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.

I said as we got changed in the locker room, which

turned to face the team and folded 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 I walked toward

stride. I didn’t slow down, because frankly I didn’t

up?” I said, keeping my gaze

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

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

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 to get back together with

a somewhat meek smile. “Well, see you tomorrow

myself as I watched Justin walk away, narrowing

whatever dumbass angle Justin was trying to get, because

of clothes — a nice flannel, new jeans, and even a new pair of boots — and then made my way over to the florist. I bought a dozen roses with a little teddy bear and a box

stopped at the liquor store and bought 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

it was already almost lunchtime so I had to rush back to the campus to set up what would hopefully be a date. I knew Nina 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,

there