“Peyton?” I called when I walked in to the apartment looking through the mail in my hand. No one answered which raised my curiosity seeing as she didn’t work today. I waited for a few more moments before hearing a noise come from her bedroom. “Peyton?” I asked again putting the mail down and taking a few steps to her door.

Again I heard nothing. “Peyton, are you here?”

“Brooke?” I heard Peyton call from her bedroom.

“Yeah. Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah I’m fine,” she called back.

I sighed walking outside her door and putting my hand on the doorknob.

“Brooke don’t come in!” she yelled moving around her room and dropping things.

“Okay, what are you doing in there?” I asked walking away slowly.

“Nothing!”

“Uh huh. Sure,” I muttered.

As I was walking back to the mail, she slid through a tiny space from the door she quickly opened. She spoke quickly. “Hey Brooke, what’s up Brooke.”

I eyed her for a second before returning my attention to opening envelopes. “Were you having sex with Max in there?” I asked not looking up at her.

“Well thanks for the vote of confidence Brooke.”

I shrugged smiling. “I’m just asking a question.”

She shook her head before speaking again. “Oh, come here. I wanted to show you something.”

“What?” I asked.

“Come in the bathroom,” she said walking to the bathroom.

“Just bring it out here.” I told her.

She groaned. “No just come!”

I let out a sigh before walking to the bathroom. “What?”

She sat down on the toilet. “There’s no more toilet paper.”

I raised my eyebrow at her. “Is that what you seriously called me over here for?”

“Yeah, well I just thought you should know,” she shrugged. There was a noise of the door closing which caused Peyton to jump up. “Oh! Wonder who that could be.”

I followed her out to the living room only to find Max there. “Hey guys! What’s up? I thought I’d come see what you’re up to.”

Next to me, Peyton sighed sadly shaking her head at Max. I nearly choked and covered my mouth to keep form laughing. Max’s hair was sticking out on the left side and had little purple bows in it, while his cheeks were exceptionally pink and he had glitter on his eyelids.

“You couldn’t make yourself presentable again? That’s why I was stalling.” Peyton walked away muttering to herself.

I took in a deep breath and walked closer to Max and looking over him smirking. “Are you wearing eyeliner? Hmm, I always pegged you for a more manly guy. Guess I was wrong,” I finished walking into the living room.

“Hey! Be nice or else I won’t invite you to our super cool people gathering!” he yelled following me.

I laughed taking a seat on the couch next to Peyton. “What are you talking about?”

“We’re having this thing where some kids and their parents get to come to the rink and hang out with the players. Some of the guys are bringing their kids too. The whole team’s coming,” Max explained sitting on the armrest.

I thought for a second before answering. “Well, as amazing as that sounds I think I’ll pass.”

“Too bad, you’re coming,” Peyton commanded.

“Why?”

“I have to go and Max will probably be busy so I’ll have you to talk to,” she reasoned.

“Come on,” Max nudged me. “Sidney will be there. And Marc so we have another chance to help you two.”

I shot Peyton a look who looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

He grinned. “Nothing.”

“You guys have to get that idea out of your heads,” I whined.

“I’m sorry it’s just that we think you really look nice together and he seems to really be comfortable around you which is rare for him. He always seems happy when he’s with you, that’s all,” he admitted.

I sighed eyeing both of their smirking faces. “That’s just because we talk about normal stuff and we haven’t even talked that much, so he doesn’t even know me.” I frowned.

Max sat up straighter smiling widely. “We can change that. Now go get dressed we have to leave soon.”

I frowned looking down at my dark jeans and dark vintage faded shirt. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

His eyes widened and he looked down trying to figure out what to say. “Nothing, I’m just saying maybe you want to change your shirt to something more feminine?”

“And some make up wouldn’t hurt,” Peyton added.

I shook my head. “Aren’t you guys just the nicest people.” I went into my room to change. “While I'm at it you might want to take off yours Max. It’s way to masculine for you.”

He scoffed. “No makeup is too masculine for me!”

I rolled my eyes walking into the bathroom.
-------------------------------
Max’s car pulled up in the parking lot of the arena and he climbed out of the car to open the door for Peyton. I climbed out of the back seat and smiled to myself. “Are you guys really a couple now?”

Max gave me a grin. “Why? Are you jealous?”

I shook me head beginning to walk ahead of him. “No I just never thought you guys would like each other with all the bickering.”

Peyton slipped her arm through mine as we walked, “Don’t worry. I never thought I’d like him, but it happened. He’s just lucky to have me.”

“Excuse you?” Max gasped. “You’re lucky to have any of this,” he said pointing to himself.

“So who’s going to be here again?” I asked as we made our way through the back to the locker room.

“About 25 or so kids and a few parents. Some of the guys are bringing their children too like Cookie, Duper, and Kuni,” he explained opening the door to the locker room and nodding to Tyler, Geno and Mark Letestu.

Evgeni stood up and came up to us and nodded to Peyton. “Hey Peyton.” She waved back. He nodded to Max and stopped in front of me. He bent down to give me a hug and a crooked smile. “Hi Brooke.”

I couldn’t help but smile at his Russian perfection. I waved slightly. “Hi Evgeni.”

“Call me Geno,” he said shaking his head.

I nodded. “Okay, hi Geno.”

He put his arm around my shoulder looking down at me. “How are you?”

I shrugged. “I’m good. And yourself?”

“Happy that you’re here,” he smiled. “So you have lots of free time?”

"Uh," I scratched the back of my neck. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“You want to go out for coffee sometime?” he asked.

“Sure. That’d be nice,” I replied smiling.

He grinned down at me. “Maybe for nice dinner too. Just you and me. I pay.”

I felt my face start to warm up as I looked down. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Tyler, Max, and Peyton covering their mouth trying to hold their laughter. Mark was looking over his shoulder and using his fist to cover his mouth. “Uh,” I paused trying to formulate an answer in my mind. “That would be nice sometime. I’m kind of busy these next few weeks but sometime in the near future would be nice.” I looked back at everyone who was still trying to
keep quiet.

He nodded. “Great. I talk to you later about it.” He began walking away before turning around and smiling at me. “By the way, you look really good today.”

I tilted my head slightly. “Thank you.” I smiled sheepishly as he left the room. My face went from flattered to embarrassed to disbelief in a matter of seconds.

I smacked the palm of my hand to my forehead and turned back to them as they stared for a second before laughing hysterically. Tyler was resting his arms on his knees as Max and Peyton were laughing on each other’s shoulders and Mark was throwing his head back. “Oh I can’t breathe!” Mark stood up trying to compose himself.

I crossed my arms using one hand to cover half my face from how warm it had become. After a few minutes of laughing, they eventually quieted down and Mark came up to me. He stared at me blankly putting one hand on my shoulder. “You two would make an adorable couple.”

He threw his head back again walking away laughing to himself.

“I can’t believe he just did that. He never does something like that,” Tyler mumbled.

“But he does think he’s good with the ladies,” Max added shrugging still smiling widely. "Although he usually goes for the tall blondes. He must really like you."

"She has that affect on people," Peyton smiled.

"Nice going, Brooke." Tyler added.

Peyton looked at me after a few moments, her smirk soon disappearing. “I think he was serious though.”

Everyone looked at each other with curious faces. “I think she’s right.”

Max gasped. “And you said yes! Why’d you have to be so nice?”

“Well, sorry but how was I supposed to say no?” I argued. “You saw his smile! You heard that accent!”

Max got up. “No worries. Tyler and I can fix this. We’ll fix him up with a blonde and he’ll forget about you.”

“Yeah, because blondes fix everything,” I said sarcastically.

Tyler nodded. “They do with Geno. Don’t worry he’ll forget this whole thing ever happened. But I can’t believe he asked you out. He seems to really like you.” He and Max walked out of the locker room, trying to re-enact the entire scene with Max somehow pretending to be me.

I sat down on the bench trying to digest what had happened. Peyton sat next to me. “Hmm.”

I looked at her. “What?”

She shrugged. “I think Tyler had a point. Geno seemed to genuinely be interested. You really are something Brooke.”

I made a face. “What do you mean?”

She turned so she could face me. “Do you realize that this is the second guy that likes you? I mean first it was Kris who looked like he was in love with you and now, Geno? He was flirting with you right in front of us. He didn’t care if we knew. You’re a real piece of work Brooke.”

I shook my head. “I can’t believe Evgeni Malkin just asked me out.”

Peyton smacked me in the arm, yelling. “Is that really what you’re thinking about?”

I frowned. “What else am I supposed to be thinking about?”

She sighed choosing to lower her voice. “Brooke, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin have both shown extreme interest in you. They’re on the team. They’re probably his good friends. Very good. Do you honestly think they wont tell him? Do you honestly think anyone on the team isn’t going to find out? They already know about Kris!”

I got up shaking my head. “Sidney would have told me something by now and besides it’s not like he cares. He doesn’t like me, so it wouldn’t matter either way. Let it go," I told her. "Come on, we should go before Max comes back.”

She stood up following me grabbing my arm and stopping me. “You can’t be this clueless Brooke! Open your eyes! Of course Sidney knows but he’s obviously not going to tell you anything. Why don’t you do something about it? You and I both know that you want to.”

I stared at her before pulling the heavy door open and looking over my shoulder. “Max could be looking for us. We should go.” I turned around without another word.

Notes

Not that great, I apologize.