The Hockey Captain Wants His Plus-Size Ex Back Chapter 06
The arena went quiet when I walked out.
I was wearing a navy-and-white uniform that fit my body cleanly, my hair pulled high, my legs bare and steady beneath me. I had kept my change quiet all summer. Oversized hoodies, late workouts, empty campus paths. Most people had only seen pieces of me.
Now there was nowhere to hide.
Someone whispered, “Is that Mia?”
Another voice answered, “No way.”
Cole stood up so fast his chair scraped the floor.
“Mia,” he said. “Stop.”
I turned my head.
He looked angry, but beneath the anger there was shock. His eyes moved over me like he was searching for the girl he remembered and failing to find her.
“Don’t do this,” he said. “I know what you’re trying to prove.”
I said nothing.
“You think this is all because of me,” he continued, louder now, as if the crowd needed to hear him save me from myself. “But you’re only going to embarrass yourself. Come with me before it gets worse.”
The arena waited.
Vanessa crossed her arms, her smile tight.
I looked at Cole and finally understood something simple. He had never known me. He had only known the version of me that made his life easier.
“You forgot,” I said.
His brows pulled together. “Forgot what?”
I faced the judges.
The music started.
My body moved before fear could catch up.
Cartwheel.
Roundoff.
Back handspring.
The first landing was clean. The crowd shifted. I heard the change in the air, felt the moment curiosity replaced mockery.
I kept going.
Toe touch. Turn. Jump sequence. Aerial. Final pass.
For years, I had thought my body was a punishment. That night, under the lights, it became mine again. It remembered the girl I had been before grief, before shame, before Cole Mercer became the center of a life he had no right to own.
I hit the final pose and held it.
Silence.
Then the arena erupted.
The judges raised their scorecards one by one.
Ten.
Ten.
Ten.
Ten.
Ten.
Vanessa’s face went pale.
Cole did not move.
But I saw the moment he remembered.
Before I was the “big girl” everyone mocked, I had been a gymnast. A good one. I had trained for years. I had loved the mat more than any boy, any rumor, any campus applause.
Then, when I was twelve, Cole got caught in a current at the lake behind our neighborhood.
My father jumped in to save him.
He pushed Cole back toward the dock.
He never came up again.
After that, people called Cole a miracle. They called me difficult, emotional, too hungry, too heavy. They never asked what it felt like to watch the whole town celebrate the boy who came home while my father’s chair stayed empty at dinner.
Cole remembered all of it now.
I could see it in his face.
The judges announced that Vanessa and I had tied for the highest score.
Since captaincy involved leadership, the final decision would be made by team vote.
Vanessa recovered first.
She smiled again, but it looked painful. She had been captain for three years. She had friends on the squad, favors owed, history on her side.
The votes came in one by one.
Vanessa.
Mia.
Vanessa.
Mia.
By the final count, we were tied again.
The judge looked toward the hockey table. “As athletic council representative, Cole Mercer will cast the final vote.”
The arena stirred.
Vanessa relaxed.
Of course she did.
Cole had chosen her in front of everyone once. Why would this be different?
Cole stared at the ballot in his hand. Vanessa looked at him, confident. I looked away because it no longer mattered to me whether he chose me.
Then he wrote down my name.
The judge read it aloud.
“Mia Hart.”
Noise crashed through the arena.
Vanessa turned to Cole. “What?”
Cole was already walking toward me.
“Mia,” he said, voice rough. “I’m sorry.”
I stepped back.
He reached for me anyway.
“I forgot,” he said. “God, I forgot who you were.”
“You didn’t forget,” I said. “You just stopped looking.”
His face twisted.
Then he turned toward the crowd, as if a public confession could undo a public betrayal.
“Mia and I have been together for years,” he said. “I was stupid. I hid her. I hurt her. But she’s my—”
“No,” a cold voice said.
Easton walked out from the side entrance.
He stopped beside me and took my hand.
“She’s my girlfriend.”