Rise and Fall

“Come on,” Max whined. “Just come over to Letang’s house,” he pleaded. Max had been trying to get Sid to agree to come to the party for the last fifteen minutes, and Sid still refused to go.

“You still haven’t answered me,” Sid told him. “Why do you want me to go so badly?”

“Because the guys need to see that your old self is still in there,” Max answered. “Come on, you have been so hard on all of us since we’ve been losing, and the guys are getting sick of it. Just come out tonight and show them that you don’t think about hockey every minute of every day.”

“What do you have planned?” Sid questioned.

“What do you mean?” Max asked him.

“I know you, and you have that look that says you have a plan for tonight,” he explained.

“Fine,” Max sighed, knowing that Sid was going to find out eventually anyways. “There’re some girls coming tonight that I thought about hooking you up with.”

“No,” Sid stated.

“God, you sound just like Brooklyn,” Max told him.

“What?” Sid asked, confused.

“Nothing,” Max told him. “Anyways, back to the girls. Why are you saying no already? You haven’t even met them yet.”

“You know that I don’t date while the season’s going on,” Sid explained.

“What about a one-night stand?” Max asked, knowing that Sid was definitely against it.

“No,” Sid said immediately.

“Just come tonight,” Max repeated.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” Sid asked, giving Max a sideways glance.

“Nope,” Max said, grinning.

“Fine, I’ll be there tonight,” Sid agreed.

Jocelyn and Brooklyn were in their apartment getting ready for tonight. Jocelyn looked in her closet, her eyes skimming over all of her clothes. “So, what do you wear to a hockey player’s party?” she asked Brooklyn.

“What you wear to a normal party,” Brooklyn replied walking into Jocelyn’s bedroom wearing a red cami on top of a white tank top and a pair of jeans. “Why don’t you wear this with a pair of jeans?” she asked pulling a green halter top out of her closet.

“Really?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yes,” Brooklyn told her. “You’ll look great. Now, change!”

“Fine,” Jocelyn said as Brooklyn walked out of her room and into the bathroom to fix her hair. She decided to go with light waves, and she plugged in the curling iron while she walked out into the living room.

The doorbell rang, and Brooklyn answered it to see Max standing on the other side. “Hey,” she said giving him a kiss. “Come on in. I’ve still got to fix my hair, and I think Jocelyn’s still getting dressed.”

“No, I’m not,” Jocelyn said walking out to the living room.

“You look nice,” Max told her.

“Thanks, Max,” Jocelyn said with a smile.

“You tell her she looks nice, but I get nothing!” Brooklyn exclaimed sarcastically as she walked back to the bathroom to fix her hair.

“You know you always look amazing,” Max called after her.

“Thanks, Max,” Brooklyn yelled back. “I love you, too.”

“So, Jocelyn, a change of plan for tonight,” Max told her.

“What? I’m not going to the party?” she asked.

“No, you’re still going. It’s just that the date with Sid is nixed.”

“Okay,” Jocelyn said shrugging. “That’s fine.”

“He’s completely against dating anyone during the season,” Max said rolling his eyes. “But, I’m hoping that maybe you could build a friendship, and maybe that’ll help out with the situation.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Jocelyn said. “A friendship sounds good to me.”

“What?” Brooklyn asked, coming out of the bathroom with her hair curled. “No date for Sid and Jocelyn?”

“Nope,” Max told her. “Sid’s against it, so I just told Jocelyn to try to befriend him instead.”

“Maybe it’s better for everyone,” Brooklyn said. She saw the look that Jocelyn and Max were both giving her, and she added, “Or not.”

“You two ready?” Max asked the two girls.

“Yep,” Brooklyn said with a smile. “Come on, Jocelyn,” she said grabbing her sister’s hand and pulling her up from the couch.

Twenty minutes later they were walking up the stairs to Kris’s house. “Hey,” Kris said opening the door. “Who’s this?” he asked as Jocelyn walked in behind Max and Brooklyn.

“Oh, this is my sister, Jocelyn,” Brooklyn introduced with a smile. “Jocelyn, this is Kris.”

“Hi,” Jocelyn said, smiling.

“Hey,” Kris said flirtatiously.

“Back off,” Max told him. “She’s here for Sid.”

“Maybe I need to act like a jackass when we lose,” Kris muttered.

“Ha ha,” Brooklyn said sarcastically. “Kris, stay away from my sister. Besides, I’m sure you have girls crawling all over you.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I'll have plenty by the end of the night,” he said jokingly as he walked off into the crowd.

“There he is,” Max said pointing Sid out sitting on the couch. “Go make friends.”

“I will,” Jocelyn said with a smile. As she walked over to him, she saw two girls flanked on either side of him. As she got closer, she saw the two girls stand up, both with annoyed expressions on their face. Apparently, they weren’t pleased with what Sid had just said to them. This’ll be interesting, Jocelyn thought to herself as she sat down next to him.