Fake dating the Hockey Bad Boy

Reed!!!!

The "Hartwell Heartbeats" reality crew was no longer a shadow; they were a storm. For three days, Cora couldn’t walk to the library or grab a bagel without a lens tracking her every move. The campus was obsessed. The "Ice Queen" had tamed the "Falcon’s Beast," and the narrative was selling better than the university’s own merchandise.

But inside the bubble, the pressure was starting to c***k the glass.

Cora stood in the kitchen of her small apartment, staring at the screen of her phone. A notification from the campus gossip board sat there like a ticking bomb. Someone had posted a blurry photo of a handwritten page. It was only three sentences, but they were her sentences.

“He isn’t my brother by blood, but the way he looks at me makes the air feel like fire. Every time Eli smiles, I have to remind myself to breathe.”

The world went dizzy. Vanessa. It had to be her. She hadn't leaked the whole notebook, but she was breadcrumbing—teasing the truth to see how long it took for Cora to break.

A heavy knock at the door made her jump. She opened it to find Reed. He wasn't wearing his usual guarded mask. He looked frantic.

"Pack a bag," he said, stepping inside and locking the door behind him. "The reality show producers just called my coach. They’ve got a 'source' claiming our relationship is a fraud to cover up an 'incestuous obsession.' Those were their words, Cora."

Cora’s breath hitched. "It’s out. Vanessa leaked a page. Reed, if Eli sees this—"

"He won't," Reed promised, grabbing her by the shoulders. His touch was firm, grounding her amidst the panic. "Not if we move faster. They want a confrontation for the cameras. They’re setting up a live 'Athlete Spotlight' interview in an hour. If we don't show up and prove them wrong, the board pulls my scholarship tonight, and Vanessa hands that notebook to the Dean."

"How do we prove them wrong?" Cora whispered, her eyes stinging. "They have my words, Reed. My actual feelings."

Reed’s gaze dropped to her lips, then back to her eyes. There was a raw, terrifying honesty in his expression that she hadn't seen before. "We give them a truth they can't argue with. We stop acting like we’re dating and start acting like we’re losing each other."

The University Center was packed. Bright studio lights turned the atrium into a stage. Cora felt like she was walking toward a guillotine. In the front row sat Vanessa, wearing a smirk that could cut glass. Beside her was Eli, looking pale and confused, his eyes searching Cora’s for an explanation she didn't have.

The cameras swiveled. The red lights turned on.

"So, Reed," the student host began, her voice dripping with artificial excitement. "There’s been some talk online. Rumors that this romance is just a shield for a much more... scandalous secret involving Cora and her stepbrother. What do you have to say to the fans who think this is all a script?"

Reed didn't look at the host. He didn't look at the crowd. He turned to Cora. The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating.

"It started as a script," Reed said, his voice echoing through the speakers.

The crowd gasped. Cora felt her heart stop. Beside her, Eli stood up, his fists clenched. Vanessa leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with triumph.

"It was a deal," Reed continued, stepping closer to Cora until they were breathing the same air. "I needed to save my career, and she needed protection. We lied to everyone."

"Reed, stop," Cora whispered, terror flooding her system. He was throwing it all away.

"But here’s the problem with scripts," Reed said, reaching out to cup her face. His hand was no longer shaking; it was steady as a rock. "You can’t control the ending. I thought I was the one saving her, but it turns out, I was just the one falling."

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper meant only for her. "I'm sorry, Cora. I can't keep the deal anymore because I'm not faking."

Before she could speak, before the cameras could zoom in, Reed crashed his lips against hers. It wasn't the soft, calculated kiss from the lobby. It was a desperate, hungry claim—a collision of two people who had spent too much time hiding behind masks.

In that moment, Cora didn't see Eli. She didn't see Vanessa. She saw the boy who had carried his scholarship like a lifeline and realized he was finally letting go of the rope to hold onto her instead.

But as the crowd erupted into a mix of cheers and jeers, a loud voice cut through the chaos.

"REED! LOOK AT THE SCREEN!"

Cora pulled away, breathless, to see the giant projector behind them flicker to life. It wasn't the gossip board. It was a video—a hidden camera from inside the hockey locker room from earlier that afternoon.

On the screen, Cole and Dani were standing over Reed’s open locker, holding a legal-looking document titled "Agreement of Terms: Calloway/Bennett."

The camera zoomed in on the signatures. And then, it panned to the bottom of the page, where a handwritten note in Reed's handwriting changed everything Cora thought she knew about their "deal."

Cora looked at the screen, then back at Reed, whose face had gone deathly pale.

"Reed?" she whispered, her heart shattering in real-time. "What is that?"