Chapter Twenty;

Day Seven ;

It was around six in the morning. Emily and Lauren were each finishing packing for the trip they were leaving for in about an hour. The guys would be there soon to pick them up to go to the airport.
 “You got everything?” Emily called to Lauren as she walked out of her room, her zebra striped suitcase trailing behind her.
 “I think so.” Lauren replied from in her bedroom. She was trying to zip her pink and purple bag closed, but was struggling.
 “Need help?” Em asked with a laugh as she walked in the room.
 “Yes please.”
Emily zipped it up for her and heard a knock at their door.
 “I’ll get it!” Lauren exclaimed and sprinted out of her room to answer the door. Emily followed less enthusiastically behind her. She was excited to go on the trip, but not so excited for what might happen while on it. She was getting a headache thinking about it.
 “Class, get your shit! We’re going to Florida!” Jordan yelled as Lauren let him in, quoting a sketch by the Whitest Kids U Know. He was holding Ashley’s hand.
 “What about permission slips?” Lauren asked, continuing the lines from the sketch.
 “FUCK PERMISSION SLIPS!” Both Ashley and Jordan yelled at the same time. The three of them cracked up laughing. Emily smiled a weak, not-so-sincere grin and Max walked in the room, not catching what was so funny.
 “Should I ask?” He asked Emily while the other three kept laughing.
She shrugged, “WKUK joke.”
 “Oh I see. Not funny enough for you?” Max asked her. They were walking further inside and more distant from Laur, Ash, and Jordy.
 “It would be if I were in a better mood.” Emily replied with a sigh.
 “What’s the matter?” He asked, concerned.
 “I don’t know. I’m just so stressed.” She said and then continued in a whisper, even though they weren’t in hearing distance of anyone else. She wanted to be careful, “Like, the whole Geno-Kris thing. I can’t break up with Geno on this trip. It would be a total downer. But I really don’t want to make Kris mad. And I just don’t know what to do, I’m so confused and mad and sad and ugh!”
 “Hey, calm down. Don’t let this ruin your life.” Max put his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes as he spoke, “Kris will understand you don’t want to hurt Geno. He loves you. You’ll find a way to get out of this little mess and everything will be fine.”
 “But I don’t want everything to be fine. I want it to be perfect.” She pouted, tears welling up in her blue green eyes.
 “Don’t cry!” Max pleaded. He wasn’t used to these girl problems but he wanted to help her so badly. “Come here.” He said and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back and pressed her face on his shoulder.
 “I’m sorry.” She mumbled, tears falling down her cheeks. She wiped her face on her sleeve. “I don’t know why I’m acting like this. I’m just so… messed up.”
 “You’re not messed up, you’re just in a messed up situation.” Max told her and wiped the tears she missed. “If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about it until our vacation is over. Enjoy the sun and the sand and once we get back here we can work this all out. I promise.”
Emily looked him in the eyes and tried her best not to look so upset. “Thanks, Max. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
 “Well you don’t have to worry about that because I’ll always be here for you.” He replied, making her smile for real.
 “Thank you.” She said again as she hugged him tight.
That’s when Evgeni walked into the room. Max released Emily and she turned to face him.
 “Oh hey, Geno.” Max greeted him with a grin. But Geno ignored him. He was studying Emily’s face.
 “Were you crying?” He asked her, his voice sounding worried and slightly confused.
 “Um, no.” She lied, “I fell asleep with my contacts in. They hurt like crazy.”
 “Oh, are you okay? Maybe you should take them out.” Geno said, getting closer to her.
 “I‘m fine, they’ll be okay. It happened before.” She assured him.
 “Okay. Well, do you got everything? We got to leave now.” He replied, standing in a position that excluded Max from their conversation.
 “Yeah, my bag was out there.” Emily gestured towards where she set it near the front door.
 “I’ll go take it outside for you.” Max told her, bringing himself back into the conversation and then left the couple alone.
 “Thanks.” Emily said as he walked away.
Geno took her hands in his own. “So…” He said.
 “So what?” She asked, looking up at him.
 “So, are you excited?” He asked her with a toothy grin.
 “Totally.” She replied, failing at sounding sincere but Geno couldn’t tell the difference.
He just smiled at her and kissed her forehead. She smiled weakly back up at him. He was oblivious to her pain.


 “What up with your sister?” Jordan asked Lauren. They were outside getting into the bus the team was taking to go to the airport. Luckily Mario said it was okay that the girls rode on it with them.
 “I don’t know. She’s probably just tired.” Lauren shrugged. Tyler had his arm wrapped around her. He was all smiles once again.
 “Figures.” Ashley laughed, she was hanging on Jordan’s arm messing around.
Max came outside with Emily’s bag and went to put it with the rest of them.
 “Cute bag, Max.” Kris smirked at him. Max just smiled.
 “It’s your lover’s, you should like it.” He told him, making Kris sigh.
 “It’s been a week. You think she’s gonna dump him here or wait till we get there?” Kris asked him in a hushed voice. Geno and Emily were just coming outside now but were too far away to hear the two of them talking anyway.
Max ran his hand through his hair, remembering what Emily had told him inside and not sure what to tell Kris.
 “Listen, Tanger. She’s got a good heart, she doesn’t want to ruin this trip for him.” He said, trying to put it nicely.
 “What are you saying?” Kris asked, knowing exactly what he meant but didn’t want to believe it. “What’d she tell you?”
 “Nothing, man. She wants to do the right thing. She loves you though. I can tell.” Max said but Kris just shook his head.
 “If she loves me than she’d be with me, not him.” He said angrily and pointed at Evgeni who noticed him and Max looking at him. He had his arms around Emily but she was talking to Ashley, Ashlen and Sidney.
 “She doesn’t want to hurt him.” Max insisted.
 “Yet she doesn’t mind hurting me?” Kris shot back. Max sighed but didn’t say anything. “That’s what I thought.” Kris said after Max didn’t reply.


Geno knew that Kris and Max were watching and probably talking about him and Emily from the other end of the bus. Why, he wasn’t completely sure but it was obvious it had to do with his girlfriend. He thought something funny was going on earlier between her and Max. And the time when they went off on their own at Mario’s. Geno vowed to take care of him if he ever tried anything with her. She was his.
And because he wanted to prove that to him, as Max and Kris were walking towards where he and the rest of them were, Geno pulled Emily close and kissed her like he never kissed her before.
Kris stopped dead in his tracks. Before him stood Geno and Emily, making out when they should be breaking up. He was furious, and stormed on the bus without looking back.
 “Geno,” Emily said, pushing him back angrily. Kris was sure to be pissed now, “Why did you do that?”
 “What? I can’t kiss my girlfriend?” He asked, surprised with her reaction, and angry at the fact that it might be because of Max who was standing near by.
 “I’m sorry, I just don’t feel very good.” She said and got on the bus, following the path that Kris had taken.
There was a slightly awkward feeling in the air outside of the bus now. Jordy, Ashley, Sid, Ashlen, Leah, Laur, and TK stood silently, just looking at each other.
Max was face to face with Evgeni. “Man, what are you trying to prove?” Max asked him.
 “Why do you care?” Geno asked in response.
 “I care because you’re pissing off my friends.” Max told him. He wanted to sound serious but didn’t want to start a fight.
 “You need to mind your own business. And I don’t know what’s going on between you and Em, but I expect it to stop.” Geno said sternly. Max just smirked at him, shaking his head as he did so.
 “I don’t know what you think is going on with us, but I’ll tell you right now I’m not going to stop being her friend. Seriously, man, you keep this act up and you won’t have a girlfriend to worry about.”


 “Kris.” Emily pleaded for him to answer her. He was sitting in the very back seat and she stood next to him. “Kris, please talk to me.”
He turned slowly to look up at her. “What?”
 “Kris, he made me kiss him. I didn’t do that to hurt you.” She said, sadness in her voice.
 “But it did hurt me. Whether it was intentional or not. It hurts a lot.” He replied.
 “I know and…”
 “No, I’m not done.” Kris interrupted her, “I want to know why you say you don’t want to hurt him and you don’t want to hurt me but no matter what, one of us is going to be hurt. You can’t have both. I know that, Geno knows that. Why don’t you know that? You’re hurting all of us by doing this. You’re leading him on if you’re planning on dumping him, or you’re leading me on by telling me that you’re going to when you’re not. You can’t take back what we did because it happened. We both know that. And you can’t take back what we said. I’m in love with you. I said it before, I’ll say it again. But just because you know I am, doesn’t mean you can string me along while you have fun with Geno and I won’t care. I do care. A lot. So make up your mind. I’ll give you these next four days to think about what you want. This is suppose to be a vacation, so that’s what it’s gonna be. I need to relax, so come talk to me on Monday if that’s what you choose.”
Emily stared at him with hurt eyes. Now she knew how it felt. She wanted to say something, but no words would come out. So far this trip was looking pretty awful. She didn’t want to make it worse.
 “Monday it is.” She said and walked back to the front of the bus.

(ps.- sorry for taking a billion years to post this! ive been busy, but ive got soo much planned for this!)

Chapter Nineteen;

Day Six ;

 “WAKE UP, JEFF!” Emily heard being yelled at her, waking her up the next morning. The girls had all stayed over night at Mario’s, not wanting to have to drive home in the snowy and icy darkness. They crashed on some of his couches, which were rather comfortable. Plus they wanted to be there when the guys got back in the morning.
Emily opened her eyes and after they adjusted to the light, she realized who had woken her up. Standing around her with smug grins on their faces were Lauren, Tyler, Ashley, Jordan, Kris, Max, Leah, and Geno.
 “What the HELL?” She laughed, not caring about how stupid she probably looked at the moment. “Since when do you guys watch the Wiggles?”
 “Ha! I told you she’d know what it was from!” Lauren scoffed at them all. When her and Emily used to baby-sit their cousin Zak, he loved watching the Wiggles and the whole ‘wake up Jeff’ thing was something that was on pretty much every one of his videos. No matter how annoying it was, it just stuck.
 “It’s about time you got up!” Jordan laughed at her. He had his arm around Ashley who just smiled.
 “Well excuse me for wanting to get my beauty sleep.” Emily said, crossing her arms. Sleeping in was something she did when she could. Plus she was feeling a bit extra tired than usual for whatever reason.
 “You must sleep a hell of a lot, considering how beautiful you are.” Evgeni said sweetly and sat down beside her. The three other girls plus Jordan ‘awed’. Emily ignored them and smiled.
 “Thanks, Geno.” She said and kissed him.
Kris looked away for the two seconds it lasted. All he could think was how Geno’s week would be up in a matter of days.
 “How long have you guys been here?” Emily asked, wanting to know how much she slept through.
 “Not that long.” Max replied, “You were the only one still sleeping when we got here, though.”
 “Thanks, guys.” Emily said sarcastically to Lauren, Ashley, and Leah. That’s when she noticed they were missing someone. Two someones, actually. “Where’s Ashlen? And Sid?”
 “Oh, they’re around here somewhere.” Lauren said.
 “Sid took her to show her her room.” Tyler added. He was standing noticeably closer to Lauren than usual. He had his arm around her waist and held her close. He seemed to be becoming more affectionate lately.
 “You think they’re trying out the bed?” Jordan asked with a smirk.
 “Jordy!” Ashley flirt-punched him in the arm.
 “What? Just cause I‘m the only one that said it doesn‘t mean I was the only one thinking it!” He threw his hands up, telling them not to blame him for saying it.
 “Actually Jordan, not everyone here is as perverted as you are so you probably were the only one thinking it.” Emily said, causing them all to laugh at his expense.
 “Ha! She told you, eh Jordy?” Max laughed in his face.
 “I think she’s just cranky cause we woke her up too early.” Jordan tried. Emily just rolled her eyes, her head leaning on Geno’s shoulder.
 “I am not cranky.” She stated but Jordan just laughed.
 “Coulda fooled me!” He said with a smirk.
 “Can’t we all just get along?” Ashley joked.
 “NO!” Emily and Jordan said at the same time, trying to sound serious but cracked and ended up laughing.
That’s when Sidney and Ashlen came back into the room, hand in hand.
 “Hey, food’s in the kitchen if anyone wants any.” Sidney announced. All of the guys’ eyes seemed to light up at the mention of food.
 “Count me in!” TK said and the other guys agreed.
 “I thought you said you guys already ate?” Leah asked them, unsure of how they could be hungry again already.
 “Yeah, so?” Jordan asked. He was already half way out the door, following the smell of pancakes and French toast.
 “It’s a good thing you guys are hockey players and work out all the time.” Emily said.
 “Yeah, otherwise you’d all be giant fat asses.” Ashley added, but the guys ignored the comment and rushed off to go eat. Even though the girls were the ones who hadn’t had breakfast yet.
 “Hahaha oh my god,” Emily burst out laughing at the image in her head as her and the rest of the girls slowly got up and followed in the direction the guys went, “Can you just picture Jordan being, like, four hundred pounds of pure fat?”
Ashley cracked up at the thought, “Oh my god, yeah I actually can!” She said and the two of them laughed even more.
 “Would you still date him and all of his rolls?” Emily asked through laughs.
 “Haha of course I would!” She replied. By then they had entered kitchen where the guys were already seated around the island chowing down on their breakfast. Ashley wrapped her arms around her boyfriend and smiled, “I would still love him even if he weighed a ton! We wouldn’t go out in public much, but I’d still love him.”
 “Good to know, babe.” Jordan said and rolled his eyes playfully. Ashley just laughed and kissed him.
 “You two are just too cute.” Ashlen smiled at the two of them from across the island. She was sitting next to Sidney, her head resting in her hands admiring the couple.
 “Just give it a little time and you and Sid will be just as adorable. With all the name calling, eye rolling, and sarcasm that these two share included.” Max joked with a grin. He was sitting next to Leah and Kris.
 “Can’t wait.” Ashlen replied. She looked over at Sid and smiled.
 “And the sarcasm begins!” Kris said making them laugh and go on with more sarcastic remarks.
Emily smiled from her seat next to Evgeni as she watched Kris. He was laughing and joking with rest of her friends, and though she wanted to join in, she couldn’t. She just didn’t feel like laughing anymore. She actually felt slightly sick. Knowing that the time was drawing near that she told Kris she would end it with Geno made her feel nervous. She liked Geno, she couldn’t deny that anymore. And the more time she spent with him made her like him even more. But she was in love with Kris, and no matter how much she liked Geno, she would never feel the same way about him as she did about Kris. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself.
 “What’s so funny in here?” Mario asked as he walked into the kitchen. He went straight over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup.
 “Ah, nothing.” Sid said, not wanting to explain.
 “I’m sure.” Mario raised an eyebrow as he took a drink. “You guys better be sharing with the ladies. They need some food, too.”
 “We are sharing,” Jordan objected and took a fork full of pancakes and nearly shoved it in Ashley’s mouth, “See!”
 “Jordan!” Ashley yelled, trying to push the food out of her face. Jordan just laughed.
 “That’s wonderful, Jordy, but I think they can feed themselves.” Mario chuckled.
 “He’s right, ya know.” Lauren said, taking a bite off of Tyler’s plate.
 “Whatever you say.” Jordan gave in with a smirk.
 “Okay, I’ll be upstairs if you need me. So, don’t need me.” Mario chuckled and left the room.
Everyone eventually finished their breakfast and they were just sitting around the island talking about random things on their minds.
 “You know what I haven’t done in a while?” Emily asked as she stared out the window at the falling snow.
 “Geno?” Jordan said with a smirk.
 “Ha ha. Good one, but no.” Emily said sarcastically. Jordan smiled, but she was being serious, “I was going to say, I haven’t played in the snow in forever.”
 “Oh my god, I haven’t either!” Ashley admitted as if she were shocked.
 “We all should, like right now!” Lauren said with a smile, “What d’ya guys say?”
The guys looked at each other and shrugged.
 “Yeah, why not.” Tyler said for them.


After a quick kitchen cleanup and changing into warmer clothes and coats, the gang headed outside into the snow covered yard. It was already pretty deep and it was still falling.
 “Snowball fight, anyone?” Lauren asked and threw a perfectly packed snowball so it hit Jordan right in the chest. Figures he’d be everyone’s choice target.
 “Hell yes!” Jordan yelled after being hit and fired a shot back at her, missing by a mile.
 “Stick to hockey, Jordy.” Sid joked, patting his friend on the shoulder. He replied by sticking his tongue out at him.
 “Teams?” Ashlen asked.
 “I say boys versus girls.” Max suggested.
 “Alright, let’s do this!” Ashley yelled and all the girls got together. Emily was feeling a little more peppy than earlier. Her moods were changing a lot today.
 “Three minutes to get prepared. Then this war will go down!” Max declared loudly from the guys little group.
 “Got it!” Lauren yelled over to him.
 “So, what’s the game plan?” Leah asked. They had all unanimously made Ashley the group leader. She just fit the job.
 “We need to make them think we’re weak at first, then when they least expect it we attack at full strength.” She said just above a whisper so the guys wouldn’t hear.
 “Hey ladies, new rule!” Jordan shouted over to them.
 “What is it?” Ashley yelled back.
 “If you get hit above the waist twice, you’re dead. That means down on the ground, no getting back up!” He replied.
 “Okay, got it!”


Lots of laughs and a hundred snowballs later the war was over and had been won by the ladies. The guys throwing skills had proven to be no match for the girls’. They were all just laying in the snow now, worn out from the fight.
 “You got lucky.” Geno said to the girls.
 “Luck had nothing to do with it.” Lauren replied.
 “I don’t know about you guys,” Max started, “But I’m freezing my ass off out here.”
 “Dude me too!” Ashley agreed.
 “Hot chocolate anyone?” Sidney offered with a chuckle.
 “Hell yes!”
They all went back inside, changed out of their now wet-from-the-melting-snow clothes, and sat around the fireplace in the living room and drank their hot chocolate.
 “Ya know, the snows nice and all, but I can’t wait for summer time.” Ashlen said. Sid had his arm around her as they snuggled on the couch. Jordy and Ashley were on the floor covered with a big soft blanket. Max sat next to Leah and Kris on the other couch. Lauren and Tyler were on one loveseat and Emily and Geno were on the other.
 “Yeah, I can only take so much cold at a time.” Ashley agreed.
 “Funny you should mention that…” Jordan smiled.
 “Surprise time.” Geno whispered so only Emily could hear. She had forgotten about the surprise he had mentioned the other day.
 “Why?” Ashlen asked, noticing the smiles on the other guys’ faces and instantly wondering what they were thinking.
 “Well we were just thinking you guys might wanna take a little trip…” Max said happily.
 “What kind of trip?” Lauren asked.
 “Like a mini vacation.” Tyler replied.
 “But don’t you guys have games?” Leah asked.
 “That’s the thing,” Sidney started to explain, “We’ve got a couple games coming up down in Florida and we thought, why not bring along our favorite girls and party in between games.”
 “Florida?!” Ashley was obviously excited, “Hell yes! When are we going?!”
 “Well,” Jordan began, “We leave tomorrow morning at 7.”
 “Tomorrow?!” Emily was surprised at how soon it would be. “How long are we staying?”
Sidney took it from there, “Well, we’ll get in Miami Thursday, well tomorrow, afternoon and we’ll be free all the rest of the day. Then Friday we have a game versus the Panthers at five, but we don’t really have to do anything else the rest of the day. Saturday we’ll have to head up to Tampa for the game versus the Lightning at three, but then we’re totally free to party till we leave on Sunday.”
 “It’s not that long and we gotta ‘work’ and stuff, but it should make for some fun in the sun!” Max added with an excited smile.
 “And maybe a little fun after the sun goes down, too, if you know what I mean.” Jordan winked.
 “Oh man.” Sid laughed.

 “So this is why you’ve been so happy lately?” Lauren asked Tyler, who had his arm around her waist.
 “Uh, sure.” He replied with a smile.
 “What do you mean, sure?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.
 “I mean, yeah.” He changed his answer and smiled, “Surprise!”
 “You worry me, babe.” She said but smiled at him, “But I still love you.”
 “And I love you.” He replied and kissed her.

 “You excited?” Sidney asked Ashlen, who was all smiles.
 “Am I ever!” She replied. “How long have you guys been planning this?”
 “Not too long. When we realized we’d be spending a few days down in Florida for games we knew leaving you guys here would suck and a mini vacation for all of us couldn’t hurt.” He said with a grin on his face.
 “It’s gonna be so much fun!” Ashlen smiled and kissed him quickly.
Sid chuckled at her enthusiasm, “You’re telling me!”

Geno pushed a lock of Emily’s hair out of her face and looked in her eyes. She smiled slightly.
 “Was that what you thought the surprise was gonna be?” He asked her. Her smile grew a little bit.
 “No, actually. I had no idea what to expect.” She replied honestly, “I’m glad its this, though. I need a vacation.”
 “Yeah, and I was hoping we’d get some alone time once we get there.” Geno said suggestively. Emily, knowing what he was really trying to say, didn’t know quite what to say herself. She just nodded with a weak grin.
 “That’d be nice.” She managed to tell him. He smiled and kissed her on the lips. Once again her mood had changed, but this time she didn’t know what she was feeling. Or thinking.

Chapter Eighteen;

By the time seven o’clock rolled around, the girls were more than ready to watch the guys play. They had spent the day just chilling and getting to know Ashlen better. They all loved her already and were totally glad she was there. They got her caught up on everything she needed to know about the guys and being apart of their “clan”, as they jokingly called their group of friends.
They all found a seat in front of Mario’s enormous flat screen TV as Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey chatted on FSN on the Penguins Pre-game.
 “Seriously, guys. How totally hot does Steigy look tonight?” Ashley joked and the rest of them cracked up.
 “Oh god, he’s just so sexy. I can’t take it.” Emily added with a laugh.
 “Ya know,” Lauren started to say seriously, “He actually was really cute when he was a kid.”
 “How do you know that?” Ashlen asked as she laughed.
 “They showed a picture one time. He was pretty smokin’ if I do say so myself.” Lauren said honestly but couldn’t help but laugh.
 “Oooh! Shush, my man!” Ashley made them all be quiet as Jordan appeared on the screen. He was getting interviewed by FSN’s own Dan Potash at the bench.
 “So Jordan,” Dan began, “With the regular season a little more than half way over and the Pens occupying first place in the Eastern Conference, does the possibility of another Stanley Cup become anymore evident?”
 “Yeah of course. I think we all knew it was a possibility the moment we won it last year to do it again. We’ve got what it takes and we’ve proved that.” Jordan replied with a professional sounding voice. That was something you’d only hear from him when it involved hockey. All of the guys were serious when it came time to play their game.
 “Well thanks for your time, Jordan.” Dan told him with his signature grin.
 “No problem, Danny.” Jordy replied. Right before he skated out of the shot, he subtly pulled on the collar of his jersey, something most people wouldn’t even notice. Most people who weren’t Ashley, that is.
 “Did you guys see that?!” She asked the rest of the girls. Ashlen was the only one who was confused with what she was talking about exactly, considering it was her first time watching a game with the rest of them. “That was our sign. He pulls on his collar to say hi to me.” She explained, much like every other time Jordan did it. This was the first time in a while her explanation was actually needed though.
 “That’s a cute idea! I’ll have to tell Sid to make a sign for me and him.” Ashlen said.
 “As long as you don’t announce every time he does it, like a certain someone in the room, then you totally should!” Emily joked and Ashley fake pouted at her. They all laughed.
 “Five minutes till the puck drops.” Leah said, noticing the countdown clock in the corner of the television screen.
 “Let‘s go Pens!” Lauren said excitedly.



The game was a fast paced one. All the guys were playing hard, especially Max. It was pretty obvious he was trying to impress someone. Leah blushed at the thought of that someone being her. She still didn’t believe he liked her though.
As for scoring, Max sure backed up his claims of putting on a show with his two goals and an assist on Sidney’s one goal, which he dedicated to Ashlen. Jordan, who scored a short handed goal, also dedicated his goal to his girlfriend by yanking on his collar with a smile on his face seconds after he scored it. He then crossed that off of his to-do list. Geno assisted both of Max’s goals but didn’t score one of his own. TK also assisted on one of Max’s goals and on Jordan’s.
Not only was the offense on the top of it’s game, so was the defense. Nothing was getting past Fleury tonight. The Islanders weren’t getting many shots off, but when they tried they were blocked. The Pens were looking sharp on all angles.
The clock was ticking down its final seconds of the game. It was still four to nothing. Some New York fans were already getting out of their sets and leaving before their loss was official. The guys didn’t stop playing until the final horn sounded. Game over. Pens win.
 “Yeah, bitch!” Ashley cheered as the Islanders skated off of the ice defeated. The Penguins congratulated each other on the game well played and then also left the ice.
 “I’m sensing a Pens repeat.” Ashlen said and they all agreed.
 “No doubt in my mind.” Lauren said. They all just had a feeling.

Chapter Seventeen;

 “Welcome home!” Sidney exclaimed, opening the door of Mario’s mansion and leading Ashlen inside.
 “Oh, wow! This is incredible! You live here?!” Ashlen was shocked with how big and amazingly nice the house was. Sidney chuckled at her enthusiastic reaction and wrapped his arms around her waist.
 “Yepp, and now you do too.” He smiled at her and she laughed out of pure bliss.
 “This is amazing. You’re amazing. Everything is amazing!” She said and kissed him on the lips.
 “That was pretty amazing, too.” Sid grinned as they separated.
 “Yes, yes it was.” Ashlen smiled back at him.
 “So, you ready to meet muh frans?” Sidney asked in a ridiculous girly voice that made Ashlen crack up.
 “I fershurr am!” She replied, attempting to mimic his voice but couldn’t help laughing.
Sidney laughed and picked her up, carrying her like a groom would carry his new bride, and walked towards the room where his friends were said to be waiting according to a few text messages.
When the couple entered the living room, Emily was sitting on one couch with Geno next to Kris and Ashley and Jordan. Lauren was with Tyler on the other couch with Leah and Max, who were finally starting to talk a little more thanks to Emily. And Marc-Andre and Eric were each seated in recliners.
 “Sid-naaay! It’s about time, brothaaa!” Jordan exclaimed with a smile. Ashlen looked at Sidney, who was still holding her, with a amused grin.
 “That’s Jordy.” Sid told her with a laugh. He set her down and began the introductions. “Ashlen, this is Kris, Emily, Geno, Ashley, Jordan,” He said pointing them out as he said their names, “Eric, Marc-Andre, Tyler, Lauren, Leah, and Max, who you’ve already met.”
Ashlen smiled at them all, “Hi, I’m Ashlen.” She said, introducing herself. Everyone smiled and either said hi or some other form of a greeting. Emily and Ashley got up out of their seats, to their boyfriends displeasure, and went up to greet Ashlen personally. Sidney left the three of them alone while they talked.
 “Hi, it’s really nice to finally meet you! Sid talks about you non-stop.” Emily said with a friendly smile.
 “Nice to meet you too! And good things, I hope?” Ashlen replied, looking over at Sidney with a raised eyebrow as she said the last part.
 “Only the best.” Ashley assured her with a laugh. “He totally loves you.”
 “That’s what he says.” Ashlen said with an blissful smile on her face. Emily and Ashley looked at each other with slightly shocked expressions.
 “He told you he loves you?” Emily asked, happy for them if it was true.
 “Yeah, it was the sweetest thing ever!” Ashlen gushed and told them exactly what happened.
 “Oh my gosh, that is the sweetest thing ever!” Ashley agreed after she heard the story.
 “I know, he’s amazing.” Ashlen smiled, staring at him as she said it, “What about you guys? You’re dating Jordan, right?” She asked, referring to Ashley.
 “Yeah,” She nodded with a smile of her own, “He’s amazing too, in his own slightly weird way.” She added with a laugh.
Ashlen then turned to Emily, “And let me guess, you’re with Kris?”
 “Oh, no. No I’m actually dating Geno. Kris is like, my best friend though.” Emily corrected her.
 “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just, you two look like you’d be a super good couple. I don’t know why I thought that.” Ashlen apologized.
 “Don’t worry about it.” Em reassured her that it wasn’t a big deal. She actually liked that she thought her and Kris looked like a good couple.
 “Yeah, everyone thinks they’d make a good couple actually. Except Geno, but ya know.” Ashley added with a laugh.
Emily looked at Ashley, confused. “Everyone thinks we’d be a good couple? Since when?”
 “Since forever and a day.” Ashley shrugged like it was no big deal, “But you and Geno are super cute too, don’t worry.”
 “Oh. Okay.” Emily said, not sure of what else to say.
 “Anyways,” Ashley wanted to change the subject. She didn’t want Ashlen to get some weird impression of them by starting some conversation about Kris and Geno and blahhh. She put on a smile and turned to her new friend, “Welcome to the Burgh!”


 “So you gonna watch me play tonight?” Max asked Leah, not sure what else to say.
Leah giggled, “Of course I am. I watch all of your games.”
Max smiled at her answer, “Well be prepared for this one. You’re in for something special.”
 “Oh, am I?” Leah asked with a smile. She was so happy to be talking to him.
 “Yes you are.” Max nodded, looking in her eyes, “I plan on putting on quite a show, for someone very special. So keep an eye out for me.”
 “Will do.” Leah smiled, wishing she was brave enough to kiss him. Max smiled back and the two were silent, not knowing what else to say as they looked at each other for a while.
 “I like your eyes.” Leah said, breaking the silence but feeling embarrassed as soon as she said it. Max just smiled a little bigger.
 “Thank you.” He said, “I like yours too.”
 “Thanks.” Leah could feel herself blushing.
Just then, Mario Lemieux, himself, walked into the room. He went mostly unnoticed until he spoke up.
 “Boys, we need to get going.” He announced to them all. The guys had to get to leave for New York soon and they didn’t have time to just sit around and hang out.
 “Mario,” Sidney interjected leading Ashlen over to him. “I want you to meet Ashlen.”
 “Hi,” She said nervously as she shook his hand, “It’s so nice to meet you.”
 “You too.” Mario replied with a friendly smile, “Sidney has told me a lot about you. I’m glad he’s finally found himself a great girl, such as yourself.”
 “Wow, thank you. And thank you for letting me stay here. I really appreciate it.” Ashlen said with a smile at his complement.
 “No problem at all. You can just think of this as home.” Mario told her, making her feel, as he said, at home. He then turned to look at each of the guys. “Seriously boys, we need to go.” He said and tapped his finger on his wristwatch.
 “We’re coming, we’re coming.” Sidney insisted with a smirk. Mario smirked back at him with a chuckle.
 “It was nice meeting you, Ashlen.” He said with a smile and continued, “And ladies, feel free to enjoy the place while we’re gone. Nathalie’s around here somewhere if you need anything.”
 “Got it. Thanks Mario.” Emily told him and the rest of the girls thanked him for his hospitality as well.
 “You’re very welcome. See you when we get back.” Mario replied, “I’ll give you boys two minutes to say goodbye. Two minutes.” He said and walked out of the room.
Everyone got back to their own little conversations so the guys could tell their girlfriends goodbye, and the girls could wish their boyfriends good luck.
 “Sucks I have to leave when you just got here.” Sidney said to Ashlen, holding her hands in his.
 “I know, but I’ll be right here waiting for you when you get back.” She replied, looking up into his eyes.
 “Promise?” Sid asked with a smile.
 “Of course! I’m not going anywhere, babe.” Ashlen said, also grinning.
 “Good.” He said and kissed her on the lips. “And I meant what I said earlier, about being in love with you and all.”
Ashlen smiled and hugged him tight, “I know. And I’m in love with you, too.”


 “So when am I gonna find out what the surprise is?” Emily asked Geno. She was sitting on his lap on the couch.
 “Once we get back. And when the guys are ready to tell I guess.” He told her with a smile.
 “Should I be nervous?” Emily asked. She had no idea what to expect from them.
 “Ha, no. It’ll be fun. Don’t worry.” Geno assured her. He kissed her lips and she smiled.
 “Okay. I won’t.”


 “Seriously,” Lauren looked her boyfriend in the eyes, “What are you so excited about?”
 “It’s nothing. I’m just in a good mood. It’s a nice day out.” Tyler shrugged, but Lauren wasn’t buying it.
 “Teek, it’s like 12 degrees outside.” She said, arguing against his excuse of it being a nice day.
 “I like the cold.” He smiled. Lauren rolled her blue eyes.
 “It’s been like that for weeks and you weren’t ever this happy.” She said. She really wanted to know what was up with him, but he wouldn’t give in. He was being stubborn. “Just tell me what’s up.”
 “It’s nothing.” Tyler tried to get her to quit, but she was persistent.
 “It has to be something. Are you excited to be away from me? Is that it?” She was becoming aggravated with his secret.
 “No, no, no! Laur, babe, I love you. So, so, so, so much! Believe me, trust me. Let’s just say there’s gonna be a surprise. Please don’t be mad at me for trying to make you happy.” Tyler said with his hand on her cheek. She looked up at him and a smile sprouted on her face.
 “Okay, I’m not mad at you. And I love you too. I just worry when you start acting weird cause I don’t know what you’re thinking.” Lauren said.
 “But if you knew what I was thinking, then the surprise would be ruined.” TK replied with a grin.
 “Oh jeez. What kind of surprise is it?” She asked, not too fond of the idea of a surprise at all.
 “One that you’ll like a whole freaking lot.” Tyler chuckled, “Or at least you better or I’ll be a very, very depressed man.”
 “Oh, well if that’s so then I promise I’ll love it.” Lauren told him and kissed him.
 “I hope so.”


 “Bitch, I’m gonna miss you.” Jordan said to Ashley. She smiled.
 “I’m gonna miss you too, Asshole.” She replied, making him smile as well.
 “I love you, Ash.” Jordan told her. His arms were wrapped around her, holding her close to him.
 “I love you too, Jordy.” She replied and kissed him. “Play like a champion tonight. Kay?”
 “Um, last time I checked I was a champion. So playing like one is, like, a given. It happens naturally.” Jordan said jokingly confident in himself.
 “Alright then, go out there and play naturally. Score some goals for me.” Ash smiled up at him.
 “I’ll put that on my to-do list.” He winked and smiled back.
 “You best put it at the top of that list.” Ashley warned him.
 “The very top is where it shall be.”


 “So,” Leah started, looking at Max with a small smile on her face, “Good luck tonight. I’ll be keeping an eye out for you.”
 “Thanks,” He replied, “You’re in for a show.”
 “Can’t wait.” Leah said. The two of them were silent for a moment.
 “So did anyone tell you about the surprise the guys were planning?” Max finally asked her. She shook her head no.
 “Not that I can remember.” She said. “What is it?”
 “Well, I can’t really say. But are you going to be free the rest of the week?” Max asked, trying not to give anything away.
 “Yeah I should be.” Leah told him. He smiled at her answer.
 “Okay, good.” He said. “It’s gonna be fun.”


Kris looked around the room at his friends and teammates. It made him sick watching the couples hug and kiss and act all flirty with each other. Particularly Emily and Geno. He was trying to be patient and wait for her to dump his ass, but it was hard and he didn’t know how long it would actually take. The fact that Kris would wait forever to be with her, didn’t mean he actually wanted to wait that long.
 “What’s wrong, Tanger?” Eric asked him with a smirk, noticing his gloomy expression. “Don’t got anyone to kiss goodbye?”
 “If I’m not mistaken, you don’t have anyone either.” Kris replied, trying to sound a little more lighthearted than he was feeling.
 “And I’m okay with that.” Godard chuckled, sounding blissful.
 “What’s gotten into you?” Kris asked.
 “Life, man. You should try it.” He replied with a smile.
 “Are you high or something?” Kris wasn’t sure what was up with him, but it was different than how he usually acted.
 “Ha, no! I’m just living my life without worries. No sulking around about useless shit. Just enjoying every breath I take and making the most of every second. You only got one life. Might as well live it up.”
 “Easy for you to say.” Kris sighed, taking a glance over in Emily’s direction.
 “Yeah it is easy for me to say. Wanna know why?” Eric asked him with a look on his face that said he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
 “Sure.” Kris didn’t fight it.
 “Cause someone very close to me told me something that changed my life. And now I’m gonna tell it to you, and I’m gonna change your life.” Eric said, looking Kris in the eyes.
 “Okay, I doubt that but go ahead anyway.” He told him, feeling kind of awkward.
 “Everyone wants to be happy, right? Right. But everyone tries too hard to be happy. I’m here to tell you that it’s not worth the trouble. Skip the drama of chasing that great girl you just can’t have, or the hassle of finding the perfect house to live in. Man, happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it eludes you. But if you just focus on other stuff it will eventually come right up and land on your shoulder.” Eric placed his hand on Kris’s shoulder as he spoke, “Look at me, man. I’m not stressing about nothing. I’m just enjoying my life the way it is, and that beautiful butterfly I like to call happiness is perched upon my shoulder. Right now. It’s there and it’s not going anywhere. I’m happy, man. You need to take my advice.”
Kris was quiet for a moment, Eric figured because he was taking in his little speech.
 “Seriously, you sound like a stoner right now. Are you sure you’re not high?” Kris asked, a little disturbed by Godard’s weird behavior.
 “Man, if I’m high, then it’s on life.” Eric said with a smile, “But seriously, Tanger. Just think about what I said.”
 “Okay, sure. I won’t forget it.” Kris said, trying to get him to lay off. Hearing about how happy Eric was wasn’t making him feel any happier himself.
 “Good. Now we better get outta here before Mario starts the jet up without us.” Eric told him and then spoke up for everyone in the room to hear. “Let’s go guys! Two minutes is most likely up. Kisses to the misses, see yinz when we get back!” And with that being said, Eric walked out of the room and to where Mario was waiting outside.
 “What’s he on?” Jordan asked with a laugh.
 “I don’t know. He was talking about some butterfly happiness shit.” Kris said rolling his eyes.
 “So our tough guy's a pansy now? That’s just great, considering how well the rest of us are at hockey fights.” Sidney said, looking directly at Jordan during the last comment.
 “Hey!” He protested.
 “Whatever guys. He’s right that we have to leave so let’s go.” Marc-Andre said, laughing to himself at his teammates.
The girls said their final goodbyes to their boyfriends. Kris rolled his eyes again, not seeing why they were making such a big deal. They had away games they couldn’t come to all the time. Just cause Sid’s new girlfriend was here didn’t mean everyone needed to kiss any more than usual.
As dumb as Eric’s happiness speech had sounded, Kris decided to take his advice and not “chase” after Emily to say goodbye. He was walking towards the exit, following Fleury, when he heard his name being called.
 “Kris, come here!” Emily called after him. Geno didn’t have the most pleased look on his face as he stood next to her, but he didn’t say anything to protest. Kris turned around and Emily ran up to him and gave him a hug. “Don’t even think about leaving without telling me goodbye!” She laughed, making Kris smile.
 “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He said. If happiness really was a butterfly, then Emily must be some kind of big beautiful flower that butterflies are attracted to because when Kris was with her, he couldn’t be any happier.

Chapter Sixteen;

Day Five ;


It was finally Tuesday. Sidney drove to the airport extra early to wait for Ashlen’s flight to arrive. When he got there he went straight to the gate where her plane let off. He signed a few autographs for traveling Pens fans that noticed him while he waited. Finally, after waiting for what seemed like years, the door that led to the plane opened.
 “Sidney!” Ashlen yelled, running up to him after being the first passenger to step off of the plane.
 “Ashlen!” He yelled back with the biggest smile possible on his face. Ashlen dropped her bags at her feet and engulfed him in a huge hug.
A few bystanders awed at the couple’s reunion. It was obvious to just about everyone that the two had missed each other more than anything and were even happier to see each other again.
 “You’re even more beautiful than I remembered.” Sidney told her, holding her face in his hands. She looked into his eyes and smiled.
 “They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.” She said, wanting to kiss him so badly. They were so close.
 “Well I think they’re right. I thought I might be in love you before,” Sidney started to say in the sweetest voice and right before he closed the small gap between their lips to place his on hers, he said, “And now I know I am.”



Emily was sprawled across her bed with her phone pressed to her ear. On the other line was Geno, who she had been casually talking to for the past half-hour. She had her iPod plugged into its dock so that it played music quietly as she talked to her boyfriend.
 “So what time do you guys have to leave for New York?” Emily asked Geno.
 “In about two hours.” He replied. “I really wish you could come.”
 “I know, me too. I’m gonna miss you.”
 “Same here. But I think the guys are planning something that you and the rest of the girls are gonna like. I wasn’t suppose to say anything about it, so that’s all I can say now.” Geno told her and she smiled, thinking of what they could possibly be planning.
 “That sounds exciting. Surprises are fun.” Emily laughed.
 “Especially this one.” Evgeni added.
 “Oooh! Now I’m super excited.”
 “You should be.”
 “Trust me, I am.” Emily smiled. She stretched her legs out, still lying on her bed.
 “So, you still listening to music?” Geno asked her. She had told him she was earlier on in their conversation.
 “Yup.”
 “What song?”
 “Sand in Your Shoes, by This Providence.” Emily said as the song played in the background.
 “That’s a good one.” Geno replied.
 “It sure is.” Emily laughed quietly to herself. She was still tired but Sid called all the girls and made them wake up so they were ready when Ashlen came. They were gonna go to Mario’s to watch the game since they couldn’t all fly to New York. Sid wanted Ashlen to feel welcome and he kept stressing that to everyone. Emily didn’t think making her feel welcome would be a problem. From what Sidney told her about her, Ashlen seemed super nice and fun to be with. She’d fit right in.
 “You should of seen Sid this morning before he left for airport. He was freaking out. He wanted to look perfect to see Ashlen.” Geno said with a laugh as he thought about how crazy Sidney had acted.
 “Aw, I think it’s cute. He really likes her, doesn’t he?” Emily asked.
 “He really does. I’m glad he finally found someone he cares about that much. He always had trouble finding good girls.”
 “He certainly did have trouble with that.” Emily chuckled, remembering some of the past failures of girls he had been with. “But, it can be really hard to find the right person sometimes.”
 “Yeah.” Geno said with a smile in his voice. “I must be really lucky.”



Lauren’s phone buzzed next to her head, startling her out of her daydream she was having. She had been awake for a little while, thanks to Sidney, but didn’t want to get up yet. She opened her phone and saw she had received a text message from Tyler.

From: Tyler<3 :]
Good morning beautiful(:

Lauren smiled at the sweet words on the screen and typed up a response.

To: Tyler<3 :]
Morning handsome ;) Call me!

Not surprisingly, about a minute later Tyler’s picture showed up on the screen as it vibrated since he was calling.
 “Good morning.” Lauren greeted him when she answered.
 “Yes it is.” Tyler replied happily.
 “Sounds like somebody’s in a good mood today.” Lauren chuckled.
 “If that somebody you’re talking about is me, then you are correct.”
 “What’s got into you?” Lauren asked him, amused with how lighthearted he sounded.
 “Ah, nothing. I’m just excited.” He replied, still sounding just as happy as before.
 “For what? The game?” She was a little confused.
 “Sure.” Tyler went with that for now.
 “Sure?” Lauren asked, not sure what he meant by that.
 “Sure.” Tyler repeated with a chuckle.
 “Okay then.” Lauren gave up and changed the subject, “So am I gonna see you before you guys leave?”
 “If you’re ready and get to Mario’s within the next two hours, then yes you will.”
 “Then ready I will be.” Lauren stated with a smile.
 “Okay then, I guess I’ll see you there.” Tyler said, starting to end the conversation.
 “Yes you will.”



 “I’m in love with Emily.” Kris finishing by saying, looking anywhere but Boucher’s face. Kris was at his house explaining a lot of what was going on between him and Emily, leaving out most of the details they both promised not to tell anyone. But he felt that since she had Max to talk to about him, he deserved someone to talk to about her. Philippe was the most sensible choice. He was one of Kris’s best friends, he knew he could trust him to keep a secret, and he would be sure to have good advice. Only thing was, Kris didn’t know how he would respond to it all.
 “It’s about time you admitted it.” Philippe chuckled causing Kris to look at him, confused.
 “You knew?” Kris asked him, not recalling ever mentioning how he felt to him before.
 “Well, I knew you loved her. I didn’t know you told her that, but now I do. I’m happy for you, Tanger.” Boucher said with a smile on his face. Kris half smiled back. All he really told him was that he went over to her house, they got in that little argument, he told her he was in love with her and she said it back and they kissed, he skipped the sex and went straight to watching movies and the rest of the stuff they did, claiming that he simply stayed the night there.
 “Thanks. I just wish I could be with her, ya know?” Kris said with a sigh.
 “Well, from what you told me it sure sounds like she wants to be with you too.” Bouch said trying to cheer him up.
 “Yeah, but there’s Geno…”
 “But she’s in love with you.” He pointed out, “I highly doubt she would tell you that if she didn’t mean it.”
 “I know but we have to be all secretive about it, and I don’t like that.” Kris said honestly.
 “What’s Geno gonna do if he finds out?” Philippe asked as if the answer was nothing.
 “Murder me.” Kris replied flatly.
 “No he wouldn’t.” Bouch laughed at the idea.
 “Trust me, he would. He’s really protective of her. He likes her a lot.” Kris said, getting angry talking about it.
 “It’s not like she can help who she loves. He can’t kill you for being the one. You guys just spent some time together and realized your true feelings. It‘s not a big deal.” Phil tried comforting him. It was working, at first. “It’s not like you slept with her or anything.”
Kris hid his face in his hands at that last comment. He was sure to know now.
 “Oh. I take it that you did?” Boucher said awkwardly.
Kris looked up at him with eyes drained of emotion and nodded.
 “Well, then. I take back that last remark.” Bouch said, not sure of what to say.
 “What do I do?” Kris asked finally.
After a moment of thought Philippe replied, “Wait for her. She said she wanted to be with you, right?” Kris nodded and Bouch continued, “Then wait for her to break up with Geno. She’s a good girl, watching out for his feelings. Just give her a little time and then you two can live happily ever after.”
 “You really believe that?” Kris asked him.
 “Yeah, I really do. You two are meant for each other. Something’s gonna happen and you’ll be together in no time.”
 “How can you be so sure?”
 “I just gotta feeling.”

Chapter Fifteen;

Kris and Emily laughed as they drove away from the store.
 “How insanely ridiculous was that?” Emily laughed, just thinking about everything that happened.
 “Very.” Kris replied, “I better call TK and let him know we left.”
 “Good idea.” She said.
Kris dialed Tyler’s number and waited for him to answer.
 “Hello?” TK’s voice finally said.
 “Hey, me and Emily just wanted to let you guys know that we all left.” Kris told him, making Emily chuckle to herself at how he said it.
 “Okay?” Tyler replied.
 “Yeah, so you’ll have to take Laur and all the stuff back in your truck.” Kris added.
 “Okay, no problem.” He said, “You guys sure made a mess back here, ya know.”
 “Trust me, we know. Just don’t let anyone know you know it was us.” Kris told him.
 “I won’t say a word. But I gotta go. Talk to you later.” Tyler said and hung up the phone.
Kris shrugged, putting his phone back in his pocket. He then turned to look at Emily, whose eyes were focused on the road while her lips formed into a small smile.
 “What?” Kris asked curious as to why she was smiling.
 “Oh, nothing.” She said, not losing focus.
 “It must be something.” He tried.
 “Well, to be honest, I don’t know what it is. I just feel happy, is all. I have this strange, but good feeling and I’m happy.” Emily told him with a smile plastered on her face as she looked at him while they were stopped at a traffic light.
 “Well, that’s good. That’s really good.” Kris smiled back at her, glad to hear her say that.
 “Yeah, it is.” She agreed. She really wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt so overjoyed with life. It could have been from the crazy experience they just underwent. Or maybe it was being alone with Kris again. Anything was possible, but she didn’t really care what was causing it. When life gives you lemons, don’t question it, just enjoy them.
 “You can put on the radio if you want.” Emily told Kris after a little while. He nodded and turned it on 96.1, where the Pittsburgh version of I’m In Miami Trick by LMFAO was finishing up playing.
 “So, what exactly were you trying to prove with the whole ‘you smell good’ thing back before Max destroyed the baby isle?” Kris chuckled thinking about it.
 “I wasn’t trying to prove anything, just looking for reactions.” Emily replied, “Plus, you do smell good.”
 “Oh I see. Well, thanks then.” He said.
 “Yup.”
A second later the song changed to one that was familiar to both of them. Secret Valentine by We the Kings. Emily looked over at Kris, who was looking back at her with a smirk on his face.
 “Are you thinking of us?” She asked, remembering the night they chose the song as their own.
 “Yeah,” He nodded, “And it’s amazing.”



Lauren and Tyler finished putting the grocery bags in the back of his truck and they both got in in front.
 “I’m glad we’re the responsible ones. We got all the grocery shopping done, while all the rest of them did was break things and get in trouble.” Lauren said, shutting the passenger door of the black truck.
 “You’d never guess they were all in their twenties.” Tyler chuckled. He started up the engine and got ready to pull out of the parking lot.
 “Immature, is what they are.” Lauren joked.
 “Exactly.” Tyler agreed with a smirk.
As the couple drove through the snowy city streets, they were mostly silent. Not awkwardly silent, more like peacefully silent. They didn’t have to talk to enjoy the time they spent together.
The truck came to a stop behind other cars while the red light shined overhead. Tyler turned to face his girlfriend and just smiled. Lauren smiled back, not sure what he was thinking but had a feeling it was something good.



 “Ya know, I feel like I accomplished something today.” Jordan said to Ashley as they drove down the road towards his place.
 “What exactly did you accomplish?” Ashley laughed at him.
 “I don’t know, I guess doing something daring and badass and got away with it. And it was kinda fun.” He explained proudly but Ashley just laughed again.
 “Oh please! You didn’t do that on purpose. You just accidentally did something bad and got scared of getting in trouble so you ran away.” She told him and he pouted.
 “Thanks for shitting on my new found pride!” He said as if he were appalled.
 “Shitting on your pride? What the hell, Jordan?” Ashley cracked up at his word choice.
 “You know what I mean! You demoralized me. It’s like you took a big fat shit on my self-esteem and how badass I am.”
 “Okay, first of all, you’re disgusting.” She said with a smirk, “Second of all, you aren’t that badass in the first place so get over it.”
 “What? I am totally badass!” He protested. Ashley rolled her eyes.
 “Oh yeah? Prove it.”
 “Well first off, did you not see my hardcore, totally badass hockey fight yesterday?” He asked her as if it were a given.
 “That was so not badass at all! You and Ginge were just laughing at each other the whole time until you slipped and fell on top of him!”
Jordan scowled at her. “Oh yeah, well what about the time I got arrested?” He said, bringing up the result of his older brother Eric’s bachelor party gone awry.
 “Jordy, you and like twenty other guys were just being loud and annoying early in the morning. How is that badass?” Ashley asked.
 “It’s badass cause we got in trouble with the police! And don’t forget I was only eighteen and I was drinking. That’s two charges in one. So badass!” He said, bringing up his pride in himself again, only to have it knocked back down by his girlfriend.
 “Puh-lease. Like you’re the only teenager who’s ever gotten drunk? And you didn’t even spend the night in jail like your brother and his friends.” Ashley wanted to laugh at the expression on his face, but tried to stay sounding serious, even though she was just messing with him. “Just face it, babe. You are not badass.”
 “That hurts. Right here. That is an intense bitch slap in the face.” Jordan said, shaking his head side to side.
 “Aw, I didn’t mean to make you cry, babe.” Ashley said and placed her hand on his arm. “I still love you.”
Jordan glanced at her for a moment and his face showed signs of a smile coming. “That helps a little. It doesn’t sting as bad anymore.” He said and kissed her lips, stopping the car when they came to a stop sign.
 “Good. You don’t need to be a badass for my love.” Ashley said with a grin.
 “That’s reassuring,” He replied with a chuckle, “But I will eventually prove to you that I really am badass.”
 “I’ll believe it when I see it.”



 “I’m super excited for tomorrow morning!” Ashlen exclaimed, nearly jumping up and down with her phone pressed to her ear as she talked to Sidney.
 “So am I! It’s torture without you here, seriously.” Sid said dramatically, making Ashlen smile.
 “Trust me, it’s just as bad here without you. Probably worse, actually.” She said, falling back onto her bed. She was exhausted from packing and saying her goodbyes to her friends and family. Plus the fact that she stayed up extra late talking to Sidney each night.
 “How did we survive without each other?” Sidney asked melodramatically.
 “I honestly have no idea.” Ashlen responded.
 “I’m having a hard time keeping myself from heading to the airport right now to wait for you. I miss you more than anyone’s ever missed someone else before in the history of the universe.” Sidney gushed making her smile.
 “The whole universe? Sidney, you flatter me.” She laughed, laying on the bed with her eyes closed. She tried imagining she was with Sidney as they spoke. It wasn’t quite the same as really being with him, but it was better than nothing.
Sid chuckled. Even hundreds of miles apart, no one made him smile like she did. “I try.”

Chapter Fourteen;

Day Four ;


The next morning Emily woke up at about 10. She got dressed and ready for the day and then walked out to find Lauren sitting at the kitchen table with a frown on her face.
 “What’s wrong?” Emily asked as she walked over to her sister.
 “We have nothing to eat.” Lauren said.
 “Well I was planning on going grocery shopping sometime soon. I guess today would be a good day. There’s nothing else to do.”
 “We should invite the guys too! They don’t have practice until tonight.” Lauren added excitedly.
 “Invite them grocery shopping?” Emily asked, thinking how boring the task is and doubting they would want to go.
 “Yeah, they’d make it fun!” Lauren said as she sent Tyler a text asking him to come.
 “I guess that’s true.” Emily shrugged and texted Ashley telling her to bring Jordan and meet them at Walmart.
 “I’ll tell Max to come.” Lauren said as she texted him.
 “Is Leah gonna be able to come?” Emily asked, more for Max than for herself.
 “No she’s working today.” Lauren replied, oblivious as to why she had asked.
 “Oh okay.” Emily said. She was hoping she’d be able to start helping Max and Leah get closer soon, but today just wasn’t gonna be the day for that. She texted Geno and told him about the plans to all meet up, and wondered whether or not inviting Kris was a good idea. After a minute of thought she decided to invite him too. He was her best friend after all, and Geno would have to respect that.


Everyone that was invited showed up to Walmart at around noon. It was Emily, Lauren, Ashley, Jordan, Tyler, Geno, Max, and Kris. Sidney opted not to go because, one; he didn’t feel like getting noticed by a bunch of random Pens fans, and two; he was too distracted with texting Ashlen.
 “Wow, party at Walmart! We’re cool!” Ashley exclaimed as they all walked inside.
 “Yes we are.” Emily agreed, even though her friend was being sarcastic. It wasn’t very crowded inside the big store, but there was a fair amount of people. “Laur, you and TK go get some food.” She instructed her sister and pushed a cart to her.
 “Okay.” Lauren agreed and her and Tyler went off on their own to shop.
 “And what do we do?” Max asked. He was disappointed when he found out Leah wasn’t coming, but tried not to show it.
 “Have fun!” Emily and Ashley laughed.
 “How do you intend on doing that?” Jordan asked them.
 “Trust me, there are a million fun things you can do here. You just gotta be wild and crazy and just mess around.” Ashley replied, grabbing a hold of his hand. “Come on.”
Emily grabbed Geno’s hand the way Ashley had and the two girls led the guys back where the kids toys and stuff were.
 “Oooh! Check it out!” Ashley exclaimed as she found a karaoke machine. She grabbed the microphone and sang into it. “I’m hot! You’re cold! You go around, like you know! Who I am! La la la!”
 “American Idol!” Emily laughed at her friend who couldn’t even remember the words to the song and sang it dramatically.
 “You know it!” Ashley laughed.
 “My turn!” Max yelled and grabbed the mic and started to sing the first thing that came to his head, “He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy, he wasn’t good enough for her!”
 “Wow you’re awful!” Jordan laughed.
 “Like you could do better.” Max shook his head comically.
 “I’m pretty sure anyone could do better.” Kris joked and Max just smirked at him.
 “You wanna give it a go, Tanger?” He asked with a chuckle.
 “I’ll pass.” He replied.
 “Suit yourself.”


Meanwhile, Tyler and Lauren were over in the food isles filling up their cart.
 “This looks good.” Lauren commented as she threw a box of cereal into the shopping cart.
 “What do you think the rest of them are doing?” Tyler asked her as he pushed the cart along side her as they walked.
 “I don’t know. They’re probably messing around.” She said, rolling her eyes.
 “True.” He agreed.


 “Marco!” Max called out, eyes closed and arms out in front of him.
 “Polo!” The rest of them yelled back laughing. Max tried to go in the direction he heard their voices without much luck. He kept running into the shelves.
 “Marco!” He yelled again.
 “Polly!” Ashley said back.
 “Babe, it’s Polo.” Jordan told her with a laugh.
 “She never seemed to get that.” Emily shook her head at the memories.
 “Where are you guys?! Marco!” Max asked as the rest of them hid behind a random display.
As he walked out of the isle he was in, he ran right into an old man.
 “Oh, sorry sir!” Max apologized, opening his eyes. The man just glared and walked away slowly. They all laughed at him.
 “Wow you suck.” Jordan told him with a smile.
 “Whatever. New game!” Max said, sick of playing Marco Polo.
 “Let’s do piggy back rides!” Ashley suggested.
 “Hop on, babe.” Jordan said letting her on his back. Geno did the same for Emily who laughed as she wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on. It made Kris jealous.
 “Looks like I’m riding you, buddy.” Max smirked at Kris, who wasn’t too fond of the idea.
 “No way.” He said, crossing his arms.
 “Come on, Kris.” Emily begged him. He couldn’t say no to that.
 “Ugh, fine.” He sighed and Max jumped on his back.
 “Giddy up!” Max yelled, drawing a bit of attention to them.
 “I’ll drop you.” Kris threatened him.
 “I feel so tall!” Ashley laughed.
 “I know, right?” Emily agreed. Both Jordan and Geno were at least 6 foot 3, so being on their backs put them pretty high up.
 “This is ridiculous. Get off of me.” Kris told Max after they received a few dirty looks from other shoppers.
 “You’re no fun!” Max complained as Kris let him fall to the ground, landing on his feet.
All six of them walked over to where the sports equipment was. Ashley and Emily, who were still on Jordan and Evgeni’s backs, got down off of them.
Max noticed the hockey stuff and smiled. “Dude we’re playing.” He said and grabbed a stick.
 “I call Ash and Tanger.” Jordan said, picking his team and grabbed himself a stick.
 “Alright. Ends of the isle is the goal.” Max told everyone.
 “Kris you be goalie.” Ashley told him and he agreed.
 “Max, you too.” Emily instructed him. He nodded and got into his position. Jordan found a bright orange street hockey puck and got ready to drop it.
 “Let the game begin!”


 “Which one, Scooby Doo or Spiderman?” Lauren asked Tyler, holding up two boxes of shaped macaroni. Tyler chuckled.
 “That’s a real tough one.” He said, putting his hand on his chin as if he were thinking hard about it.
 “Well, I suppose getting both wouldn’t hurt.” Lauren shrugged and dropped them in the cart.
 “Good idea.” TK smiled and put his arms around her waist and kissed her out of nowhere. Lauren giggled when they separated.
 “What was that for?” She asked smiling.
 “For being beautiful and wonderful and amazing.” Tyler smiled back.
 “Awe!” Lauren exclaimed at how romantic he was being and kissed him again.


 “Take that, bitches!” Jordan high-fived Ashley as he scored his first goal on Max.
 “You’re still down 5-2.” Geno pointed out.
 “Don’t ruin my moment!” Jordy glared at him and Ashley laughed.
 “Good shot, babe.” She told him.
 “Thank you!” He replied loudly.
 “Whatever, drop the puck so we can kick your asses some more!” Max said from his spot in the invisible goal net.
Emily and Ashley laughed as they took the face off. Emily won it and got it to Geno, who deked past Jordy easily and shot it past Kris.
 “What now, ho?” Emily laughed at Jordan, making Geno smile.
 “6-2. You wanna call it a game, Jordy?” Max asked him with a smirk.
 “Hell no! We’re coming back with a vengeance!” He replied, not giving up just yet.
 “Fine by me.” Max replied and got ready as Jordy and Geno went head to head for the face off.
Jordan took it and fired a shot as hard as he could towards Max. The puck tipped off of Geno’s stick and flew full speed high in the air out of the isle, knocking something over in the distance.
 “Oh shit!” Jordan said and quickly put his stick back with the rest of them. He grabbed Ashley’s hand and ran, with everyone else following and laughing the whole way to the beauty supplies area.
 “Dude, what did you hit?!” Kris asked Jordan as he laughed about it.
 “I don’t know! But I heard a crash!” He replied.
 “You better hope it wasn’t anything important. They got cameras in here, ya know.” Emily told him. Geno had his arms around her waist and was standing behind her.
 “It’s not a big deal. I bet no one even noticed.” Jordan said, shrugging. Just then, a couple of Walmart employees walked past the isle they were standing in.
 “Yeah, it was a hockey puck!” A middle aged man with a large grey mustache said to his coworker.
 “Those damn kids.” The other one said, shaking his head with disappointment.
Once the workers past their isle, they all burst out in laughter.
 “Yeah, Jordy. No one noticed.” Emily mocked him.
 “Well they don’t know it was us! They think it’s some kids!” He tried defending himself.
 “I don’t know about you guys, but I wanna know what he hit.” Ashley laughed.
 “Me too. Let’s go check it out before they get it cleaned up.” Max added and they all started walking out of the makeup isle towards where the puck seemed to have went. As they turned a corner, a huge puddle of water on the floor was an automatic sign of what Jordan hit.
 “Oh shit!” He exclaimed. On the floor in front of them was the remains of a large glass fish tank, broken in pieces with the little sea rocks and everything. Including the bright orange puck.
 “Oh my god! Jordan!” Ashley whisper yelled at him for causing the mess. She didn’t wanna be too obvious that it was him since a janitor had just come up near them. He had a mop to clean up some of the water, but it was a pretty big tank and the water was everywhere.
 “Excuse me, sir.” Emily said walking up to him, trying not to step on the glass. The man looked up from his moping. “Were there any fish in there when it broke?” She hadn’t noticed any fish on the ground, but was worried that they could’ve died because of them.
 “No, ma’am. They were getting ready to put some of them new ones in that there tank later though. Lucky they didn’t do it before those hooligans came along and did this here mess.” The old man said bitterly, shaking his head like he was ashamed.
 “Oh. Well I’m sure it was an accident.” Emily replied, thankful that no fish were harmed.
 “Accident, shmaccident. There ain’t no excuses for those demons. Break expensive stuff and then Ol’ Jimmy gotta get his mop out and clean it up? I don‘t think so, no ma‘am I don’t.” He said, referring to himself and pointing to the mop. Emily slowly backed away from him as he mumbled angrily to himself.
 “Sounds like Ol’ Jimmy’s pissed at you, Jordy.” Max laughed quietly, still standing near the destruction.
 “It’s not just my fault!” Jordan said. They all just looked at him with their arms crossed and eyebrows raised. “Okay, it was. But he doesn’t know it was so he can’t be mad at me.”
 “Don’t look now, but I think he just found out.” Kris said. They all turned to look in the direction he was. Ol’ Jimmy was looking at a picture another employee showed him with a furious look on his face. He looked up at Jordan and pointed at him.
 “You! Demon boy! You did this!” Jimmy yelled. Jordan’s eyes widened.
 “Run!” Ashley whispered and grabbed his hand. The six of them took off running through the random isles, not knowing whether the crazy old man was following them or not.


 “So where’s you guys’ game at tomorrow?” Lauren asked Tyler as they continued looking for food to get.
 “New York. Playing the Islanders.” He replied with a smile.
 “Easy win.” Lauren laughed.
 “I hope.” TK said, “It’s hard playing when I know you’re not there.”
 “Aw, well I’ll be watching the whole time.” She said. It was beginning to come to her attention how much more romantic and sweet Tyler was being lately. Not that she minded. She actually really liked his new ‘attitude’.
 “And I’ll be thinking of you the whole time.” He added.
 “No, you’ll be focusing on the game the whole time. And then once you win you’ll be thinking of me.” Lauren corrected him with a smile. He chuckled at how supportive she was of his hockey career. She didn’t like to interfere with his games and mess him up. She wanted him to do the absolute best he could and she didn’t want to stop him from doing that.
 “Whatever you say, babe.”


 “We’re screwed.” Max said. They were hiding out in the baby supplies isle near the back of the store. Max was pacing back and forth. Geno and Emily were sitting on the floor across from Jordan and Ashley.
 “He’ll never find us. It‘s a big store and he‘s got a mess to clean up. It‘ll take him hours.” Jordan said, sounding sure of himself.
 “I like how you don’t even care that you did that. I don‘t blame him for being mad.” Kris said, smirking down at Jordan.
 “Neither do I. You’re lucky there weren’t any fish in there or else I woulda beat you myself.” Emily told him.
 “Whatever.” Jordan replied, not having anything else to say.
 “Kris, sit.” Emily told him, pointing to a spot next to her. He seemed uncomfortable with her and Geno being together, and she wanted him to be able to relax and not think about it.
Kris hesitantly sat down on the ground next to her. Geno didn’t seem to mind as much as Kris thought he would. The only thing he did was grab Emily’s hand in his to show she was his.
 “You smell really good.” Emily told Kris with a friendly smile, and put her head on his shoulder for a moment.
 “Thanks.” He replied, not sure of what she was doing. He did know that Geno wasn’t liking it.
 “Mhm.” She replied. She was really just trying to see what Evgeni’s reaction would be. She wasn’t trying to make him mad or anything, just curious as to what he’d do. Kris was her best friend and if Geno couldn’t accept that, it could be a good thing to use when the time came to break up with him.
Ashley and Jordan looked at her weird. She ignored them and slowly sat back up straight.
 “We’re gonna have to get out of here sometime.” Max said, unaware of what was going on down on the ground. He was standing, looking for a way to go without getting caught.
 “Way to pick a hiding spot as far away from the exit as possible.” Emily said, looking at Jordan and Ashley.
 “We weren’t thinking, we were just running.” Ashley told her, obviously amused by all this.
Max started to climb up the shelves full of things that would make great gifts at a baby shower. He spotted an opening near the top he could look through for a safe way out.
 “You see anything?” Geno asked him once he was at the top.
 “Yeah, there’s a clear path to the exit.” Max replied and started to climb down. “If we hurry it shou…”
Just then Max’s foot slipped. His natural reaction was to grab something to catch himself with, so he grabbed a shelf. It tipped towards him, everything falling off of the shelves. The shelf’s itself didn’t fall completely, just catching itself on the other side of the isle, forming a crooked letter V. All of their jaws dropped.
 “Shit.”
Max was on the ground covered in baby bottles and other weird things for pregnant women. Luckily he wasn’t hurt.
 “We need to get out of here right now.” Emily said, grabbing both Geno and Kris’s hands and quickly walking away from the huge mess Max had just created.
Jordan grabbed his hand and helped him up and quickly followed Emily and them along with Ashley and Max.


Lauren and Tyler quickly looked in the direction the big crash they heard came from. It was near the back of the store and sounded like it was bad.
 “What’s with all the crashes in here today?” Lauren asked, after that being the second one they heard so far.
 “I don’t know.” Tyler replied, “You don’t think…?”
 “No, it couldn’t have been them.” Lauren said, knowing what he was implying. “Could it?”


 “We made it!” Max exclaimed in triumph once they reached the parking lot safely without being spotted. They were all standing around where they parked their cars, which was all in the same area.
 “You do realize we can, like, never go back there again.” Ashley said, half serious half laughing.
 “Laur and TK are gonna have to be our permanent Walmart shoppers.” Jordan said.
 “Oh my god, I forgot about them!” Emily said and pulled out her cell, dialing Lauren’s number.
It rang a few times and then Lauren’s voice answered.
 “Hey, where are you guys?” She asked, knowing it was Emily who called.
 “Outside. Are you guys almost done? We need to get out of here.” Emily told her.
 “Yeah we’re checking out. Why do you need to…” Lauren paused, realizing something, “Oh my god, did you guys break all that stuff?!”
 “Well, technically it was just Jordan and Max. But yeah, so hurry up or we’re leaving without you.” She told her and then hung up.
 “Hate to bail on you guys, but I’m getting the hell out of here before crazy Ol’ Jim comes out here and finds us.” Max said about to get in his car.
 “Yeah, same here. He knows my face, I can’t hide from him.” Jordan said, grabbing Ashley’s hand and going to his car.
 “Fine, be that way.” Emily said to them. Then turned to face Geno and Kris. “You’re not leaving, are you?”
 “Not until you do.” They both said.
 “Good.” She replied, then looked to the entrance of the store to see if Lauren and Tyler were coming yet.
 “Isn’t that…?” Kris started to say.
 “Ol’ Jimmy!” Emily nearly yelled, seeing the old janitor walking out of the store with an evil looking glare on his face.
 “Time to go?” Geno asked.
 “Time to go.” Emily nodded. “I’ll talk to you later.” She said, giving him a hug and a quick kiss. He then went to his car.
 “I came with TK, I can’t take his car.” Kris told Emily as she was about to get in her own.
 “Then get in.” She told him, pointing to the passenger seat of her BMW. She was hurrying since Jimmy was walking towards them and he knew what she looked like from when she talked to him.
Kris nodded and got in the car. She quickly started it up and pulled out just before Ol’ Jimmy could get a good look at her.

Chapter Thirteen;

It was around six thirty by the time everyone who was coming got to Sid’s, or rather Mario’s house. The guest list consisted of Max, Jordan, Tyler, Kris, Marc-Andre, Geno, Chris Kunitz, Emily, Ashley, Lauren, Leah, and obviously Sidney.
 “What do you guys wanna do?” Sidney asked, they were all seated at Mario’s big kitchen table with various drinks in hand.
 “We should play a game!” Lauren suggested happily.
 “Like what?” Jordan asked.
 “Ooh! I know!” Ashley yelled, “Let's play Never Have I Ever!” 
 “Oh my god! Yeah!” Emily laughed, remembering playing the game when she was younger. It was sure to be more interesting now.
 “How do you play?” Kris asked, trying to avoid making too much eye contact with Emily. They both were. They didn’t want to start anything else tonight, especially with Geno and everyone else around.
 “Well,” Ashley began to explain, “Everyone starts by holding up all ten of their fingers. Then we go around in a circle and each person says something that they've never done. And if someone else has done that before, they put one of their fingers down. The objective is to get everyone else out and the winner is the last one with fingers still up.”
 “What do we get if we win?” Max asked curiously.
 “A lap dance.” Lauren said, trying to sound serious.
 “Ooh! I'm in!” Tyler shouted and everyone laughed.
 “I was just kidding!” Lauren giggled and fake slapped him.
“Well does everybody have some cash on them?” Sid asked and everyone checked their pockets. They each set some money down on the table, adding up to 53 dollars and 25 cents total.
 “So winner gets it all?” Max asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yepp, so absolutely no cheating. Got that guys?” Ash said, looking mostly at Max and Jordan.
 “Babe, I would not cheat. Trust me.” Jordan said convincingly and everyone turned to look at Max.
 “What? I'm not gonna cheat either!” He said defensively.
 “Okay, okay.” Marc-Andre said, calming him down since they were seated right next to each other.

 “So who's gonna start?” asked Sid, trying to get the game moving.
 “Ash will.” Emily volunteered her friend on her left. “It was her idea.”
 “Okay,” she started but was interrupted by Max.
 “Wait, wait. Can it be anything, like anything?” he asked with a wiggle of his eyebrow.
 “Yeah, Max. You can say anything you want as long as you've never done it before.” Emily told him and he smiled.
 “Okay, got it.”
 “Alright, well then.” Ashley smiled, thinking of a good one to start off with. "Never have I ever been to Canada.”
 “Awe man, that's not fair!” Max protested and so did everyone else, but Leah.
 “Babe, how could you?” Jordan asked in a fake devastated voice. It was obvious that all of the guys had been to Canada before. They were all born there, except for Geno. And Emily and Lauren had gone there when they were younger.
 “Hey, I’m in it to win it.” She laughed and high-fived Leah from across the table, Leah being the only other one who didn't have to put a finger down.
 “What ever, my turn.” Emily laughed and thought about what to say, “Never have I ever gone hunting.”
 “Awe you bitch!” Ashley scowled. Being friends for as long as they had been, Emily knew she used to go hunting with her dad when she was younger.
 “Hey, like you said, babe. She's in it to win it.” Jordan said and high-fived Emily similarly to the way Ash and Leah did a minute ago. Now they were two of the people putting a finger down, along with Tyler.
 “Looks like TK's loosing!” Max pointed out after counting everyone's remaining fingers.
 “Awe it's okay, Teek.” Lauren consoled her boyfriend. While she did that, Geno leaned over discreetly and whispered something in Emily's ear causing her to smile. Kris noticed and felt a pang of jealousy shoot through him. He didn't want to say anything though. He knew how she felt about him and that's all that mattered right now. And besides that little bit of envy he had just felt, things were going pretty smoothly. No one suspected anything about what had happened the previous night and it seemed as if their secret was safe.
 “Alright guys, there's money on the line here! Let's focus!” Max said. It was obvious he wasn't planning on walking out of here empty handed.
 “Geno's up.” Fleury pointed out and he smirked at him.
 “Okay.” He said and prepared what he was going to say. “Never have I ever know how to speak French.”
 “Awe.” All three of the French Canadians and Emily said as they put another finger down. That left Max, Kris, Flower, Tyler, and Emily in last place with 8 fingers left up.
 “Okay, never have I ever had braces for my teeth.” Marc-Andre said and flashed a big smile showing his big teeth.
 “Ha, you would!” Sid laughed and Emily, Ashley and Lauren put another finger down.
 “Ooh! Look who's losing now!” Lauren teased Emily, trying to stick up for her man. Emily just stuck her tongue out at her.
 “My turn! And you can't lie!” Max was obviously excited. “Okay, never have I ever slept with anyone that's in this room right now.”
Kris and Emily looked at each other with wide eyes. Lucky for them, Ash and Jordan distracted everyone else with their giggling as they both put a finger down. While the guys joked with them about it, Em and Kris had a silent conversation from across the table.
Kris shook his head no, very subtly, trying to tell her not to put a finger down.
She shrugged her shoulders slightly in response.
Kris sighed, knowing she didn't want to cheat. She promised she would never cheat again, and this counted. He knew if he wanted her to be with him he would have to show her he wasn't afraid to be honest, too. Fine, but don't let them see. He mouthed to her and she nodded in response.
 “Okay, Leah's turn!” Emily said as a distraction.
 “Hmm…” Leah thought about what to say as Kris and Emily each put a finger down. Thinking they were in the clear, they got back to focusing on the game.
Emily was about to look at Leah, who was still thinking, when she noticed Max looking at her with raised eyebrows. Oh god, he saw. Seeing the panic in her face, Max smiled sympathetically and made a zippering movement across his lips to assure her he wouldn't say anything.
 “Never have I ever said the F word.” Leah finally said with a shrug of her shoulders. That got everyone's attention.
 “Bull shit!” Max said, not believing she was telling the truth.
 “I'm serious!” She said defensively.
 “Never?” Chris asked in disbelief.
 “Nope.” 
 “There's no way.” Sid said with a laugh.
“I'm not lying!” She assured them. While she tried to convince the rest of the guys, Emily noticed something different about Max. The way he was looking at Leah was as if he had seen her for the first time. He was completely smitten. Leah was different than any of the other girls he was used to being with, and the fact that she had never even dropped the F bomb proved it.
 “Seriously guys, she never said it.” Lauren tried to assure everyone. They just sighed. Everyone but Leah put a finger down.
 “Dude, that’s just crazy.” Ashley laughed.
“Whatever, it’s my turn.” Lauren said, a devious smile was on her face as she looked at Emily. “Never have I ever had the letter M in my first name.”
 “What the hell kind of never is that?!” Emily protested. That left her with only four fingers up, the only one with less than one whole hand up.
 “Yeah, really!?” Max added. Him and Marc-Andre were the other two that had M’s, leaving them each with six fingers.
 “Looks like someone’s a sore loser.” Jordan laughed at the them.
 “We haven’t lost yet.” Emily pointed out.
 “Yeah, key word yet.” He smirked back.
 “Whatever man. TK’s turn.” Max stuck his tongue out.
 “Okay, uh.” Tyler thought for a minute, “Never have I ever been to Mexico.”
 “Wow you suck.” Emily said, putting another finger down.
 “Teek!” Lauren was shocked he’d say that considering she had gone to Mexico with Emily.
 “I’m sorry, I didn’t know!” He apologized but was smiling.
 “Tanger’s turn!” Max announced, hoping he’d say something that’d keep his last six fingers up.
 “Never have I ever been twenty three yet.” Kris said simply.
 “Damn you.” Max shook his head disappointedly. He, along with Geno, Kunitz, Flower, and Tyler put a finger down.
 “Sid, your turn.” Marc-Andre said to the captain, who wasn’t paying attention. He was looking down at his lap with his hands under the table.
 “Dude, what are you doing?!” Max asked, getting Sidney’s attention.
 “Huh? I’m texting Ashlen.” He said, holding up his phone.
 “Well it’s your turn.” Chris informed him.
 “Oh, okay. Never have I ever kissed someone from Russia.” Sid said and got back to his conversation with Ashlen.
 “I love how I suck at this game so damn bad it’s not even funny.” Emily said, with only two fingers left.
 “Well, I think it’s pretty funny.” Jordan laughed, mocking her with the seven fingers he still had up.
 “Sorry.” Geno whispered to her, apologizing for being the only Russian she’d ever kissed.
 “Don’t be sorry. I’m gonna lose whether you’re Russian or not.” She smiled at him. Him and Max were the other two to put fingers down.
 “Alright, never have I ever been a girl.” Chris said using his turn.
 “Hey, that’s not fair!” Lauren complained.
 “Sorry, I just couldn’t think of anything else to get Leah to put another finger down.” He joked. That was the first thing that Leah had done since Emily’s never, being going hunting.
 “Looks like it’s my turn.” Jordan said, preparing something to say. He noticed Emily’s last finger being up and smirked at her. He knew something that he was sure everyone else had done before. “Never have I ever had brown hair.”
 “You dick.” Max said, speaking for everyone. Jordan just laughed.
 “Losers have to go in the living room.” He said to Emily, who was all out of fingers, pointing to the next room over.
 “Thanks, Jordy.” She said as if it didn’t faze her and got out of her seat and walked into the living room by herself.
 A few minutes later while waiting for someone else to get out and join her in the losers room, Emily heard Max and Jordy going at it.
 “Max loses! No fingers, means no money. Get out.” Jordan said with a laugh.
 “Yeah, I got a finger for ya.” Max shot back, flipping Jordy off as he walked into the living room.
Playing a game probably wasn’t the greatest idea considering how competitive all the guys could get.
 “Looks like I’ll be joining you.” Max smiled, sitting down on the couch next to Emily.
 “Yepp.” Emily said, hoping he’d forgotten about finding out about her and Kris.
He didn’t.
 “So, you and Tanger? Is that where he was last night? He was trying to tell me some shit about his ‘Uncle François’. But I wasn’t buying that. I just had this feeling.” Max asked, an amused look on his face.
 “Max, please please please don’t tell anyone. If Geno finds out I slept with Kris it’ll crush him. I really don’t want to hurt him.” Emily begged him.
 “Don’t worry I won’t say anything, I promise.” Max said honestly. “But may I ask, how did that happen?”
 “Well, he came over to my apartment and we got into a little fight and then he told me he was in love with me and I told him I was in love with him too and then we just kind of did it.” She smiled as she told him. It felt good being able to talk about it with someone, even if it was Max.
 “Oooh, romantic.” Max said with a chuckle.
 “And that was just the first time.” Emily added. For whatever reason, she felt compelled to tell him all about it while she had the chance. She trusted him to not tell anyone and she really wanted to talk about it.
 “First out of how many?” Max asked, kind of surprised that she even trusted him enough to tell him. It seemed like everyone always doubted him or didn’t believe he could do things. It felt good to have someone finally trust him with something important.
 “Two. And the second time was even better.” She gushed. It felt like she was talking to Ashley or another one of her girl friends, and she liked that.
 “So I take it he was good?” Max chuckled.
 “Good? More like incredible!” She said just as Kris walked into the room.
 “Oh, hey Banger. I mean, Tanger.” Max joked, “We were just talking about you.”
Kris looked at Emily who just shrugged her shoulders.
 “He knows.” She said.
 “How’d you find out?” Kris asked him, not sure what else to say.
 “François told me.” Max lied with a smirk.
 “He pretty much figured it out himself. I told you he would be the one to put it together, but you insisted he couldn’t count.” Emily shook her head. Max was confused since he hadn’t been there for the conversation she was referring to.
 “Oh.” Kris said simply.
 “Yeah, man. And from what I hear, you’re like a beast in bed.” Max said. Emily hit him on the arm for saying that. “Ouch!”
 “Thanks?” Kris said. He wasn’t exactly as comfortable talking about it with Max as Emily seemed to be.
 “No problem, but if you don’t mind I’m gonna steal your secret lover for a moment.” Max said and then turned his attention to Emily. “I wanna talk to you about something in private.”
 “Okay.” She said and he directed her into another room.
 “We’ll be back in a bit.” Max told Kris and shut the door behind him.
They were in some kind of room that didn’t have much furniture besides a couch and some chairs. Mario’s house was huge, who knows what room this was.
 “First of all,” Max started to ask once he was alone with Emily, “Are you planning on breaking up with Geno?”
 “Yeah, I’m gonna have to. I’m probably going to give it at least a week though. I don’t have the heart to dump him without a reason and I’m not telling him about Kris.” She explained.
 “Okay, I was just curious. But that’s not all I wanted to talk about.” He told her.
 “Alright, then. Continue.”
 “Well this is actually about me. I need to talk to someone about it and I figure since you were able to trust me with that, I can trust you with this.” Max told her, “I really like Leah.”
 “Oh my god I knew it!”
 “What? How’d you know?” He asked. He didn’t think it would be that easy to tell.
 “Well its just in the way you look at her. I saw you watching her earlier and it’s like she put you under some sort of spell. Like you were hypnotized and she was all you could see.” Emily smiled at him, “I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but I just had a feeling.”
 “Really?” He asked.
 “Yeah.” She nodded, “So are you guys gonna hook up?”
 “I want to, but I don’t know. I have the hardest time talking to her. I can never find the right words to say.” Max confessed.
 “Well you’re gonna have to be a man and talk to her. She’s shy so just get her to warm up to you and you’ll be able to talk about anything and everything and it will be perfect. Trust me.”
 “But what am I suppose to say? She’s different than the rest of the girls I’ve been with.”
 “Just be yourself. Don’t worry about trying to impress anyone. She’ll like you for you.” Emily said, trying to convince him to trust her.
 “Okay. Thanks.” He said genuinely.
 “No problem. Remember I’m always here for you if you wanna talk.” Emily told him with a smile.
 “You too. If you ever need anything, don’t be afraid to talk to me about it. I’ll do whatever I can to help.” Max promised her sincerely.
 “Thanks, Max. I’ll remember that.”


Meanwhile in the losers room Kris was joined by Ashley and Marc-Andre who unfortunately ran out of fingers.
 “No offence Ash, but Jordy is being an ass.” Flower joked as they each took a seat on one of the couches.
 “He just likes to win, is all.” She said with a laugh.
 “Lucky he’s on our team when it comes to hockey, eh?” Kris added and they agreed.
 “Definitely.” Marc-Andre laughed.
Geno walked into the room and took a seat.
 “Welcome to the losers’ lounge.” Ashley said to him, making him chuckle.
 “Great.” He said.
 “Where’d Max and Emily go?” Ashley asked, realizing that they should’ve been in there with them.
 “They went in the other room.” Kris told her.
 “Geno, you better watch out for Max. I wouldn’t leave my girl alone with him for more than two minutes.” Marc-Andre joked.
 “Oh god. Geno, what would you do if she was in there getting some from Max?” Ashley laughed and Geno shook his head.
 “I’d kill him.” He said. Kris suddenly felt completely and utterly uncomfortable being in the same room as him.
Luckily Max and Emily walked back into the room at that moment. Max went over and sat by Kris while Emily chose a spot next to Geno.
 “Where were you two?” Ashley asked suspiciously.
 “Just talking in private.” Max answered.
 “About what?” Ash wasn’t giving up.
 “Nothing that would concern you.” He replied again. “It’s not a big deal.”
 “Okay, whatever you say.” Ashley gave in.
Geno was suddenly noticeably more protective of Emily. He had his arm around her waist and held her close to him. He didn’t like the thought of her being with other guys. She was his and he wanted everyone to know that.
 “Max,” Kris whispered to his friend who was seated next to him, “Whatever you do, don’t let Geno find out about me and her. He would murder me.”
 “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.” Max whispered back.

Tyler, Lauren, and Sidney soon joined everyone else in the loser room. That left Chris, Leah, and Jordan in the game.
 “Jordy is a sore winner.” Chris laughed as he walked into the room. Everyone else was just sitting around talking, Sid was still texting Ashlen, and Geno kept Emily as close to him as possible.
 “No doubting that.” Max added.
 “Yeah, well I gotta head out anyway. Maureen needs help with little Zach.” Chris told everyone, speaking about his wife and their nine month old son.
 “Aw Chris you need to bring Zach to a game sometime. I wanna see him again.” Emily told him. Last time she got to see him, he really seemed to like her. She was good with little kids like that.
 “Will do. See you guys later.” Chris said. Everyone else said their goodbyes and he left.
Not long after he left, both Leah and Jordan came into the room.
 “Who won?” Marc-Andre asked. Jordan scowled at him, his arms folded across his chest.
 “Her.” He said and everyone but Ashley clapped and laughed at him.
 “That’s what you get for being a bitch.” Max said to him.
 “Aw, Jordy it’ll be okay.” Ashley said, giving him a hug.
 “At least I have you, that’s all that matters.” He said, hugging her back.
 “Someone wants in her pants.” Tyler joked.
 “Well at least she let’s me in them!” Jordan shot back. Lauren hid her face in her hands, embarrassed at the comment. She insisted on waiting until marriage, which Tyler didn’t completely agree with but didn’t argue about. He respected that.
 “Shut up.” TK said, Jordan just smirked at him.
 “Okay now, let’s calm ourselves down a bit.” Max said, trying to keep everyone friendly.
 “I’m tired.” Emily yawned, trying to help change the subject as she rested her head on Geno’s shoulder.
 “I’m bored.” Ashley added, “Sid, what else is there to do here?”
 “Uh, I don’t know. We could watch a movie.” He suggested and everyone seemed agreed.
They all went down to Mario’s movie theater room and got situated in their seats. Ashley laid on Jordan, Tyler sat by and held hands with Lauren, Leah sat on the other side of Lauren and next to Max, on Max’s left was Kris, Sidney sat by Marc-Andre, and Geno sat with his arm around Emily. They unanimously chose to watch Sudden Death, because honestly, not many movies can get cooler and more intense than that.
The movie was about to the part where “Iceburgh” gets strangled in the dishwasher. Emily had her head resting on Geno’s chest. She wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the movie. She looked around without moving her head. Her and Geno were sitting in the back row of seats. In front of them Ashley and Jordan were making out, Sid, who was in the same row as them, was still texting Ashlen, and it seemed like everyone else was just watching the movie.
 “You still tired?” Geno asked her quietly.
 “A little.” She replied in a whisper, looking up at him.
 “You’re eyes are incredible.” He whispered back, looking into her blue-green and brown eyes. She just smiled at the compliment. He tilted her chin up and kissed her. They made out for a few minutes and then separated for a moment. Evgeni smiled. He was so infatuated with her. He was jealous of any guy who she had ever been with just because they had all he ever wanted when he didn’t. Now that she was his he wanted to make up for lost time. He pressed his lips to hers again. For him, it couldn’t get much better than this.
 “Don’t look now but Geno’s sure enjoying your girl back there.” Max whispered to Kris, who just shrugged.
 “She’s not my girl yet. I can’t control what she does. She’s giving him a week so might as well let him enjoy it.” Kris whispered back, even though he really didn’t want her doing anything with Geno.
 “So you wouldn’t care if they slept together tonight?” Max asked.
 “Yeah I would care, but she wouldn’t do that. Besides, they’ve only been going out like two days.”
 “So? You two weren’t even together when you guys did it.” Max pointed out.
 “She’s not going to sleep with him.” Kris said firmly. He knew she wouldn’t, but thinking about it made him mad. He wished Max would just mind his own business.
 “Okay, okay. But I can tell he wants to. Just warning ya.” Max whispered, sounding like he knew what he was talking about. Kris acted like he didn’t hear him and just stared at the screen for the rest of the movie.
When it was over it was time for everyone to leave. They said their goodbyes and went to their cars.
 “I see you tomorrow?” Geno asked Emily as they stood outside in the light snow.
 “Yeah, text me.” She replied.
 “Okay.” He said and kissed her goodbye.
Once he had left Max came over to her.
 “I just wanted to say thanks for trusting me and talking to me tonight.” He said with a smile.
 “Same to you.” Emily said back, “Any luck with Leah yet?”
 “Eh, not yet. But I’m working on it.” He said.
 “Alright. Make sure you remember to talk to me if you ever any advice.” She reminded him.
 “I will, and you be sure to come to me first if you need to talk about anything.”
 “Thanks Max. I promise I will.” Emily said and hugged him. Luckily Geno had already left.
 “Okay. I’ll see ya later.” He told her and went to his car.
The last person she was waiting to see before she left was Kris. He walked over to where she was standing by herself and shot her a small smile.
 “Hey.” She said, a half smile on her face. She wasn’t really feeling happy but she wasn’t sad either.
 “Hey.” He replied, studying her face. “What are you thinking?” He asked. He could tell something was on her mind.
 “You don’t wanna know.” Emily sighed. There were a lot of things running through her mind. Mostly about how quickly her feelings changed depending on who she was with. Being with Geno made her feel so special and important. He treated her so well even though she didn’t deserve it. Being with Kris made her feel loved and carefree. He loved her even though she was with someone else. Being with both of them at the same time made her feel slightly awkward and like she didn’t deserve either one of them. They both wanted her for themselves, but she just couldn’t be both of theirs.
 “Okay then, never mind.” He smirked.
 “I’m sorry, Kris. I really am. I wish this was easier. I want to be with you, I really do.” She said, trying to convince herself as she said it. She loved him, she had to remember that.
 “It’s okay. I know it’s hard.” He said as he hugged her. “Spend this week with Geno and then, like you said, it will have been enough time to be able to end it with him. It’s gonna be okay. I’m here for you always.”
 “Thanks, Kris. I’m sorry for making us have to wait. I’ll make it up to you somehow. I promise.” Emily said, looking into his eyes.
 “Okay.” He chuckled, making her smile. “I’m gonna head out. I’ll see you tomorrow probably.”
 “Probably.” She nodded, “See ya.”
 “Bye.” He said and left.