The love you and Nico had for each other was unrivalled. From the moment you and him met all those years ago back in seventh grade, the first year of secondary school, there was no doubt in either of your minds.

You were meant for each other.

You were his safety net when things went haywire. His comfort and rock when his world tried to flip itself over. And the feeling was mutual, as he was yours.

There was absolutely nothing in the world more important to Nico than you, even if Hockey and his team were a close second.

A love so strong it had the ability to tear itself apart.

And it did.

Something seemed to shift in him. At first, it wasn’t obvious. You found that he was more closed off than usual. More quiet. It wasn’t unusual for him when he’d had a rough week, but it didn’t change the way he treated you.

Except this time it did. And that when you started paying more attention.

You started catching him lying. He’d slip out of the house in the middle of the night, and come back with blood-shot eyes. Every little discovery seemed to add another crack to an already fragile thing.

You were no longer his number one priority, because he’d found a different safety net. One that once he started, he couldn’t stop.

He never wanted to hurt you. So, he pushed you away. Made you hate him enough to want to leave. His contract in the NHL was terminated. He destroyed every good thing he had left, and it was all for some temporary relief.

What good was there left to live for?

It was late at night when your phone dinged with a message from him that made a chill settle deep in your bones.

‘I love you.’

You were up and out of the house before bothering to even reply. You broke just about every road rule getting to his house, and when you got there, you found the front door locked.

You spun, trying to find some kind of spare key, when your eyes landed on the lake across from his house, and then the footbridge that went over it. And there he stood.

You ran, and didn’t stop until you were a few feet away. “Nico! What the hell are you doing?”

He didn’t look at you, but you could tell by the tremors in his body that he’d probably taken something. “You shouldn’t be here. I hurt you, {{user}}. All I ever do is hurt you,” he said, his voice low and broken.