My Hockey Alpha

Nina

As I looked down at the rotten, smelly mess of tomato guts on the front of my white shirt, the people around me began to laugh hysterically.

“Werewolf-fucker!” the girl who threw the tomato shouted, laughing maniacally.

“You’re protecting a monster!” another guy yelled.

The crowd erupted into a mixture of mocking and angry chatter, and all I felt was Enzo’s arm wrap around me. He began to usher me toward the hockey arena, shielding me from a barrage of other items being thrown. I had never expected it to get out of hand like this.

We rushed toward the arena. Enzo flung the door open and helped me in, shutting it firmly behind us. I could still hear the muffled sound of the rioting crowd outside, and I hoped that my friends got out before anything bad happened.

“Why did you do that?” Enzo asked, turning to face me.

I felt my face get hot. “I don’t know,” I said. “I just sort of did it. You’ve done so much for me… Taking a rotten tomato to the front of my shirt was the least I could do.”

Enzo sighed, running a hand through his curly hair, then gestured toward the locker room. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you a clean shirt.”

I followed him to the locker room. Once we were inside with the door shut, the muffled sounds of the protesters faded away completely, leaving us with a welcome silence. Enzo walked over to his locker and dropped his duffle bag on the floor. I followed, then watched as he retrieved an extra hockey jersey with his number on it out of his locker.

I could see that his cheeks had turned slightly red, and I wondered if he turned his back to hide

pulled my dirty shirt off over my head and tossed it in the trash, not even wanting to bother with trying to get the rotten tomato smell out of it in the wash. Even if

me, and almost reached my knees. The sleeves alone, which were supposed to be short on Enzo, came down to my elbows. I felt silly wearing something so oversized, but at the same time, it was oddly comforting; it smelled like

turn around now,”

but then, a smirk spread across his face. I pouted and folded my arms across my

of me,”

his curly mop of brown hair fall into his eyes a bit. “I’m not

My embarrassed pout turned

his eyes glowing red. There was a hungry expression on his face, and he subconsciously licked his lips before stepping toward me. As he closed the distance between us, I dropped my arms from where they were folded across my chest and back to my sides, looking up at him with my brain scattered. He had just told me that we couldn’t act on our impulses, but now, he was pressing me up

his palm into the lockers above my head. I tilted my face up to look at him, and for a long moment, our lips hovered tantalizingly close to one another. I pictured him lifting up the hockey jersey he loaned me and running his hands

opened. Enzo quickly seemed to come to his senses. The glow in his eyes

upcoming hockey game, but the throbbing feeling in

do something about those protesters,” Matt

to look at Enzo, who now had his back turned to me as he rifled through

you gonna say anything

head. “Nah. They’ll get over it. Campus security will take care of it if they get too out