Situated

               Surrounded. She was surrounded by noisy, exuberant, obnoxious boys. She sighed inwardly because it was true. They were all boys. Despite all of them being well past the maturity age, their behavior so far tonight rivaled that of the frat boys she had been privy to in Montreal.

               As soon as they had arrived to Max’s place, he had decided that alcohol and video games would be the best combination tonight. After all, there was only an optional morning skate tomorrow and the players

had a rare two days off to themselves afterward. Max had timed her arrival to coincide with this little break so he could be there with her while she settled down.

               She really hadn’t had any time to look around at the outside of the house because as soon as Max had unlocked the door, the guys had all tumbled in (with her luggage in hand) and headed straight for the mini-bar in the rec room. She had hung around in the background, suddenly feeling awkward and out-of-place as she watched Max joke and laugh with the boys while he unceremoniously shoved their sweaters into the hall closet. He reached for her coat.

She shook her head, clutching at the lapels of her light pea coat tighter. “No, thanks, this was expensive.”

He rolled his eyes playfully, “Alright, alright. I bought some hangers, just for you. Here.” He threw her the hanger and she fumbled the catch. Grinning sheepishly she picked it up from the floor, slowly shrugging off her coat and hanging it up in the closet.

Max watched her sluggish movements with concerned eyes. “Are you okay? I know it’s kind of late to say this now, but if you don’t feel up to this, I can kick ‘em out. They’ll understand.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’m fine, Max. A little tired, but I expect they are too. I’ll just hang out with you guys for a while and go to bed if I really feel that horrible.”

Max looked sheepish, “Yeah, about that… You kinda… don’t have a bed yet.”

She was about to shrug him off and go see if the boys were up to playing Brawl or some Mario Kart (instead of Halo or SOCOM or whatever. She could hear the machine gun noises coming from the rec room already), but she did a double-take at this newest piece of information.

“What do you mean I ‘don’t have a bed yet’??!?”

“Well, sis, it’s like this: remember how I ordered an amazing, mahogany bedroom set for you?” He grinned, obviously trying to embellish the positive points in his story. She glared at him until he continued, “It hasn’t been delivered yet. They messed up the order or something so it’s coming in on Wednesday, which, you know isn’t that bad considering it’s only Sunday…”

“But… where am I supposed to sleep?” She wailed, her exhaustion kicking in extra hard at the thought of having to sleep on the couch or the floor for three nights.

Max put an arm around her shoulders, gently drawing her down the hallway and towards the games room, “I’m not completely inconsiderate, Caroline! You can sleep in my room until your furniture comes in. I’ve changed the sheets, vacuumed, dusted…put away anything incriminating...”

At her skeptical gaze, he added, “Promise.”

She laughed, “Aw, thanks, Maxie.” She loved her brother.

“You wanna go check it out now? Or you want to come hang out with us?”

“I think I’ll freshen up first. Change into something more conducive to excessive gaming… Your jersey chafes.”

Max laughed, “C-line, I missed your big words.” He hugged her. She hugged him back, grateful that he had taken her into his home just because she had asked.

When she had changed into a more comfortable shirt, he showed her around the upstairs rooms quickly. There were three bedrooms, one of which he had turned into a work-out room complete with gym mats, free weights, and some weird looking work –out machinery. This room also had a pull-out futon, which is where Caroline assumed Max would be sleeping until her bed came. His room was indeed very clean and tidy, although she suspected this was not always the case. Her room-to-be was depressingly empty except for the humungous poster of himself Max had taped to the back of her door.

She glared at him. “Really, Max? Isn’t this a bit much? Even for you?”

He grinned madly, “What? Every professional athlete needs a poster of himself in his house.”

“Why  must it be in my room?”

“So you can appreciate the Superstar all the time. Chika chi chi…” He did the hand motions that went along with his phrase.

She cringed at that reminder of his laughably horrible car commercials. “At least the closet is big.”

She looked fondly towards the walk-in closet. It was so big, Max had had enough space to put in a horribly flowered loveseat. She appreciated the gesture. At least she would have some place to sit and think about her outfits. Or at the very least, dump all her clothes.

“Alright, grand tour over. Come on, let’s play!” He shouted gleefully and dragged her down the stairs and back into the games room.

The room, which had looked spacious when she had first seen it, looked cramped now, mostly because of the large hockey-players who were now seated on the various couches and chairs strewn around the room. They were all eagerly cheering on Marc-Andre and Sidney who were on the floor, playing each other in what she could best describe as one of the shoot-‘em-up video games.

She sat down next to Max - right in front of the huge, flat-screen, LED TV - to watch Marc-Andre shoot Sidney full of holes. For the most part, she watched the others play. The other players invited her to play, but she was really bad at these kinds of video games so she declined. She was happy to just be with Max and watch the others kill each other. She was tired though, and really sleepy. So she leaned her head against Max’s shoulder, trying not to appear even more tired than she was.

“You okay, C-line? Want me to kick ‘em out so we can head to bed?” Max asked, putting an arm around her so she could rest her head on him properly.

She stifled her yawn and shook her head, “Noooo… this is fun. If you kick them out, I’ll miss Montreal too much.”

He looked worried all of a sudden. “We should probably give Tante Ronnie and Uncle Z a call. Tell them you made it here safe.” He said.

She smiled. Her brother thought of everything. Just not at the appropriate time. “I called them from the airport when I landed. We’ll call them again tomorrow morning.”

“D’accord.”

Ah, French. How she loved it. She was just closing her eyes for a minute when Max nudged her awake.

“Sis, I’m gonna need my arm back. Halo calls.”

She lifted her head, letting him slip his arm out from her grip. She was just about to move over from the center of the couch to the side so she could rest her head on the armrest when Sidney sat down next to her.

“Hi.” He sounded sad.

“Oh, hi. You look upset.”

Sidney sighed heavily, “I lost.”

She held back her laughter, “It’s just a game.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been practicing. I should have won!”

“I’m sure you’ll do better next time.” It was getting much harder not to laugh at his dejected face.

He was staring dejectedly at the floor, but did a double take when he saw the glint in her eyes. “You’re laughing at me!”

She burst out laughing at the accusation in his voice. “I wasn’t! But now I am.”

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “Guess it is kinda stupid to be so upset over a video game…”

She nodded, “Un petit peu.” He’s Canadian; he had to know enough French to understand that.

He looked around awkwardly for a moment. “So, you’re Max’s sister.”

“Yes… ?”

He laughed awkwardly, “Sorry. Not so great at small talk.”

She smiled, hoping to put him at ease. “It’s alright.”

“You know, you never did tell me what your favorite sport is.”

“I didn’t, did I? Guess.” Was this flirting? … Surely not.

He laughed, “Okay… Hockey?”

“Ooh, close. I love watching hockey. Never played it though.”

He looked dumbfounded, “You’ve never played hockey?”

She chuckled, “Look, I know it’s hard for you to comprehend, but there are people whose lives do not revolve completely around hockey.”

“Wow, you’re so blunt… I like it.”

She smiled, “So, keep guessing.”

“Uh, baseball.”

“Erm, never. So boring. Also, I don’t understand the jargon.”

He laughed, “Fair enough. Soccer?”

“I have to tell you, you’re waaay off.”

“Can I have a hint?”

“Nope.”

He looked thoughtful for a second. Then his eyes lit up, “Curling!”

She stared incredulously at him for a second. Then burst out laughing. “Not!”

He laughed too, and then shrugged defeatedly, “What, then?”

“Oh, come on; are those all the sports you know?”

“Hey, I’m not an encyclopedia.”

“I think there’s a pretty big one you’re missing.”

He thought for a bit. “Lacrosse?” He asked tentatively.

“Yes!” She giggled, “Took you long enough.”

He shrugged, “I got it in the end.” He looked smug.

“Yeah, after a million tries.”

“I’d say it was more like half a million…”

“No, definitely a solid million.”

“Shut up.” He growled playfully, bumping her shoulder with his.

She laughed at the expression on his face. The rest of the night passed quickly. She did get to play some Mario Kart (a game in which she actually beat the guys), but other than that the night was pretty uneventful. Oh, except for Jordan drunkenly hitting on her a couple times, which got Max (and curiously Sidney) kind of angry. When Max angrily called Jordy out on it, Jordan yelled, “Quit cockblocking me, man!”

To which Maxie replied, “Yo, shitface, she’s my little sister!”

And to that, Jordan could say nothing. And he was a little too drunk to actually fight with Max who had stayed relatively sober for (direct quote) “her sake.”

Sidney had turned out to be a very… nice companion. He had played some more games with the guys, but had always returned to her to talk. They’d ended up talking about everything from Canadian politics, to movies, to their families. She found that he was quite funny once she’d managed to draw him out of his carefully constructed shell.

She had had fun, and she was glad that the guys were such good friends with each other (“The team that parties together, wins together.” Max had said once) and that they were so willingly welcoming her into their fold. But she was becoming obscenely tired now, and after she was jerked awake by Jordan’s roar of triumph for the umpteenth time that night, Max finally decided to call it a night.

After the guys left, Max showed her up to his room.

“Are you sure you removed all your Playboy calendars?” She asked him sleepily.

“Yeah, yeah, I have. Quit worrying.” He grinned at her and guided her gently down onto his bed.

“I have to ch-change.” She yawned, getting sleepier by the minute.

“I’ll bring up your carry-on. All your night stuff’s in there, right?”

“Mhm.” She was having trouble keeping her eyes open.

“Don’t fall asleep! I’ll be right back.”

Of course she wasn’t able to stay awake, so once Max came back with her stuff he found her curled up in the middle of his bed, fast asleep. He shook his head before removing her shoes and pulling her sweater off so she would be sleeping in her t-shirt, which had to be a little more comfortable. He covered her with another blanket since she’d fallen asleep on top of the one on his bed, and made sure to surround her with pillows, just the way she liked it. He kissed her on her forehead and murmured, “Reves doux.” in her ear, before grabbing some pillows and a blanket and leaving the room to go make his bed on the futon in his weight room. 

Author's Note: 

OMG, I have followers! Huzzah. Thank you for your awesome comments C: 

The third chapter hasn't been written yet, but I do have the basic idea for it down. I hope you guys like where this is going, and I'm oh so apologetic for the long updates. I've just become really... vested (word usage?) in this story for some reason. Look for another update after June 5 because I have to take my Math Level II, Literature, and US History SAT tests on that day. Gotta teach myself how to use a graphing calculator before then. Also, summer's coming up and aside from college apps, a wedding in Italy, and surfing with my boyfriend in Fiji, I have no plans, which translates to lot's of updates for you guys! 

Reviews inspire me to write (hint, hint).  

- Qtip