My Hockey Alpha

Nina

“Why were you two saying my name so much just now?” Eli asked quietly as he blocked my way to the door.

I furrowed my brow. “We weren’t. What are you talking about?”

Eli shook his head. “I heard you. You kept saying the name ‘Enzo’.”

My eyes widened. His name wasn’t Enzo. It was Eli… Right? For a moment, my heart skipped a beat as I looked up at him, searching his face for some sign that he really was Enzo; but unlike before, his face never shifted or changed. He stayed looking just the same as he was now: an unfamiliar face.

It must have been some sort of sick prank.

“That’s not funny,” I growled. Eli stared at me with wide eyes, but I just pushed past him and through the door, out into the cold night air.

“Wait!” he called, running after me. “I’m serious.”

I scoffed. “Sure you are,” I replied, holding my arms as I walked briskly through the cold night air. “Did Sadie send you? Is this some sort of prank to get more dirt on me?”

tracks, but I kept walking. “No one sent me,” he said quietly. “You just look

there when I turned to face him, but I knew that wasn’t the case. All

without another word and without turning around to look at Eli, I began

room and ripped off the dress that Eli had given me. Without thinking, I shoved it into a plastic trash

I thought I heard Lori and Jessica come home. They must have heard me crying, because my door quietly clicked open, and the next thing I knew someone was rubbing my back gently while I cried. I wanted to tell them everything, but I just couldn’t. I felt too weak and helpless to even speak. But the way my friends sat with me and

…

for two, maybe three

was not in my bed. In fact, I quickly realized from the feel of the freezing cold

I sat up abruptly, looking around wildly; I was on the forest

I got my bearings, I knew where I was. I had come

last saw Enzo stepping

my feet. The moon was full and bright, but the forest still felt dark and ominous, and I was all alone out here in my pajamas. My hands and my feet were freezing; when I looked

the forest was silent, aside from the lonesome call of an

though this location was pulling me to it, and part of me wanted to stay, as though Enzo would suddenly come through a portal and hold me in his arms. But I couldn’t stay here — not if I wanted to keep all of my fingers. A light snow had even begun

stream down my cheeks and coat the layer of dried tears that were already caked on my skin. This wasn’t the first time I had somehow managed to sleepwalk out into the middle of the woods and wake up next to the portal, and somehow I knew it wouldn’t be the last. I would have to tell Jessica and Lori to lock