MY HOCKEY ALPHA MATE

~Adeline~ "I just don't get why you're still putting up with her, Owen. She makes everything depressing." A girl's voice drifted from my boyfriend's front porch. I stopped behind the trees at the yard, blinking against the sun. Sitting on the front veranda, pushed deep into the chair his mother bought last summer, was Owen. His arms wrapped around a girl in a pink top, pulling her body to his chest. The angle hid her face, but I knew his frame. I knew the slope of his shoulders. I knew the messy brown curls I ran my fingers through every Friday night. He kissed her. His hands buried in her hair, tilting her head back to deepen the kiss. I gasped. "Owen?" They kept kissing. My feet dragged forward. My chest felt tight. His parents were out for the evening, they had to be, for him to pull this in the open where any neighbor walking their dog could see. "Owen!" I yelled. They froze. The girl came off his lap so fast her knee clipped the chair. She spun around, tugging her short skirt down. Ivy. The captain of the cheer squad. The girl who thrived on proving she stood superior to everyone breathing the same air as her. Owen shot to his feet, raking a hand through his curls. For a second, terror flashed in his eyes. It vanished, replaced by a hardness that made me sick. "Adeline," he called. His voice was flat. "What are you doing here?" "What am I doing here?" I repeated, my voice shaking. I looked from him to Ivy. She dug her phone out of her pocket, a smirk curling her lips. "We’ve been together for eight months, Owen. Eight months. And you do this on your front porch?" Ivy scoffed. "Oh, please. Like you two actually spend time together anymore." "Shut up, Ivy," I snapped, holding eye contact with my supposed boyfriend. "Tell me this is a joke. Tell me this is some kind of sick prank." "It’s not a joke, Addie," Owen sneered, looking down at me from the steps like I was a stray dog trespassing on his lawn. "Look at yourself, for three months you've been distant, acting broken!" The timeline stung. Three months. Three months ago, a damp highway accident in the night crushed my parents' and ripped my world apart. Three months ago, I became an orphan, drowning in my uncle’s demands and scrubbing diner tables to keep up with bills. "My parents died, Owen," I whispered. "I am mourning. I am trying to survive my uncle, and you... you do this because I act distant?" "Yes!" Owen yelled, throwing his hands in the air. The aggression in his voice made me flinch. "I held on for months, Addie! You are never present. Every time we hang out, you are exhausted or crying. I am sorry about your parents, I am! But life goes on. I have needs too." My jaw dropped. The boy who promised to hold my hand through the darkest moment of my life stood on his porch, loudly declaring my grief had an expiration date. "You have needs?" I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper. "So you bring the head cheerleader to your porch to fulfill them?" "At least Ivy actually looks at me," Owen shot back, stepping to the railing. His total lack of remorse cut deeper than the cheating. "You want to talk about our relationship? You constantly push me away, Addie. Even before the accident, it was always, ‘I need time, Owen. Give me time.’ Every single time I try to touch you, you pull away." "Because I needed time!" I screamed, the tears spilling down my cheeks. "And then my family was gone! I just wanted to feel safe, and you treat my boundaries like a burden?" "They are a burden! You feel like a burden too," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "You act like some saint carrying the pain of the world. You think your pain makes you special? It just makes you miserable to be around." My breath hitched. He targeted my deepest fear, becoming a burden to the people around me. Out of the corner of my vision, a light flashed. I looked past Owen's shoulder. Ivy held her phone up, the camera lens pointed at my face. "Are you recording this?" I asked in horror. She giggled. "Not just recording, sweetie. It’s a livestream. The whole grade is watching the orphan get dumped. We already hit two hundred views." My stomach twisted. I looked back at Owen, shaking my head in anger. "I came here to tell you I got a full scholarship from Moonstone Mining to Wolfebrooke Crest Academy." Owen stood still, his arrogant posture faltering. His head snapped up. "It’s a thousand miles away," I continued, staring dead into his eyes. "I planned to take you with me. I thought we had a future. I came here to ask how we could make long-distance work." His mouth opened. "Addie…" "Thank you," I cut him off, putting my hand in the air. "You just made my decision easy." I turned away. "Addie, wait!" Owen called out. “Make sure you get my good side, Ivy," I threw over my shoulder, keeping my back straight. I marched down the pavement. I forced my shoulders to stay still. I forced myself to hold it together. The thought of walking back into my silent house made my chest ache. My parents’ laughter used to echo off those walls. Now, it was just my uncle pacing the floors, screaming into his phone at insurance lawyers. School meant daily torment. By Monday morning, I was the orphan whose boyfriend got sick of her depression and livestreamed her humiliation. Shit! Those whispers would destroy me. But i had a way out. I turned eighteen two months ago. I was legally an adult. My uncle lost the power to forge my signature, I have the right to walk away. The second I pushed my bedroom door open, my eyes locked onto my dresser. Buried under a stack of final-notice utility bills was an envelope. The Moonstone Mining scholarship. A full ride, plus room and board, to finish my senior year in Wolfbrooke Crest. I kept ignoring it because I feared the unknown. I feared losing Owen. What a joke. I grabbed my duffel bag from the closet and threw it onto my bed. I yanked my drawers open, tossing my plain t-shirts and jeans inside. A new place. A town full of strangers, where no one knows about the highway crash, no one knows about my cheating boyfriend or the public humiliation or the pity glances. I grabbed the envelope. "I am leaving this nightmare behind," I whispered.