Chapter 1: Wrong Place, Worse Time
Haper’s POV
The moment I pushed open the door leading to the hockey facilities, I knew something was wrong.
The place was far too quiet.
School had resumed three days ago, and the team should have been halfway through practice by now. Usually the building echoed with shouting coaches, clashing sticks, and the kind of chaos that came with a group of overgrown men trying to murder each other on ice. Instead, all I got was silence.
I tightened my grip on my bag strap and continued down the hallway, trying to ignore the nervous knot twisting in my stomach. Maybe I was late. Maybe practice had already ended. Honestly, I hoped so. I had spent the entire morning rehearsing this conversation in my head.
I just needed Ethan to tell me he hadn’t meant it.
That was all.
Maybe the breakup text he’d sent over winter break had been written in anger. Maybe he’d been frustrated. Maybe if I explained how important my documentary was, he’d agree to help me get access to the team again.
Because if he didn’t, I was screwed.
Without access to the hockey team, there was no documentary.
Without the documentary, there was no graduation.
Without graduation, there was no job.
And without a job, I had no idea how I was supposed to help my mother pay for treatments we could barely afford as it was.
The thought alone made my chest ache.
I turned the corner leading to the locker rooms and froze when a soft moan drifted through the hallway.
At first I thought I’d imagined it.
Then I heard another one.
My stomach dropped.
No.
Please no.
The sound was coming from one of the rooms at the end of the corridor. The door wasn’t fully closed. It sat slightly ajar, leaving just enough space for the noise to slip through.
My pulse began hammering against my ribs as I approached.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Almost as if moving slower would somehow change what I was about to see.
It didn’t.
The second I looked through the opening, my entire world shattered.
Ethan had a cheerleader pinned against the lockers. His hands were all over her, his mouth on hers, one of her legs hooked around his waist while he kissed her like she was the only thing in the world worth breathing for.
For a moment, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t even blink.
I just stood there staring at the boy I’d spent two years loving while he kissed another girl without an ounce of guilt.
Then the cheerleader opened her eyes. She saw me first and smirked, clearly satisfied with the attention she was getting from Ethan.
Smug. Like she’d won.
"Ethan," she purred.
"Yes, baby." He finally pulled away from her lips. "What?"
She nodded toward the door. His gaze followed hers and landed directly on me.
For one brief second, I waited, for guilt, for panic, for something.
Instead, his expression twisted into annoyance.
"Seriously?" he said, dropping her legs. She straightened her skirt and stood behind him.
I swallowed against the lump forming in my throat.
"You broke up with me for her?" I said, tears already forming.
Ethan stared at me for a second before bursting out laughing.
Actually laughing.
The sound echoed through the room and made something inside me crack.
"Oh my God," he said, rubbing a hand over his face. "Are we seriously doing this right now?"
"Ethan—"
"No." He held up a hand. "Let’s not do the crying ex-girlfriend thing."
Beside him, the cheerleader giggled. I hated that sound instantly.
She was beautiful in the effortless way rich girls always seemed to be. Perfect blonde hair. Perfect makeup. Perfect body. Everything I wasn’t. Everything I couldn’t afford to be.
"Ethan, we’ve been together for two years."
"And?" he asked.
I stared at him.
"And?"
He shrugged. "I got bored."
A slap would’ve hurt less.
"You told me you loved me."
"I probably did." A pause. "At the time."
At the time.
As if two years of my life could be reduced to four words. As if everything we’d been through meant absolutely nothing.
Ethan folded his arms and looked me over.
"You know what your problem is, Harper?"
I didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure I could.
"You live in a fantasy world. You think if you work hard enough everything magically fixes itself."
"What does that even mean?"
"It means look at your life." His smile turned cruel. "Your mom is sick. Your family is drowning in debt. You’re working multiple jobs. And somehow you’re still running around pretending you’re going to become some famous journalist or filmmaker."
"Don’t talk about my family."
"Why not? Everybody else does."
The cheerleader laughed. Ethan wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Chloe doesn’t come with all that baggage."
Heat flooded my face. "Excuse me?"
"She isn’t constantly stressed. She isn’t always talking about hospital bills. She isn’t begging professors for extensions every semester. And she definitely isn’t following me around looking desperate."
The tears I’d been fighting finally slipped free.
Ethan rolled his eyes. "There it is."
Chloe leaned against him and smirked. "You weren’t kidding. She really is obsessed with you."
I looked at Ethan, waiting for him to tell her she was wrong. Waiting for him to defend me. Waiting for him to be the boy I’d fallen in love with.
Instead, he laughed. "See? This is exactly why we’re over."
I felt physically sick.
Ethan looked me up and down slowly, and I suddenly wished the floor would open and swallow me whole.
"Honestly, Harper, did you really think someone like me was going to stay with someone like you forever?"
Silence filled the room. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t even feel my legs.
"You should’ve seen this coming."
"Please stop."
"No." His voice turned cold. "I think somebody should’ve told you the truth a long time ago."
He reached into his locker and pulled out a laminated pass.
My media pass. The one I needed for my documentary. The one standing between me and graduation.
Fear shot through me. "Ethan "
He tossed it onto the bench. "I had it revoked this morning."
My heart stopped. "What?"
"I had it revoked."
"You can’t do that."
"I already did."
"No." My voice cracked. "Ethan, please."
The smile on his face told me there was no point begging. He’d already decided to destroy me.
"Good luck with your stupid project."
He picked the pass back up and dropped it straight into a trash can. Right in front of me.
I stared at it in horror, feeling the last pieces of my future disappear with it.
That was when a deep voice cut through the room.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Every head turned toward the doorway. Including mine.
The moment I saw who was standing there, my stomach dropped for an entirely different reason.
Justin Hayes.
The hockey team’s captain. The campus bad boy. And the one person on this campus who seemed to dislike me almost as much as Ethan did.
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