Chapter 8

We both quickly stormed outside and were arguing and shoving each other when she finally brought her hand up and slapped me across the face. I was a little stunned because I honestly didn’t see it going this far. She used this to her advantage and punched me which caused me to stumble backwards but at this point I was pissed so I shoved her with all of my power and sent her falling on her ass. I could hear people yelling but I was so caught up in what was going on which made it seem like they were a million miles away. She quickly picked herself up but before anything else could happen Max had jumped in the middle of us.

“What the hell is wrong with you Brianne?” He yelled at her which surprised me because I thought that he would have been mad at me not his girlfriend.
“Are you serious?” She stammered clearly as surprised as I was.
“Yeah I mean you basically attacked her for no good reason as far as I’m concerned.”
“No good reason! She has been all over our boyfriends all night and we should just sit back and watch it happen.”
“She wasn’t all over us she was trying to enjoy herself and she had to do it with us since most of you girls are acting like bitches and ignoring her.”
This led to more people jumping in which I’m sure caused a huge scene out on Marc and Vero’s lawn. It ended minutes later with all of the girls except Vero, Mel, and Abby leaving saying they would never speak to any of us again and the guys responding by saying they didn’t care. I was left feeling extremely guilty over everything that had just happened.
After the majority of the girls left everyone went back inside to finish the party. I wasn’t really in the mood because I felt like everything was my fault and I figured everyone was going to hate me. Then I decided that I would sit on the picnic table in the lawn and stay there until Logan was ready to go home. After a few minutes of staring up at the stars I heard footsteps behind me. When I turned around I saw Vero standing there.

“I am so sorry I ruined your party.” I said to her with tears filling my eyes.
“Oh honey, don’t cry its fine. Everyone was drunk and this will be forgotten by tomorrow.”
“It’s not going to be that simple. I mean I just caused half of the Pittsburgh Penguins and their girlfriends to break up.”
“Well honestly I love the guys to death but those guys weren’t serious about those girls. Trust me they’ve broken up many times but always find their way back together for some reason.”
“I just hope the guys don’t hold it against me because I really like hanging out with them.”
“Believe me I know these guys and there is no way in hell are you going to be held responsible. But I just wanted to make sure you were O.K. so when you regroup come back inside and we’ll finish this party.”
“I will, thanks for the chat Vero.”
She just smiled at me and walked back inside. I could hear her whispering to someone before I heard the door close. I turned my head to see Sid walking towards me.

“Hey, you’re staying out here all alone when there’s a party going on inside?” He asked with a small smile.
“I don’t want to face into everyone after basically ruining the party.” I was still crying a little. Apparently drinking and drama makes me a little emotional.
“There’s no way that was your fault though you were clearly just picking up for yourself.” He said while sitting down next to me on the picnic table.
“I bet the guys hate me don’t they?”
“There’s no way that would ever happen. Honestly those guys weren’t serious about those girls and they’re always on again-off again, that sort of thing.”
“I’m sorry I know you’re trying but I still feel really guilty.”
“I can see you feel guilty but just so you know the guys are not going to treat you any different especially since they all speak so highly of you.”
“Thanks Sid that actually means a lot knowing that.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” He said causing us both to laugh a bit. We both just stopped talking and began staring up at the stars. We sat there in silence for a while until a cold chill went over me.

“Cold?” He asked with a smile on his face.
“Yeah I guess I am.” I replied back with a smile.
“Well do you want to go back inside?”
“Actually I’m kind of enjoying just sitting here in silence; I can deal with the cold.” As soon as I said that he took his zip up sweater off and put it over my shoulders.
“Better?” He asked.
“Yes, much,” I answered, “thanks Sid. But you really don’t have to stay out here with me.”
“I’m actually really enjoying the company.” This line made me smile and sent butterflies off in my stomach. We were outside for another fifteen minutes until we heard someone coming. We both turned around and saw Logan, Max, and Jordan coming.

“Are you O.K.?” Max asked.
“Yeah I’m fine,” I answered, “I am really sorry for that though.”
“Dude all is forgotten.”
“That’s not why we’re here though.” Logan stated.
“So why are you here?” Sid asked.
“Well captain Crosby that is a good question,” Jordan said, “We just realized that everyone is still here in the tournament so let’s go.”
Sid and I smiled at each other and followed the guys inside as I gave him back his sweater. We quickly started the tournament. Team four was the first eliminated followed by team one. We lost against team three in the finals but overall we enjoyed it. Everyone was starting to mellow out and Colby, Mel, Bugsy, Abby, Ryan, Geno, Tyler, Max, and Kris all left to walk home or called cabs. This left Marc, Vero, Jordan, Logan, Sid, and me.

“You guys should just crash here.” Marc suggested.
“Oh my God that would be so much fun,” Vero said, “And I totally have some pajamas you can wear Brooke.” With that she was bound upstairs.
“So where are we going to sleep?” Jordan asked.
“Well we have two spare bedrooms upstairs and two pull out couches here. So Brooke you take a bedroom and you three can fight for the other one.” Marc answered as Vero walked in and handed me a pair of pajamas and a spare toothbrush.
“Oh thanks Vero you’re a life saver.” I said as she hugged me as we all said good-night.

As I came out of the bathroom I was met by Sid outside waiting to get in.
“So let me guess, you’re allowed to have the bedroom?” I asked.
“Yeah they wanted to play video games for a while so I got the bedroom.”
“Well isn’t that lucky for you,” I said while yawning, “Well good-night Sid.”
Before I knew it he had me pulled into a hug. “Good-night Brooke.”

Then we broke away and went our separate ways. As I curled up in bed I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about Sid. I eventually fell asleep wondering if it was the liquor making me feel so connected and comfortable with him tonight.

Chapter 7

Before we knew it we had been in school for almost three months. We hadn’t heard from the guys for a while because the hockey season had started again and Logan and I were both busy with school and work. Logan was still working at Starbucks while I got hired working at a women’s clothing store in a mall. We had both made the time to watch as many of their games as we could and after tonight’s game they had a record of 14-6-3 after winning 4-1 at home against the Devils. A couple hours after the game Logan’s cell phone rang. He excused himself and went into the kitchen to answer. About ten minutes later he came back in the living room.

“Hey Brooke, go make yourself pretty.” He laughed.
“And why would I have to do that?”
“Well that was Max, a bunch of the team and girlfriend’s are going to Marc and Vero’s to celebrate the win since they have a few days off and they decided to ask us since it was Saturday so we don’t have school tomorrow, so naturally I told them we would.”
“Listen, I’ll drop you off but there is no way I am going to stay.”
“And why not?” He asked clearly irritated.
“I really like the guys and you obviously fit in just fine with them, but I’m stuck having to hang with the girls, half of which hate me.”
“They don’t hate you they just really stick together. Max always says they’re hesitant to let outsiders in.”
“Yeah and that’s exactly what I am to them.”
“Well you can hang out with me and the guys.”
“Then they’re going to hate me more for spending all my time with their boyfriends.”
“But I really want to go.”
“I already said I would drop you off.”
“I can’t go and leave you here by yourself all night Brooke.”
“It’s fine Logan I’ll just do some studying or watch a movie or something.”
“Yeah fine.”

With that Logan was bound over the stairs. About twenty minutes later he came back downstairs and was all ready.

“You don’t have to take me, Jordan is near by so he’s going to swing by and pick me up.”
“Oh O.K. that’s fine you can call me when you’re ready and I’ll come get you.”

Then there came a knock on the door and Jordan walked in.

“What’s this I hear about you not wanting to hang out with us tonight?” He said to me as soon as he walked in through the door.
“Yeah she said she feels out of place.” Logan answered.
“O.K first I can speak for myself thank you very much, and second you have to know the girls aren’t welcoming.”
“Well Heather’s not going to be there which means Logan, Sid, and I will be flying solo so just hang out with us.”
“I don’t know it’s…” Was all I managed to say before they both screamed “Just go get ready!” at me. I decided to listen to them instead of arguing and went upstairs to change. I decided on a dark denim pair of jeans and a deep red halter top with a cute pair of pointy toed high heeled shoes. I straightened my hair and was all set to go.

“Oh the girls are definitely going to hate you.” Jordan said with a smile on his face.
“Why, am I not wearing expensive enough clothes or something”, I said getting kind of nervous, “I mean I don’t really like shopping so I usually just buy the first thing that I like.”
At this point Jordan was laughing and Logan and I were looking at each other very confused.
“No I just meant they are going to hate you because you didn’t even try and you still look more beautiful than most of those girls after trying for hours. Red is a good color on you by the way.”

I could feel my cheeks go a shade of pink when Logan responded.
“That’s enough she’s like my big sister and I don’t want to hear about guys liking her or thinking she’s hot so let’s just go.”
“You should be used to it by now.” Jordan chuckled as we were on our way out through the door.

“On the way to Marc and Vero’s we stopped in a liquor store. Jordan had called Max to meet us there since he lived close and we weren’t old enough to buy it on our own. Jordan and Logan each bought a case of beer and a flask of run. I bought a half case of beer and a flask of Sour Puss, the raspberry kind of course. We had decided to get some liquor to shoot when we ran out of beer. We parted ways with Max who said he would meet us there when Brianne got ready and we went on our way. When we arrived at Marc’s I was surprised to see only Marc’s car was there.

“Gee I expected us to be like the last group of people to show up.” I said while getting out of the car.
“Well I guess the rest of the guys have to wait for their girlfriend’s to get ready like Max does.” Logan replied.

We went to the door and knocked. Vero showed up at the door with a huge smile on her face. “You guys don’t have to knock here”, she said before looking at me, “wow you look great, I didn’t think you were going to come.”
“Thanks, you look great too”, I replied with a smile, “and those two kind of forced me to get ready to come.” I said as I realized the boys had already made their way to the fridge.
“Well either way I’m glad you came, I like meeting new people, besides the boys are always talking about how much fun you are.”
“Well what can I say, I try.” We both giggled as we walked into the living room where Marc, Max, and Logan were waiting for the party to start.

We sat down and started talking about the most random things and laughing like crazy until we heard a knock and the door open. When we looked we saw Sid standing there with his bottle of Jack Daniels.
“Come in, have a seat.” Marc directed and Sid listened to him. He came and plopped down on the love seat next to me, where I had been sitting alone.
“You played awesome tonight.” I said to him as the others started talking about more random things.
“I didn’t think you were a hockey fan.” He replied with a smile on his face.
“Well Logan likes watching it and he’s bigger than me so I can’t really fight him for the remote.”
“Well thanks either way.” He laughed.
“And you’re welcome captain.”
“You look amazing tonight by the way.” He said getting serious.
“Thanks.” I replied as I felt my cheeks turning pink again and my stomach did back flips.
Then we joined in the conversation with the others while we waited for everyone else to show up.

About an hour later everyone had shown up and like I thought I was stuck in the kitchen with the girls feeling uncomfortable while Logan was in the living room with the guys playing Rock Band and having a good time. Eventually as the night went on we all ended up in the living room which made me feel more comfortable to be around the guys, although I did really like Vero and Mel. The guys wanted to have a Rock Band tournament and of course I was the only girl who wanted to play.

“So how are we going to pick teams?” Kris asked while everyone looked at him puzzled.
“I can get a pen, paper, and a bag and you guys can draw three names at a time to decide teams.” Vero suggested.
“That’s an awesome idea babe”, Marc said, “that’s some good thinking right there.”
Everyone laughed at this while Vero pecked him on the cheek and went off to find what we needed.

When she came back we all wrote our names down, probably not the best since we were all pretty buzzed at this point, and put them in the bag. Vero volunteered to pull the names out and announce the teams.

“O.K. everyone pay attention”, Vero yelled as we all fell silent, “team one consists of Sid, Army, and Bugsy. Team two is Brooke, Max, and Jordan. Team three is Logan, Marc, and Kris which leaves Ryan, Tyler, and Geno as team four.”
“So how should we go about doing this?” Logan asked.
“I guess we’ll do it elimination style”, Marc answered, “we’ll all play the same song and the team that does the worse will get eliminated.”
“Yeah and we’ll repeat that three times until there’s only one winner.” Colby said.
“Alright peeps let’s get started!” Max yelled as he came and stood next to me and put his arm around me.
“Hey, don’t hog our gorgeous teammate.” Jordan said as he came and stood on the other side of me and wrapped his arm around me too.
I could hear whispering going on behind us but I wrapped my arms around their waists and we started making fun of the other teams. We all took a couple shots of liquor before starting and I was feeling pretty drunk.
“Alright team one let’s get this party started.” Bugsy yelled. Team one went with Sid on guitar, Colby on drums, and Ryan singing. Then it was our turn. We had decided that Max would sing, Jordan would play guitar, and I would play the drums.

“Come on beautiful you hit those drums.” Max yelled.
“Yeah you show them sexy.” Jordan screamed.
All I could do was laugh until I felt something hit the back of my head.

“What the hell?” I yelled as I turned around to see a purse on the floor.
“I’m sorry it slipped.” Brianne said with a smug look on her face. Everyone fell silent watching us like they couldn’t believe it was happening.
“Oh yeah I’m sure it was.” I snapped back.
“Well I hope you don’t think you can walk in here and flirt with our boyfriends and expect us to do nothing about it. Especially since Heather is not even here to see what’s going on and you’re doing it with my boyfriend right in front of my face.”
“Wow, we were just carrying on there’s nothing more than that and I’m sorry but if you really think that was flirting than you’re crazier than I thought you were.”
“How about you say that out by the door?”
“Gladly.” I said as we both slammed down our drinks and headed for the door. I had never gotten in a fight before but this girl pushed my buttons like nobody else ever has. I guess we were going to see if I could handle myself.