Chapter Twelve
"Honey, we're home!"
It could have been an air raid siren, given the speed to which they moved afterwards. Sid jumped back and walked around to the far side of the kitchen counter and Amber jumped down and resumed cutting, her face flushed, her lips tingling and swollen.
"Oh great," she exclaimed, trying to calm her breath so Jordan and Max wouldn't expect anything.
"And what did you bring me?" she asked, seeing the several bags that the boys dumped on the counter.
"Meat!" Jordan exclaimed, rubbing his stomach.
"Wow, descriptive…" Amber laughed as she dug through the full bag on the counter.
"We bought eggs and bread… I thought maybe you could make your famous French toast in the morning?" Max said, coming around the corner in what seemed like a much happier mood then he left in. 'That was so like him,' Amber thought to herself. She never knew what Max was going to show up, he had so many personalities, ranging from sweet, romantic Max to angry, crazy Max. He could switch in a matter of moments.
"Ummm… yeah, I could probably manage that…" Amber agreed cautiously. "But I am not doing dishes! You can be sure of that!"
"We'll do the dishes," Sid offered quietly from the side.
"I will do anything if it means getting food right now!" Jordan declared.
"Max, will you go turn on the BBQ? We'll get these steaks on, so Jordan doesn't wilt away!" Amber quickly put each of the boys to work, keeping her distance from Sidney, instead having him set the table. Jordan was in charge of the salad, while she finished making the fruit salad for dessert and prepped some vegetables for grilling. With everyone chipping in, it wasn't long before dinner was ready.
"Meat is done." Max declared and Jordan rejoiced. Jordan and Sid headed out to the deck to sit down and Max headed to the well stocked wine rack and grabbed a bottle of Cabernet and the wine opener.
"Remember when we went with our parents on the wine tour at Niagra? What were we? 17? 18? We weren't legal… Man… that was a lot of wine!" Max asked Amber, as he opened the bottle.
"I can't believe we tried to get away with acting not drunk…" Max continued. "We were so ridiculous! As if our parents didn't know we had snuck that bottle? We thought we were so smart!"
Amber just smiled, remembering exactly the night Max was referring. And she knew that he knew exactly how old they were. It had been a big trip for them, the first time they had really thought they were 'grown ups'. It was the first time that their parents had let them share a room. It was the night they first… 'did it'. It seemed like an eternity ago. Amber had wanted to secure her place in their relationship before he moved to Pittsburgh and got followed by puck bunnies.
"And how many girls have you poured just a bit too much wine for since then?" Amber turned to Max, cutting him off of his trip down memory lane.
"Why do you always have to go there? I was just remembering a good time…" Max asked.
"No you weren't. I know what you are trying to do… take a walk down memory lane and try to get into my pants. It's the same thing you try and do every time you come home. You can't just turn it on and off like a switch Max. I disconnected the wires. Its over, for the love of God, just leave it alone."
"We have a past… You can't just walk away from that… it means something!"
"Yes it does, it means that we will be good friends and always have those memories but that's it."
"Non."
"Qui! Comprenez-vous?"
"J'ai besoin de toi dans ma vie. J'ai change. Donne moi une chance!" Max pleaded, taking a step closer to Amber.
Jordan popped his head in the sliding door. "Are we eating or what? I'm starving!"
"Yeah, we know! For fuck sakes we are coming!" Amber turned away from Max, grabbed the side dishes and headed out to the deck to join the boys. 'That's the second time Jordan has interrupted me tonight… I hope he sticks near by,' Amber thought to herself, as she sat between Sid and Jordan at the table… as far from Max as she could get.
-.-
Dinner went by event free - surprisingly. Max barely talked and the few words he did get out were really more grunts then an actual words. The conversation consisted mostly of Jordan and Sid talking about different games and different plays they wanted to try for next year. Sid was amazed that Amber contributed to the conversation, where most girls would tune them out. She told them flat out when a play wouldn't work, and could point out a flaw to a far-out plan.
"That won't work…" She would say. "I mean maybe if you try it against a crappy third or forth line, but a top line Red Wing or Bruin will laugh at you for even trying it! Oh my God, and don't even try it against Washington! You will never here then end of it!"
After stating her opinion, the boys would be back at making a new plan, using utensils as players. The sun went down and they stayed at it – planning and plotting. Sid could do this all night, it's was one of the parts of hockey he liked most – being able to come up with new plays, especially when they worked.
Eventually Amber stood up to start clearing the dishes and Sid quickly rose to help.
"Sit!" Amber insisted. "You guys need all the strategy ideas you can get!"
"Hey! That's not very nice… we do have some talent!" Jordan argued, still sitting and looking like he had no intention to get up.
"Well most of us… I don't know about you…" Sid joked, looking to Max for backup. "Right Max?" But Max just stared at the floor. Sid looked up to get some help from someone else but Amber just shook her head and Jordan shrugged.
"Whatever… You can get off your ass and help!" Sid snapped, directing his frustration at Jordan.
"Ah man, really? The girl said sit," Jordan whined.
"The girl has a name… and I don't know about you but I was certainly raised better then to let my host do all the work."
"Fine, jerk. Maybe Moppy here needs some time to clear his head… funny, a couple hours ago, you were the miserable one…" Jordan remarked.
"I wasn't miserable…" Sid argued, then grabbed some of the dishes and headed toward the door. He decided he wasn't going to push the issue with Max any further. It would probably end up with another fight and he had narrowly escaped getting his head beat in the last time. Jordan followed close behind as the two of them went inside, leaving Amber on the deck to clean up with Max.
Sid watched from the kitchen. Max just starred out into the trees, as Amber cleaned up around him. It didn't look like he was saying anything. While dinner was cooking, Max had seemed like his regular self, relaxed and jovial, making dirty jokes and talking about farts. Then it was like someone flipped a switch and he was back to his miserable state. Sid wasn't sure what happened but Amber looked pretty upset when she came and sat down for dinner. They must have talked while they were inside, he concluded and from the looks of it, it hadn't ended well.
Sid continued to stare, while Jordan nattered on about something or other. He watched Amber say something to Max, then watched him stand up and push his chair back and storm off the deck. He watched while Max disappeared into the tree line heading down to the dock. He watched Amber sit down and put her face in her hands and start crying. He felt like he was watching a movie on mute. He didn't know how to react, or what to do. For the second time that day…
"Hey man, did you hear a word I just fuckin' said?" Jordan elbowed him.
"Sorry, what?" Sid replied, snapping out of his stare.
"What the hell man? What is it between you two?" Jordan asked, following Sid's sight line to the deck.
"You promise you won't say anything? To anyone?"
"Yeah whatever man… just what the fuck is going on?"
"Remember when I came home from Vancouver, how I was a little… distracted?"
"Yeah, we just figured you were secretly chanting your own name in your head…"
"Fuck off, I wouldn't do that!"
"Sure you wouldn't…" Jordan rolled his eyes and laughed.
"Seriously!"
"Anyways… continue…"
"Right, well, I kinda met someone there… I mean I didn't really meet her there, I knew her before, but I, kinda spent a bit more time with her, and I, well, I maybe slept with her there… after the gold medal game"
"Shut up! You DID fuck Max's girl!"
"Keep you damn voice down!"
"Seriously! No way? He's going to KILL you!"
"Thanks for the reminder…" Sid looked back out the window to where Amber was still sitting. "It's not like I knew they knew each other…"
"Whatever… so what… you did her once? Like seven months ago! I am sure it meant nothing!"
"It didn't mean nothing! And it might have been more since then…"
"Shut up? You're seeing her? How did you keep that a secret?"
"I am not seeing her, I just saw her again in Edmonton… and we might have done it there too… but now I don't know… she's so complicated… I don't know what's going on… things didn't exactly end well in Edmonton…"
"Awkward…" Jordan laughed. "No wonder she was less then thrilled seeing you last night. What did you get up and leave right after?"
"Not exactly…"
"Dude… did you at least say you'd call?"
"She left me."
"What?"
"She left me. Both times."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. I woke up and she was gone. Both times."
"Wow."
"Thanks for your support."
"Whatever, you know how many times I wish girls were gone when I woke up?"
"It's not like that with her… I… I… I like her a lot okay…" Sid trailed off, hoping that Jordan caught the drift without him actually having to define it more.
"You're so fucked."
"Again, thanks for your support."
"Okay seriously, you need to tell him. I actually defended you earlier… I said there was no way you were into her! I actually said that! If he finds out, before you tell him, he's going to kill you and then he's going to think I was covering it up and kill me too… normally I can out run that fat French bastard, so I wouldn't care, but in case you haven't noticed, I am not quite up to full speed." Jordan laughed, pointing at his foot which was still wrapped in a cast from the playoffs. "Oh man I wish I was… its going to be one hell of a fight!"
Sid just shook his head and looked back out the window at Amber, who had pulled her knees up to her chest and was just sitting and staring. He couldn't see from where he was if she had stopped crying.
"I don't know if it's worth it… telling Max. She left, twice. I mean, what if I go down there and tell him, get my ass kicked and then I never see her again?"
"Have you even talked to her about a relationship?"
"I did when we were in Edmonton. I thought we figured things out but then…"
"Right, she left, I got that part…" Jordan blurted out. "Were you going to pursue it? I mean, go after her, if you hadn't seen her? Or just leave it?"
"I thought about it… turning into a crazy stalker… but then I thought she must have left for a good reason but as it turns out, she really didn't…"
"So you've talked to her since getting to Montreal?"
"Not really, a bit last night… but I couldn't be in the same room as her, I was mad and pissed and angry as hell…"
"You are aware that mad, pissed and angry are all the same thing?" Jordan laughed.
"This is a joke to you? This fucking mess is a fucking joke to you?"
"No man, just trying to lighten the mood… you're getting a little intense…"
"FUCK! This so messed up!"
"Maybe we should call Oprah…"
"Fuck you…" Sid grabbed a cloth from the counter and hucked it at Jordan's head. He looked up to see Amber walking in the door with a stack of plates, her eyes red from crying but her expression strong, as if she was trying to hid it.
"Hey…" Sid offered softly. "You okay?"
"I thought you guys came in to start the dishes?" Amber asked sharply, entirely ignoring Sid's question.
"Yes ma'am. We will get started straight away!" Jordan saluted her then walked over to the sink and turned on the taps. Amber walked to the counter and placed the dishes on it, then turned to scrape the leftover food into the garbage. As she turned around, Sid walked over to her and grabbed her hand to stop her.
"Are you okay?" He repeated quietly.
"Don't. Just don't," Amber dropped the plate that was in her hand onto the counter and turned and headed down the hall to her bedroom, where she slammed the door shut.
"Hello, Oprah…" Jordan offered from the sink, looking at Sid with a useless shrug.