My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 38

Enzo

Nina and I shook hands and agreed to be “friends” for now.

“You can’t just let this happen,” Fio growled, angry with me for letting it come to this as I watched Nina walk away.

“I know,” I replied with an outward sigh, sticking my hands in my pockets and making my way toward where my motorcycle was parked.

I wasn’t going to let this happen. For whatever reason, Nina Harper was special to me and I had to have her. If being a good “friend” for a while was what it would take to get her to see that I was the best choice, then so be it; but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to try in some other ways to gain her affection, too.

I went to hockey practice that day and let out my frustrations by training harder than I had in a long time. My teammates were both surprised and annoyed by the grueling training regimen I inflicted on them, but I was too angry to care.

“Enzo, we’ve been doing drills for two hours!” Matt complained, stopping suddenly in the middle of a drill in the middle of the rink and doubling over with his hands on his knees. The other players stopped as well and started complaining, too -- all except for Justin, who was the lone teammate to keep pushing through the drill, skating back and forth with all his might on the rink.

Was he punishing himself too for what he did to Nina, or was he trying to prove something?

Either way, I praised him after practice in front of the whole team.

“The rest of you could have done better today,” I said as we got changed in the locker room, which caused a chorus of grumbles from everyone.

I turned to face the team and folded my arms as I watched them get changed, then shook my head with a sigh and grabbed my bag to leave.

As I was leaving, I heard Justin call my name. He jogged to catch up to me as I walked toward the dining hall.

“Hey, Enzo!” he said, catching up with me and matching my stride. I didn’t slow down, because frankly I didn’t want to be talking to him despite his good performance during practice.

“What’s up?” I said, keeping my gaze straight ahead.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for starting that argument with you the other day,” he said. “I’m just angry with myself for doing what I did to Nina. I shouldn’t be taking it out on you. I’m trying to be different from now on. Better.”

I raised an eyebrow, surprised at Justin’s sudden change in demeanor. As long as I had known him, he was always a bit of an insufferable jackass. Did Nina really have such an effect on people? I thought about how I used to be; how I used to sleep around almost every night, using girls as merely a means to let off steam and then discard them, and now I was scheming how to get this ordinary human girl to be my girlfriend.

I cleared my throat and forced a smile, turning toward Justin and patting him on the shoulder. “I’m glad to hear it,” I said, although what I really wanted to say was “Don’t you dare even try to get back together with Nina. She’s mine now.” But I controlled myself.