"I fucked up. I wasn't completely honest about something and Scout found out. She said… she needed space."
Hunter snorts. Jett actually laughs. Beck rolls his eyes so hard I'm surprised they don't fall out of his head.
"That's it?" Hunter asks. "You had a fight?"
My hands clench into fists. "It wasn't just a fight."
"So you had a big fight," Thorne says, like that changes nothing. "Welcome to relationships, buddy."
I'm too confused by their reactions to care about the condescension. They're not looking at me with pity or disappointment. Hunter actually seems amused.
"Like you would know about relationships," Hunter says, looking at Thorne. "In all the time that I've been on the team, you haven't hooked up with the same girl twice."
"Fuck off," Thorne replies, giving Hunter a lazy grin. "That doesn't mean I don't have common sense."
"You all think I'm being dramatic?" I ask.
"I think you're being an idiot," Hunter corrects. His voice is warm, comfortable, the way you talk to someone you love who's catastrophizing. "Juliet and I fight all the time. Sometimes she storms out and stays at her sister's. Then we talk it through and move forward."
Thorne's voice goes quieter than usual. "Fighting doesn't mean it's over."
"Scout left," I say. "She chose to walk away rather than deal with my shit."
"Good for her," Jett says. I whip my head around to glare at him. He holds up his hands. "I'm serious. She's got boundaries. That's healthy. It doesn't mean your relationship is over."
"Couples fight," Hunter says simply. "People get hurt and work through it. If every argument ended a relationship, none of us would still be standing."
"To be fair, most of us are bachelors for life," Beck grunts.
"Hockey's really hard on any relationship. We're on the road so much and when we aren't, we're either at practice or resting. There's not a lot of room for girlfriends."
"My point is that until Scout breaks up with you, I don't think you should be preparing yourself for the worst."
My chest feels too tight. Growing up, mistakes meant punishment or silence. In hockey, they cost games, contracts, trust. The only way I learned to survive was to lock everything down, take the hit alone, and never let anyone see me break.
Yet sitting here, these guys are telling me something completely different.
"I lied to her," I admit, the words scraping my throat raw. "I mean, a lie of omission. But still."
"Then you apologize and do better," Beck says. As if it's that simple.
"What if she doesn't forgive me?"
Hunter shrugs. "Cross that bridge if you come to it. You're sitting here assuming the worst when nothing's actually ended."
The realization hits me slowly, like sunrise through blackout curtains. Scout walked away, but she didn't say we were done. She said she needed space. Time to think. Those aren't the same thing as goodbye.
"But I don't know how to fix it," I say.
Thorne sucks his teeth. "You show up and be honest. And you let her decide if she wants to try again."
My breathing starts to even out. The panic that's been clawing at my chest since Scout left loosens its grip slightly. I'm still scared, still uncertain, but the urge to self-destruct fades.
"I keep thinking I shouldn't have wanted her in the first place," I admit.
Jett makes a disgusted noise. "That's the dumbest thing you've ever said, and you once tried to fight three guys in a 7-11 parking lot."
I shake my head. "That was different."
