My Rival Is My Roommate

Rules are meant to be broken

POV MAYA

I dragged Luca down by his hoodie until his face was inches from mine.

"We need to talk about that kiss," I hissed.

Luca blinked, catching his balance, but his face recovered fast, sliding into that ridiculously cocky smirk I hated so much. "Which part, Bennett? The part where you melted into my chest, or the part where you forgot how to breathe."

"I did not melt." I let go of his hoodie so fast it was like his clothes were on fire. "You crossed a line. You held me too close, took way too long, and you broke a rule. We need stricter boundaries."

"Stricter boundaries." Luca leaned against the wall, crossing his arms, looking down at me with amused eyes. "Maya, it was a kiss for the media. What'd you expect me to do, shake your hand."

"I expected you to keep it professional." I waved my hands between us. "You were acting like... like you meant it! Stop flirting with me, Luca."

"I'm not flirting," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Then you're naturally this annoying."

"Pretty much, yeah," he said, chuckling, stepping closer. "Face it, Bennett. You're losing your mind because that kiss affected you, and you can't stand that you actually liked it."

"In your absolute dreams, Callahan." I stepped right back into his space, refusing to back down. "I feel nothing when I look at you. Zero. Nada."

Luca grinned, a challenging spark in his eyes. "Oh yeah. Prove it."

"How."

"Come to my practice tomorrow afternoon," he said, tapping a finger against my shoulder. "Sit in the stands. Watch me play for two hours. If you can sit there and prove you're completely unaffected, I'll stop teasing you about the kiss."

"Fine!" I barked without even thinking. "I'll be there! And I'm bringing my editing notes so I have something actually interesting to look at."

---

The next afternoon I sat in the cold bleachers of the campus arena, holding a cup of lukewarm coffee.

I'd almost backed out five times. Even typed out a text to Luca, ‘Not wasting my afternoon watching you skate in circles’ before deleting it. I wasn't here because I cared about him or his stupid sport. I was here to prove a point.

Down on the ice, the team ran high speed power play drills. Luca looked effortless, gliding across the red line, calling out plays, dark hair damp with sweat under his helmet. Completely in his element unshakeable, untouchable, obnoxiously good at everything he did.

Then, on a simple breakout play, his stick caught the puck wrong and sent a sloppy pass right into the boards.

‘FIIIIIIIIP’

Coach Vance blew his whistle so hard it echoed off the rafters. The whole arena went dead silent.

"CALLAHAN." Coach screamed, marching down the bench, face bright red. "What the hell was that. Is that how a team captain plays."

Luca stopped on his skates, shoulders rising, and swallowed hard. "No, Coach…"

"You've got three NHL scouts sitting in row four watching your every move, and you're floating around out there like it's a public skate." Coach roared, gesturing at the upper stands. "Sit on the bench. Take a breath and get your head out of your ass. Jace, take his spot."

A gasp went through the team. Getting benched mid drill, right in front of scouts, was about as humiliating as it got for a college athlete.

I braced for Luca to snap, argue, throw some kind of tantrum.

Instead he just nodded. "Got it, Coach."

He skated off and sat down on the bench, staring blankly at his gloves. But right before he sat, his easy, indestructible confidence dropped. His chest heaved with one heavy breath, his jaw tightening so hard I could see the muscle from fifty feet away. For a second he looked small. Tired.

My stomach did a strange, uncomfortable flip. I wasn't supposed to be paying close enough attention to notice that.

---

After practice ended and the rink cleared out, I walked down the concrete tunnel toward the ice doors.

Luca was sitting alone on the player's bench, the floodlights turned half low. Skates off, elbows on his knees, staring down at his taped stick. No cocky smile. He didn't even look like the golden boy everyone worshipped.

He just looked tired.

"Hey," I said softly, my sneakers squeaking against the rubber floor mats.

Luca flinched, looked up. The surprise on his face smoothed fast into a tight smile. "Hey. You actually came."

"I told you I would." I leaned against the glass wall near his bench, then hesitated, dropping the sarcasm. "That... Coach Vance was pretty brutal out there."

Luca let out a dry laugh, staring back down at his stick. "That's just Vance. Trying to keep my ego from getting too big."

"You okay?" I asked.

He looked up, blue eyes searching my face, realizing I wasn't teasing him. He let out a long breath and dropped his head back against the glass.

"I have to go pro, Maya," he said quietly, in a tone I'd never heard from him. "I don't have a backup plan. I didn't spend four years destroying my body for fun. If I don't get drafted this year, my dad, my whole family, it's like everything I did was for nothing. I'm terrified of failing."

The honesty in his voice hit me straight in the chest. I sat down on the bench a few feet away, pulling my jacket tighter around myself.

"You're not going to fail, Luca," I said, looking straight at him. "You're the best player on that ice. Even I can see that, and I don't know the first thing about hockey. You made one mistake. You're human."

Luca stared at me, his eyes softening as the words landed. For a second the quiet between us felt heavy, and real. The air felt different, his gaze dropping to my lips before rising back to my eyes.

Then he blinked, pulling himself back.

"Wow, Bennett," he said, that slow, playful smirk creeping back as he retreated behind it. "Did you just give me a pep talk. Are you secretly my biggest fan.”

I rolled my eyes, snorting. "There it is. That's the Luca Callahan I know. I give you one compliment and you instantly ruin it."

Luca smiled, stepped off the bench, and walked right up to where I was standing. He stopped inches away, towering over me, his warmth suddenly all around me.

"I thought you hated my guts," he said, leaning down so his face was level with mine, "you stayed Bennett, why."

I froze, my throat going dry, my mind blanking as I searched for a comeback. Nothing. I had nothing.

Luca took half a step closer, eyes glinting.

"Careful, Bennett," he murmured into the quiet arena. "You're starting to like me.”