I crossed my arms feeling the chill of the air hit me as I left Marc’s car. He had stepped out with Sidney behind him and we walked to the front door of the café. As soon as we entered the smell of coffee was deeply inhaled as I smiled to myself.
“Finally!” Max called out throwing his hands in the air. “We’ve been waiting forever!”
“No we haven’t. We just got here a few minutes ago,” Jordan corrected.
“Ok, we’re here now. Let’s go order.” Marc went to the counter as everyone shuffled behind him.
I made my way to the end of the line as Kris appeared behind Jordan. He stopped in his tracks and had a serious expression. He looked at me, and without a smile nodded to me. “Hi.”
I forced a smile. “Hey.” I stood awkwardly not knowing what to do next.
He looked down at the floor with his hands in his pockets. I cleared my throat, which caused Sidney to look back and look between both of us. “Brooke do you want to go in front of me?”
I smiled as Kris looked at him and back at me. He sighed and nodded slowly seeming to understand himself only. “No, I’m fine Sidney, really.”
“No, really it’s ok. I don’t mind.” He smiled and stepped aside to let me pass. I took a step forward and thanked him.
Once we all got what we wanted, Jordan pushed a few tables together as we sat down. Everyone immediately sat down and started eating in silence.
“So Brooke,” Max said drinking his water. “Are you excited about tonight’s game against the Rangers?”
I looked up from my plate shrugging slightly. “Yea pretty excited. I don’t know too much about the Rangers to be honest but I do like them. I mean Lundqvist is great in net so that’ll probably be hard throughout the night, but I think you guys can manage. I think Biron being a back up could be good for the team, and Frolov is really going to be good for the team as well and have a fantastic season, and Del Zotto was one of my favorite prospects, so he’ll probably keep being awesome. So it should be a good game if they’re on their best tonight,” I shrugged taking a bite out of my salad.
I suddenly heard the table go silent and I looked up. The guys were staring at me in awe with their mouths open, eyebrows raised, wide eyes. I cleared my throat and smiled slightly. Next to Max, Peyton smirked giggling to herself.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head smiling. “I think they’re just amazed that you can know so much about hockey, which is so wrong if they knew you.”
“Oh.” I said.
“Wow! Girl knows her players,” Max grinned eating again.
Jordan nudged me. “Do you really know that much about hockey?”
“Well, I mean I guess you can say I know more about hockey than most, but that’s probably because I’ve been watching it ever since I was a child,” I explained.
“Nice.” Tyler smiled at me.
I smiled sheepishly returning back to my plate of food.
“I’m hoping to get into a fight.” Jordan said. “I haven’t been in one in a while.”
“Wuss.” Max scoffed, then muttering something about kicking someone’s ass.
“Brooke have you ever been in a fight?” Tyler asked.
Marc shook his head. “No she’s way too nice for that.”
Peyton scoffed across the table. “Ha!”
I gave Peyton a look knowing what she was thinking about. “Uhm, Peyton.”
She looked up at me and smiled innocently. “Yes?”
I gave her another look and shook my head slightly, hoping she got my telepathic message. She didn’t. Or she did but chose to ignore it.
She stared at me blankly for a moment before shrugging. “You guys are just lucky you didn’t know her back in high school.”
“Why?” Jordan asked.
“Peyton.” I said, barely audible.
She looked around the table before putting down her fork and sitting up straighter preparing herself. “Do you guys want to hear a story about Brooke?”
“Always,” Max answered.
“Peyton.” I said more sternly.
“Well you see, in high school and pretty much in her entire life, Brooke has always been the nice, sweet innocent girl. You’d be an idiot to hate her. But there was this one incident that ended up becoming legendary in our school,” she explained.
“Peyton.” I protested louder.
“What happened?” Marc asked leaning in to hear.
Peyton continued. “She had just become friends with this new guy in school really fast. He would always hang around her and be really sweet to her. Only problem was that one of the provocative girls in school had her eye on him, as did every girl because he was extremely handsome.”
“Peyton.” I yelled a little.
“Well Brooke paid no attention but one day, she came up to her and yelled at Brooke to back of her man and before she walked away,” she paused for effect before finishing, “She slapped her across the face. And then out of nowhere,” she paused again. “Brooke tackled her onto the lunch table and rolled over her and punched her in the nose, which she ended up breaking for a whole month!”
“Peyton!” I screamed.
The whole table gasped and started to laugh hysterically. Jordan and Max were the loudest and started to imitate the punch, Jordan knocking Max out who collapsed onto the table. Marc and Tyler laughed even harder. I even saw out of the corner of my eye that Sidney and Kris were laughing as well.
I covered my face in my hands as I felt my face start to heat up. “Well I know never to slap Brooke now.” Max joked.
I removed my hands from my face to glare at him. He looked straight down. “Wow Brooke I didn’t know you could be so aggressive. We could use you on our team.” Jordan grinned.
“Why did you get so mad?” Tyler asked.
I shrugged. “I just didn’t like her accusing me of stealing ‘her man’” I said using air quotes.
“Did you really break her nose?” Sidney asked.
I nodded slowly, embarrassed. “I’m not proud of it.”
Kris interrupted it. “Impressive.” He said still looking down at his plate.
Sidney nodded in agreement. “Yea. It is especially because of your size.”
At that comment everyone laughed. I frowned. “What’s wrong with my size?”
Max laughed. “Come on. You’re really tiny. And how tall are you like five feet?”
I sat up straighter. “I’ll have you know I’m five two,” I argued.
“Big difference. Why couldn’t you be Peyton? She’s five seven.” Peyton elbowed him on the side hard. “Ow! What was that for?” she gave him a look and he didn’t understand at first. “Oh!” he nodded looking at us again nervously. “I mean it seems like she’s five seven to me. It’s not like I know that for a fact or anything.”
The whole table exchanged looks and choosing to ignore him for now. “Well, let’s go.” Marc said getting up to throw his food out. Everyone followed him starting their own conversations.
As I got up to throw my food out Sidney came behind me. He threw his food out and then bent down. “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. I’m sorry.”
I looked up at him smiling at how sincerely apologetic he seemed. “It’s ok really don’t worry about it.”
He smiled. “Thanks. And by the way, I don’t mind that you’re small,” he finished and walked ahead of me.
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I laughed shaking my head at Max and Jordan who were battling each other on Guitar Hero. We had gone over back to Max’s place since he wanted everyone to go over his house so he’d feel cool. Tyler had left somewhere while Kris left about five minutes later. I felt horrible but I understood he didn’t want to see me.
Peyton and Marc were on the floor discussing something while I was on the couch with Sidney. I sat on the edge while he sat about two feet away from me.
“Can someone else please battle me? I’m tired of Jordan!” Max whined.
“You’re just mad because you keep losing to Jordan,” Sidney replied.
He gave him a look. “You couldn’t win even if you tried. Baby.”
Sidney laughed even thought I could see he clearly didn’t find it funny what so ever.
“You know no one thinks you’re a baby right?” I asked Sidney looking at his serious face.
He shrugged. “Max probably does, but that’s ok,” he let out a small laugh. He tilted his head thinking before looking at me. “I was really shocked to find out you did that in high school, you know.”
I looked at him. “Really? Well I’m not exactly proud of that. It wasn’t my finest moment.” I smiled sheepishly.
“Maybe but I didn’t expect that from you. You seem so,” he paused trying to think of the right word.
“Afraid?” I said. “It’s ok you can say it.”
“I don’t think you’re afraid.” He corrected. “You’re strong.”
I smiled softly looking away from him, feeling my stomach turn into knots.
“You’re strong too. No matter what anyone else tells you,” I explained.
He shook his head. “People think I am afraid like I couldn’t hurt a fly or anything.”
I laughed. “Then you should prove them wrong. Steal some kid’s candy or something.”
He nodded. “I should. Only if it’s healthy though.”
We both laughed silencing out any other noises in the room.
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