My Hockey Alpha

Nina

The morning after my motorcycle ride with Enzo, I woke up to dozens of Twitter notifications. Still blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I scrunched up my eyebrows as I opened my phone and started to read all of the notifications.

“Wowwww @ninaharpı, alone time with Enzo, huh?”

“Enzo must be joking if he’s hanging around with that ugly nerd @ ninaharpı!!”

“What a slut, messing around with two boys from the hockey team at once. Save some for the rest of us @ ninaharpı!”

I sat up in bed, my eyes glued to the phone as I opened Twitter and realized that someone snuck pictures of Enzo and I last night. There were pictures of me talking to Justin in the parking lot, a picture of me as I shoved Justin to the ground, Enzo wiping the tears from my cheek, and getting on his motorcycle together.

I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him. This was just another step in the game he was playing with me!

As I looked at the time, I realized that I had class in twenty minutes. I jumped out of bed and threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, quickly braided my hair and brushed my teeth, and ran out of my room.

Jessica was standing in the kitchen when I came out of my room. She looked up from making her coffee briefly, then looked back down. Even in that brief moment, I could see tears in her eyes.

“It was really nothing,” I said, assuming that she already saw the photos. “Justin was harassing me and Enzo just happened to show up. He drove me home.”

“Enzo seems to just magically appear around 1 you a lot lately,” she grumbled as she poured her coffee.

I sighed and adjusted my bag on my shoulder. “It was just a coincidence,” I said.

Jessica suddenly slammed the coffee pot down, sloshing coffee on the counter. “Bullshit,” she said, glaring at me as tears streamed down her cheeks. “What is your relationship with him, really?”

I looked down at the floor and bit my lip. “I’m just the team doctor,” I replied. “But not for long. I’m gonna talk to the dean today and get reassigned.”

he looks at

nothing between you before, and I had a hard time believing it then. Now I know something is going on without a doubt. I just

to be honest with Jessica about everything, but right now I had to

said, “I’ll tell you everything later. But I’m

nodded, then turned away and grabbed a paper towel to start cleaning up the coffee

sat in the back of the lecture hall; the girls who I sat next

to me. I looked up

said, rummaging through my bag

away from both of them,”

“But all of this is out of my control. I didn’t

arms across her chest. “Who knows what sort of dirty deal you made to be the team doctor?” she said, raising her voice. “For all I know, you probably slept with someone to get that

with herself, stomped off to sit back with

the room so I could get ahead

ran into Lori in the quad, who seemed to be the only

toward her and walking with her. “I can’t take this anymore. I feel like I’ve got a

“Well, not a bullseye exactly,” she said, pulling a

paper

I whirled around

think this is funny?!” I said, waving the

and guided me away. “Ignore them,” she said, grabbing the paper from my hands and crumpling it before throwing it

with Justin or Enzo,” I said, fighting back tears as Lori led me

you,” she replied. “That whole team is a bunch of

finally relieved to be able to hide in my room and not have to deal with any of the bullying. So long as I didn’t