Puck, Pain & Promises

Eden... “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. My voice sounded small in the quiet university library, but it still carried through the tall stacks. Riley had Brooke pressed against the shelves, his hands on her waist, their faces way too close. My boyfriend. My best friend. The study notes I had stayed up all night rewriting for his finals, slipped from my fingers and scattered across the floor like broken pieces of my heart. Brooke noticed me first. She pulled away slowly, a smirk forming on her lips. “Well, look who finally decided to show up.” Riley turned, not even bothering to look guilty. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and sighed. “Eden… this isn’t how I wanted you to find out.” My chest tightened so hard I thought it might crack. I could feel eyes turning toward us from the nearby tables. Whispers started spreading. The humiliation burned hot across my skin, but my people-pleasing instincts kicked in immediately, like muscle memory I couldn’t turn off. “Riley, we were supposed to review these notes together,” I said quietly, trying to keep my voice steady. “I stayed up all night making sure they covered everything for your final. You said it was important.” Inside, I was falling apart. Piece by piece. The pain hit sharp and deep. I had always been the reliable one. The girl who fixed things. The one who put everyone else’s needs first. My parents had raised me that way. Love meant being perfect. Being useful. Never causing trouble. One wrong step and my scholarship could vanish, taking everything my family had sacrificed for with it. Brooke let out a soft laugh, the sound cruel in the quiet space. “Predictable good-girl act, right? Look at her. She’s already trying to smooth everything over and make it easier for us.” Riley nodded, looking at me with something close to pity. “You’re too safe, Eden. Too nice. You never push back. You just do whatever everyone expects. Brooke challenges me. She makes me feel alive.” Each word landed like a heavy stone on my chest. Safe. Nice. Predictable. Doormat. The suppressed rage I had buried for years twisted violently inside me. Years of swallowing my own feelings to keep everyone happy. Years of late nights studying while supporting Riley’s hockey dreams. Years of hearing my mother’s voice reminding me how much was riding on my perfect image. The anger burned hot, but I forced it down. Good girls didn’t scream in public. Good girls didn’t make scenes. Good girls fixed the mess and kept smiling. “I… we can talk about this,” I whispered, bending down to gather the scattered papers with shaking hands. “Privately. There’s no reason for everyone to see this. We’ve been together for so long. We can work through it.” Even as I said the words, I hated how small my voice sounded. Students at the tables were openly staring now. Some had their phones out. The shame felt suffocating, like a heavy weight pressing down on me until I could barely breathe. I had spent years building the perfect image. Perfect grades. Perfect support for Riley. Perfect daughter for my demanding parents. And in one moment, it was all crumbling around me. The whispers grew louder. “Is that Riley Kane?” “With her best friend?” “Poor girl…” I kept my head down, trying to hold myself together. Tears burned in my eyes, but I blinked them back hard. “Don’t cry here. Don’t make it worse. Fix this. Be understanding.” My mother’s voice echoed in my head, the same voice that reminded me every week how much was riding on my scholarship and my reputation. The pressure had always been there, heavy and constant. One bad grade or one public mess and everything could fall apart. Heavy footsteps cut through the growing noise. A tall figure stormed past the front desk, hockey jacket slung over one shoulder. Jax Callahan. The star captain of the university hockey team. Everyone knew his name. The talented player who was always one bad decision away from losing everything. He stopped a few feet away from us, his presence filling the space. His jaw was clenched tight, eyes burning with barely contained frustration. He must have just come from a difficult meeting with Coach. I had heard the rumors about his suspension threat and his struggles with grades. Jax’s gaze swept over Riley and Brooke, then landed on me. He took in my tear-streaked face, the scattered papers, and the crowd watching the drama unfold. Something shifted in his expression, recognition mixed with a hard, intense focus. He didn’t hesitate. He walked straight up to me, ignoring Riley’s angry glare completely. “You,” Jax said, his voice low and rough, cutting through the tension like a blade. “Fake date me. I’ll fix your image and make sure these two look like the trash they are. You tutor me and help save my grades so I don’t get suspended. Deal?” The bold offer hit me like a shock. Right here, in front of everyone who had just watched me fall apart. Public. Raw. Completely unexpected. Riley stepped forward, chest puffed out. “What the hell, Callahan? This isn’t your business. Stay out of it.” Jax didn’t even look at him. His intense eyes stayed locked on mine, as if he could see every crack in my carefully built walls. The power in his stance made the air feel thicker around us. He was offering me a shield against the humiliation, a chance to fight back in a way I had never allowed myself before. My mind raced. The scholarship that meant everything to my family. The years of swallowing my own needs to keep everyone else happy. The constant fear of not being enough. The suppressed rage at always being the one who gave and gave until there was nothing left. It all crashed over me at once, wave after wave of hurt and anger I had never let myself fully feel. Tears finally spilled down my cheeks, hot and unstoppable. I looked up at this stranger who had just stepped into my broken world. For the first time in a long time, someone was seeing me. Not as the perfect student. Not as the reliable girlfriend. Just me, in all my pain. “Teach me how to stop caring what they think,” I whispered, my voice cracking with raw emotion. The library fell into stunned silence around us. Jax’s eyes darkened with something fierce and determined as my words hung in the air between us. For the first time in a long time, someone was really looking at me. Not the perfect student. Not the reliable girlfriend. Just me broken, angry, and completely lost. I didn’t know if I had just made the worst mistake of my life or the first truly brave one. But as Jax stared down at me with that unreadable expression, one thing became terrifyingly clear: This deal was going to change everything. And I wasn’t sure I was ready for what came next.