Gonna Steal Your Heart Away

The Flyers were given the week following training camp off and official practices would start the week after that. Much to Brayden’s dismay, Claude never took a week – or even a day for that matter – off. Claude was up at the crack of dawn every morning, barging into Brayden’s room to wake him up as well. Brayden was not the easiest person to wake up to say the least.

“I’m going to go get breakfast. If you aren’t up and about by the time I get back, you are getting coffee poured on you,” Claude announced from his position at Brayden’s bedroom door. He was flipping the lights on and of repeatedly in an attempt to wake Brayden up. The boy still curled up under his covers mumbled something inaudible in response to his roommate’s threat. “What’s that?”

“Alright, mother,” Brayden annunciated louder and glared in Claude’s direction.

“Don’t be a PMSing teenage girl,” Claude calmly insulted and turned to leave the pair’s shared apartment. Brayden rolled in his bed so he was looking at the alarm clock rested on his nightstand. He frequently questioned why he had an alarm clock when he had Claude, but never intended on actually getting rid of it. On the clock’s front, 6:32a.m. glowed in bright red.

He stuffed his face into his pillow and groaned. Claude’s favorite saying of the week flooded into his mind. “Workout in the morning before your body knows what you’re doing.” It was Thursday and Claude had woken Brayden up every morning all week to be at the Flyers’ practice facility’s gym by eight in the morning. As much as Brayden was all for keeping in shape and preparing for the season ahead of them, he would be much more up for working out around noontime.

Before Brayden knew it, he had fallen back asleep.

“Schenner!” Claude called, kicking the front door shut with a loud bang, when he returned home. Brayden instantly woke up and practically sprang out of bed to make it seem like he had been up for awhile, trying to avoid the scolding he was bound to get. “Come look what I brought home!”

Brayden meandered toward his closed bedroom door, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and flattening out his bed head hair. He was trying to appear as if he had not just stumbled out of bed. As he reached for the doorknob, he froze at the sound of a girl’s voice.

“Is this his room?” she whispered in an attempt to keep her presence a secret so she could barge into the boy’s room and surprise him. Claude nodded and gestured his hand in such a way that told her to proceed into the bedroom. The girl hastily shoved the door open, ready to run in and catch Brayden off guard, but she was the one frightened when the room rammed into Brayden’s stomach, because of how close to the door he was standing, causing him to grunt. “Shit!”

The girl quickly backed a handful of feet away from the door and looked to Claude with wide, shocked eyes. He just stood there laughing his head off. Brayden took a second to compose himself and then entered the living room.

“Glad to know you brought home a killer and let her loose in my room, bro,” Brayden directed at Claude, who was standing in the connected kitchen. He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye and a smirk appeared on his lips. “Good morning, Olivia,” he greeted as he walked by her to join Claude in the kitchen to eat breakfast.

“I am so sorry,” Olivia offered but Brayden just waved it off and laughed.

“I’ll forgive you if, and only if, there is a blueberry muffin in this bag,” Brayden returned and began to rummage through the brown, paper bag residing on the counter. After searching the bag’s content twice over without finding what he was looking for, Brayden playfully glared in Olivia’s direction. He heard Claude mumble something about not being able to eat like the younger boy obviously did during the offseason. Brayden has learned to tune out Claude’s frequent, mocking jabs.

“Don’t blame me. Claude placed the order,” Olivia defended herself as Brayden reached into the bag and pulled out a pre-cream cheesed bagel. Ignoring the girl’s claims, Brayden strolled past her and plopped down on the couch to watch some baseball highlights from the previous day while he ate.

Claude had gone to the diner that Olivia worked at in order to get the boys’ breakfast. When he saw Olivia bustling around the tables, helping customers, he put two and two together and realized she was on the clock. He made small talk with her and brought up the idea of her hanging out with the team next time they all went out together.

Olivia’s roommate, Rachel, offered to take over Olivia’s shift the rest of the morning so she could run off and spend the day with the boy’s she was quickly becoming friends with. After what seemed like hours of Olivia protesting and a boatload of convincing on Rachel’s part, Olivia and Claude finally left the diner and ventured back to the apartment Claude shared with Brayden.

“You have to forgive me sometime,” Olivia commented and sat down next to Brayden on the couch. He did not remove his attention from the television and mumbled a ‘nope’ with his mouth half filled with chewed bagel. “I’m too awesome to be mad at.” She was staring at him with a puppy dog pout adorning her face. Brayden didn’t as much as glance over at the girl. “If you’re ignoring me, I might as well leave and then you will have to go exercise for hours with Claude.”

Brayden had quite the poker face. Olivia thought she had him cornered, but his emotionless expression showed zero intentions of giving in to her threats. By the way she continued to occupy the spot on the couch, she did not really plan to follow through with said threats. Olivia opened her mouth again as if to make another argument, but the room filled with the ringtone of Brayden’s cell phone instead. The boy pushed himself off the couch and wandered, following the sound of the ringing, into his bed room.

“Hey Danny, what’s up?” Brayden answered after he pressed the accept button and pressed the phone to his ear.

“Thank goodness I didn’t wake you,” was all that Danny said on the other end of the line.

“Of course I’m up. You know what it is like living with G,” Brayden laughed out, a chuckle could be heard coming from Danny as well.

“Anyway, listen, I have to go to New York today to help my sister move all her furniture back into her house. She recently had construction done and I’m not sure why she doesn’t get someone up there to help her. Something about sibling bonding and blah blah blah,” Danny rambled but Brayden did not stop him. “But that’s not the point. Would you be willing to come by and watch my kids for the day?” The point of the phone call finally came out.

“Um, isn’t that Couts’s job?” Brayden questioned, referencing their nineteen-year-old teammate, Sean Couturier, that lived in the Briere household. Sean was always put on babysitting duty.

“He went back home for the week, remember? To see his girlfriend one last time before the season starts.”

“I guess I could,” Brayden answered, sounding less than excited.

“Don’t sound so bummed,” Danny joked with him. “This means you don’t have to work out all day with your psycho roommate.” The two shared a laugh and Brayden agreed to come over, sounding more pleased with the arrangement.

“Can I bring Olivia too?” Brayden questioned as their conversation was coming to an end.

“The girl you brought to the team dinner?”

“Yeah. Claude ran into her when he went to get breakfast and he brought her home like a lost puppy.” Danny simply laughed at the situation and agreed to let Olivia join Brayden, reassuring him that the boys would love to meet her. “Alight, man, I’ll be over soon.”

After saying his goodbyes and hanging up his phone, Brayden walked back into the living room to find Claude had taken his place on the couch. Olivia still sat where she was when Brayden left and the pair on the couch was mesmerized by the replay of the Phillies game. Brayden situated himself on the couch next to Olivia and stared blankly at the TV, to keep up the act of ignoring the girl sitting next to him, before he spoke.

“Looks like I don’t need you to get me away from a day with the workaholic.”