As soon as we get home, my phone starts to vibrate, it's Brooke.
Brooke has been my best friend since I don't even know when, very young. She moved down to this area once we graduated high school when I did. Somewhere along the way, her and Brad hooked up.
I'm living with Tuukka while going to school. I'm going to Boston University to become an athletic trainer, hopefully earning a spot with the Bruins in the future.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Where the hell is Brad? He isn't answering his phone."
"Um, he's right here." I look over at Brad. They are all circled around the computer looking at something.
"Let me talk to him." She demands, she seems upset over something.
"Brad." I hand Brad my phone.
"Who is it?" He asks.
"Your girlfriend." I say, and he rolls his eyes. It makes me wonder what's wrong.
"Hey." He says, getting off the stool and walking down to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
"What's up with him?" Tuukka asks, shutting the laptop screen.
"I don't know, Brooke sounded upset." I tell him.
"They got in a big fight last night." Tyler says.
"Over what?" I ask.
"I didn't hear any of it, I went to bed, but she came over and started getting in his face and there was a huge blow out yelling fight."
"Jesus, what brought that on?" Tuukka asks.
"I don't know, but it was pretty bad." Tyler says.
"They've never fought." I say, thinking of what could have brought it on, but I come up with nothing.
The door to the bathroom opens and Brad walks back into the kitchen, taking a seat on the stool and hands me my phone back. He stays silent.
"You alright?" Tyler asks him.
"I don't know." He puts his head down on the table.
"Brad tell us." I walk over next to Tyler, setting my hand down on Brad's back.
"We probably won't last for much longer, let's just say that." He lifts his head up and tears stain his eyes.
"What the hell happened?" Tyler asks as soon as he notices Brad's tears.
"We did shit the other night, she was fine until she went through my fucking phone and saw that I had a messages from my ex on there and now she's accusing me of just using her."
"Are you talking to your ex?" I ask.
"Once, and that was yesterday. She asked where Tyler was seeing they have a thing."
"Tyler has a thing with Hayley?" Tuukka asks, surprised.
"Yeah." Tyler laughs, a fake laugh though.
"Oh, that's nice." Tuukka looks away.
"Whatever, we break up, we break up, she obviously doesn't trust me." Brad says, wiping his eyes.
"She won't break up with you, she loves you Brad, she'll get over it." I assure him.
I would hate to have this be the reason of them breaking up, but I know how much Brooke loves him, and I don't think she could do that.
"I hope she doesn't." He says.
"Hey, Brad, let's go for a quick drive, Meghan and Tyler can stay here." Tuukka says grabbing his keys from the counter. Brad stands up and they head out to the garage. Now I'm left alone at home with a guy I've really only known for just a few hours.
"This house is really nice." Tyler says, standing up and walking around into the living room.
"Yeah, I love it here. Most of the time I have it to myself." I follow him.
"Lucky. What's it like living with Tuukka?" He turns around and faces me.
"Good." I awkwardly answer.
"How come I've never really seen you at the games?"
"I wasn't allowed to go into the locker room as often as I did towards the end of the season last year." I sit down on the couch. He sits down in the chair next to me.
"Oh, that explains it."
"Yeah. So you're seeing Hayley?" I ask, which comes out kind of rude because I never liked Hayley.
"Oh god no, Brad hooked us up, we aren't anything though. I actually can't even stand her." I look at him when he answers.
"Well then, that makes two of us." I respond. He laughs.
"I'm just kind of playing it in a way. I talk to her to make Brad feel like he hooked up someone, but I'm probably going to be putting an end to it soon."
"Why?"
"I can't stand her." He laughs and gets up and goes out to kitchen. I follow him out.
"Stalker." He grins, looking behind him at me standing at the island.
"I do what I can." I say sarcastically. The door of the garage opens and Tuukka and Brad come walking in.
"You guys ready?" Tuukka asks.
"For what?" I ask.
"The team is going out for lunch together." Tyler says, walking past me.
I catch him give me a quick full body check out as he walks out to the garage with Brad. I follow Tuukka out and get in the truck. Tyler sits with me in the back. We pull into a nice restaraunt and get out. I look down at my outfit, I think I should have worn something a little nicer then what I'm wearing.
"You look fine." Tyler says, noticing me. I look up at him and smile and he returns it.
We walk in and find the rest of the team. All the girlfriends and wives are with them. I'm always an oddball coming as Tuukka's sister.
"You guys, over here." Patrice points to the sides of the table that are empty. Stephanie sits on his left. I sit next to her, across from Tuukka and Brad. Tyler sits down next to me.
"Hello Meghan." Stephanie says. She's wearing a black dress. I knew I should have worn something nice.
"Hi."
"Did Patrice tell you?" She asks.
"Yes he did!" I smile.
"Thank goodness! I am thinking next summer, but I wanted to ask you in advance if you would consider being one of my bridesmaids?" I nearly spit my drink of water back in the cup. I instantly look at her. Both her and Patrice are looking at me.
"Of course I would! Oh my god, yes!" I say. She leans over and hugs me.
"Good afternoon everyone." A waitress says, handing out menus on our side of the table while two others do two different sections of the long table that has been set up for the whole team. A few minutes later we all order our lunches.
"I'd like to make a toast!" Patrice stands up at the end of the table. Everyone looks in his direction.
"This is a good looking team we've got here. We're coming off a Stanley Cup win together, so it couldn't be any better than this. Our next season starts tonight, so let's make it the best that we can and maybe keep the Cup in Boston at the end of it! Cheers to this season!"
"Cheers." Everyone brings their glass of water in, since they aren't drinking before the game.
The lunches come and everyone eats. After everyone is finished, we all stay seated and talk for what seems like another hour. I pull my phone out and scroll through things.
"What are you looking at?" Tyler says, resting his arm over the back of my chair, leaning in towards me.
"Nothing special." I continue scrolling before my phone is swipped from my hands by Tyler.
"Nothing special, huh?" He scrolls through my phone. I try grabbing it multiple times but he keeps it away from me, laughing every time.
"Tyler, give me my phone." I quietly whine.
"Something I shouldn't see?" He torments me by grinning.
I try not to laugh and reach for my phone and he moves it down to the area I'm obviously not going to reach for. He laughs when I give him my unimpressed look. Why is he doing this?
"You're stressing me out." I sigh.
"I know and it's cute." He says, beginning to scroll through it again.
"Cute?" I ask. I am so confused. Did he really just say that me being stressed out is cute?
"I meant funny." He corrects himself.
"Can I please have my phone back?" I pout. He sighs and gives in. Making sure no one is looking, I slip it in my shirt.
"That's not tempting at all." He smirks and my mouth drops.
"Tyler!" I slap his arm and he cracks up.
"Just saying." He puts his hands up. I cover my face in embarrassment.
"Everything okay over there?" Brad asks. I look up at him and laugh.
"Everything's fine." Tyler says, smiling. I shoot him an evil eye and he shrugs his shoulders.
Everyone starts leaving around 3:30. We all head out to Tuukka's truck and go back home for a little over an hour before having to leave for the game.
"Brooke isn't going." Brad sighs looking down at his phone.
"Don't let it get to you." Tuukka assures.
"I'm not and won't." He says as serious as can be.
"Good." Tuukka responds happily.
"I got to go change." I say quietly to myself, turning around and going upstairs. I search through my closet trying to find one of Tuukka's old jerseys to wear. He must have taken them back.
"Tuukka?" I call.
"What?" He calls back.
"Where are your old jerseys?" I walk and stand over the railing.
"Um, they're in my room, hold on." He comes upstairs and I follow him into his room. He shuts the door behind him. He goes into his closet pulling out a jersey and giving it to me.
"Thank you." I say, pulling it over my shirt. I turn to leave but he stops me. I look at him confused.
"Don't think I didn't see you and Tyler and lunch today." He smiles.
"What do you mean?"
"You two, him flirting with you."
"Flirting? Is that what you call flirting?" He can't be serious.
"Well that must be Tyler's way of it. He told me when we were leaving he thought you were cute."
"What the hell? Well this isn't awkward at all." I turn around not facing him.
The fact of a guy thinking I'm cute is extremely weird. I only have had one boyfriend ever, and that ended on a bad note. He cheated on me and got a girl knocked up. Perfect ending.
"I can see you two together."
"Tuukka stop it, he's probably just saying that to get me going."
"I don't know, he watched you go up the stairs that whole time. He's definitely got a little crush." He grins. I feel like slapping him.
"Well good for him. I'm not girlfriend material." I admit.
"Don't you dare say that. Just because fucking Cody cheated on you does not mean that you aren't a good girlfriend. If anything, it shows you are. You weren't just going to let him get in your pants when you weren't ready for it. I know I'd rather have my girlfriend be ready then force her. I don't think Tyler is like that." He says.
"I don't know Tuuk, I don't know if I'm ready."
"Give Tyler a shot, you never know." He smiles, giving me a hug and let's me leave.
I love my brother. As much of a pain in the ass as he can be, I know he is only looking out for me seeing Dad lives in Maine and isn't physically here. He's always been protective of me, for as long as I can remember. Even if he isn't my biological brother, it doesn't matter.
Tuukka was adopted. He was six months old when my dad and biological mom got him. Our mother was in and out of his life, so he never really got to know her, so it doesn't bother him as much as you'd think, since he has lost all respect for a woman he barely knows. She was a bar fly, jumping from bar to bar, constantly going home with men, and cheating on my dad. She was very classy, clearly. They were told they couldn't have kids, but five years after adopting Tuukka, I came. She was there for all my first 9 months, then she up and left, and has yet to return to our lives.
"Should we get going?" Brad asks.
"We can." Tuukka asks, grabbing his phone and keys. We all head out to the garage, get in the truck, and head for TD Garden for the kick off of the season.