My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 26

Nina

I slammed my laptop shut.

“Fuck!” I yelled, then covered my mouth when I realized that I might have woken up Jessica and Lori.

Just as I expected, there was a knock on my door. Lori opened the door a crack and poked her head in, her eyes half-closed and her black hair a mess.

“You good?” she asked. I shook my head and she came in, with Jessica trailing behind her; Jessica, of course, was wearing bright pink pajamas with an eye mask on her forehead, which was a stark contrast to Lori’s ratty band t-shirt and shorts ensemble.

“I’m sorry,” I said, tears welling up in my eyes. “I didn’t mean to be so loud.”

Jessica immediately noticed my tears and came running over to me. “It’s okay!” she said. “What happened? Did Justin do something again?” I shook my head and her eyes widened. “Was it Enzo? I’ll kill him!”

“No, no,” I replied. “It wasn’t either of them, I don’t think. It’s just… Here, I’ll show you.” I opened my laptop again and showed Jessica so she could see the new pictures. Lori shuffled over and looked over Jessica’s shoulder.

Both of their eyes widened when they saw the pictures.

“Who keeps taking these?” Lori asked, pointing at the laptop screen.

“That’s, like, a total invasion of privacy,” Jessica chimed in.

I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I replied. “It was dark outside the rink, and I was focused on not falling, so anyone could’ve slipped in and taken these.”

“Do you think Enzo is having someone do this to you to humiliate you?” Lori asked, folding her arms.

Truthfully, I didn’t know. He hadn’t necessarily given me a reason not to trust him yet, but if what he said about himself in the anatomy lab was true, and if I wasn’t imagining the whole incident with the skeleton, then… Maybe I couldn’t trust him. Weren’t werewolves supposed to be evil, scary monsters from fairy tales? Who was to say that he wasn’t trying to rope me into trusting him so he could hurt me?

I would have to do some research on my own, because Lori and Jessica would never believe me. For now, I would just have to keep it to myself until I had definitive proof.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think I’ll just stay away from him, just in case.”

Jessica sighed and rubbed my shoulder while Lori nodded alongside her.

“I think that would be for the best,” Jessica said.

…

I decided to skip class that day and feign sickness to avoid dealing with bullying. Jessica and Lori took the day off too. We made pancakes for breakfast and watched movies, and soon I was feeling a lot better.

Unfortunately, I did have to go to work at the diner. I promised my boss that I would work tonight, so I put on my uniform and headed to work. I made a pit stop at the anatomy lab to see if my phone was there, but unfortunately it wasn’t.

It was a bit busier than normal, but nothing I couldn’t handle. If anything, the work kept my mind off of all of the drama in my life; the generous tips helped, too.

I was a few hours into my shift when the last person I wanted to see right now strolled in with her gaggle of bitchy friends.

Lisa.

They sat down at a booth, whispering and giggling amongst themselves; one glance at Lisa’s phone, even from afar, told me that they were laughing at my pictures. It had to have been Lisa who took the pictures.

I hesitated for a while, pretending to be busy with other customers, but I knew that I would have to serve them eventually. Was this job even really worth it? I could walk out right now… But I needed the money. My textbooks this semester were more expensive than usual and I was struggling, and apparently now I needed to replace my phone.

Taking a deep breath and putting on my best customer service face, I walked up to their table.

“Hi. Can I get you started with some drinks?”

Lisa slowly turned her head and looked up at me. There was a long silence, during which one of her stupid friends chewed her gum as loudly as possible and blew a big bubble as the entire group eyed me up and down like a piece of meat.