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?”

stopped in his tracks, but I kept walking. “No one sent me,” he said quietly. “You just look too familiar to

to turn around and run to him, as though Enzo would be standing there when I turned to face him, but I knew that wasn’t the case. All of this was just some sort of nasty prank; either Selena had sent them both to mess with me, or they had simply heard rumors about my relationship with Enzo and wanted

another word and without turning around to

had given me. Without thinking, I shoved it into a plastic trash bag at the

inconsolably and soaking my pillow with my tears. At some point, 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 gently rubbed my back eventually comforted me, and soon I

…

been asleep for two, maybe three hours. I couldn’t be

woke up, I was not in my bed. In fact, I quickly realized from the feel of the freezing cold biting against the side

looking

coming out here, but as soon as I got my bearings, I knew where I was. I had come to know it all

place where I last saw

as I scrambled to 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 down at them, they were bright red from the cold. I quickly shoved my hands into my armpits and shivered, looking around frantically as though a Crescent,

silent, aside from the

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 to fall, leaving a light dusting on the crunchy, dry leaves beneath my feet. If I didn’t get home now,

walk home, new tears began to 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 me in my room at