My Hockey Alpha

Enzo

Nina and I shook hands and agreed to be “friends” for now.

“You can’t just let this happen,” Fio growled, angry with me for letting it come to this as I watched Nina walk away.

“I know,” I replied with an outward sigh, sticking my hands in my pockets and making my way toward where my motorcycle was parked.

I wasn’t going to let this happen. For whatever reason, Nina Harper was special to me and I had to have her. If being a good “friend” for a while was what it would take to get her to see that I was the best choice, then so be it; but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to try in some other ways to gain her affection, too.

I went to hockey practice that day and let out my frustrations by training harder than I had in a long time. My teammates were both surprised and annoyed by the grueling training regimen I inflicted on them, but I was too angry to care.

“Enzo, we’ve been doing drills for two hours!” Matt complained, stopping suddenly in the middle of a drill in the middle of the rink and doubling over with his hands on his knees. The other players stopped as well and started complaining, too– all except for Justin, who was the lone teammate to keep pushing through the drill, skating back and forth with all his might on the rink.

Was he punishing himself too for what he did to Nina, or was he trying to prove something?

Either way, I praised him after practice in front of the whole team.

could have done better today,” I said as we got changed

my arms as I watched them get changed, then shook my head with a sigh and grabbed

Justin call my name. He jogged to catch up to me as

didn’t slow down,

up?” I said, keeping my

you the other day,” he said. “I’m just angry with myself for doing what I did to Nina. I shouldn’t be taking it out on you. I’m trying to be different from now

an eyebrow, surprised at Justin’s sudden change in demeanor. As long as I had known him, he was always a bit of an insufferable jackass. Did Nina really have such an effect on people? I thought about how I used to be; how I used to sleep around almost every night, using girls as merely a means to let off steam and then discard them, and now I was scheming how to get this ordinary human

forced a smile, turning toward Justin and patting him on the shoulder. “I’m glad to hear it,” I said, although what I really wanted to say was “Don’t you dare even try

somewhat meek smile. “Well, see you tomorrow at

I watched Justin walk away, narrowing my

time to worry about whatever dumbass angle Justin was trying to get,

nice flannel, new jeans, and even a new pair of boots — and then made my way over

a bottle of wine, then picked up fancy pastries from the bakery. I had never noticed what sort of foods and flowers Nina liked, but how could any girl

would be heading across the quad to get lunch, so I set up a picnic blanket with everything I got for her and stood nearby with the flowers, waiting for her to cross my

there she