Frankie

Jordan Staal winced when he received another check into the boards courtesy to his team mate Tyler Kennedy. He got up and continued to skate like nothing happened, but somehow he knew that hit was intentional. Both Max and Tyler had been trying their hardest to check him into the boards since practice began.

He looked to his right, where Gwen and her father sat on the seats, and saw Gwen glared madly at him. She narrowed her eyes and ran her index finger across her neck in a threatening manner before he felt another person check him in the boards.

Looking around, he saw Max skate away looking innocent, but held a smirk. He narrowed his eyes and just got up grudgingly. He couldn't place where all the hostility was coming from but he had a feeling it had something to do with Gwen and why she stomped into the changing room earlier.

Sidney yelled at Jordan to catch his attention, but it was too late, the puck Sidney passed slid right past him and into Geno's stick allowing the other team to score. "Get your head in the game," Sid suggested as he skated by him.

Jordan swore and banged his stick on the ice out of frustration. The whole morning was not going so well for him at all. Not only was Gwen, Tyler and Max out to get him, but what his brother said the night but was still tuck in his head.

"Bye Frankie! It was nice meeting you," Marc said and gave her a hug, which she responded to a little awkwardly.

Jordan watched Francesca smile, she ah quickly grown comfortably with his older brothers. "It was nice to meet you too. Gwen was right, you are the sweeter Staal," she joked back.

Marc cracked a smile. "Give Gwen my love. Here, if you ever get tired of my brother or if you need someone to knock some sense into him," he said and handed her a white slip of paper.

Francesca beamed, feeling like she had just been accepted by one of Jordan's family despite how badly dinner went, she took the slip of paper gratefully. "Thank you," she whispered and walked back to her dorm without saying so much as a goodbye to Jordan, who was still busy with his phone.

Ow! What the hell man?" Jordan exclaimed when Marc punched him in the shoulder, making him drop his cell phone. "What the hell was that for?" he asked, rubbing his sore arm.

Shaking his head, Marc just continued walking towards Jordan's car, infuriated. "What the hell's wrong with you? Is that how you act with all your girlfriends? Do you always flirt waitresses in front of your girlfriends? Frankie is a nice girl, watch, keep treating her that way and she will have enough of you. Frankie deserves someone so much better than you. Mom will be so pissed when she finds out about you treating Frankie the way you did."

"Frankie's not-" Jordan retaliated and stopped when he was about to reveal that he and Frankie weren't really dating.

"You should have seen how humiliated she was," Marc yelled and strapped his seatbelt on. "Just take me back to the hotel," he ordered Jordan angrily.

Looking back at it, Jordan realized that the dinner must have been what Gwen was mad about and in turn, she most likely told Tyler and Max to kill him. Gwen was always fiercely loyal and protective of Frankie. She was always tell him not to get involved with Frankie if he was just going to play her and threatening him if he ever did play her.

Being best friends, he was sure that Frankie told Gwen all about what happened. From meeting his brother to Jordan flirting with the hot waitress. He made a mental note to make amends with Frankie and ask her for forgiveness.

*

The clock struck seven reminding Francesca that she had three more hours of studying before her plans to go to bed early. She sighed and took of her thick glass and threw them carelessly on her desk. It was getting difficult to concentrate on her studies, when dinner last night was all she could think about.

Gwen was right, Marc was a complete sweetheart, but she was surprised at how much of an ass Jordan was to her. Sure they were only acting, but as far as his brother knew, they were dating and he completely embarrassed her by openly flirting with another woman.

We're still going home this weekend right? Francesca read when her phone buzzed.

She quickly text back a reply saying that they were infect spending the long weekend with their family back in Annapolis and that Gwen wanted to join them like she did last year. Francesca groaned when she heard someone knock on her door, it was probably just Gwen wanting to go out with her again.

Jordan stood awkwardly in front of Francesca's dorm room, waiting for her to open the door. He hoped that he got the right dorm room and that Gwen didn't tell him the wrong one just to spite him. Shifting his weight to his other foot, Jordan held on to the bouquet of roses tightly, the palm of his hand growing sweaty.

He can't remember the last time he was this nervous. It was probably when his mom and dad found out about his and Marc's house party when they were away for Eric's first NHL game years ago. He could hear some shuffling on the other side of the door, he was glad that Frankie had a single dorm and wasn't sharing with anyone else.

The door wretched open, Francesca's eyes widened the moment her eyes landed on a very nervous looking Jordan Staal. He offered her a small smile, but she didn't return it and just kept looking at him weirdly.

"Hey," he greeted her, his voice small and unsure. "Can we talk?" Jordan asked, he instantly looked her up and down. Her hair was in a dishevelled bun, her wife-beater falling just on her midriff and she wore one size too big sweatpants.

She nodded her head, but made no move for him to go into the small dorm. Francesca tapped her foot and waited for Jordan to say something, but he just kept on looking at her, clutching the red roses tightly.

"The Tartans, is CMU football any good?" he asked, referring to the logo on her sweatpants of a black dog and Tartans going down the pant leg.

"They're shit, but they're still my school team," she said in a short manner and crossed her arms across her chest. "Please tell me you didn't come all the way here to talk about my school's shitty football team."

Jordan laughed awkwardly and scratched the back f his head. "Oh here!" he said realizing he was still holding the bouquet and handed it to her.

Francesca took it apprehensively and thanked him. She pursed her lips together and shifted her eyes waiting for him to say something else. She was lucky that there wasn't anyone else in the hallway. It would have been awkward to have a conversation with Jordan with other people walking about when their conversation was awkward on its own.

"I, uh, didn't know what type of flowers you're supposed to give someone in these situations and Gwen wouldn't help me out," he stuttered and scratched the back of his neck. "I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you lest night with my brother."

Sighing, she closed her eyes and opened them again. "How ever you want to act is totally up to you, but I wish you were a little more discreet about it. I mean, I know we're not dating, but your brother doesn't know that."

"I'm sorry. I was out of place, you were already doing me a favour and I pretty much embarrassed you. Let me make it up to you, Friday night; let me take you out on a proper date. Accept my apology?" he asked and looked at Francesca hopefully.

A couple of seconds passed and Francesca looked at Jordan. She gave him a strained smile before she spoke. "If you were listening to what I said last night you would have known that I was going back to Annapolis for the long weekend. I accept your apology, but I think its best we stop associating with each other," she stated and closed the door.

Jordan stuck out his hand and stopped the door from completely closing. "What do you mean stop associating with each other?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit desperate. He knew he messed up, but he didn't think that he messed up that bad. "Why?"

Exhaling deeply, Francesca opened the door wider and looked at Jordan straight in the eyes. "Ever since Gwen introduced us, I haven't been able to concentrate on my studies or school. I have had nothing but drama after drama. I'm forever thankful that you helped me with Ryan, I really am, but I can't deal with all of this. My sole mission in Collage is just to get through everything unnoticed and you're making it extremely difficult. Goodbye Jordan," she said and closed the door before he could stop it.

Jordan didn't even bother to make an attempt to stop the door. He just silently watched it close on him. What was he supposed to say to that? Was he really a distraction to her? If Frankie didn't want him in her life, he didn't really have a say into it, especially with the way he treated her.

He silently walked out of the building thinking about everything that Francesca said and all of a sudden his brother's words replayed in his mind. Did she really have enough of him?