Break the Ice

I woke up the next morning with my legs on Tyler and my head on Sidney’s chest. Taking in a deep breath I sluggishly got out of bed. After standing up on my own two feet, I knelt beside Sidney.

“Wake up sleepy head.” I smiled.
His calm, sleeping breathing turned into different paces as he woke up, “Morning.” Sidney spoke groggily.
I skipped over to Tyler as Sidney got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen. “Ty…Ty…Tyl-Ahhh!” As I ‘tried’ to wake Tyler up he grabbed me, pinned me to the bed, and started tickling me. “It’s way too early for this! I should still be sleeping!”
“So should I!”
“Touche.” He shot me a playful glare as I grinned.
Slipping out from under his grip I got up and headed over to the kitchenette

After getting ready for the day, the three of us headed out of the hotel and walked a few minutes to the heart of downtown Toronto. Already knowing the boys’ pre-game routines helped me to plan out the day at ease without conflicting with anyone’s alone time.

“So I thought we could do some shopping then maybe get a coffee with a few of the other guys? Sound good?”
“Yeah, that’s great. But one thing… I ne-”
Tyler started to speak but I cut him off, “Yes Tyler I’m aware…You need to be back in the early afternoon, have your nap, get up, have a shower while listening to that one playlist on your iPod, and finally get ready.” Tyler nodded his head impressed and then Sidney looked over at me. I let out a sigh, before speaking quickly. “Sid… Since it’s a 7:30 start you need to be back at the hotel at 2:30…five hours before the game. You have something to eat, then have a 45 minute nap. Once you get up you pack all your things into your bag, have a shower, get all ready and head to the arena. You make sure you are one of the first ones there, and then you tape your stick. After getting all dressed and warmed up you retape your stick. Yadda, yadda, yadda…Then you play.” I paused, taking in some air. “No way in Hell am I going through your post game things guys.” They looked at me impressed.

“Wow, you sure know your stuff Nicki.” Sidney spoke as I smiled.
“After being around you idiots I learn a thing or two.” I scrunched up my nose and smiled.

The day went on as planned and we got back to the hotel at 2:29. Sidney freaked out until we actually got into our hotel suite. “Calm down Crosby, look! We’re even back a minute early!” Tyler rolled his eyes.
“Thank you for your support TK,” Sidney spoke with general sarcasm in his voice.
“Well sorry to interrupt your guys’ little cat fight, but I’ll get ready in someone else’s room to make sure I don’t throw you guys off. I don’t care about the rest of them…” I joked. “But seriously…I’ll see you guys at the arena. I can pop into the dressing room before the game if you want.” They both nodded, “Okay will do.” I waved back to them as I left the room.

Skipping over in my content state, I reached Brittany’s room. I pulled out the room card I had taken from her bag when she wasn’t looking and opened the door, closing my eyes making sure I wasn’t walking in on anything. After hearing complete silence in the room except the faded hum of a hair dryer I decided to walk into the room. I set my bag down on the floor, beside where I had just taken off my shoes and walked further into the suite.
“Britty?” I called.
I heard the hair dryer turn off and a confused voice shout back, “Nicki?”
I smiled smugly, “Hiya!”
She widened her eyes, “Hello…How’d you ge-?” I cut her off by holding up the room card that was placed in between my fingers. She hit herself lightly on her face and shook her head. “You are so weird.” I just laughed in return.

Once I got to the arena [I drove and Brittany came along with me] we parked in the VIP parking and headed into the building. I let out a sigh thinking of the many times I had been in here before. This one would be different for sure.

After we got into the building we walked down the narrow hallway towards the dressing rooms. I felt a brush of a body moved past me when Brittany and I walked past the Home team’s room and I glanced back only to try and silence my eyes by quickly turning back around. I took in a deep breath as I tried to ignore the person I knew was still only a few feet behind me. Closing my eyes for a long lasting blink I refreshed my mind and focused on the game ahead and not the boy behind.

During the first period my boys were down one to zero…thanks to someone….

--- I sat on the edge of my seat watch the puck slowly get passed around in the neutral zone until it got onto Luke’s stick. He rushed down the ice, passing the puck to himself and in-between his legs. I kept my eyes glued to the figure making his way closer to Marc…waiting…waiting….and goal horn. I resisted the urge to jump up remember what happened at Christmas and I looked down at my hands before looking at the ice. Luke raised his stick up into the air then looked over at me, knowing where I was sitting and pointed over at me beaming. I let out another deep sigh as my eyes began to water. I wished I could leave right now, but I had to stay to support the boys.

In the third period I could tell the boys were starting to get mad at themselves and at the Leafs. The score was still one to zero and the game was getting quite physical. The puck was dropped with ten minutes left in the game. Right off the faceoff I saw Sidney yelling things over at Luke and Luke chirping back at him. As the puck hit the ice Sidney skated over to where Luke was and pulled off his gloves. He started throwing punches as Luke did the same. I closed both of my eyes at first then opened one. That’s as much as I would watch. Within about thirty seconds the fight was split up and both of the guys headed over to the penalty box. Sidney wouldn’t stop mouthing off to the refs, so they gave him and extra ten. He skated off the ice and back into the dressing room. I knew he wasn’t a fighter and to know the reason behind the fight did not make it any better to witness.

With three minutes left in the game the gloves were dropped again. Similar actions took place but this time the fight involved Luke and Jordan. I sighed deeply before waving bye to Brittany and heading down into the dressing room.

As I walked down the last few stairs towards the room I was looking for I heard a voice. I continued to walk ignoring the voice I heard saying my name.. Finally I stopped and turned around only to be greeted by a face I just saw from a safe distance a few minutes ago….