Sidney Crosby - relationships for dummies

Two days passed and now it was Wednesday, the day of the game Sidney had wanted me to go to. Since he had sent me the flowers I felt like I at least owed it to him to watch the game on TV. So come 7:30, I grabbed my bowl of Easy Mac and plopped myself down on the couch and turned on the game. I watched as Sidney took the opening faceoff, and then it hit me; they were wearing white. Sidney had wanted me to come on the road with him.

At the next commercial break I jumped up and grabbed my laptop and logged on to the Pens’ website. I pulled up their schedule and skimmed down to where, sure enough, they were playing Atlanta, in Atlanta. So when Sidney had asked me to come to his game, he had wanted me to go on the road with him. I felt fairly rotten now that I had turned him down so roughly, but I didn’t know. I mean, I was a Caps fan first so the only reason I bothered with the Pens was because of Sidney.

I spent the rest of the game feeling slightly guilty about how I had acted towards Sidney. Of course, when they lost 4-1, I felt even worse. They broadcast some of the interviews, including one with Sidney. He looked completely drained. Fifteen minutes later, I made the decision to pull out my phone and give the boy a call. I figured he should be done with all the interviews by then and I’d be able to catch him before he got in the shower. The phone rang twice before I heard his voice through the receiver.

“Hello?” He sounded rejected
“Hey Sid,” I was suddenly shy and had no idea what to say.
“Rachel! What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing. I um, I saw the game.”
“Oh yeah, it wasn’t our best.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“Rach, it’s not your fault we lost.”
“No, I’m sorry for blowing up at you. I didn’t realize that you had wanted me to go on the road with you.”
“I told you Rachel, I want a relationship with you.”
“Then why did you disappear for four months,” I couldn’t help but start to get annoyed.
“I was going through a lot pressure. Look, can we not talk about this right now? I promise I’ll call you when we get back tomorrow and we can talk about whatever you want for as long as you want.”
“Fine.”
“Rachel, please don’t be angry. I promise you I’ll call. I swear on the Stanley Cup.” I couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Okay. Go take a shower and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“How did you know I haven’t showered yet?”
“I can smell you through the phone,” I joked.
“Fine, bye Rachel. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye Sid.”

After hanging up with Sidney I went upstairs and went to bed. I had a long day tomorrow. And if Sidney and I were going to have a long talk, I’d need as much rest as was humanly possible. As I drifted off to sleep, the only thing that consumed my mind was the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain.

The next morning I was awoken by the blaring ringtone of my cellphone. Too tired to even look at the caller ID, I raised the device to my ear, prepared to curse out the asshole who dared to break up my beauty sleep. I had every intention of cursing the person on the other line out; that is until they spoke. I was only able to murmur out a greeting before I heard their voice.

“Rach? I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Concern leaked from his voice. At least he was guilty.
“Um yeah, kinda, but it’s no big deal.”
“I’m sorry, go back to sleep. I’ll call you later.”
“No, Sid, I’m already up. Just tell me why you called.”
“Well,” he paused, suddenly seeming embarrassed for calling, “I just woke up and I, uh, just wanted to hear your voice.” A smile instantly broke out across my face.
“Really?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Sidney, that’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard.”
“Oh, really? Well, I’ve got a lot more where that came from.”
I merely let out a laugh in return. Now I remember why I gave this kid the time of day.
“Listen, Rachel, we have to leave the hotel soon. Our flight should get in around 3:00 and so I was just checking to see if you still wanted to have that talk.”
“Oh, definitely. I have to be in the training room to get in some hours, but I should hopefully be done by then. Just give me a call and I’ll come over or something.”
“Alright, great, I can’t wait to see you.”
“I, uh, can’t wait to see you either.”
“Ok well I have to run now, bye baby,” he called before hanging up without giving me a chance to respond. But he called me ‘baby,’ like it was just second nature. Maybe I missed him more than I thought I did.

Three hours later, I had just finished class and now I was training room. No one had gotten injured recently so there wasn’t anything to do. I had already done enough paperwork to last me a lifetime and still had another hour to fill before I could leave. I was currently occupying myself by messing around with the other trainers. We were currently in the process of chucking the large exercise balls at each other when my phone started blaring again. I reached for it, barely having time to dodge the large ball being thrown in my general direction.

“Hello?”
“Hey baby. Guess who just landed in Pittsburgh.”
“Um… Kris Letang?”
“Oh very funny.”
From the background, I heard a muffled an, “I told you she liked me better,” from my favorite French-Canadian followed by an audible whack.
“Now Sidney, you don’t have to hurt the poor boy just because he’s cuter than you.”
Again, there was a muffled, “Yeah Sidney,” and I could tell Sidney was starting to lose a bit of patience with our back-and-forth humor.
“So what did you need?”
“Well, our plane landed early and so I was wondering if you wanted to get together now.”
“I don’t know Sid, I’m kind of busy,” I responded as I threw the oversized ball at the nearest trainer, David.
“If I recall correctly,” Sidney began before I heard ruffling of paper on the other line, “and I quote, ‘having a good relationship takes energy, it can’t just happen. You may have to dump plans with your friends every now and then.’”
“Alright smart ass, this is different. I need to clock in these hours otherwise I’m going to be behind.”
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not working, you’re playing around.”
“Oh? And how would you know that smarty pants?”
“Turn around.”

I whipped around and, sure enough, there was Sidney. Kris and Jordan Staal close in tow. I jumped off the table I had been sitting on and ran into his arms, tackling him into a hug. I guess that decides the did-or-didn’t-I-miss-him debate. Kris and Jordan rolled their eyes in sync as Sidney hesitantly placed a quick kiss on my lips. No doubt the memory of the last time he had tried to kiss me was fresh in his mind.

“Maybe I should go to Atlanta more often. This is a much better greeting than last time,” he smirked down at me. I merely pushed my face into his neck, still hugging him tightly.
“Shut up,” I mumbled. “But what are you doing here?”
“Well, I figured you’d try and come up with some excuse to postpone our little heart to heart so I figured I’d come down and kidnap you myself.”
“What are they doing here,” I asked motioning to Jordan and Kris. “Not that I’m not happy to see you guys or anything.” I had met them briefly before Sidney had gone MIA.
“They have no lives and claimed they hadn’t seen you in forever.”
“And whose fault is that?” I asked in a semi-mocking, semi-serious tone.
“That, my dear, is exactly what we are going to discuss.”
“Sidney, I told you, I need to clock in my hours.” Sidney rolled his eyes and looked over my head to the trainers behind me.
“Do you mind if I steal her early?”
“Oh no, go ahead, we’ll just give you the hours since there’s really nothing to do.” Dave and I were going to be having a long discussion whenever we were both serving the same hours. Traitor.
“Great, c’mon Rach.” Sidney scooped me up, threw me over his shoulder and headed out of the building towards his car.