My Hockey Alpha
#Chapter 1: The Party

Nina

It was the night of my coming-of-age party. I was most of all excited for one thing: tonight, Justinwould finally announce that he was my boyfriend.

Justin and I had been seeing each other for a couple of months now, but we had kept things underwraps so far. Frankly, I would have preferred to make our relationship public right away -- he wasone of the most handsome and popular guys on campus, and was on the hockey team -- but heinsisted that we wait until the right time.

“I want to save announcing our relationship for a special night, baby,” he had told me. I had beenasking when he would make our relationship public for a while, but maybe he was right; it was bestto wait until a special time. That meant that he really loved me, right?

As I stood in front of the mirror and admired myself, I felt confident that Justin would announce ourrelationship tonight. I picked out special lingerie, which I wore under my outfit now, because I wascertain that we would finally have sex for the first time. I was ready to lose my virginity.

Aside from the lingerie, which was a sexy red set that I picked out at the mall a couple days beforethe party, I was wearing a short, tight skirt that showed off my thighs, a pink crop top, and heels. Iwore red lipstick and black eyeliner, too. I felt a bit awkward wearing an outfit like this, as I usuallydressed in jeans and hoodies; but my roommates, Jessica and Lori, insisted that I dress up for theparty.

The only thing that I kept the same about myself tonight was my hair, which was black with bangsand two long braids. I always wore my hair like this and never liked it any other way. Some peoplesaid it was childish, but I thought it was cute and practical.

"You look so hot, Nina!” Jessica said as I came out of the room. “The guys are gonna be all overyou!"

I didn't say anything about Justin. Even my own roommates didn't know about our relationship.Lori looked at her phone and took another swig of her beer. “Everyone should be here any minute,”she said in her low, sultry voice. Lori was the quintessential “goth girl” on campus, which was a starkcontrast from Jessica's bubbly nature and my studious attitude. Somehow, though, we were all bestfriends.

Just then, the door burst open with the first guests arriving. The group of guys and girls flooded incarrying cases of beers and whooping and hollering, excited for the party. With a grin, Jessicacranked up the music and started greeting people while I stood awkwardly in the middle of theroom. Lori walked over to the couch and sat down, scrolling on her phone; she really only ever cameto parties for the alcohol and the weed.

Soon enough, the suite was full of people. The LED lights flashed red, green, and blue while themusic played loudly, and the guests started getting drunk and playing games. The main attractionseemed to be the beer pong table, where the boys competed like their lives depended on it, butpeople also hung out around the seating area, played drinking games, and smoked on the balcony.A while into the party, Justin finally arrived. I got excited, but instead of coming over to me andgreeting me, he simply made a beeline for the beer pong table and joined the game.

During a lull in the game, I sent Justin a text: “Well? Are we gonna announce it?"

I watched from the corner as he pulled out his phone, read the text, then pocketed his phone again.He looked at me and subtly shrugged, then returned to his game as though he didn’t even knowme.

“Are you okay?" Jessica said, coming over to me with an extra beer in her hand for me.

I shrugged and finished off the last of my beer. “I'm just not much of a partier, that's all,” I said.Jessica pursed her lips and handed me the other beer. “You just need a little liquid courage, that'sall” she said, clinking her bottle with mine and taking a big swig.

I looked down at my beer and frowned. Jessica was right, but beer wasn't going to cut it -- not withhow Justin was treating me tonight.

"How about vodka?” I said. Jessica's eyes lit up and she turned around to face the group, cuppingher hands around her mouth to shout.

"Hey everyone!” she shouted. “The birthday girl wants shots!”

By my seventh shot, however, I started to feel woozy and felt like I was going to throw up. Istumbled down the hall to the bathroom and made it to the toilet just in time.

When I was done throwing up, I stood up and made my way over to the sink, where I splashedsome cold water on my face and took some deep breaths to sober myself up. I looked at mysmudged makeup and my messy hair in the mirror, trying not to cry as I thought about Justin. Whywas he treating me like this? Just a few days ago, we were making out behind the hockey arena andnow he was acting like he didn't even know me. Was he just nervous about announcing ourrelationship, or was it something else?

Taking another deep breath and wiping the tears off of my face, I straightened up and decided togo talk to Justin.

When I left the bathroom, however, he wasn't anywhere to be found.

“Hey, have you seen Justin?” I asked a guest. She just shrugged her shoulders and pointed towardmy bedroom. Maybe he just went inside to be alone for a minute, which would give us some time totalk.

I made my way over to my room, weaving drunkenly through the crowd.

When I opened the door, however, I wished that I had just stayed away.

Justin was in my bed, but he wasn’t alone. He was with another girl. I recognized her immediatelyfrom her platinum blonde hair and thin body -- it was Lisa, the cheerleading captain. They weretangled together in my bed, Justin's pants pulled down and Lisa's panties on the floor as they hadsex in my bed.

“What the fuck!” I screamed.

The party went silent, aside from the music, which someone quickly shut off.

Justin and Lisa sat up in my bed; Justin looked even more drunk and high than before, butimmediately jumped up when he saw me and yanked his pants up.

“Nina, it's not what it looks like,” he said, stumbling toward me while Lisa simply stood up with asmirk and pulled her panties on, smoothing down her skirt. She strutted out of the room andbumped me with her shoulder on the way out as I continued to stare at Justin in shock anddisbelief.

Justin stammered as he tried to explain himself. “I'm so sorry, I-"

“Justin...” I interrupted, my voice shaking. “We. Are. Done.”

Without another word, I turned away and stormed out of the suite with Jessica and Lori calling afterme.

I walked out of the dorms into the cool spring air, turning this way and that for a bit before decidingto make my way toward town. I walked for a while, fuming the entire time and muttering to myself,until I finally made it to a local bar.

I nodded gratefully as the bartender poured me a glass of rum and coke, and I sipped it miserablywhile he disappeared into the kitchen.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see that I had several missed calls and “Where are you?!?”texts from Jessica and Lori, but I ignored them and tossed my phone down on the bar, taking a bigswig of my drink and cursing to myself.

“Yeah, I hate my phone, too,” a male voice said from beside me. I looked over to see a guy pullingup a barstool a couple seats down. He was wearing a red flannel shirt and had curly brown hair, anda sharp jawline. He was muscular, too.

“I hate everything right now,” I said, swirling my drink around in my glass with my straw.

"How come?”

The boy looked at me, and just then, I came to a shocking realization: this was Enzo, Justin's hockeycaptain, the star of the school, every girl's dream boy.

And he was sitting next to me, in this quiet dive bar, talking to me.