Enzo laughed and smirked at me.
“You’ll be fine!” he said, stopping several feet away. “Just try to come to me.”
“I can’t!” I said, tears welling up in my eyes.
“Yes you can,” Enzo replied.
It seemed that I had no choice; it was either skate all the way back to the rink entrance, which we had gotten far away from now, or skate a few feet to Enzo and hope for the best.
Deciding that the latter was the better option, I shakily took one stride forward. I nearly slipped without Enzo’s support, but managed to keep myself upright before taking another stride forward. Another stride, and I was feeling more confident… but as I took my fourth stride, I realized that Enzo was skating backwards away from me!
“Hey!” I said, skating after him. “You’re moving away!”
Enzo didn’t reply, only grinned and kept going, increasing his speed while I skated after him.
I didn’t realize it, but soon we were skating quickly around the rink as I chased him, and I wasn’t nervous at all.
Enzo suddenly stopped after our second lap. I didn’t know how to stop, so I crashed directly into him, toppling him onto the ice on his back as I fell on top of him. We were both laughing and out of breath, not caring that we fell at all.
After laughing until my belly ached, I fixed my glasses then lifted myself up and looked down at Enzo, who was now gazing up at me with his big brown eyes. He reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ear. His gaze slipped down from my eyes to my lips, and I couldn’t help but stare at his, too.
I leaned closer to him, just wanting to taste his lips.
But when I closed my eyes to kiss him, the memories of what happened last night suddenly came flooding back. The skeleton, the way Enzo’s leg healed on its own, his glowing red eyes… It wasn’t a dream. It was real.
I scrambled to my feet, my eyes wide as Enzo propped himself up on his elbows and looked at me.
“Nina, are you afraid of me now that you know what I am?” he said. There was a tone of sadness in his voice.
I didn’t know how to respond. All Enzo had done thus far since I met him was watch over me and protect me, but…
“Yes. I’m afraid of you.”
Before Enzo could say anything else, I skated away and kicked off the rental skates once I was outside of the rink. I grabbed my bag and my shoes, not even bothering to put them on before I ran out of the arena.
…
I went home that night and cried myself to sleep.
Why couldn’t things just go back to normal? I felt like I was cursed to have nothing but terrible relationships; first being pranked by a playboy in high school, then being cheated on by Justin, and now falling for a… monster?
After crying myself to sleep, I had strange dreams that night. I dreamed about shapeshifters, witches, and glowing red eyes. I dreamed that I was being chased through the forest by a strange creature, only to be caught in the end.
I awoke with a start from my nightmare, my chest heaving and cold sweat coating my back. It was still dark outside; when I looked at my phone, it was nearly six o’clock in the morning. There was no way I would be able to get back to sleep, so I decided to just get ready for the day. I crawled out of bed and sat down at my desk to check my emails, since my phone was still missing — likely still laying on the floor of the anatomy lab, so I reminded myself to take the risk later and go over there to check.
When I opened my laptop and checked Twitter, however, my eyes widened.
Someone had taken new pictures; pictures of Enzo tying my laces, us holding hands while we skated together, and falling on top of one another. They were all posted to an anonymous Twitter account called “@nerdynina”.
Someone was stalking me. But who?
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.
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