Cold As You

When Sidney finally dropped me off at my apartment he decided to let himself inside. Falling to the couch with a loud huff he stretched his legs out onto the coffee table in front of him and placed his hands behind his head. Rolling my eyes at how comfortable he seemed to be making himself, I walked towards my bedroom to get changed.

"Remember tonight is Mario's party!" Sidney yelled after me. I bit my tongue and winced at the sound of his voice.

Fuck, I thought.

If I would have known that The Penguins winning the Stanley Cup would mean a bunch of parties I had to feel awkward at, I would have never wanted them to win so badly. Seriously, these parties were putting me in a serious amount of mental stress and I had only gone to one so far, well, two I guess if you count the parade. Sighing deeply, I rummaged through my drawers, trying to find something both comfortable and acceptable to wear to the party. I was eyeing a pair of ripped jeans when I heard Sidney walk into my room and take a seat on my bed.

"Can I pick out your outfit?"

"Why would I want someone whose attire consists of button up shirts and hockey jerseys pick out my outfit?"

"Because I'm fuckin' stylish," he joked. I laughed and opened my arms at my closet, almost like I was presenting it to him.

"Go crazy," I told him. He smiled and pushed himself off of my bed, making his way to my closet. He took his time looking at every last piece of clothing I had before going through them again and throwing a few things to his liking on my bed. When he had finished doing that, he walked back over to the bed and shuffled through the clothing he had picked. And finally, I had an outfit.

It was a dark green top with a beaded and jeweled neckline and an elasticized waistband, under the long top I was to wear a pair of black leggings and a simple pair of black flip flops were to adorn my feet.

"Maybe you're not a total waste as far as fashion goes," I told him, looking at the outfit he had picked out for me. "Now as far as hockey, you should probably give up now," I joked, smiling widely. Sidney laughed sarcastically and shoved the clothes into my hands.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said. "Now get changed!"

I nodded and waited for him to leave my room. When he didn't I raised my eyebrow and looked at him like he had a mental impairment. "Are you going to leave?" I asked.

"Why?" He inquired, cocking his head to the side. The look I was giving him before only worsened, and soon I was staring at him like he was literally stupid.

"Because I have to change." Idiot, I wanted to add. Now it was his turn to look at me oddly, though he didn't look at me like I was stupid- just like I had three heads.

"So?" He said. I pursed my lips and placed the clothes on my bed before walking over to Sidney slowly and placing my hands on his forearms and physically turning him around to push him out of my room. With my hands firmly on his toned back I began to push him forward and out my door. When he was finally standing in the hallway with a dumfounded look on his face I slammed the door shut and locked it as an extra precaution.

"What the hell," I muttered as I walked back over to my clothes to begin changing.

The more time that Sidney spent home, the weirder he got. First he gets more touchy, then he starts to kiss me (on the cheek, but kiss me no less), and now he wants to stand in my room and watch me change? Honestly, I was either going to break pretty soon. I hadn't felt this was since I had first discovered I loved him. And there I was thinking that was the hardest time in my life. Shit, was I wrong!

- - -

It was October 28, 2006 and the Penguins were playing the Flyers. It was one of the greatest rivalries in hockey history and it seemed that ever since Sidney had been drafted that rivalry only increased. For every Penguins fan that loved him, there was an equal amount of Flyers fans who absolutely hated him.

These games were my favorite and even though I probably should have been studying for the mid-term I had in two days, I was sitting behind the Pens bench at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Why did I go all the way there? Because Sidney asked me to and I was dumb enough to say yes. It wasn't weird for me to go to the games in Philly though, if I was able to and Sidney asked me I always went.

So there I was, a lone Crosby jersey in a sea of orange. After a few times going there, people must have noticed I knew the Penguins. That didn't mean they left me alone, but after they realized I mostly kept to myself they backed off. If you were to see me at any other hockey game, you would have seen a completely different person but I learned firsthand to keep my mouth mostly shut at Flyers home games.

Sidney ended up scoring in the first period, and I clapped and cheered for my best friend. When he climbed up and into the bench he looked up at me and smiled before pulling his mouth guard out. I could feel my stomach flip and blood rush to my cheeks. I furrowed my eyebrows at the feeling for it was something I had never felt before. Sidney Crosby had never made me feel like a stupid little love struck girl before, and I wasn't so sure why it was happening now.

As the game progressed, so did these feelings. I couldn't keep my eyes off of Sidney throughout the game. Even when he was on the bench, my eyes were glued to his back. Everything about him was sending my body into overdrive. The way the sweat his brown hair curl and stick to his face, the way he licked his lips when he took his mouth guard out, the way he smiled and cheered when his team scored- and I just sat there, love struck.

And then he scored another goal, and then he scored another. And then everyone was booing, but the Penguins were celebrating out on the ice with the few hats that had found their way down there. I stood up from my seat in a daze and watched my best friend get congratulated by all of his teammates. As he skated down the line of the bench to fist bump everyone, his eyes found mine and he pointed directly at me.

"For you," he mouthed with a smile.

And if I didn't have a heart attack that night, well, I never will.