Faking It With The Hockey Star

Ethan’s POV

The apartment was quiet.

Too quiet.

I hated it. Before, silence had meant peace. Now it just meant I had too much time inside my own head. Too much time to replay everything that had fallen apart over the last few weeks. The suspension. The coach’s face when he’d pointed toward the exit. The way my teammates had avoided looking at me. The whispers that followed me across campus like a shadow I couldn’t shake.

And the scouts.

I laughed bitterly to myself. The scouts were coming next week. I’d spent my entire life chasing one dream, one single thing that had made every early morning and every bruise and every sacrifice feel worth it. Now they were finally here.

And I wouldn’t even be on the ice.

I stared at the ceiling. Justin would be, though. Of course he would. The captain. The golden boy. The future NHL star everyone had already decided would make it before he’d even laced up his skates at the professional level. Coach loved him. The team loved him. The media loved him.

Even Harper.

I looked away from the television before I could finish that thought. It didn’t help. The thought finished itself anyway.

She loved him too.

The front door opened. Vanessa walked in carrying takeout bags that smelled like Thai food, kicking the door shut behind her with her heel. She took one look at me and sighed. "Still?" she said.

I didn’t answer.

She dropped the bags on the counter and sat beside me on the couch. "I wish you’d stop giving them so much space in your head," she said.

"I can’t," I replied.

She handed me a drink. I took it without thanking her. For a while, neither of us spoke. The sports channel played quietly in the background. Then Justin’s face filled the screen. Another interview. Another highlight reel. The same practiced smile that somehow worked on every single person who came across it.

Vanessa scoffed. "They really act like he’s some kind of saint," she said.

I looked at the screen. "He isn’t."

"I know," she agreed. She folded her legs underneath herself and leaned back. "People only see what they want to see. They don’t know what he’s really like." She reached for her chopsticks. "Rich kids like him always get away with everything. They throw money at problems. They have connections. It’s easy to look perfect when everyone else is constantly cleaning up behind you."

I stared at Justin’s smiling face. Maybe she was right. Nobody was that untouchable. Nobody could be that clean.

Vanessa clicked the television off. The room fell quiet again. "All I’m saying," she said, "is that people like Justin never lose."

For a long moment, I didn’t speak. Then the words finally came out, quieter than I expected. "He took everything." She looked at me. "My place on the team. My reputation. My shot with the scouts." I swallowed hard. "And Harper."

The last word sat in my mouth like something I hadn’t meant to swallow. Vanessa’s expression softened. "I know how much you loved her," she said quietly.

I closed my eyes. "I still do."

The admission felt like pulling a knife out of my own chest and handing it to someone else. I laughed once, the sound hollow. "That’s why this hurts."

She didn’t push. She just let the silence sit between us long enough for my own thoughts to get louder. Then she shifted closer. "My mom called me today," she said, her voice lighter.

I frowned. "And?"

"She saw Harper." She paused deliberately. "She doesn’t like her."

That surprised me. "Your mom barely knows her."

"She knows enough," Vanessa replied. She leaned back comfortably. "She also said Justin’s own father can barely stand him. That he acts like he’s better than everyone around him. That the whole ’humble captain’ thing is just performance."

I didn’t say anything.

She continued. "And Harper?" She tilted her head. "My mom says she’s exactly the kind of girl who sees a rich athlete and thinks opportunity. She says the timing was very convenient."

I stared at the blank television screen. Convenient. I’d heard people whisper that before. I’d shut it down every time because I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe that someone I’d been with for two years had been waiting for something better to come along.

But now, sitting here with everything stripped away, the thought wouldn’t leave.

Vanessa watched my face carefully. "You don’t believe that," she said softly.

"I don’t know what I believe anymore," I admitted.

"You know what I believe?" She didn’t wait for an answer. "I think she used you. Think about it. She dates you for access to the team. Then the moment Justin shows interest, she’s suddenly his girlfriend." Her expression stayed perfectly neutral, like she was just making casual observations. "Interesting timing."

"She wasn’t like that," I said. But the words felt less certain coming out than they had a month ago.

She shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe. Or maybe you just didn’t want to see it."

The worst part was that I couldn’t argue with her. Not because it was true. But because when everything falls apart, the mind goes looking for an explanation that hurts less than the real one.

She reached over and rested her hand on mine. "Ethan." I looked at her. "I hate seeing you like this." Her voice was soft. Careful. "You’ve already done so much for yourself to get to where you were. You don’t deserve this."

I let out a tired breath. "Why do you care so much?"

She held my gaze steadily. "Because I love you." Her fingers tightened around my hand. "I know you weren’t happy. I know your whole world has fallen apart. But I’m still here." She smiled, small and patient. "I’m not going anywhere."

Something in my chest loosened. For weeks, the only thing I’d felt was anger and humiliation. She was the only person who’d sat in this apartment without telling me I’d gone too far or that I needed to move on.

I looked at her for a long moment. "So what do we do?"

The smile on her face shifted. Just slightly. "I think we’ve spent long enough watching them." Her voice was still soft, but something underneath it had changed. "They’re happy. We’re sitting here. And that’s been okay up until now." She shook her head. "Not anymore."

I frowned. "What are you saying?"

She leaned in. "If Justin falls," she said quietly, "Harper falls with him."

The room went completely silent. I could hear the refrigerator humming in the kitchen. A car horn somewhere outside. My own breathing.

She didn’t look excited. She didn’t look cruel. She looked certain. Like she’d been thinking about this long before tonight. Like she’d been waiting for me to be ready to hear it.

"I think," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "it’s time we stopped watching."

She paused.

"It’s time we ruined them."

I looked back at the blank television. Justin’s reflection stared back at me through the darkened screen, that same easy smile, that same untouchable confidence. Everything I’d worked for. Everything I’d lost. Everything that had always seemed to come so effortlessly to him.

For the first time since the suspension, the anger in my chest sharpened into something else entirely. Something colder. Something more focused.

I didn’t just want my life back anymore.

I wanted to take his.

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