If It's Over, Let It Go

Brooke placed her makeup bag back into her tote bag as soon as she finished swiping on a little mascara and concealer. She'd already showered, dried her hair and gotten changed into her jeans and one of Jeff's crew necks. For some reason, she had always found it so tacky when people went home in the morning wearing last nights clothes with makeup down their faces.

When she came out of the bathroom, Jeff was just getting up to open the door after hearing someone knock. Both the Staal brothers were waiting there, grinning from ear to ear.

"Fun night, Skinny?", Jordan asked innocently. Brooke's face turned red and the two of them laughed.

Jeff's face was red as well, "Yeah, yeah, funny. What do you guys want?"

"The bus is here", Eric explained, still smirking.

Jeff turned to Brooke, "Mason just texted me and he's pretty close so.."

"Alright", she shrugged, grabbing her bag and following the boys down to the lobby. Mason was already waiting when they got there, so she tilted her head up to kiss Jeff.

"I'll see you in a few days, okay?"

"Alright. Good luck tomorrow night, babe". A few of Jeff's teammates smirked, causing the two of them to blush.

She opened the passenger door of Mason's beat up Honda and slid in, waving goodbye to Jeff through the window. When they pulled onto the highway, she turned to her brother.

"Thank you so, so, so much for picking me up", she said graciously. He nodded.

"You owe me big time", he joked. Brooke rolled her eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Come to my game tomorrow?", he asked, smiling earnestly.

"I'll be there", she promised.

They were quiet for a few minutes until they hit a red light and Mason turned to his sister, "So, you're actually going home on Monday?"

"Yeah? Why?", Brooke frowned.

Mason shrugged, "I don't know, when mom said you were coming here I was pretty shocked cause you, like, never do and then last night when you said things were weird between you and Jeff, I was wondering if maybe the reason your here is cause you guys broke up and you're gonna stay or something"

"Woah, no. We got back together last Monday, I think, and I think he flew me up here as, like, an apology I guess"

"Wait, you guys actually broke up?"

Crap. Brooke looked down at her shoes so she wouldn't meet her brothers eyes, "Yeah"

"When?"

"Uhm, like the end of January?"

"Are you serious? And you didn't tell mom and dad? Or me?"

"I didn't-"

"Who broke up with who? I can't believe you didn't tell us", Mason frowned.

"I broke up with him..and I didn't tell you guys because it wasn't really over. Like, I still texted him a lot and we hung out pretty often so it was like we were taking a break, sorta"

"You should have told us"

"I didn't want to admit how shitty our relationship was, I guess. And you know dad would have made me move back up here or something"

"You could have told me", Mason suggested. Brooke shrugged.

"Why did you even dump him?", he asked.

"Because we never hung out anymore. He was always with the team and when we did make plans, he bailed and it was like he wasn't interested in me anymore", she said softly. Mason shot her a sad smile.

"And I don't want to be in a relationship if its not going anywhere and it felt like we weren't going anywhere so what was the point, right?"

He thought about that for a second and then turned to face her, his eyes wide, as they pulled up to a red light, "You wanted him to propose!?"

"Not now! But one day", she admitted. Mason's eyes were still wide.

"Mase, I've been dating him since I was, like, younger then you. Is it actually that shocking?"

"Yeah but still...", Mason trailed off. Brooke shrugged. She hadn't really thought about Jeff proposing to her until she found out about Courtney's engagement so it wasn't like she expected him to anytime soon...but at the same time there was nobody she wanted to be with more then Jeff so hopefully one day..

"So, schools good?", Mason asked awkwardly. Brooke smiled. She knew that he couldn't care less about how her schools going; he just wanted to change the subject.

"Yeah, it's good. What about about you?"

"It's good..."

~~~~~~~~~

Brooke pushed down the top of her suitcase so she could zip it shut. She had thought she'd packed pretty light but then she'd realized that their was a ton of clothes in Kitchener that she wanted to bring home so now her suitcase was pretty crowded.

She heard a soft knock on the door and when she turned around, Courtney was peeking in the door.

"I figured I'd come say goodbye before I go in to write my finals", she explained. Brooke sat down on her bed, beside her suitcase and Courtney came down to sit beside her.

"It sucks we didn't get to see much of each other while I was up here", Brooke smiled sadly. Courtney shrugged apologetically.

"Finals suck"

"Tell me about it. Mine are in April so I'm going to be all stressed and Jeff's gonna be all pissy cause the Hurricanes probably won't make the playoffs and it's just gonna suck"

"Hey, just be thankful that when you get back to Raleigh he's going to be waiting for you and everything is going to be great between you guys again"

Brooke grinned, "He's already texted me this morning telling me how excited he is to see me later and I'm just like...so glad that everything's okay now"

"I'm so glad! You too are literally the perfect couple"

"Weird because I remember when I first told you about him you weren't impressed", Brooke teased.

"In my defense, I had heard bad things about hockey players", Courtney giggled. Brooke burst out laughing.

"It's kinda ironic that you're engaged to one then, eh?". Nick used to play from a local junior team but he had ended up not trying to pursue a career, instead going to the same business school as Courtney.

Courtney's face lit up, "Right?"

"You don't even know how happy I am for you guys", Brooke practically squealed. Courtney was about to say something but she was interrupted by her dad calling up the stairs, "Brooke, you ready to go?"

"Coming!", Brooke called back. She got up to put on her shoes and walked back over to give her friend a hug.

"I need to come visit again soon..or maybe you could even come down for a weekend or something"

"We need to decide on the colour of your maid of honour dress", Courtney answered, her eyes starting to water up. Brooke used the sleeve of her hoodie to wipe her own.

"Shit, I'm gonna cry"

Courtney laughed, "Skype me soon, okay?"

"For sure"

They hugged one more time before Courtney went outside and climbed into her Toyota. Brooke's dad had went upstairs and grabbed her stuff while they were saying goodbye and had began to load it into his truck.

"Have a safe flight, Brooke", her mom said, pulling her into a hug. She wasn't going to the airport so they'd have to say their goodbyes at home.

"Bye, mom. I love you", Brooke said, trying not to cry. She always ended up leaving Kitchener crying her eyes out, makeup running down her face so today she was determined to keep it together.

"You'll be up in April, right?"

"Yep, as soon as finals are over and Jeff's done hockey"

Mason gave Brooke a hug next, "Have a good flight"

"Thanks, Mase. Good luck in playoffs"

Brooke gave Mason and her mom another hug and climbed into the car with her dad. The ride to the airport was pretty short and traffic was pretty light so they made it their pretty soon. Brooke's dad was going straight to work after so she insisted he didn't need to come in with her.

"Do you have your ticket", he asked, concerned.

She pulled it out of her purse, "Yep"

"Okay. Have a safe flight", he said, reaching over the gearshift to give her a hug.

"Okay. Love you dad"

"Love you"

Brooke watched as he drove off before entering the airport. Luckily her suitcase was small so she didn't have to check it and could just go straight from security to her gate.

She got a window seat on the plane so she was able to watch Ontario get smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared. The plane was fairly empty and quiet so before long, she fell asleep, dreaming about how great things would be when she got home.