Crystal Frost's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Crystal settled into her new seat across the arena, trying not to think about what she'd lost. The players spilled onto the ice for warmups, their skates cutting sharp lines across the surface. Gerard appeared last, helmet off, dark hair still damp from the locker room. The wooden bench beneath her creaked as she shifted forward. Her new corner sat exposed near the ice, close enough to feel the cold rolling off the rink. She pulled her team scarf tighter around her neck, the bright colors suddenly feeling too obvious, too visible. From here, she wasn't tucked safely in the background anymore. She was right where the players warmed up, where Gerard would pass by close enough to see her face. He gathered a puck near center ice and started skating toward her corner. Crystal's breath caught. She looked down at her lap, at the scarf bunched in her fists, willing herself invisible. But Gerard kept coming, his skates hissing against the ice, closer and closer until she felt his presence like heat. She looked up. Their eyes met. For three seconds, maybe four, Gerard held her gaze. His expression didn't change—no surprise, no recognition, just a blank acknowledgment that someone sat there. Then he flicked the puck toward the boards and turned away, rejoining the drill at the far end. Crystal sat frozen on the bench. He'd looked right at her and seen nothing worth remembering. The fantasy she'd protected for two years—that he might notice her someday, that the noticing might matter—cracked open. She wasn't invisible because she'd hidden well. She was invisible because to him, she simply didn't exist.