We're Not Girls

I let out a long yawn as I covered my face and rubbed my eyes. I was way too tired and the 2 cups of coffee I drank didn’t help much. Thankfully practice was almost over and I could go home and sleep. My eyes were on the floor thinking about how peaceful I would be in my bed. My eyes slowly moved back up as I saw Kris standing in front of the wall. He was looking at me and kept his eyes on mine.

A smirk grew on his face. “Didn’t sleep much?”

I nodded. “Not really.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when Coach Bylsma called him. He gave a tiny smile and scratched his head. “Well, I guess I’ll talk you to later.” He skated off before looking back at me one more time.

The team gathered around to listen to what Dan had to say and I got up to stretch. I looked at my watch seeing that practice was over and started to make my way over to the locker rooms. When I had gotten there, I was almost trampled by the guys making their way in and out of the locker room. I stood beside the wall, leaning my head. I closed my eyes and was starting to fall asleep until I felt a piece of paper hit my face. I sighed, forcing my eyes open to find max standing in front of me smiling.

“Really? You have nothing better to do than to throw things at me when I’m trying to sleep?”

He didn’t answer for a second looking down, trying to form an answer before looking back up and grinning. “Nope.” He put his arm over my shoulders and walked into the room.

“It’s cold in here,” I decided crossing my arms from the instant chill I felt.

“Anyways,” he continued as if I had never even spoken and sat down on the bench pulling me with him. “So, what are we going to do?”

I looked at him. “About what?”

“Oh! I didn’t tell you? We have two days off before our next game, not including today, and we’re going to be hanging out!”

I tilted my head. “Do I get a say in this?”

His jaw dropped as he gasped and put his hand over his heart. “Are you saying you don’t want to hang out with me?”

“Yes, because those are exactly the words that came out of my mouth,” I shook my head and glanced up to see Kris coming in.

He came right beside me to put his stick by his place and smiled at me. “Hey Brooke.”

I returned his smile. “Hi Kris. How was practice?”

“It was good. I’m kind of glad it’s over. I am so tired.”

“Well, you do deserve some rest.” I smirked at him watching him laugh slightly.

“I want to eat too. Have you eaten? Cause I’m starving.” He put his hand over his stomach and looked at me smirking.

I shrugged. “I’m a little hungry, all I’ve had is coffee.”

He smiled. “I’m going to go shower so you don’t have to be next to me when I smell all this bad. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of me. I’ll see you in a bit?”

“Yea.” I smiled as I watched him disappear into the steam coming from the showers. I turned back around to see Max raising his eyebrows at me. I sighed. “What?”

He pointed back over at the showers. “That!” A smile slowly appeared on his face. “All the smirking. The ‘you do deserve some rest’ and the  ‘I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of me’” He repeated trying to imitate Kris’ voice. “Do you like him?”

I snorted shrugging his arm off my shoulder and standing up. “Are you kidding me? I was just talking to him. It’s called being polite.” I crossed my arms.

Max stood up grinning at me. “No, he was flirting with you,” he frowned for a second, “Or he was trying to but you didn’t see it. He has a thing for you. It’s so adorable. My Brooke’s all grown up!” He pinched my cheek.

I swatted his hand away uncrossing my arm and pointing to the showers. “You think that was flirting? Ha! I don’t know what you’ve been smoking. He does not have a thing for me, nor do I have a thing for him. Next thing you’re going to be telling me I have a thing for Sidney because I was talking to him. Oh, yea did you see the way I smiled at him the other day? I am just pining for him! The whole time during practice I was swooning over Sidney!”

Max put his hand on my arm, “Brooke, I think that’s enough.”

“No seriously! I’m day dreaming about Sidney all day,-”

“Ok, Brooke I get the point,” he scratched the back of his neck laughing nervously.

“I’m just dying to say, ‘Sidney, I know I just met you but I really like you and I’m just dying to-”

He interrupted me. “Brooke!”

“What!” He nodded behind me. I turned around to see Sidney standing around with a confused face. At that moment, I felt my face turn into 15 shades of red as I backed up next to Max. “Oh, Sidney. Hey. I was just, uh. I wasn’t, you know. It was just to.”

“She was just trying to make a point but she didn’t mean what she said. It was part of her point.” Max assured him. “And she just happened to use you as an example.”

He glanced at both of us before slightly nodding. “Ok. I’m going to go shower.” He walked away leaving Max and I with confused faces.

We both looked at each other, completely frazzled before he shrugged. I let out a breath of air and slumped back onto the bench. “I’m going to go shower too and see if any of the other guys want to go get something to eat.” He turned around before coming back to me and lowering so he could speak into my ear. “I still do think Kris has a thing for you because he doesn’t talk much, especially just when he’s met somebody. And I think you have a thing for him to. You just don’t know it yet.” I could hear him grinning as he made his way to the showers.

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“Let me get this straight. You went two months on only eating vegetables?” Jordan asked as we walked in to the almost empty little café.

Peyton nodded and shrugged. “I was in college. I was stupid.”

“Whoa, that’s impressive.” Jordan, Marc, Max, and Kris laughed. I smiled and looked to see Sidney was in the back and only smiled slightly. Jordan and Max put about three tables together making enough noise for people to notice them and start whispering. “Well, safe to say that people will recognize us. Let’s go order guys.”

“Brooke, I can order for you. What do you want?”

I pursed my lips thinking for a moment. “I don’t know, whatever looks good.”

She nodded. “I know what you like.”

“Hey I want that!” Max yelled looking at Jordan. “Jordan order what you’d think I like.”

He laughed. “Sorry, I don’t know what you like. And we’re not girls, so either way I wouldn’t do that.”

He pouted crossing his arms. “Fine.” He walked with the rest of the group as I took a seat. I looked for my phone in my purse before giving up and deciding I could text people back later. When I looked back up I saw Sidney standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. I smiled slightly. “Would you like to sit down?” He hesitated for a moment before taking the seat in front of me. I sighed. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

He gave me half of a smile and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I know Max can sometimes say things that get you to say even weirder things.”

I chuckled lightly. “Yea I guess so. I’ve actually been trying not to say too much. I mean I wasn’t to keen on our first encounter. I would’ve waited until you talked to me when you figured I didn’t freak you out. I still can’t believe that I’m talking you or any of the other guys. But that’s just my fandom getting to me.” He laughed slightly and I looked down and my hands starting to fiddle with my fingers unsure of what to say next. “Aren’t you going to eat something?”

He looked at me seeming to be caught off guard at how quickly I changed the subject. However, he smiled. “Marc said he’d bring my food for me.”

“Oh.” I glanced at him watching Marc and everyone else, probably hoping they’d come back soon as well. “So, are you a health nut?”

Sidney gave me a confused look and blinked a few times before shrugging his left shoulder. “I guess you could say that. I do watch what I eat and I try to be pretty healthy to stay in shape. But I do have some sweets every now and then. Maybe one little piece of chocolate every few months.”

My eyes widened. “Seriously? I don’t think I could survive that. I love chocolate way too much. Especially dark chocolate.” I frowned. “Wait, so let’s say one of your biggest fans baked you a batch of warm, delicious chocolate chip cookies, you wouldn’t eat them?”

He thought about it for a moment before answering, “Maybe. If I hadn’t had anything sweet in a while, but even then, I’d only eat one.”

I lifted my hand up slightly and smacked it on the table. “Are you kidding me? What if she’s a little girl and tells you you’re her favorite hockey player.”

He shook his head and smirked. “How do I know she isn’t lying and put something in those cookies to make me horrible at hockey. What if she makes me get fat? I don’t think I’d like to risk not being able to fit in my jeans. It’s too much if my thighs grow huge.”

I stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter at what he just said. His eyebrows rose for a second before he joined laughing with me for a while. He began to calm down and looked down before glancing at me. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Max’s voice.

“Hey guys! We’re back!” He set his plate of food down and sat next to Sidney and Marc sat on the other side of Sidney and Jordan sat next to Max. I looked at him glancing at both of us. “Wow. I can see you two were having an interesting conversation.” The rest of the group laughed as I began to eat the food Peyton brought me before she sat next to me.

“Hey.”

I looked to my left startled to see Kris sitting next to me. “Hey.”

“How’s it going?” He took a forkful of whatever he brought into his mouth.

“Uh, well I’m about to eat this,” I stabbed the chicken like thing with my fork, “whatever this is.” I looked at him smiling.

He looked at it making a face before smirking. “That looks very good.”

“Your support helps a lot,” I joked earning a laugh from him. I laughed as well.

“I do try,” Kris chuckled taking a drink from his soda.

I pushed my plate away and put my right elbow on the table, holding my chin in my hand. “I don’t think I want to eat that.”

He smiled at me. “Well, your welcome to have some of mine if you’d like.”

I smirked at him grabbing my fork. “That, I will take you up on.” I slowly grabbed a piece of chicken of his plate. I scrunched up my nose and looked at him disapprovingly. He stared to laugh until I joined in. Our laugh, was interrupted when we heard someone clear their throat loudly.

I turned to see it was Max and that everyone was looking at him strangely. He smiled slightly. “Oh, sorry. I had something in my throat and wanted to make sure you guys knew,” he sent me a look and started to smirk.

I shook my head and sighed as I turned back to face Kris. He was raising his eyebrows, grinning. “What was that about?”

I smiled sheepishly. “Oh, nothing. Max just thinks it’s perfectly fine to annoy me.”

He laughed, “Yea, he never really stops.”

I let out a small laugh as turned my head to look at Max once more. He sent me a big smile and wiggled his eyebrows. I merely rolled my eyes and caught Sidney eyeing me weirdly. All I could do was force a smile.

What's Your Last Name?

“So, Peyton?” Marc asked, taking a bite out of his chicken. “Does your friend Brooke speak?”

I looked up from my pasta looking at Peyton, who was looking at me as well. She laughed. “Yes, she does. She’s just very shy.”

I cleared my throat slightly taking a drink from my water and earning smiles from the guys. I managed to smile slowly before returning to stare at my pasta.

“Brooke, where you from?” I raised me head to look at him who was sitting across form me. I couldn’t help but smile at his accent.

“I’m from New Jersey originally, but I moved here when I was about 19.” I shrugged. I drank my water before setting it down on the table and looking at Evgeni again.

“You were at practice today, yes? You like practice?”

I was hold back the laughter of how adorable he sounded and my smile grew even wider. I nodded. “Yes, I was. And I loved your goal in the shoot out practice today. It was amazing. If only I could do that.”

“Oh, I see. Well, excuse me. I have to use bathroom.” He got up and reached across the table to grab my hand. I looked down at what seemed to be my small hand covered by both of his and back at him. He smiled. “I teach you to play hockey one day.” He nodded at me and I nodded in return.

As he walked away I noticed that my face felt quite warm. I let out a breath of air from my mouth and looked at my plate. “I have such a thing for Russians. It’s sad really.” I heard the rest of the table laughing, my face full of surprise. I let out a small laugh as well.

“Wait Brooke, what’s your last name?” Max had a curious and slightly serious look on his face, which was surprising. “I mean, we know Peyton’s is McGuire since we see her often and she’s a reporter, but what’s yours?”

I smiled. “It’s Parker.”

He tilted his head and mumbled to himself. “Brooke Parker. I like it.” He smiled and went back to his plate of food.

“Brooke, is it okay if we keep asking questions? We’d like to get to know you.”

I laughed and nodded. “Sure, that’s perfectly fine.”

They only asked about 4 more questions, which were irrelevant to getting to know me. Marc and Max only asked the questions. Once Evgeni came back, he only smiled every so often. Kris seemed interested in what I had to say and would smile at me every so often, from what I could see. Peyton laughed at almost everything. And every minute or so I would catch Sidney out of the corner of my eye smiling a bit.

Once we were done eating, Max thought he still needed to hang out with us, so we all headed back to his place. Evgeni decided to leave since he was too tired. So Max invited Jordan Staal to come over.

I was sitting on the couch with Marc sitting next to me talking on the phone. Peyton was standing across the room looking into some room until Sidney came. He started talking to her and she began to laugh. Well, I can see he talks to her just fine. That’s when I really took the time to look at him.

He was tall, very built since his muscles could be seen through the sweater he was wearing. He had brown eyes and hair that was slightly brushed. His lips were pink and a bit big, but they suited him. I’d be lying if I didn’t say he was cute. I kept staring at him until a knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.

“I’ll get it!” Max came running to the door. Soon he and Jordan came in. “Jordan, I want you to meet my new best friend Brooke.”

“Hey Brooke. It’s nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand.

I shook it giving him a smile. “Hello Jordan. It’s nice to meet you as well.”

“Hey Jordan! What’s up?” Marc suddenly stood beside me giving Jordan a ‘man hug’. I looked up at all three of the guys feeling very short in comparison. “You want to play some Mario Kart?”

He grinned. “Dude, you’re on!” They both went running over the television to set the game up.

Max pouted looking at them. “Hey guys I get to play the winner!” He soon ran following them as well. I shook my head smiling. I looked up to see Peyton and Sidney talking and decided I would go see the guys play.

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An hour later, I was sitting on the floor, legs crossed with a toy steering wheel in hand yelling at a television. “No! No! No! Turn, what are you doing! Marc! Let’s go! Move! He’s right behind you!” Marc had sucked me into playing Mario Kart because when I told him I had never played, his jaw dropped. We were on the same team playing against Jordan and Max. And we were winning.

“Let’s go Brooke! I’m right behind you. We’re almost done. Come on, last lap!”

Right as he said that, I passed the finish line in first. I looked the bottom screen seeing Marc had been passed by Jordan. “Go Marc!” he then threw a red shell at him, causing Jordan to spin and letting Marc speed past him and coming in second.

“Yes!” I looked at Marc, grins on our faces and high-fiving each other. I looked over at Jordan who had his face in his hands and Max who crossed his arms and pretended to be mad.

“It’s just a game guys. Whatever.”

Marc and I laughed as I laid down on the floor. “You’re just mad because you lost.”

He glared at me. “You know what, you’re not my best friend anymore.” I sat up staring at him with a blank face. He burst out laughing rolling over. We all started to laugh eventually falling over as well. Once I sat up , I noticed that Peyton and Sidney were there. Peyton was giving us strange looks and Sidney on his phone texting.

I cleared my throat and got up to stretch. I looked around at the 2 boxes of pizza open and the two bottles of soda. There were empty cups and dirty plates scattered around us. “Did we really eat this much pizza?”

“No, we each had like 3 slices, but Max had the rest.” Jordan laughed.

My eyes widened at Max. He smiled at me innocently as I shook my head. “Well, I’m going to throw this stuff out. Uhm, where’s your kitchen Max? So I can wash these dishes.”

“You don’t have to do anything Brooke, you’re a guest.”

“Brooke has to be nice and well-mannered. It’s just her. So she’ll wash the dishes whether you want her to or not. That and no one can resist her adorable face.”

I looked at Peyton who shrugged and smirked at me. Max chuckled and sat up. “Take a left and the kitchen will be right there."

I smiled and grabbed all the dishes, the boxes of pizza and soda. “Thank you.”

Once I found the kitchen, I threw away the garbage and started to wash the dishes. By the time I was done, I heard a noise behind me. I turned around and let out a squeal as I saw Kris sitting there, drinking a soda. I tilted my head at him, which only made him smile.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He grinned taking a drink.

I shook my head slightly. “It’s ok. Uh, how long have you been sitting there?”

“Not long. I came out a while ago. I was just in a room, taking a nap. I saw you and I thought you might need some company. Is that ok?”

I stared at him for a second before smiling. “Yea, that’s fine.” I nodded and placed my elbows on the counter looking down at it, having nothing to say.

“Would you like something to drink?”

I looked up at him and stayed silent before realizing what he said and nodded. “Sure.”

He went over to the fridge and opened it. “Is water ok?”

“That’s fine.” I pulled out a chair from under the counter and sat on it. Once he handed me the water, he did the same.

“Do you mind me asking what you work as?”

I shook my head and smiled. “No I don’t. I work as the layout editor for the magazine that Peyton works at.”

“That’s nice. Do you like it?”

“Yes I do. I enjoy sitting at a desk for hours a day, deciding which picture makes the magazine look best.” I smirked.

He laughed. “That seems really interesting.” I nodded and took a drink of my water. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

I choked on my water at the sound of his question. I cleared my throat before smiling shyly at him. I looked down at the counter before finally answering. “Uh, no. I don’t.”

A grin was slowly making its way onto his face. “Why not?”

This question made my mind go blank. I didn’t know how to answer this, but I had to. I opened my mouth a few times before sighing. “Because-”

“There you guys are!” we both turned to look at Max. “Come on, we’re playing one on one and Marc has beaten me and Jordan. One of you guys has to beat him. Let’s go.” He grabbed me by the arm pulling me. I looked over my shoulder to see Kris smirking a bit and shaking his head before following us.

Max sat me down on the couch. “Ok, Brooke, you’re up next.” I glanced next to me to see Sidney looking at the television. He caught me looking and gave me a small smile. “Hey Brooke.”

I slightly raised my eyebrows, surprised he spoke and smiled. “Hey, Sidney.”

“I, uh, hope you can beat Flower. He’s pretty good at this game. “

A small laugh escaped my lips. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do my best.”

“Well, good luck.” He leaned back against the couch. He kept his eyes on me for a while before giving me a smile.

I moved my attention to the television again trying to ignore the fact that I was blushing. I glanced at Kris looking at me as he was sitting on the floor. He tilted his head slightly and raised his eyebrows before going back to his phone.

I suddenly felt a large hand push my back. Before I knew it, I went flying to the floor landing on my knees. Everyone started to laugh and I let out a breath of air. I looked up glaring at Max who smiled widely. “Your turn Brooke.”

I sighed, shaking my head at him. I snatched the wheel from his hand, catching Sidney smiling.

New Friend

“Ok, well I’m going to go over to Coach Bylsma to ask him a few questions.” Peyton got up and stretched. “It’s about half of the practice, so now should be a good a time as any.” She shrugged and started walking away.

I was sitting in the front row on the side of the arena. I bounced my legs up and down and held my coffee close to me as I took another sip of it. I let out a yelp as Tyler Kennedy tripped and landed right in front of me. He immediately got up and straightened out his jersey. He looked at me and smiled widely and waved. I laughed and waved back.

My eyes wandered around everyone who was on the ice. I saw Jordan talking with Matt Cooke. Then there was Kris Letang and Marc-Andre trying to do something with the hockey stick, which resulted in Marc falling on his ass and Kris falling from laughter. Max was doing some kind of dance around Evgeni as he gave him a curious look. Eventually, my eyes landed on Sidney. He was adjusting his glove and looked very concentrated. Me eyes went down looking at his stance which was very awkward considering the fact that he was trying to hold his stick in between his legs. Him being tall didn’t help with the picture either.

I looked at his skates, which were both pointed inward as if he couldn’t walk. I smiled to myself and looked back up at him finding his eyes on mine. My eyebrows rose and he smiled slightly and waved at me shyly. I did the same.

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I tiptoed looking for Peyton’s hair. Brunette, tall, gorgeous and very much a female. How hard could it be? Apparently very since I could not seem to see her anywhere in between the tall men walking around in the locker room. After a few minutes I gave up and leaned against the wall.

“Hey.”

I looked up to see Max smiling at me. I smiled in return. “Hi.”

He stuck out his hand. “My name’s Max. What’s yours?”

I shook his hand. “I’m Brooke.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Come on, let’s go sit down.”

“Ah- actually, I’m waiting for some-” I couldn’t finish my sentence before he pulled me and sat on a bench in front of the bathrooms.

“So you’re Peyton’s friend?”

I nodded, a confused look coming over me. “Yea, why?”

He shrugged, “Just wondering. Hey, who is that coffee for?” He looked down at the untouched coffee in my hand.

I eyed him cautiously. “No one.”

“If you say so.” He paused for a second staring at me uneasy before shrugging. Well it was nice talking to you. Bye new friend!” He got up and disappeared into the bathroom.

I furrowed my eyebrows, confused at what had just happened. I heard a something slam on the floor and saw that it was a bag. I looked up to see someone with only a towel around their waist. My eyes widened, suddenly realizing it was Sidney. I quickly looked down and fiddled with my hands. I felt my phone vibrate and saw it was a text from Peyton telling me she was in some conference room with Dan Bylsma and to meet her in front of the guys’ locker room. I put the phone in my pocket and got up as Sidney turned around.

“Oh. Hi Brooke.” He looked down at me.

“Uh, hey.” I was surprised he remembered my name. I looked at my feet trying not to make eye contact what so ever. “So, uhm, to apologize for the,” I cleared my throat, “Incident, I got you some coffee.” I gave him the coffee forcing myself to at least look at his face and smile.

He took the cup from my hand and smiled in return. “Thank you very much.” I took a deep breath trying to relax myself. “I, uh, I’m sorry I don’t have anything for you.”

I laughed, “It’s ok. It’s a cup of coffee not 10 grand.”

He laughed. “True.”

I sat on the bench, sighing. He sat on it a good 3 feet away from me. “So,” I looked up at him. “How was practice?”

Sidney nodded. “It was good. The ice felt pretty good. I’m excited for the game tomorrow. We haven’t exactly started the season all that great, but I’m hoping to turn things around. But, uh, we’ll see how everything goes.”

I looked down and smiled to myself at how well and put together his response was as if I were a journalist or something. Guess he was used to it. But I admit, it was adorable. “That’s good.”

“Brooke! There you are!” I turned around to see Peyton walking towards me. “Oh, hey Sidney, how’s it going?”

He looked down and nodded. “Good.”

“Hey! Look who’s back!” All three of us turned around to see Max coming over, a huge smile covering his face. “Brooke! How are you? My new friend, I’ve missed you.” He squeezed me and picked me up as a yelp came out of my mouth.

I let out a breath once he put me down. “Uh, I’m good, thanks.”

“So, are you guys hungry?”

I tilted my head, “Why?”

“Cause I want to invite you two to come have lunch with us, silly!”

“Who’s us?” Peyton gave him a strange look.

Max rolled his eyes. “The guys! It’s me, Tangers, Staalsy, Flower, Geno, and Sid of course!”

I immediately grew uncomfortable and nervous. I started to stutter on every word. “Oh, no, no, no. That’s fine really. We, don’t, uhm, really, it’s, yea.” I felt my face turn red and suddenly found my shoes to be very appealing.

He put his arm around me. “Aww come on! Please Brookey? For your new friend?” He looked down at me giving me puppy eyes.

I sighed and Peyton laughed. I couldn’t say anything and looked to Peyton for help. She just shrugged and looked at me completely clueless. I looked down at the floor again.

“I’ll take that as a yes then. Come on, let’s go! I’m starving! Sidney, let’s go the car’s waiting outside.” Max pulled me by the arm and started to walk fast. I looked back at Peyton who was trying to hold back her laughter and Sidney who just shook his head and seemed to have grinned a bit. If it was possible.

Once we were out in the parking lot, I saw Kris, Jordan, Marc, and Evgeni standing outside. “Where are Peyton and Sidney?” I looked back realizing that Max had probably walked too fast.

He started to stomp his feet. “Where are they? Slowpokes man.”

I laughed as I heard the door open and Peyton came out with Sidney behind.

“Hey Peyton! I didn’t know you were coming.” Jordan waved to her.

“Well, Max invited us and you know he doesn’t take no too well.”

They laughed all nodding their heads. “Nice to see you again Peyton.”

Max waved his hand in the air. “Yea, yea, yea, everyone knows Peyton. But this,” he grabbed my arm and pulled me in front of him. “Is my new friend Brooke.”

I looked above my shoulders at his grinning face and shook my head. I looked at the guys and waved slightly. “Uhm, it’s very nice to meet you all.”

They all smiled and waved as they started to pile up in the car. Sidney got into the driver’s seat as Evgeni went directly to the front. “I get to sit next to Brooke!” He climbed in pulling me. Marc, Jordan and Peyton climbed into the back of the car and Kris hesitated to sit next to me but hopped in and closed the door.

Sidney started to pull out onto the street when there was a rather large bump on the road, which made the car hop, and made us hop to the right. I accidently bumped into Kris and I thought I was going to fall I grabbed his arm to hold me. My eyes widened in realization of what I did and I quickly apologized. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

He smiled shaking his head. “It’s ok. And hi, I’m Kris.” He stuck out his hand and I shook it.

“Hey! Don’t touch my friend! She’s mine!” Max pulled me and protected me with his arms. After staring at Kris to make sure he wouldn’t do anything, he slowly let me go, still eyeing him.

I looked at Kris, smiling sheepishly and shook my head slightly. He smirked and turned to look out the window. I focused my attention back the street, occasionally eyeing Sidney and his concentrated face. I sighed; this was going to be a long drive.  

Meetings

“You didn’t have to do this you know?”

“Ha! Please! You’ve been nothing but mopey for the past two weeks. I did need to do this. Besides, these things are a lot more fun with you here. You know when you’re not depressed or anything.”

I rolled my eyes playfully as Peyton pulled me by the arm back to the locker rooms. You see she’s a sports journalist, or hockey journalist to be exact. We both love hockey so she thought it’d be a dandy idea to bring me with her to cheer me up and make me feel better. She is considerate and…and unfortunately I couldn’t even finish my rare nice thought about her because she scared me.

“Come on!” She grabbed me the arms and shook me. “Pull it together! You just got dumped and this whole depressed my life is completely miserable bit is getting really old.”

I gave her a look. “Ouch.”

She laughed and pulled out her notepad and tape recorder. “You know I’m just joking and being bitchy. It’s our thing.” She smiled at me toothily.

I nodded and shrugged, “Yea, still kind of hurt though.”

“Well, you know what’ll make it better? The fact that you will soon be exposed to hot, hot, and very sweaty hockey players.”

“Oh yea, you’re right going into some very smelly locker room full of guys who were wishing they could get some privacy is my dream come true.”

“Whatever, let’s go.” She grabbed my arm and pushed passed the other cameras and reporters there earning glares and knocked on the door. The second the doors opened people went racing in, going to Sidney, of course. Peyton, being the smart one, went to the ones who had no one pestering them. I followed as she went to Max Talbot. “Excuse me Max?”

He turned around and looked down and smiled widely. “Hey! What’s up?”

We both were surprised by how happy he was, even considering the fact that he had just won the game with the Devils. She shook her head and tried not to get distracted. “Congratulations on the win tonight. So Max is there anything in particular you think you guys might need this season?”

As he started answering I slowly moved my eyes to the boys coming in and out of the bathrooms, some showered, some still sweaty. I looked over to Sidney as he spoke and he glanced over at me, but I hadn’t noticed. Once I did, I saw that he had been looking at me for a while by the corner of his eye and smirking. I blushed a bit but was quickly startled by a loud noise behind me. I let out a squeak by the loud bag being dropped on the floor. I turned to see a smiling Kris Letang staring at me.

He laughed, “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

I smiled, “No, it’s fine.”

He bent down to put some things in his bag and came back up looking down at me running a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry I don’t think I’ve seen you before. I’m Kris.” He stuck out a hand and smiled.

I smiled sheepishly and shook it. “Nice to meet you. I’m Brooke.”

“Hello Brooke. So, what’d you think of the game?”

“I thought it was really great.” He sat down and started get things ready to head to shower. I slowly turned my head to see that Sidney was gone.

“Hey, is this yours?” I turned to see Max pointing nodding down at me. I opened my mouth to say something but refrained when I saw his smile. Damn that smile.

Kris laughed ignoring his comment. “I just met her, I was assuming she was a reporter. She’s nice though.” He shrugged going back to his business.

Max grew confused, “Wait, then who’s are you?”

My eyes grew wide before Peyton interrupted and put her arm on my shoulder. “This beautiful creature is mine Mr. Talbot. I see Kris has already met the most wonderful woman in the world. You should really be nicer to her. She can hurt you if she wanted to.”

Kris and I laughed as Max pouted. “Oh she’s your friend. That makes more sense. And hi by the way, Peyton. It’s been a while.”

“Yea, hey. Listen, where can one find a bathroom around here? I am desperate for one.”

“You could just use the ones here. Help yourself. We’ve seen you long enough that we feel comfortable around you.”

“Thank you!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me with her.

“Uhm, I didn’t have to use the bathroom.”

“I know, but I just wanted to see how you were enjoying yourself.”

I laughed, “Apart from the awkwardness of seeing some guys shirtless fresh out of the shower, it’s good. Seriously, thanks for bringing me. Did you get all the interviews you needed to?”

“Yea.” She looked down at her hands without saying anything more.

I leaned against the sink, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Peyton?”

She sighed, “Ok, it’s just that, lately I’ve been sort of getting tired of all the interviews. I mean don’t get me wrong I love doing them and talking to the players and what not, but I want to do something more. Not just an article about every game but an entire piece on someone or a team.”

“Have you told your boss?”

“Yea, but he says not to worry. That my time will come when I’m ready.” She ripped a piece of paper towel and dried her hands. “Anyway, I just want to forget about it. Let’s go I’m almost done here.”

“Ok, be right there.” I looked myself over in the mirror fixing a few strands of hair and trying to straighten my shirt. I heard a noise behind me and looked at the mirror towards the floor. I pulled my phone out to check the time and it slipped and fell to the floor. I bent down to pick it up and got up hearing a stall open. I turned around to see a very tall boy trying to wrap a towel around his waist. I cleared my throat.

He quickly turned around dropping the towel. My eyes unintentionally lowered and widened. I quickly turned my face. “Oh my! I am so sorry!” He shot down to pick up the towel again as I started to run out of the bathroom.

“Brooke, why are you so red? What’d you do in there?” Peyton, Kris and Max laughed. She eyed me then looked up to Sidney who came running after me somehow wearing a shirt. She kept looking back between us before letting out a loud gasp. Kris and Max looked at her. I widened my eyes and sent her a look so she knew not to say a word.

“Oh, hey guys.” Sidney came scratching the back of his head. He stood awkwardly next to me while I crossed my arms using my right hand to rub my temples as I was getting a throbbing headache from what I just witnessed.

Max looked at us confused but shrugged and walked away.

Kris gave us an awkward look. “So, uhm, I’m just going to go shower. But it was nice to meet you Brooke. See ya’ around Peyton.” He gave us a nod and walked away.

I had been staring at the floor for a while before sighing and looking up at him. “So what if we never speak of what just happened and move on?” I blurted out before looking down again.

He nodded. “Ok.”

Peyton was trying to hold her laughter in before clearing her throat and putting her hand on her hip. “Well, uh, we should be going since I’m done with all the interviews. It was nice to see you Sidney and again great game.” She grabbed my arm and started to pull me away.

“Wait.” We turned to see him fully changed. That was fast. “I think I can help you with your problem.”

Peyton furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head. “I’m sorry what?”

“I think I can get you to write an actual piece on hockey.”

“Really? And how exactly will you do that?” She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.

“Well I think that I could get you guys into every one of our practices this week and follow us to every media related thing and ask us questions. Sort of an inside look into the Penguins kind of thing. I mean,” He paused looking down. “If you want.”

When I turned to look at her, her eyes were so big I thought she was in a trance of some sort. I shook her until she gave her head a slight shake. “Wow, I think if you did that I would be indebted to you for life.”

He laughed slightly and shrugged, “It’s no problem, really. Just run it by your boss and you can start tomorrow. I’ll leave you guy’s passes at the front door.” He smiled picking up his bag and pulling it over his shoulder.

“Thank you so much! I’m going to brag to him right now. That douche.” She ran out dialing that she almost hit the wall.

I laughed turning back to Sidney smiling. “I should go too, make sure she doesn’t scream too loud or completely embarrass herself.”

He nodded. “Yea, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I get to come?”

He shrugged, looking at me cautiously. “Well if you want.”

“Yes, I want.” I let out a small laugh.

“Then I will see you tomorrow.” He gave me a slight smile.

I crossed my arms and nodded lightly. “Ok.” I spoke softly and smiled before turning around to go look for Peyton.

“Wait.” I looked over my shoulder raising my eyebrows. “I didn’t catch your name.”

I smiled and stepped a few feet back to stick out my hand. “I’m Brooke.”

He took my hand and shook it. “I’m Sidney. Nice to meet you Brooke.”

I nodded, a smirk growing on my face. “Yea, it is nice to meet you.” I slowly let loose of his grip and once again walked away. I got out the door and stepped aside to stand against the wall, letting my head lean on it. I sighed and slowly raised my hand to my face feeling the warmth of my cheeks. A grin grew on my face.

Hello All!

So I've decided to post my story here because a wonderful person suggested I should. I also have this story on mibba.com, but I'll probably remember to update this one more often.