My Hockey Nemesis

1,

E

on my finger when e

my hand just enough to watch the diamond catch the glare and sca

oposed just

out a ring with hands so shaky you'd think he was facing a breakaway instead of just me. I'd said yes before he could

f the day. The part I wi

cating crowd, my heart lodged in my throat as I w

d to happen. Not to

n thousand people. I felt the vibration in my chest before my brain could process it

opped into a

y shaking my head before I

Before I saw the terrifying stillness of his body.

th

seat, the next I was tearing through the crowd, shoving past hands

hear was the frantic, breaking soun

en, I

r Pea

ntire universe. His helmet was off. His chest rose and fell in slow, even measures. Hi

e this was routine. Like a p

r and his team, the Redwoods greatest rival, a player who didn't just cross lines, but erased them.

d to my knees on the ice beside Ethan,

sing my hands to his cold jersey.

move. He d

ights to the sterile, pulsing red of the

est, staring at Ethan's pale face beneath the oxygen mask. My ring, the one he had slipped onto my finger just hours ago, pressed hard against my sk

red, a tense rhythm to his movements that

en at the hospital, the w

ed like angry hornets, flickering past in a dizzying sequence as we sprinted down the hallway. Nurses shouted vitals, words like intracranial pressure and unrespo

irm hand caught my shoulder, stoppi

o go with him!" I beg

aid, her eyes filled with a practiced,

the double doors, I watched them w

prepping the instruments that would try to piece his life back together. The heav

uld do was sit on the vinyl chairs, staring at the ring on my finger

eel it. Arthur's eyes. Heavy.

fe split in two. There was the

w hard I've tried to rebuild the pieces, one truth remains absolute: If