Anyone But The Hockey Boy

-6-

Ria:

Who knew trying to end things with a guy you've only met a few times would be so difficult? Since starting University, I've learned a few key things about myself: I hate confrontation.

It's a pretty normal fear to not want to cause a fight or cause a scene but anything that can draw more attention to me scares me. So, that's why it's been four days since I last saw Hunter and I still haven't answered any of his messages.

Although I know it's all a game now and this was just some master plan to sleep with me u don't want to break it off over text.

Honestly, I'm sure right now he's in the locker room with the entire Waterloo hockey team either talking about his latest hook-up or listening to one of the others discuss theirs.

I pull out my phone from my bag and open it for any new messages. The daily "hey how are you?" from Hunter shows up but I ignore it and check out Liv's.

Olivia: Are things with the hockey boy over yet?

I let out an audible groan and drop my head onto the desk. The noise wakes me up a little bit and grabs the attention of other students around me.

I'd set up in the library a few hours ago to finish studying for my final exams of the semester. When I signed up for this major I expected to naturally understand it like I have everything else in school. Turns out that post-secondary school requires studying outside of classes.

"Geez, Vega," a painfully familiar voice snorts, "some of us are here to get some work done, not just scroll through our phones". He makes a big gesture to show off the table he's covered in textbooks and notes.

Stupid Gavin Lodge has to be intelligent. He always has been, all through elementary school we were in the same class and it was always a competition to see who would score better on a test or assignment. High school was just more of the same and we ultimately tied for the role of valedictorian.

"Watching me now?" I tilt my head and smile, "good to know".

"Please," he scoffs, "you're the one who can't get me and my boys out of your mind".

"Your boys?" I repeat to him. "I'd rather have images of them surgically implanted in my brain than ever in counter you again Gavin."

"Someone's salty," he carelessly drops his pen down onto the table earning multiple shushes from around the building. He lowers his voice to a strong whisper, "I heard you and Gavin Hunter had a little fling going, what a shame you couldn't even hold onto that for a week".

He only took one date to go running to his hockey bros and spill the tea. If it's anything like what they discussed in high school they talked about the odds of me sucking his dick. Which are zero.

I still have vivid memories of sitting at my desk quietly doing my work as Gavin and one of his friends sat in front of me laughing about a girl. Of course, that girl was widely known across the Toronto high schools. She had many names; the pick bunny, hockey whore, cum rag. Poor girl must have gone through something truly traumatizing to have started ducking around at fourteen. Rumours said she had a body count of

I grind my teeth together in pure frustration. "I ghosted him," I clarify, "don't get the wrong idea. None of your friends have a shot with me, unlike the woman you guys trick into dating I have some self-respect."

"Sure Regan," he flips through a few pages of a book without even glancing down at them. "The same amount of self-respect you had back in high school."

We both know exactly what he's talking about. Unfortunately, he lived through all the most embarrassing and horrible moments I had as a teenager. "Fuck you, Gavin Lodge," I slam my books shut and start shoving them in my bag.