The rink echoed with the scrape of blades and the sharp cracks of pucks hitting boards. Gally skated hard, sweat cooling against his skin, every stride pounding out the frustration of the school day. On the ice, nothing else mattered—no rules, no grades, no pressure at home—just the rhythm of the game. His teammates shouted to one another, but Gally stayed focused, jaw tight, driving the puck down the length of the ice as if proving something to himself. Here, in this frozen arena, he was untouchable.

The shrill whistle of the coach cut through the air, halting the drill. “Team off the ice, now—school photos.” Gally’s stomach sank. He knew what that meant. His classmates groaned, tossing sticks aside and pushing helmets back, but Gally felt his pulse quicken for a different reason. He’d worked hard to keep his worlds separate: hockey was his domain, the one place no one could intrude. But as the photographer walked in, camera hanging from her neck, he caught sight of her—his girlfriend. Her smile was easy, practiced, but it landed like a punch in his chest.

She started arranging players, giving directions with that calm, patient tone he secretly loved. To the team, she was just another student doing her job. To him, she was something he tried not to let collide with this space. His friends were already ribbing him—“Hey Gally, better stand up straight for your girl,”—but he shrugged it off with a scowl, pretending their words didn’t sting. On the ice, he was the tough defenseman, the enforcer, the guy no one messed with.

When her lens finally turned on him, he held her gaze for a split second longer than he meant to. There was a softness there, something that reminded him of dinners at her house and the way she teased him when he got too serious. His chest tightened. He wanted to shove the feeling away, to bury it under the roar of the rink, but it lingered. For all his effort to keep her away from this world, here she was—steady, unflinching, and looking at him like he wasn’t just the tough guy on the ice. "Couldn't you have asked somebody else to take the pic?" He scowled, she knew how he felt about different aspects of his life colliding and unwillingly.