My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 191

Nina

Even though I would have much preferred to be going to the dance with Enzo, I agreed to go with Justin — but only as friends. As long as I knew that Enzo could still be out there somewhere, I couldn’t bring myself to let things go any further with Justin. Even if something did happen to Enzo and I really wouldn’t ever get to see him again, I wasn’t sure if I could even live with myself if I moved on. I loved Enzo too much to ever move on.

But, regardless, I agreed to go. Jessica and Lori were right when they said that I needed to rest. The Crescents seemed to be retreating, the town was going back to at least somewhat of a sense of normalcy, and I felt as though I was on the verge of recreating the antidote. I came close to recreating it on the night that Justin asked me to the dance, and I was certain that I could crack the code soon so we could create the antidote in larger quantities and begin distribution to our neighboring towns.

Unfortunately, however, I still couldn’t find Luke; and he was my only link to getting to the werewolf realm to bring Enzo home. If Myra couldn’t open a portal for me, then Luke was the only other person who could — or at least who would open a portal willingly. I was pretty sure that Lewis could open portals, but he certainly wasn’t going to help since he seemed to enjoy being the de facto leader of the Fullmoons too much. I just wished that I knew where Luke was and why he suddenly disappeared. I was getting extremely worried about him at this point.

The next morning, I finally admitted to Lori and Jessica that I agreed to go to the dance with Justin.

“I’m so glad, Nina!” Jessica exclaimed. “This will be good for you. You need a night of fun.”

I nodded, staring at the floor. “I just wish it was Enzo,” I whispered, blinking back the tears that began to form in my eyes.

“You know what?” Lori suddenly chimed in. “The dance is tomorrow, right? So just take a breather until then, and then I promise we’ll all search for Luke again. Hey, maybe he even went to the werewolf realm without you. Maybe he’s coming back with Enzo as we speak.”

“Maybe,” I replied, lifting my gaze to meet my friends’. I wasn’t sure if I believed it, but it was a plausible explanation. It was possible that Luke decided he didn’t want me to be in danger, and decided to go without me. But that also could have meant that not only Enzo was in danger, but now Luke, too.

“So,” Jessica interjected, clearly wanting to change the subject and get my mind off of things, “what are you going to wear?”

I could only shrug. “One of my old dresses, I guess,” I replied.

Jessica frowned. Suddenly, she jumped up from the couch and walked over to the door. Lori and I watched as she slipped her shoes on, then grabbed her coat and her purse from the hook. “Come on,” she said, almost impatiently. “The clothing store in town reopened. Let’s go.”

It seemed as though I didn’t have much of a choice, so I agreed to go.

…

When we arrived at the clothing store in town, Jessica immediately began dragging me around to all of the racks in search of a dress. I couldn’t deny the fact that her exuberance made me smile, and soon enough, I was even having a little fun. It felt just like old times, when the three of us would head to town on the weekends and shop and drink coffee together. If I really tried hard enough, I could almost convince myself that things were back to normal and that I could just be a college student again with my greatest worry being whether or not I would pass midterms.

Jessica nodded in agreement. “Mhm. It hugs your body so well. And the back… I would date you.”

“Hey!” Lori said, smacking Jessica lightly on the arm and causing both of us to laugh. It was nice seeing my friends acting like themselves, and it admittedly made me feel better, too.

But my smile quickly faded when I looked into the mirror, and standing behind me…

Was the new boy.

He was staring at me, giving me that same strange look. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, either. As we stared at each other in the mirror, I swore his face began to shift and morph… I knew him. It was Enzo; it had to be. My eyes widened and I whipped around to face him, but that was when my heart sank — because it wasn’t Enzo. It was just the new boy, and I had been seeing things again.

Suddenly, before either of us could tear our eyes away, the new girl stormed up to the boy and stood in front of him with her arms folded across her chest. She glared at me for a long, palpable few moments before suddenly grabbing the boy by his arm and dragging him out of the store.

I watched them leave, listening to the sound of the bell on the door.