Ethan
The development camp is everything I expected and somehow still overwhelming, a facility two states away packed with the best college hockey talent in the country, coaches who don't waste time on encouragement, drills that push me harder than anything Reyes ever ran. By the end of the first week I'm exhausted in a way that goes bone deep, the kind of tired that used to feel satisfying back at Northridge and now just feels lonely without anyone to share it with.
I call Noah every night, without fail, even when it's late, even when I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open through the conversation. The first week it's easy, both of us eager to fill each other in on every small detail, him telling me about practice, about how the team's handling my absence, me telling him about the
