Faking It With The Hockey Star

Harper’s POV

One second, Justin was standing. The next, he was falling.

I didn’t understand what I was seeing; my brain simply refused to process it. He had been skating only moments ago, moving across the ice like he always did. The crowd was loud, the music was playing, and people were cheering.

And then his knees buckled.

"Justin?" My voice barely came out as a whisper.

He hit the ice with a sickening thud. Everything inside me stopped.

"JUSTIN!"

I was moving before I even realized what I was doing, dropping everything in my hands and sprinting toward the edge of the rink. "Justin!"

My heart pounded so hard against my ribs that it hurt. Before I could step onto the ice, a pair of strong arms caught me, pulling me back.

"Ma’am, you can’t go in there."

"Let me go!" I fought wildly against the security guard’s grip. "That’s my boyfriend!"

"Please, you have to stay back."

"I need to get to him!"

I could see him, and that was the absolute worst part. I could see him lying completely motionless on the freezing ice while medical personnel rushed toward him from the sidelines. One dropped to his knees beside him while another shoved a stretcher forward. Mason stood nearby, pale and completely frozen, until one of the medics barked an order at him, snapping him into motion.

My hands trembled uncontrollably as horror seized my entire body. "What’s happening? Is he breathing?" My voice cracked, rising in panic. "Is he breathing?"

"Harper." Coach Reynolds appeared beside me, his face grim.

I grabbed his arm with both hands. "What happened to him?"

"We don’t know yet."

"Is he okay?"

"We’re checking."

"No." I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. "No, no, no. I need to go with him."

"You can follow him to the hospital."

"I need to be there right now!"

"You will be."

I looked back toward the ice just as the medical team lifted Justin onto the stretcher. His head lolled unnaturally to the side, completely limp, devoid of any movement. My stomach dropped into a cold, bottomless pit.

"Justin..." I pressed my hand tightly against my mouth. "No."

I couldn’t lose him. Not after everything we had survived. Not when we had finally gotten through the worst of it. Not when we were supposed to graduate together, and start our real lives side by side.

Please, God. Not him.

"Coach," I whispered, my voice trembling violently. "Stop the game."

He looked at me with heavy eyes. "Harper, we have thousands of people here."

"I don’t care!" My voice broke completely. "Justin is on that stretcher!"

"I know."

"Then stop the game!"

Coach’s expression tightened, taking my shaking shoulders in his hands. "Harper, listen to me."

"I don’t care about the money! People can get their money back. The charity can do another event. We can—"

"Harper," he held me firmly, forcing me to meet his eyes. "We have medical personnel with him right now. They’re taking him straight to the hospital, which is exactly where he needs to be."

My eyes burned with unshed tears. "I need to go."

"You will," he said, turning toward the announcer’s booth. "We’ll make an announcement. We’ll tell everyone he’s been taken off the ice because he wasn’t feeling well."

I stared at him in utter disbelief. "You’re continuing the game?"

His face fell slightly. "We have hundreds of people here, Harper."

I looked around the packed arena. People were standing on their feet, some holding up their phones to film, others whispering nervously to one another as the atmosphere curdled into something dark and suffocating.

Coach was right. The event couldn’t simply vanish, not when hundreds of thousands of dollars had already been raised for my mother’s treatment and the charity. Yet watching them prepare to drop the puck felt sick and surreal. A medical team was wheeling the man I loved out of the arena on a gurney, and somehow, the game was going to keep going. A replacement player was already stepping onto the ice where Justin had just collapsed.

How could everyone just keep going? How could the world keep moving when mine had just crashed to a complete halt?

The announcer’s booming voice filtered through the speakers. "We’ve been informed that Justin is experiencing some exhaustion following the exam period and has been taken off the ice as a precaution. Our medical team is attending to him, and we ask everyone to remain calm."

A few distant claps sounded. Someone shouted Justin’s name, but the players quickly returned to their positions. The puck dropped, and the game resumed. Just like that.

I stood there, completely numb, watching the stretcher disappear through the double doors at the far exit. When I turned back, people were already cheering again, the sound hitting me like a physical blow. A few minutes ago, this place had been filled with electric joy, but now I could barely force air into my lungs.

I looked up toward the VIP section, where his grandparents were already hurrying down the steps. The moment Grandma saw me, she rushed straight to my side.

"Harper."

"I’m going with him," I said immediately.

"Of course," her voice was calm, but her eyes held a frantic terror that matched my own.

Grandpa joined us, his jaw set firm. "We’ll drive you."

I nodded quickly, then turned toward Emma, who had followed them down. "Emma, please get Mom home."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "What?"

"Get her out of here now," I grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly. "Once the game ends, this place is going to be a nightmare. Everyone will be trying to leave at once, and Mom doesn’t need that kind of stress."

Emma nodded solemnly. "I’ve got her."

"Make sure she takes her medicine and stays calm." I looked over at Noah. "You too. Stay with her."

"We’ll take care of her, Harper," Noah promised gently.

I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat. Even now, with my chest tearing open, the weight of responsibility pressed down on me: my mother, my family, the event. I wanted to fall apart, to scream until my lungs gave out, and let someone else handle the world for a while. But I couldn’t. Not yet. Not when Justin needed me.

I turned back to his grandmother. "Let’s go."

"We’re going, sweetheart."

The moment we stepped out into the crisp night air, I saw the flashing red and blue lights of the waiting ambulance. My heart nearly stopped again. Justin was inside. I couldn’t see him through the tinted back windows, but knowing he was lying in there made my legs feel like lead.

Grandpa unlocked the car. "Get in."

I climbed into the back seat, Grandma sliding in right beside me and pulling me against her side. Grandpa got behind the wheel, starting the engine just as the ambulance pulled out with its sirens wailing. We fell in right behind it.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from those flashing red lights ahead of us. They would disappear around a sharp corner, then reappear, then vanish again behind traffic, sending a fresh wave of blinding panic surging through my chest every single time.

"Please be okay," I whispered into the dark car, not even realizing I had spoken out loud.

Grandma squeezed my hand tightly in hers. "He will be, Harper. He’s strong."

I nodded, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe it.

My mind mercilessly replayed the moment over and over again: his knees giving out, his heavy body striking the ice, his eyes rolling shut, and that terrible, lifeless stillness before the medics reached him.

I pressed my forehead against the cool glass of the window, tears finally spilling over my lashes. "Please, Justin," my voice trembled softly. "Please be okay."

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