My Hockey Alpha

Nina

That night, the anonymous poster who referred to himself as “K” sent me his information. He was located a few hours away from me and seemed eager to make the drive to meet up. We’d meet in a public place, of course, and unbeknownst to K, I would have Luke standing guard across the street if anything went wrong. I knew it was stupid to meet up with strangers from the internet so quickly, but K didn’t know my real name or address, and I’d cover my hair and face with a hat, sunglasses, and a surgical mask.

I didn’t tell anyone that I would be going to meet K except for Luke, and even with Luke I kept the information vague.

“I’m meeting up with an internet friend in a couple of days,” I said on the morning of the next day as I walked to get breakfast at the dining hall. “I want you to keep watch from across the street if anything goes wrong. Just in case, you know?”

Luke didn’t question it. He simply nodded and agreed to do whatever 1 needed.

Once that was all squared away, all 1 had to do now was wait and think about what sort of questions I would ask K. I hoped that he would have some real information for me and wasn’t a total crackpot. What I would do with that information later was still a mystery to me; right now, my only goal was to just. learn as much as I could, and I wanted it to come from a source that wasn’t Enzo or Luke in case they weren’t being entirely truthful. I still didn’t know for sure if I could entirely trust them.

Besides, planning the meetup with K kept me from thinking about my sexual encounter with Enzo at the party last night. It was better not to think about it. I hadn’t heard from him or seen him at all since I left the party, and if I thought about it for too long, images of him having sex with Lisa in the woods flooded my mind.

It was just better if I stayed away.

It was Sunday, so thankfully I didn’t have class, and anyone who was at the party last night was still hung over in their dorms. I would have been hiding in my dorm as well, but unfortunately, with everything going on lately, my grades were starting to get a bit shaky. I had another exam in a few days, so I had to study.

After I grabbed a quick bagel and coffee for breakfast, I walked over to the library with the intent to study all day.

The library was mostly empty, aside. from a few other students who were probably in the same boat as me.] found a table by a window and sat down, opening my laptop and getting out my notebooks to start studying.

to see James, the graduate student from Tiffany’s office, standing at the table. He was looking down at me with a sweet smile on his face and a coffee cup in his

honestly happy to have the company. “Sure,” I replied.

took his laptop and notebook out. I looked up from my laptop

couldn’t help

working on?” he

responded. “And admittedly I’m not doing

brow and cocked his head to the side,

shrugged. “Just… got a lot going on,” 1 said. It was technically the truth. I couldn’t tell him specifics, obviously, he’d think I

undergrad,” he said with a

to me. When he sat down beside me, I could smell a faint scent of cologne coming from his sweater. It smelled winter like mahogany and old books, and

started to point at my notes as he leaned close to me. His closeness made me feel a bit shy as he started to

to him talk. He was so studious and intelligent in the way that he spoke that it made me feel a new sense of

while he attempted to continue to explain a concept, his

to be completely absorbed in my notebook… But I couldn’t help but notice the feeling

before I realized just how much time had flown by. My stomach growled, and although I

up

away. “No worries,” he replied. “Just make it up to me by acing that

and looked down at my feet