chance to impress, and I had to keep my promise to Alex.

Plus, the team had never been on this rink in the spring, which totally counted as a first time for us both.

As soon as we dumped our bags in our rooms, we threw on our gear and raced to the rink. We just needed to win this game, and we’d be in it for the finals.

Tons of people were pouring in from the home states. There were going to be camera crews, reporters, VIPs. We had one evening practice tonight before the first game.

And I was nervous. I didn’t usually get nervous, but I had to make sure I was completely ready for whatever was going to happen tomorrow. Ihadto be the MVP. Ihadto be the one who shone out on the ice.

We’d done our warm-ups and our laps, and Coach had split us into teams.

And, of course, he paired Alex up with Lance straight off the fucking bat.

There were two main rinks in the Bradford Bulls stadium, and we could hear them practicing with shouts echoing through the thin walls on the other side. It was their home rink, and they totally had the advantage. And they’d been training the whole time we were on the bus.

We needed to catch up if we were going to win.

We grouped ourselves around the barrier, some of us sitting, others hanging off it, and Coach gave us a rundown of plays to practice for tomorrow.

I kept trying to get Alex’s attention, but Coach had made us split into our teams. Alex was shoulder-to-shoulder with Lance, exactly like when I first caught the slippery asshole hitting on my friend.

Lance leaned in to whisper something to Alex, who gave Lance a huge fucking smile.

And Lance reached down, running a single finger along Alex’s arm like he was revving up to show him what else he could do with his hands.

That was it. That was the last fucking straw.

Alex was usually so serious about any game, and he was so wrapped up in Lance that he was ignoring Coach.

He said they hadn’t fucked, but that didn’t mean Alex didn’t have feelings for him. And it meant Lance was up with a chance for stealing the number one spot from me.

I had to talk to Alex properly about it instead of just glaring at them both since I found out.

I was adding punching Lance in his smug fucking face to my list of prep for the game tomorrow, just so he would stop looking at Alex like that. Or so Alex wouldn’t look at him. Or just something to stop the current coursing between them that should have been for me.

There was a crash from the other rink that sent a metallic echo through to ours, and the conversation stopped dead as the realization sucker-punched me out of nowhere.

Coach was still giving out instructions, but everything else faded away as I looked at my best friend.

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