Chapter 2

I turn around just in time to see Brittny wrap her arm around Sidney, who was still holding my hand. "Trying to avoid me?" She asks him, trying to sound innocent.
Sidney is speechless, searching for words and not finding any, so I say it for him. "Yeah, actually, we were."
She mock gasps and says, "why would you ever want to do that!?" In her fake voice.
"Hmmmm... Let's see. I could make you a list, or you could get out of here before I..." I kinda trail off. I'm not one to threaten people.
"Before you what?" She asks teasingly, putting on more lip gloss and frustrating me even more.
"Before I call security on someone who wasn't invited." I look down, embarrassed. "Just please, Brittny, don't ruin my birthday. I leave you alone, you leave me alone."
"Sorry," she snaps her gum and walks off. It's unusual that she makes an appearance without her posse. Maybe even they have given up on her. "Seeya babe," she waves at Sidney. He kinda makes a growling sound under his breath and turns back to the jukebox.
"I'm so sorry," we both try to say at the same time. We laugh at that, but the mood is still tense.
"I hate her," I say, "we were best friends in middle school and then she adopted her little posse and ditched me.. I still can't be civil around her, I'm sorry, it's hard to hold my tongue sometimes." I ramble on, apologizing.
"You said it better than I could have," he says. "She won't leave me alone. Her parents want ties to the Penguins team and she's been harassing all of us for a long time. Especially me. I'm on the verge of getting a restraining order for her." He sounds angry and the way he is scrolling through songs on the jukebox appears violent.
"I would."
"What?" He asks, still annoyed and in a bad mood.
"Get a restraining order." I say laughing, trying desperately to lighten the mood. He laughs a little bit too, but not seriously. "Come on Sidney." I plead, "don't let her get to you."
"I'm just so tired of stalkers!" He says. I try to keep from laughing, he sounds so funny.
"Do you want to leave?" I ask, kinda scared of what the answer might be.
"Only if you can come with me. But this is your party you gotta stay here, for a while at least. And I'm afraid of what will happen if I leave you here alone with her." He says. I let out a little sigh of relief. I'm not ready for him to leave.
"You're worried about me and Brittny?" I confirmed.
"Yeah. You're both scrapper, in your own way. And that's why I don't want you to fight." He says, brushing his thumb down my cheek.
"I can leave soon." I say, looking out the window overlooking the ice. "None of them give a crap that I'm here. It's all about you." I say.
"Sorry." He says, smiling.
"So, I guess, let me make my rounds. Say hello and goodbye to everyone. Thank Ruthanne." He nods as I squeeze his hand and walk back out.
It takes me at least 15 minutes to get out of conversations about what Sidney's like and what I'm going to do with him later on. I thanked Ruthanne and she gave me our routine pep talk and made it back to Sidney by the jukebox within 20 minutes. "Sorry, " I sigh, "EVERYONE seemed to get interested when I said I was leaving with you."
"it's okay. I don't mind waiting for you." He says, grabbing my hand and pulling me down onto the bench to sit beside him. I begin unlacing my skates and taking them off. I try to put my sneaker balls in inconspicously, but Sidney catches me.
"Don't be embarrassed," he holds up his own pair and we share a laugh.
Leaving the rink he leads me to his range rover and opens the passenger side door for me. I thank him and hop in as he walks around to the driver's side. "Do you want to stop by your house and get changed?" He asks.
"yeah, if it's okay." I reply.
"Where's your house?" He asks.

At my house I invite him in, "my parents aren't going to be around for a while, don't worry." I say when he smiles nervously. Inside, I run up the stairs to my room. He follows kind of slowly, looking at the pictures hung up on all the walls. "This shirt or this one?" I hold up two when he walks into my room. He points to my favorite. "Good choice." I say and grab a pair of holey jeans to wear with it. "Stay." I command, going into my bathroom. In there, I change and then rifle through my jewelry box looking for accessories. I add a touch of eyeliner and then come back out in record time. I give Sidney my best runway walk, almost falling all the way over to him. He gives me an approving nod and we walk back downstairs and outside.
"You look nice," he says.
"Thanks." I say, "so what're we doing?"
"While you were in the bathroom, Max texted me. A bunch of us are getting together over there later. But he wants to meet you, so we're going right now." Sidney smiles, holding my hand as we walk down off of the porch.
"Awesome." I reply, looking forward to what may be a good party. Sidney drives us to a nice apartment building and we ride the elevator to Max Talbot's floor. Sidney knocks and then lets himself in.
Max says, "HEY!" In his nerdy voice with an awesome accent. He gives Sidney a quick, manly hug and turns to me. "So you're Caitlin?" He asks. I nod and he kisses me on the cheek. We walk into his living room and Sidney and I sit down on a cushy sofa. Max is in and out of the living room, still preparing for the guys to come. "They're real hogs," he explains.
Sidney nods, "we all eat a ton."