Faking It With The Hockey Star

Harper’s POV

I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until I stepped out of Professor Silas’s building.

The cool afternoon air hit my face and for a second I simply stood there, letting it settle over me. The investigation. The anonymous posts. The whispers in the hallway. Diane in the car park. It felt like I’d lived an entire week inside a single day. My shoulders ached from carrying my camera bag. My eyes felt dry and heavy. I just wanted to go home, sit on the couch with Mom, and pretend the outside world didn’t exist for a few hours.

I reached for my phone. Justin had texted ten minutes earlier.

Justin ❤️: Practice is over. I’m coming to get you.

A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth despite everything. Of course he was. I slipped the phone back into my pocket and started toward the parking lot.

"Harper."

My footsteps stopped.

I knew that voice. I closed my eyes for the briefest second, gathering myself, before turning around.

Ethan stood a few feet away. For the first time since I’d known him, he didn’t look composed. His hair was messy, dark circles sat beneath his eyes, and his shoulders sagged in a way that made him look much smaller than I remembered. He looked like someone who hadn’t been sleeping well. Like someone whose confidence had quietly run out on him.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

I sighed. "I don’t think we have anything left to say."

"Please." The word came out so quietly, so stripped of its usual confidence, that for a second I barely recognized it as coming from him.

Students continued moving around us, too busy with their own lives to pay much attention. I glanced toward the parking lot. Justin wasn’t here yet.

"Five minutes," I said.

Relief moved across his face immediately. "Thank you."

He stepped closer, and I stayed exactly where I was. "I’ve made mistakes," he started, his voice low. I didn’t say anything. He kept going. "I know I have. I shouldn’t have believed everything people told me. I shouldn’t have let Chloe come between us. I shouldn’t have..." His voice cracked on the last part. He pressed his lips together. "I shouldn’t have lost you."

I looked at him steadily. "You didn’t lose me, Ethan. You threw me away."

His face fell. "I wasn’t thinking."

"I know."

"I was angry."

"I know."

"I thought you’d always be there." He looked down at the ground, his voice dropping even lower. "I thought I had more time."

Silence settled between us for a moment. Then he looked back up, and his eyes were the most honest I’d ever seen them. "I still love you," he said.

I waited for something to happen inside me. Some flicker of the old feeling. Some small ember of what I’d carried for two years. There was nothing. Not anger. Not sadness. Not even resentment. Just a quiet, clean emptiness where something painful used to be.

"I’m sorry," I said.

His eyes brightened for half a second. Until I finished the sentence. "I’m sorry you feel that way."

Confusion crossed his face. "What?"

"Ethan." I took a slow breath. "I don’t love you anymore."

His expression cracked. "You don’t mean that."

"I do," I said.

He shook his head repeatedly. "You’re confused. Justin’s confusing you. He has money, he buys you things, he paid for your mom. He’s manipulating you into thinking—"

"He isn’t," I said. The words came out quietly but firmly. "He just knows how to love someone."

Ethan laughed bitterly. "So buying gifts is love now?"

"No." I met his eyes. "Listening is. Respect is. Kindness is. Making me feel safe when everything around me is falling apart. Supporting something I care about without needing credit for it. Believing in me before I believed in myself." I swallowed. "I didn’t know what those things felt like until I met Justin."

Ethan stared at me like I’d said something in a language he didn’t speak. "So that’s it?" he said quietly. "You picked the richer guy?"

I shook my head. "No. I picked the man who never made me question whether I was worth loving."

His breathing became uneven. "I loved you," he said.

I looked at him for a long moment before answering. "No. You loved having someone who stayed." His face went pale. "Those aren’t the same thing."

"I sacrificed for you!" His voice climbed slightly, and a few students nearby glanced over. "I was there for you! I gave everything!"

I couldn’t stop the small, quiet shake of my head. "If that’s what you call love," I said, "then I hope one day you learn what it actually is."

The words landed. I could see it in his face. He hadn’t expected them, and he didn’t have a quick answer for them. "You really chose him," he said finally.

"Yes," I said simply. "And I’d choose him again."

Something shifted in his expression. The hurt gave way to something sharper. "Is it because he’s rich?" he asked. "Because he paid your bills? Because he bought you a camera?"

"No," I said to each one.

"Then why him?"

I smiled softly. "Because he never once made me feel like loving me was a burden."

The silence that followed was the quietest moment we’d shared in a long time. Then Ethan reached forward. His fingers wrapped around my wrist before I’d registered what was happening. "Harper." His voice came out low and urgent. "Please. We can fix this."

I pulled back immediately. "Ethan." His grip tightened. "Let go."

"Please just listen—"

"Ethan." My voice sharpened. "Take your hand off me. Right now."

He didn’t.

My pulse jumped. I pulled again, harder this time. He didn’t release.

"Let go of her."

The voice was calm. Cold. Completely controlled.

Ethan froze. I turned.

Justin stood a few feet away. Still in his practice hoodie, hockey bag slung over one shoulder, slightly damp from practice. He wasn’t yelling. He wasn’t running. He walked toward us one steady, unhurried step at a time, his eyes fixed entirely on the hand wrapped around my wrist like it was the only thing in the world worth looking at right now.

"I said," Justin stopped a few feet away, his voice dropping another level, "let go."

Ethan straightened, recovering some of his composure. "What are you going to do about it?"

Justin pulled his phone from his pocket without raising his voice. "I’m trying very hard not to make this physical," he said evenly. "You’re not worth getting suspended over." He unlocked the screen and looked at Ethan calmly. "You have two choices. You let go of her right now. Or I call campus security. Your decision."

Around us, students had started slowing their pace, not enough to crowd, but enough for everyone nearby to understand that something was happening. Ethan glanced around. Then back at Justin. Then at me. His grip on my wrist loosened. Then disappeared.

He took one step backward. Then another. Before turning away, he looked at me one last time, his jaw tight, something unresolved still sitting behind his eyes. "You’ll regret this," he said.

I held his gaze. "No," I said steadily. "I already regret the time I spent begging someone to love me." His face went completely blank. For a moment it looked like he wanted to say something else. Instead, he shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away without another word.

Neither Justin nor I watched him go.

The second he was out of sight, the breath I’d been holding left my body all at once. My shoulders dropped. My hands unclenched. I hadn’t even realized how tightly I’d been holding everything together until I finally didn’t have to.

Justin turned to me immediately. "Are you okay?"

I looked up at him. The concern on his face was so genuine, so immediate, that something in my chest released. And then, unexpectedly, I laughed. Not because anything was funny. Just because the relief hit all at once and it had to go somewhere. I stepped forward and wrapped both arms around him. He caught me without hesitation, his arms circling my waist, pulling me in.

"I’m okay now," I said against his shoulder.

He held on for a moment, his chin resting lightly on top of my hair. Then he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "Come on," he said quietly. "Let’s go home."

I nodded. "Yeah." I glanced once in the direction Ethan had disappeared. Then I looked away deliberately, choosing not to give that direction any more of my attention. "He isn’t worth any more of our time."

Justin smiled softly. "No," he agreed. "He isn’t."

We started walking toward the parking lot together, his hand finding mine without either of us making a thing of it. Neither of us noticed the student standing across the courtyard. Phone raised. Camera recording. Capturing every second.

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