Chapter 2: His Fake Girlfriend
Haper’s POV
"What the hell is going on here?"
The deep voice sliced through the tension in the room like a knife. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.
Then Justin Hayes stepped fully into the locker room, his hockey bag slung over one shoulder and his practice jersey damp with sweat. His gaze swept over the scene, taking in Chloe clinging to Ethan’s arm, the tears on my face, and my media pass sitting inside the trash can.
His expression darkened. "I leave practice for ten minutes and you’re bullying women in the locker room again?"
A nervous laugh escaped one of the players standing nearby. Nobody else seemed brave enough to make a sound.
Ethan recovered first, his mouth twisting into an annoyed smile. "Oh, relax. It’s just my stupid ex-girlfriend."
The words still hurt, even after everything he’d already said. Maybe because part of me had still been hoping he would stop. Maybe because part of me was still stupid enough to love him.
Justin’s eyes shifted toward me. For a brief second, our gazes met. Then he looked back at Ethan.
"Your ex-girlfriend?"
"Yeah." Ethan rolled his eyes dramatically. "She just can’t let go."
A few uncomfortable looks passed between the players. Nobody laughed this time. The atmosphere in the room felt heavy now, awkward, like everyone had suddenly realized things had gone too far.
Justin looked at me again. I immediately looked away.
Great. Just great. Of all the people who could have witnessed this disaster, it had to be him, the one hockey player who had spent the past week acting like I didn’t exist, who had refused every interview request, who had made my graduation project ten times harder than it already needed to be.
Justin Hayes. Campus hockey god. Professional troublemaker. Certified womanizer. And apparently my newest humiliation witness.
"Interesting," he said finally.
Ethan frowned. "What?"
Justin shrugged casually. "I was just wondering why you were laughing at my girlfriend."
The room went completely silent. I blinked, once, twice, three times. Surely I’d heard that wrong.
Ethan looked equally confused. "Your what?"
"My girlfriend."
Justin sounded bored, as though he were discussing the weather, as though he hadn’t just detonated a bomb in the middle of the locker room. My mouth fell open. I quickly snapped it shut.
Justin started walking toward us. Every step felt deliberate, controlled, dangerous. The players automatically moved aside for him, not because they were scared, but because they respected him.
He stopped beside me and casually draped an arm over my shoulders. The second his hand touched me, my entire body locked up. What was he doing? I wanted to ask. I wanted to yell. I wanted to tell him to stop before he ruined whatever microscopic chance I still had of salvaging this situation.
Instead, I stood there frozen.
Justin pulled me closer, close enough that I could smell the clean scent of soap and ice lingering on him from practice, close enough that my shoulder brushed his chest, close enough to make my heart do something stupid.
Ethan stared. Chloe stared. The entire hockey team stared.
Justin tilted his head slightly toward me. "Right, honey?" His fingers squeezed my shoulder, a warning, or maybe an instruction. I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that every pair of eyes in the room had shifted onto me.
I swallowed hard. Then I nodded.
The reaction was immediate. Ethan’s face darkened. "What the hell?"
Justin laughed softly. "Language, man."
"You two aren’t together."
"Really?" Justin looked down at me, the corner of his mouth lifting. "Did we break up?"
I nearly choked. "No."
The word slipped out before I could stop it. The grin Justin shot me almost looked victorious. Ethan looked ready to punch someone, probably Justin, possibly me, definitely both.
"This is ridiculous."
Justin shrugged. "I agree."
"She’s lying."
"Then why is she standing next to me?"
Ethan opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. No words came out. For the first time since I’d walked into the locker room, he looked genuinely rattled. And to my complete shame, the sight felt good. Very good.
Chloe recovered first. She folded her arms and looked me up and down. "As if."
Justin’s smile disappeared instantly. The change was so fast it made me blink. His eyes settled on Chloe, calm and cold.
"As if what?"
Chloe hesitated. For the first time since I’d entered the room, she looked uncertain.
Justin took another step forward. Not aggressive. Not loud. Yet somehow far more intimidating. "As if what?" he repeated.
Chloe looked away.
Justin nodded once. "That’s what I thought." Then he turned toward Ethan. "I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about my girlfriend like that again."
Ethan laughed. "Your girlfriend? Since when?"
Justin looked at me. The look lingered, far longer than it should have, long enough for my pulse to start doing stupid things. Then he said the words that nearly stopped my heart.
"Since I realized she’s the smartest woman on this campus."
The room exploded. Players started muttering. Someone swore. Someone else laughed. Ethan looked ready to lose his mind.
And I forgot how to breathe.
Justin didn’t seem remotely bothered by the chaos he’d created. Instead, he lifted a hand and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. The gesture was simple, small, yet somehow more intimate than anything else he’d done.
My stomach flipped. Traitor. Absolute traitor.
Then Justin leaned down. My eyes widened. My breath caught. And before I could react, his lips brushed mine.
It wasn’t a deep kiss. It wasn’t even a long one, just a soft press of warm lips against my own, barely a few seconds. Yet the second he pulled away, every nerve ending in my body felt awake. The room disappeared. The players disappeared. Even Ethan disappeared. All I could focus on was the fact that Justin Hayes had just kissed me.
The first person to recover wasn’t me. It was Justin. He smiled, casual, relaxed, completely unaffected.
Unlike me.
"I wanted to stay with the team today," he said, glancing around the locker room, "but it looks like my girl needs me more."
Nobody argued. Nobody stopped him. Justin simply intertwined our fingers and started walking toward the exit. I stumbled after him because apparently my brain had stopped functioning.
We made it all the way outside before he finally released my hand. The locker room doors swung shut behind us. Silence settled between us. I stared at him. He stared back.
Then I pointed toward the building we’d just left.
"What the hell just happened?
Comments