Jane
The next morning, I laced my skates too tight. The loops on my hoodie were fraying from where I kept tugging at them. My fingers ached from gripping my stick longer than necessary, like I could strangle a feeling out of myself if I just squeezed hard enough.
I couldn’t stop replaying it. The way his hand cupped my jaw like I was something fragile. The closeness. His breath on my skin. The look in his eyes. It made my heart thunder. It made me panic.
I wasn’t supposed to feel that. Not for him. Not for anyone right now. There were rules. Unspoken ones, sure, but still real. Keep your head down. Keep your cover. Play hard. Study harder. Don’t feel anything that could get you exposed. That was the only way this worked.
And now here I was, on the verge of falling for the one person w
