Faking forever with the hockey captain.

Keisha's POV

My phone wouldn't stop vibrating.

At first, I ignored it. Then it rang again. And again.

And again.

By the fourth call, I was ready to throw it across the room. Groaning, I rolled over and squinted at the screen.

Tom.

I frowned.

Tom never called. He always sent voice notes. Long, pretentious voice notes about journalistic integrity and proper sourcing that made me question my life choices.

The phone rang again.

6:47 AM.

What the hell?

I answered without opening my eyes.

"If this isn't an emergency, I'm blocking your number."

"Why did you sleep with Cole Rayner?"

My eyes flew open immediately. I sat upright so fast my cat, Miss Zinny, launched off the bed like she'd been fired from a cannon.

"What?"

Tom didn't sound amused.

"Don't play dumb with me, Grant."

I blinked. My brain was still loading.

"Tom, what are you talking about?"

"There are photos, just so you know before you think of lying to me."

"Wh…what photos?"

"Don't you what me, Grant."

His voice was somewhere between furious and unhinged.

"My phone has been ringing since five this morning. Five, Grant. The Chronicle inbox has over two hundred messages. Someone from the Herald reached out for comment. For comment, Lakeisha. On you and Cole Rayner."

I stared at my wall. The Michelle Obama poster stared back and then I laughed. A loud, unhinged laugh.

"Cole Rayner?"

"Yes."

"The hockey captain?"

"Yes."

"The same Cole Rayner who thinks he's God's gift to humanity?"

"Grant…"

"The same Cole Rayner who couldn't spell humility if it was written on his forehead?"

"LAKEISHA."

I stopped laughing and Tom exhaled sharply.

"Tom."

My voice came out very carefully.

"I need you to listen to me about Cole Rayner, that proud, egocentric hockey bastard. Tom that idiot broke my camera and told me to watch where I was going. I haven't had a single conversation with him that wouldn't end with me wanting to commit a crime. I don't know what you think you saw but…"

"Check the blog." Ice cold. "Then call me back. And Lakeisha?" He paused. "If this is true, you're off the paper. Sleeping with a source is a violation of everything this paper stands for."

He hung up.

I stared at my phone, then at the ceiling and back at my phone.

"What the hell?”

I laid there in the silence of my small bedroom. Miss Zinny jumped back onto the bed, walked across my stomach, and headbutted my chin once like she was checking if I was still alive.

"You heard that, right?" I asked.

She blinked.

"Exactly.”

I got up because lying there wasn't going to fix anything. That was the thing about my life…falling apart was a luxury I couldn't afford.

I was twenty-one, a Mass Communications major at Crownhigh University, and one bad semester away from losing the scholarship that kept me there.

I opened the link Tom had sent and the page loaded immediately. And suddenly I wished it hadn't

BREAKING: Cole Rayner’s Mystery Hookup… and Jana Chambers Was Right?

By: Just Asking Questions

We've all seen him around campus. The smile, the jaw, the way he looks at you like you're the only person in the room. But sources are starting to talk, and let's just say...Cole Rayner doesn't do relationships. He collects girls and leaves when he gets bored.

Latest proof? A photo sent to us anonymously and corroborated by multiple eyewitness accounts. Our favorite hockey star was spotted at the athletic center late last week with a girl. Who is she this time? You might recognize her.

Remember the story about Cole dumping his girlfriend, Jana Chambers? The one that ran in the Crownhigh Chronicle last month? The one written by… you guessed it — Lakeisha Grant?

Well, guess who just jumped into bed with him not even a week after that story ran?

Sources say there's even a sex tape. And it's coming soon.

Stay tuned.

Below the caption was the photo.

Me sitting on the stairs and Cole holding my wrist. Like he was pulling me toward him instead of stopping me from shoving him.

Are these people blind? I stared at the image. Can't they see the fury in my face? Can't they see I'm trying to push him away?

My stomach twisted…Because I remembered exactly what had happened that day.

Last week, the staircase outside the athletic center. I had just left a meeting with Miss Patterson, my journalism advisor, and my camera bag digging into my shoulder. My good camera. The one I had saved for since sophomore year, picking up extra shifts and skipping lunch.

I was three steps from the bottom when Cole Rayner came around the corner running full speed, not looking or slowing down. He slammed into me like a freight train and my feet went out from under me. My bag flew and the sound… The sound of my camera hitting concrete was the worst thing I had ever heard.

I sat on the ground with scraped palms and a busted elbow and looked up at him.

He glanced at my camera on the floor and then at me.

I waited for sorry. I waited for are you okay. I waited for anything.

His teammates were standing above us laughing.

"Damn, Cole. You broke her whole camera."

"She should've moved."

"She's actually kind of clumsy."

Something inside me snapped. I grabbed my bag and threw it and the entire staircase went silent when it hit him.

Cole turned around slowly, his teammates started laughing harder. Then he walked back toward me.

"What is your problem?" I snapped.

His gaze moved over the shattered camera, then to me.

"Looks like you need glasses, girl."

I nearly blacked out from rage. Then I shoved him and called him an asshole.

His eyes narrowed slightly then, like he finally recognized me.

“Oh,” he said flatly. “You’re that journalism girl.”

Then he grabbed my wrist before I could push him again.

One of his teammates laughed again.

"Let her go, man."

Another voice followed immediately after:

"The one who posted about Jana? She's not worth it. She's just some random girl.”

Then he'd let me go and walked away, leaving me sitting beside my destroyed camera. Like none of it mattered, and now somehow that moment had become evidence that we were sleeping together.

I scrolled down.

Big mistake.

The comments were already exploding.

@hockeyfanatic_04: Wait, is that the journalism girl?? The one who's always at the games with the camera??

@anonymous_415: Wait wait wait. Didn't she write that breakup story about him and Jana?? And now she's WITH him??

@campus_coffee: OH THIS IS JUICY. She exposed him and then hooked up with him?? That's crazy.

@jana_chambers_defense: Jana deserves better. This girl is clearly obsessed with Cole.

@hockey_guru_2024: A sex tape? These kids are insane.

@random_commenter_902: She's probably just another one. Nothing special.

Nothing special? My hands were shaking…my whole body was shaking.

This wasn't just gossip or drama. This was my future, my scholarship, my career. Everything I'd spent years building.

I looked around my tiny bedroom, the stacks of textbooks, the sticky notes, the scholarship paperwork. I thought about every early morning and every late night and every door I had clawed my way through to get to where I was. Every late night, every extra shift my mother worked, every sacrifice she'd made. Mom worked three jobs.

Three.

And I was supposed to be the payoff. The daughter who made it, who escaped poverty and proved that education was worth it.

Now I was trending because people thought I'd slept with a hockey player.

A hysterical laugh escaped me.

Of course….Of course this would happen.

My phone buzzed again.

Tom.

Then another message.

Tom:

WHERE ARE YOU?

Tom:

GET TO CAMPUS NOW.

Tom:

KEISHA I'M SERIOUS.

I stared at the messages. Then I grabbed my backpack, my backup camera, my keys…and whatever remained of my sanity.

Because one thing was suddenly very clear.

My life had just exploded…And somehow, the last person I wanted anything to do with was standing at the center of it.