Wild At Heart

--Her POV—
I smiled as I read the text message, ‘Hey Ame, are we still on for tomorrow?’
‘Yep,’ I typed back, ‘I just have to think of something to do.’
Since that one night Sidney and I had been spending quite a bit of time together. Now, I won’t lie, when I first gave him my number I had no idea I would be spending almost every off day with him, let alone even get a phone call. But, now here I was texting with him like it was a regular occurrence. Weird really, I had gotten used to getting a text after every win saying something like, ‘you did it again,’ and sending a text after a loss saying, ‘don’t worry I have an idea.’ It was like we were a team, if I did well, so did the team, if I didn’t, well we just hope that didn’t happen.
It had become a sort of superstition; which is a big deal to someone who doesn’t wash his jock strap, or change his hat for a complete season. He would tell me what day, I would think of an idea and we would go out and do it. My friends had been getting a little suspicious, usually all my off time would be spent with them, but now I had Sidney, which complicated things a lot. The truth is, I wouldn’t give up what I have with him for anything; well I wouldn’t call it anything either, but time spent with him was time well wasted.
‘We’re playing the Flyers Saturday so make it a good one! :P’
I rolled my eyes and typed back, ‘Have I ever let you down before?’
‘Touche...’ Was the response I received within minutes.

--His POV—
‘Have I ever let you down before?’ I chuckled and shook my head as I walked off the plane back in Pittsburgh. It had been a long road trip, but we came out of it 3 and 1, a lot of which I feel I owe to Amy. It seems like whenever I’m stressed she always knows to send a text that lets me know everything will be alright, one of the main reasons she has become such a close friend these past couple of months.
‘Touche...’ I text back just as Jordan Staal rips my phone from my hands.
“Staal!” I grab for the phone but he raises his Gronk like arm out of my reach.
“Are you wheeling Sid?” Jordan looks at me with wide eyes and a cocky smile as I feel the rush of red filling in my cheeks. “Who is Amy?” He asks as he scrolls through the messages.
“That’s not your business man, come on.” I held out my hand impatiently and Jordan sighed placing it roughly in my hand.
“So...” he followed behind me, “who is she?”
“Just a friend man, drop it.”
“Do the guys know about this ‘friend’?” he asked clearly creating a plot in his head.
I whipped around and grabbed his shirt with both hands, “If you tell anyone I swear Jordan.” I looked around at the people gawking and instantly loosened my grip, “It’s no one’s business but my own.” And with that I turned and began walking again.
He chased after me and grabbed my shoulder, “Come on man, I won’t say anything.” He gave me these cheesy soft eyes expecting me to drop like every girl he flashes them too, but instead made me roll my eyes.
“There is nothing to tell Jordan,” I shrugged his grasp off of my shoulder and walked towards the bag carousel.
“So then....why can’t I tell the guys?”
Fuck, I thought, I’m never going to win. “Get over here. And I swear if you breathe a word of this I am going to kill you. I would get chirped for the rest of my life.”
Curiosity mounting Jordan stepped closer to me urging me to start the story.
I sighed and began, “Alright so...basically I went to this charity for Sick Kids and I met this girl there, she called me a workaholic –“
“True,” Jordan interrupted me. I shot him a look and he threw his hands up, “I’m sorry, go on.”
“Ok well she called me a workaholic and told me I needed to be a kid blah, blah and she gave me her number. And then we just started losing and I was so stressed, I needed to take a load off. So I was gonna call Max and then I saw her number so I called her. She picked me up and took me egging.”
“Egging? What kind of girl is this!?”
I laughed, “Yea, she took me egging and she told me about that song.”
“The one we play in the dressing room?”
“Yea man.” I picked up my bags and waited for Jordan to do the same before heading out towards our cars. “Anyways, it was such a thrill and it got my adrenaline pumping and it was just so nice to do something other than hockey for once. When I came back for the next game my head was clear and I was just ready to play.”
“Was that the game we killed the Islanders?” He asked getting into the story.
“Yea,” I sort of smirked. “So every off day after that, or whenever I’m stressed I call her up and we just do something random to take my mind off of hockey and stress and stuff.”
Jordan was quiet for a minute before he said the one thing I didn’t want to hear, “I want in.”
“No—“
“Come on Sid! Why not!?”
“Because.”
“Because why?”
God he was like arguing with a 5 year old, “Because I said so.”
“Sidney,” he stopped me walking and turned me to look at him, “Look, I know it’s something personal to you but,” he ran a hand through his hair, “I haven’t been playing so well and I don’t know, if she helped you, maybe she could help me too?”
I exhaled a deep breath, maybe he did have a point. We were a team here, only as strong as our weakest link. Staalsy did play a pretty important role; defensive center man, big penalty killer, but if he screwed this up... “Fine.”
“Yes!”
“But if you screw this up, I swear Jordan I will beat the shit out of you.”
He held his hand out to me with a goofy grin plastered on his face, “Deal.”

--Her POV—
We sat in a deserted parking lot after a good session of nicky-nicky-ninedoors watching the light snow fall around us drinking hot chocolate from a local Tim Hortons. It was near midnight, near Sidney’s curfew for the game tomorrow and I knew that we would have to be heading home soon. Conversation silenced for a few minutes before I spoke. “Sidney?”
“Mmm?” He replied taking a sip of his hot chocolate.
“If you could do it all again,” I turned to face him, “would you do everything the same?”
He turned to face me, “Of course I would. I mean I missed out on a lot of stuff growing up but I achieved my dream. I have the best job in the world; I wake up, play hockey, eat, sleep, and play more hockey. What more could I ask for?”
“True, true,” I replied nodding my head and looking out the snow covered windshield.
“There are some things I miss though. Like being a normal 21 year old. I missed out on the whole college scene, the thrill of using a fake ID all that stuff. I can’t even hold down a steady girlfriend, everywhere I go there are people asking for my autograph or pictures. Don’t get me wrong though, I am thrilled to give it to them, honoured that they would want them, but...I don’t know sometimes I wish this job came with less fame and I could just lead a completely normal life outside of the rink.”
“Well then I’d be out of a job!” I lightly nudged his shoulder causing a small smile to form on his lips.
“Is that all I am to you?” he faked an offended look, “a job!?”
I laughed, “shut up Sidney, you know I enjoy this just as much as you do.” I looked at him and smiled.
He smiled right back and I almost forgot to breath. “Honestly Amy, you don’t know how much I appreciate this. It’s nice being with someone who likes you for who you are. It’s refreshing. So, thanks.”
I felt blood rushing to my face as I struggled to change the subject. “Uhh, no problem. So...umm...when’s your next day off?”
He scratched the back of his neck as he closed his eyes, thinking. “I think next Saturday. Why? Already have an idea?”
“Actually yeah,” I smiled, feeling the color in my face returning to normal, “there is a huge snowball fight going on sometime next weekend, and I think it might be Saturday, so you could be in luck. It would be during the day though...is that cool?”

--His POV—
“Yea that sounds good. Let me know for sure though.” I replied as the engine roared to life.
She smiled at me as she carefully pulled out of the parking lot. It was actually quite surprising; she was such a crazy, carefree person yet she drove like a grandma. I smiled at this as I leaned back into the leather seats I had grown so accustom to.
I was sitting, staring out the window when I finally remembered, “Shit.”
“What?” She looked over, her blue eyes filled with concern.
“Well,” I played with my hands in my lap, nervous to see her reaction, “I sort of told one of the guys on the team about us.”
I shifted my eyes to her, she remained calm, both hands on the wheel staring out the windshield, “alright...”
“And when he heard what we were doing he kind of asked if he could come along once or twice?”
She chuckled a little bit, “telling everyone about my magic Crosby?” she shot me a wink that caused a huge grin to break out on my face.
“Don’t flatter yourself kid.”
“Hey!” she furrowed her eyebrows and attempted to shoot a dirty look my way. I laughed at her sorry attempt, “I’m only a year younger than you!”
“Well, if they call me Sid the kid, than that makes you a baby,” I flashed her a toothy smile.
She stuck her tongue out at me, “Your teammate can come to the snowball fight Saturday, but make sure you prep him on how we roll.”
“Alright,” I said, “How are we concealing our identities this time? Balaclavas?” I laughed imagining Staalsy and I in those masks.
“Thats actually not a bad idea!” She patted me on the back, “Not too bad Crosby.”
I rolled my eyes at her, but knew I would end up having to wear the stupid mask.
“Who is it that’s coming anyways?”
“Jordan Staal.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth her eyes lit up and for once in my life I got a pang of something deep in my stomach; jealousy.