HAYDEN

The locker room was heavy with silence. The kind of silence that made every shuffle of feet, every exhale, feel like it echoed too loud. My jersey was clinging to me with sweat, my stick leaned uselessly against the wall where I’d tossed it, and my head throbbed with the weight of disappointment.

We’d lost.

Not just any game, either. We’d lost to a team we should’ve crushed, no question about it. Their defense wasn’t as sharp, their offense nowhere near as polished. ...