My Hockey Alpha

Nina

I cocked my head. My mother smiled up at me and pushed the plate containing my sandwich into my hands.

“Eat up, honey,” she said. “Are you alright? You look like you’ve lost a lot of weight.”

“U-Um… I’ve just been stressed.” I picked my sandwich up off my plate and took a bite, chewing for a moment, before speaking again. “Are you sure you don’t know about the Peacekeepers? The school doctor that I’ve been working with–”

“You know what?” my mother interrupted, stretching and feigning an obviously fake yawn. “It’s late, and we’ve got to be up early tomorrow to catch our flight.”

Now, I frowned and watched as she turned somewhat robotically and started to walk out of the kitchen. “But you said that we would be leaving in a couple of days…”

My mother froze again. “Did I?” she asked, her back still turned to me. “I guess I just misspoke. No, our tickets are set for first thing in the morning.”

“Oh…” I paused, looking down at the sandwich on my plate. “Okay.”

“Good night, honey.”

“Good night, mom.”

I sat alone in the kitchen and silently finished my sandwich, puzzling over why my mother acted like she didn’t know about the Peacekeepers. In fact, her entire demeanor was a bit strange, almost scripted. It was unsettling, to say the least.

finished, I hopped down from the counter and rinsed off my plate before grabbing my suitcase out of the living

it had always been. I hadn’t slept here in years, always opting to stay at a motel on the rare occasion that I came to visit, but as I sat down on my bed and heard the springs creak beneath my weight, I suddenly felt overcome by a sense of nostalgia that overshadowed my mother’s strange behavior. Sighing, I fell backwards and splayed my arms out on the bed, running my hands along the quilt as I looked up at the old glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling that I’d put there when I was seven. I

heard something patter against my window. I didn’t get up right away; instead, I chalked it up to the wind or the branch of

then, I heard it

to see something small and

I saw Enzo standing on the lawn staring

window open and leaned

find

he quietly and nimbly climbed up the tree. I watched as his hand, then his leg, followed by the

after how he’d spoken to me in the locker room and even more

how I acted,” he

and suddenly felt his warm arms wrap around me. My

pulled away, there were tears in my eyes. “You can’t stay,” I whispered, taking a step back and wiping the tears away with my hand. “Your father… I don’t know what he’s planning on doing to my mom

“You spoke to my

my mom and my brother live. I don’t know what

was another long silence. Enzo let out a deep, rattled sigh. When

me away?” I asked.

was… a big part of