My Hockey Alpha

Nina

As I sat there in the bar, seeing the two new transfer students kiss like that made me feel not only sad, but also jealous for some strange reason. I didn’t understand it; why would I feel jealous over two new students who I had never even met?

That feeling wouldn’t go away, either. I found myself hardly able to enjoy the evening, and eventually decided that I needed to get out.

“I’m gonna go home now,” I said, pushing my chair back once I’d finished my second drink. “I’ll see you all later.”

My friends frowned up at me. Justin checked his watch. “It’s not even ten o’clock,” he said. “You’re really leaving now?”

“Yeah. I have work in the morning,” I replied, which wasn’t a lie. I did promise Phil I would work at the diner in the morning. With things getting back to normal in town, businesses were opening back up and he was even able to get a shipment of food so he could get the diner running again. I needed the money, too.

“I’m actually pretty tired myself,” Jessica said. She glanced at Lori, who nodded in agreement, and they both stood. I could tell that they weren’t actually tired and really just wanted to be there for me as my friends, but I wasn’t complaining. It made me feel better to have them by my side; I just needed to get out of this bar.

As we began to walk home in the cold winter air, it seemed that my suspicions were correct as Jessica immediately began questioning me.

“what’s going on with you? You kept staring at those

“I don’t know exactly,” I replied. “Maybe they remind me of me and Enzo. I’m not sure.

Jessica. “They seem pretty normal,” Lori said with a shrug. “I even talked to the girl a little bit at one point when I went up to the bar. She seems nice enough. A little full of

not only almost at the end of a semester, but

being paranoid. We know you miss Enzo and you’re worried about him. And if he doesn’t come home soon, then we promise we’ll all do everything we can to find him and bring him back. But

strange feeling about those two students. And even more so, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I

I said, feeling hot tears begin to

it with concern drawn across her face. “I think you’re imagining things, Nina,” she whispered. “You’ve barely been sleeping. All you do is sit in the infirmary all day and all night, trying to replicate Tiffany’s antidote. Don’t you think that maybe it’s

was just starting to get to me, and besides: why wouldn’t Enzo come and see

to myself as I realized that I was starting to reach for answers again. I need to stop

then I would feel better. I couldn’t find Enzo, Luke, or create the antidote if I was so exhausted I was hallucinating that Enzo and Selena were right here, in

…

somehow managing to get almost a full night of sleep, I made my way to work. Cleaning the diner and serving customers gave me a sense of normalcy that made me feel a bit better, and a few hours into my shift, I started to feel like myself again. In fact, the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that Lori and Jessica were right; I was just imagining things. And somehow, coming to this realization filled me with more drive to find Enzo; I already had plans to do another sweep of the town after my

coming to an end and I was excited to get to work in the infirmary. But only twenty minutes before my shift ended, the door opened and Justin walked in with a grin on