HAYDEN
If someone had handed me a checklist for the perfect college hockey season, I was pretty sure I’d be halfway through it.
Team winning? Check. Stats looking strong? Check. Coach yelling at me slightly less than usual? Big check.
NHL scouts watching from the stands? Way more than a check.
Save for the few set-backs I had earlier, I was honestly having the best rookie season yet.
And yet, standing outside the rink, watching my own breath curl into the cold morning air, I felt… disconnected.
It wasn’t the pressure. I could handle pressure. It was the silence. The weight of words unsaid. Words that needed to be let out, lest they fester into something else.
I was in yet another dilemma and I didn’t know how I was going to handle it this time.
Coleen was pulling away again, and fo
