Rise and Fall

Two days later, and Sid was back to his old ways after another loss. Max tried to get out of the locker room after the game as fast as possible to avoid having to hear how angry Sid was. He was just putting on his shirt when Brooklyn walked into the locker room. “Hey,” she said giving him a quick kiss. “How is he?” she asked, nodding her head towards Sid.

“He’s back to how he was before Jocelyn. He was upset when he realized that he had started to change after dating her, but seriously, I don’t know if we can handle him like this again,” he told her. “How’s Jocelyn?”

“She’s still upset, but she’s better,” Brooklyn replied. “I think they’d both be better off with each other, but Sid’s not going to allow that during the season, and there’s no way I’m letting Jocelyn date him during the offseason just to have her heart broken again in September.”

“Listen,” Max told her. “I’ve been thinking, and I think I’ve got a plan to get them back together. Whether Jocelyn’s going to want to go along with it or not remains a mystery, though.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Why don’t we get out of here, and then I’ll tell you?” Max asked grabbing his stuff out of his locker with one hand and grabbing Brooklyn’s hand with the other.

“Where are you going?” Sid yelled as he saw Max leaving. “We need to have a team meeting.”

“I’m going home,” Max told him. “We can have a team meeting tomorrow, when you’re not so pissed off,” he added.

Sid rolled his eyes, and Max continued walking out the door, listening to Sid yell the entire time. Brooklyn looked over at him. “I hope your plan works for your sake. Seriously, if I was on the team, I think I’d strangle him,” she laughed.

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure some of the guys are about to bring some rope in,” Max replied.

Walking inside Brooklyn’s apartment, her and Max saw Jocelyn sitting on the couch watching television. “Sorry about the game,” Jocelyn said, not taking her eyes off of the television.

“How did you know I was even here?” Max asked incredulously. “Do you have eyes in the back of your head or something?”

“Yes, Max, didn’t you know?” Jocelyn said sarcastically. “You always come back here after your games! I’ve come to expect you.”

“Oh,” Max told her. “Listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry about…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jocelyn interrupted him, not wanting to hear the end of the sentence. “It’s not your fault anyways.”

“It kind of is. I mean I was the one who forced you to go out with him,” Max told her.

“No, it’s not. You didn’t tell him to break up with me,” Jocelyn said, finally turning around to look at Max. “Like I said, don’t worry about it. I don’t blame you.”

“Well, I was thinking, and…”

“Wow! Hockey players think!” Jocelyn quipped.

“Hey, hey,” Max said. “That’s not very nice!”

“Sorry,” Jocelyn apologized while trying to keep from laughing. “It was just too easy,” she added.

“Anyways,” Max said. “I was saying that I might have a way for you and Sid to get back together.”

“Max, didn’t you hear? Sid doesn’t date during the season. There is no plan that’s going to get us back together,” Jocelyn told him.

“Just hear me out,” Max pleaded.

“Fine, what’s the plan?” Jocelyn asked.

“I’m thinking you should make him jealous.”

“And how exactly do you plan on me doing that?”

“You’re going to date one of his teammates,” Max responded with a smile.

“Wait!” Brooklyn exclaimed, looking over at Max. “You don’t think your plans all the way through, do you?”

“What?” Max asked.

“Max! You want her to date another one of your teammates. In case you forgot, the first one she dated broke her heart. She is not going through that again!” Brooklyn told him.

“Well, I don’t mean for her to actually date him!” Max said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“I’m so confused!” Jocelyn told them.

Max turned to look at her. “You’re not going to actually date him. You’re going to pretend to, just around Sid. That way, he’ll get jealous and realize what he’s missing, and he’ll come crawling back to you,” he explained with a smile.

“I can see so many things wrong with this plan,” Brooklyn muttered.

“Yeah, me, too,” Brooklyn said. “Like, who am I going to pretend to date?”

“I’ve already got that one covered,” Max said, and when both girls stared at him, he added, “Kris.”

“Kris?” Jocelyn asked. “As in Kris Letang?”

“Yeah,” Max told them. “Listen, he’s the perfect guy for it. He’s not going to try anything with you, but he can make Sid think that he is. Come on, Jocelyn! Don’t you want to get back with Sid?”

“I don’t want to be with a guy that doesn’t want to be with me during hockey season,” Jocelyn told him.

“He does want to be with you. He just needs to realize that he can have a love life during the hockey season. And, once he sees you and Kris, he’ll be begging to come back.”

“Max, I don’t know about this,” Jocelyn began.

“Yeah, me either,” Brooklyn agreed.

“Come on. Just give it a try. I mean, it’s not like you’re actually going to be dating Kris,” Max pleaded.

“Does Kris know about it?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yeah, I’ve told him my plan,” Max said with a smile, knowing Jocelyn was close to caving in. “And, he said if you agreed to it, he would do it. Please, Jocelyn, do it for the team.”

“Fine,” Jocelyn sighed. “But, I swear, Max, if this goes wrong, I will blame you this time.”

“What could possibly go wrong?” Max questioned.