Lahat ng Kabanata ng Kissing the Hockey Captain: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Ryan’s POV"You've got to be kidding me."The locker room went completely silent. Coach stood in front of us, holding a clipboard while twenty players stared back at him. Nobody looked happy. Especially not me.Coach didn't even blink under the pressure. "After the weekend," he said flatly, "we've got our biggest game of the season."Everyone nodded. That part wasn't news. The next part was."And for that game, Daniel Hayes will be starting."The room instantly exploded. "What?""No way.""Are you serious, Coach?"Leo looked ready to choke someone. Across the room, Daniel leaned casually against a set of lockers, looking way too pleased with himself.Coach raised his voice, cutting through the noise. "Quiet."Nobody listened. One of our starting defensemen stood up, pulling off his gloves. "Coach, he hasn't even been back a week. He missed half the training camp.""Sit down, Miller."The guy sat, grumbling under his breath. Coach cleared his throat and continued. "If Daniel performs w

Ryan’s POVThe only thing I regretted was not hitting him a second time.The look on Ava's face kept playing on a loop in my head. I pushed a rough hand through my hair, trying to scrub the image from my brain, and just kept walking. I didn't stop until I reached the row of dark, quiet cabins."Ryan."I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up. Iris was standing near the porch of her cabin. She was wearing an oversized hoodie against the night chill, and her face was written all over with worry."What happened?" she asked softly. "Are you okay?""Nothing," I muttered, looking at the ground. "I'm fine.""That's a lie." She stepped off the porch, coming closer to me. "Ryan, look at me."The way she said my name almost made me let out a dry laugh. Nobody ever listened when I said I was fine. Especially when I clearly wasn't.For a split second, I considered turning around and walking back into the dark. But I realized I didn't want to be alone. Not tonight. My head was spinning too fast.

Ava’s POV"Wait," he muttered.He replayed the audio file from the beginning. This time, everyone in the room leaned in, listening intently to the deep, aggressive tone of the voice.It was definitely Ryan. But the background noise wasn't from the open woods or a snowy hiking trail. The acoustics were completely different.It sounded like a locker room. A hockey locker room.The recording snapped and popped again, the volume dipping before Ryan’s voice suddenly boomed through the speaker. "Come on, boys! Move it!"A few of the varsity hockey players near the fireplace immediately recognized it. Leo let out a loud, sudden laugh first."Oh my God," Leo said, shaking his head.The entire room snapped their heads to look at him. Leo just pointed directly at the officer's phone."That audio is from our pre-season warmup against Westfield," Leo explained, looking around at the crowd. "We were all screaming in the tunnel."A few of his teammates nodded quickly in agreement, the tension in th

Ava’s POVThe second I walked downstairs, I stopped dead in my tracks."What the hell?"The living room looked like a sleepover had completely exploded. Blankets and thick pillows covered half the hardwood floor, and three giant bowls of buttered popcorn sat on the mahogany coffee table. There were bags of chips, cookies, candy, sodas, and enough snacks to feed an entire football team.Even worse, there were face masks. Actual face masks. Pink ones, green ones—a horrifying amount of skincare products.Iris stood proudly right in the middle of the chaos with her hands on her hips, a massive grin on her face. "Beautiful, right?""No," Ryan said immediately from behind me.I turned toward the staircase. Ryan had just come down the steps, and he looked about as traumatized as I felt. He was wearing dark sweatpants and a loose t-shirt, his hair slightly messy."This is a crime scene," Ryan muttered, crossing his arms."It's a slumber party," Iris corrected, pointing a finger at him. "And y

Ryan’s POVThe moment the front door closed behind Ava, something inside me snapped.A date.She was out on a real date with Ethan.The house felt entirely too big all of a sudden. It was a mansion so, there's that.My dad wasn’t around. Her mother wasn't around. It was just me, trapped inside my own head, drowning in a wave of furious anger that I couldn’t control. I was angry at Daniel, angry at the team, but mostly, I was angry at her.Ava. My soon-to-be stepsister.Fuck.I stood in the dimly lit kitchen, staring blindly at the heavy glass cup in my right hand. The anger burned hot in my chest, traveling straight down my arm. Before I could stop myself, I tightened my grip, squeezing the solid glass with everything I had.The glass shattered completely, exploding across the marble counter."Shit," I growled.A sharp, stinging pain shot through my palm. I opened my hand, watching a thin line of dark blood begin to well up from a deep cut across my skin.A second later, hurried foot