The Hockey Player (Matt Sturniolo)

Confessions

Matt's POV

"You're making this hard" I groaned into her mouth. In payback to my teasing, she straddled my lap. I squeezed her hips and she moved across me, and kissed my mouth.

Kissing Aurora was dangerously close to ruining me. Before, a kiss was my enjoyment. Kissing her made me want to slow down and appreciate how good it was. Her quiet hums made my heart want to jump out of my chest.

But I knew, at that moment and when we said goodnight, that my feelings were painfully close to loving her. I'd never been in love, but I cared about her more than myself.

"Not the time to unpack that" I mumbled

Fuck, I thought I screwed up tonight when bringing up Jack, but I was glad she was open to telling me the truth. I couldn't mess this up. Not after what she shared with me.

At one point, I curled my hand around hers and watched her look at the ocean. The breeze blew strands of hair across her forehead. I brushed them aside with the awe of her being there with me.

I wasn't falling for Aurora. I was gone. The distance between us sucked, but she was the girl I wanted. She unlocked feelings I didn't know I had. She very, very quickly turned me into a person that didn't feel like me.

Guess I was unpacking this. My heart hurt for her. The want to console her and kiss her tears away. Neither was an overwhelming need to fix how upset I made her, despite having no idea what to say.

I wasn't uncomfortable with how much Aurora affected me. Her depth sucked me in. Aurora confronted a soul wrenching trauma with emotional depths past superficial shit. It made me look at my own life, where changes were needed.

Confronting her nightmares was harder than admitting my stupidity. I hated myself for ruining her relaxed look. The topic was suffocating. Listening to her, my heart paused mid- beat in my chest. I couldn't breathe.

Her shivers cut her off, but she didn't need to finish. That protective feeling overwhelmed me. I pulled her into my lap and wrapped myself around her to comfort her. Aurora squealed when I pulled her on to my lap. Her cheek rested on my shoulder, and her hair tickled under my chin.

The flickers of anger were dormant but still burned inside of me as she was to her house. What happened to Aurora didn't change how I felt about her, but it increased how I felt on her behalf.

No wonder she was jaded against hockey players. I hated the association, but who could blame her? Not me. The idea that anyone hurt an innocent girl made me rage with anger.

I could easily track Jack down and beat him up. The only thing that held me back was that approach wouldn't have impressed Aurora. She shouldn't have to hide the truth from her parents.

"I wish I could help her" I mumbled. "Or figure out how to talk to her"

I'd always considered myself a confident guy who talked to any girl. But while Aurora struggled through her confessions, I was painfully aware of the obvious fact. I didn't know anything about girl's emotions.

In slow motion, the spark in Aurora's eye turned to flat and dull. While she looked ahead, her thoughts turned to the pain she was holding inside.

Shit, what do I do now? Think, Matt. I got nothing. "Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. Anything except pretend it didn't happen. I'd like to, for your sake, but I think you've already been doing it and it's not working" I hugged her close.

"I don't know" she turned her head on my chest. "I mean, I don't know why the nightmares came back. I thought it was all behind me"

Think Matt. Just solve the problem.
Talking. Girls like talking, right?