I let out a long yawn as I covered my face and rubbed my eyes. I was way too tired and the two cups of coffee I drank didn’t help much. Thankfully practice was almost over and I could go home and sleep. My focus was 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? 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 this bad. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of me. I’ll see you in a bit?”

“Yeah.” 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 mentally slapping myself for not wearing a thicker sweater.

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 really 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."

"Maybe you do," he joked. Even if he was joking I brushed past the smirk he gave. No sleep equals extremely cranky Brooke and over dramatic responses.

"Oh, yeah 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 put my hand up in protest. "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. In that moment I felt my face turn 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.”

Still no expression on his face.

"She's really cranky today," Max piped in. All I could do was stare blankly at him and nod.

He glanced at both of us before slightly nodding. “Okay. 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. You just don’t know it yet.” I could hear him grinning as he made his way to the showers.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Let me get this straight. You went two months on only eating potatoes?” Jordan asked as we walked in to the almost empty little café.

Peyton nodded and shrugged. “I was in college. I was stupid. It explains why I almost failed a semester though.”

“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. “Yeah I guess so. I’ve actually been trying not to say too much. I mean I wasn’t too keen on our first encounter. I would’ve waited until you talked to me when you figured I didn’t freak you out. I mean 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. Cranky and nervous definitely make me talk more than I usually did, and that's saying something. “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 though 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 really 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 into his mouth trying to swallow his food until I joined in, which only caused him to start choking on the sad excuse for chicken that was in his mouth. I couldn't help laugh at how helpless he looked and tried to keep it down by leaning in like we were school girls trying to hide. Our laugh was interrupted when we heard someone clear their throat loudly.

I whipped my head around to see Max and everyone 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, “Yeah, 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.

Notes

See, it's getting better right? Especially after some major editing.

You guys should really rate and comment. My feelings are starting to get hurt. I don't bite, I swear.