Worth The Wait

CH. 8

“Would it be too much to expect that you root for us instead of…them.” Sid said bitterly as he stood in Phoebe’s doorway saying the goodbye he was dreading.

She playfully placed her arms on her hips, the hips that he had firmly gripped in his hands. “That’s a tough one. You know I have to keep my allegiance to Mike,” she said jokingly.

Sid looked down at the ground, his cheeks turning red in embarrassment and he didn’t know what to say. “But,” she lifted up his chin. “I suppose if you didn’t tell anyone, I won’t either.”

Sid smiled at her and wanted to close the gap between them by pulling her close and kissing her passionately. Something he’d been wanting to do since the first day they met, and it was becoming harder and harder to resist.

“I promise I won’t tell Richards. I’ll see you when we get back? I forgot that after Philly we’re heading to Washington to play the Caps. The media will play it up. Crosby versus Ovechkin blah, blah, blah. So I won’t be back for about a week. I’m really going to miss you.”

“Don’t worry Sid. You’ll be fine. I don’t need to tell you that though, you know how fantastic you are,” she smiled at him. “I don’t know what I’m going to do for the next week without you,” she teased. “I can guarantee one thing, my bed is about to get a lot colder.”

“I promise I’ll warm it up as soon as I get back. Okay,” Sid sighed, dreading walking out her door. “I should probably be going…I’ll text you.” He lingered for a moment longer than he should have and Phoebe felt the butterflies in her stomach as she thought he was going to kiss her, something she wouldn’t have fought, but knew was wrong.

She watched as he turned to walk out the door and suddenly something inside her began to hurt at the thought of not seeing him for a week, which was funny since she was engaged to Mike and never saw him. “Wait,” Phoebe grabbed Sid’s hand and pulled at him to come back. Sid turned around to face her, his stomach getting butterflies at her resistance to let him go. Phoebe tried to find something stupid to say to prolong his going, but all she could come up with was, “I’m gonna miss you Sid.” She didn’t let go of his hand and she didn’t want to let him leave. Sid swallowed, looking down at her trying to find a reaction. He slowly put his hand on her face and brushed the hair away from it. “I know Pheebs,” he whispered. “You have no idea how much I’ll be thinking of coming back to you.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, wanting so much more than that but settling with what he could have. He turned and left, pausing after he closed the door behind him to convince himself to keep moving. Phoebe’s cheek was still on fire from where his lips met her skin and she realized she was going to miss Sidney a lot more than she realized.
Sid sat on the bus with his head resting against the window. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much he was going to miss Phoebe. He didn’t want to miss her this much, he just couldn’t help it. He knew that she was falling for him too. She had to be.

When he and the rest of the team got to New York, Sidney went to his room and decided to watch a movie. He didn’t want to go out, it was kind of late and he wanted to be alone. He was tired of watching his friends go out and get hammered every night. He was tired of living that way.

They beat the Rangers but lost to the Islanders in OT. Sid played great, as was expected, but what he didn’t know was that Phoebe watched every second of his games. When he text her each night before he went to sleep, which was relatively early because he wasn’t out partying, he was thrilled to hear that she had been watching for him, and all he wanted to do was be with her. He was almost dreading playing the Flyers because he felt as if he would be forced to know whether she chose him or her fiancé. When they got to Philly, Sidney had every intention of being alone, but Jordan wasn’t having it.

“Sidney!” Sid heard his name being yelled through the door of his hotel room and immediately wanted to hide.

“What Staal?” Sid yelled.

“Open the door. Get your ass out here. It’s nine o’clock and we’re going out. This bullshit of you staying in your room is over.”

Sid opened the door and came face to face with his friend. “Man, I really don’t feel like going out tonight.”

“You never feel like going out anymore.”

Sid shrugged and turned to walk back into his room.

“Look, I know this has to do with Richards’ girl, the one you’ve been spending all your time with,” Jordan followed him in. “And I’m not going to say a thing, but you do realize we’re playing him tomorrow, and you do realize that he’s going to find out. Are you screwing her? Because if you are, he’s going to want to kill you.”

“No. I’m not screwing with her. Nothing’s going on.”

Jordan gave him a look as if to say ‘Oh please’ and Sid let out a sigh. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it. There’s nothing going on…nothing like that anyway. So just drop it.” Sid knew that Jordan wouldn’t understand. Eric, Eric probably, but Jordan, doubtful.

“Sorry man. No can do.”

“If I go out with you guys tonight, will you drop it?” he was too drained to argue with his friend.

“It’s a good start.”

“Fine. I’ll go. Asshole. Where are we going anyway?”

“I don’t know. Letang wants to go to some bar so, that’s where we’ll be tonight. Is that okay with you, Romeo?”

“Knock it off Jordan. I said I’d go out tonight, we’ll have fun, so just shut up,” he emphasized the last two words of his sentence.

“Okay, Okay. Get ready, let’s go. Maybe you can get laid tonight. It’s obviously been a while.”

Sid gave him a pathetic smile but kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to sleep with anyone else other than Phoebe, and even if he couldn’t have her that way, he got more satisfaction out of just being with her than he ever got out of the one night stands he had with all the other girls he’d ever been with.

When they go to the bar Sid noticed that it was a lot bigger than he thought. Letang must have been broad in his description of a bar because it was more of a club- a really nice club, and the place was pretty big. He reluctantly followed his friends to the bar and ordered a drink. He immediately took note of all the girls eyeing him up, all the girls he could be with if he made the smallest effort. A few came up to him but he turned them down easily. His friends couldn’t believe how he barely noticed the girls in the place or how effortlessly he rejected them. Jordan decided he would take an easy on his friend because he had enough to deal with as it was.

After miserably being there for about an hour, Sid was about ready to go home. He would have called a cab himself but he didn’t want to abandon his friends. Instead, he decided to take a walk around the place and see what was happening in other areas of the club. There were sections for VIPs but he didn’t think anything of it. He was walking passed one of the rooms when he bumped into the person coming out of it. When he looked up his eyeballs almost popped out of his head.

“Shit,” the word just fell out of his mouth.

“Crosby? What the hell are you doing here?”

Sidney looked at Richards and the girl hanging on his arm. He shook his head and wanted to punch him in the face. It was clear to Sid by his slurred words that Richards drunk. The half naked girl, too. He knew that Richards was a dick and he honestly felt like he was most likely cheating on Phoebe, but to do it so effortlessly, like it was no big deal, pissed Sid off even more.

“We have a game tomorrow. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home talking to your girl?” Sid’s tone was bitter and it struck a cord with Mike.

“How is that any of your business? How the hell do you even know I have a girl?” Sid knew Mike’s interrogation was about to get very unpleasant.

“It doesn’t matter. Just do what you’re gonna do. Just know that you don’t deserve her.”

“Go to hell,” Richards spat back. “You still haven’t answered my question. How do you know her?”

“Phoebe?”

“Yeah, asshole, who else?” Mike spat back.

“I don’t know, maybe you meant the girl you’re about to go home with.” Sid countered.

“Just answer the question,” Mike growled.

“We’re friends. Sorry man, I know that would drive you crazy, but we are.”

“Are you fucking her?” Mike’s anger was growing.

Sid shook his head. “No,” his voice was raspy. “But what would it matter if I were? You’re sleeping with whatever whore you want.”

Before Sid could continue Mike had lunged at him, punching him in the face and knocking him onto the floor. He quickly bounced up and pushed Mike backwards. It wasn’t difficult to knock Mike off balance considering how drunk he was, but he was strong. Sid took another blow to his face and the two stood face to face, with a gap between them, breathing heavily and ready to go after the other one.

“What does it matter what I do? Why do you care so much?” Richards antagonized him. “Are you in love with her or something?” his words lingered with sick laughter.

Sid didn’t say anything, he just looked at Mike, wanting to kill him.

“So you are?” Mike continued. “This is hilarious. I’ve got the one thing Sidney Crosby can’t have,” the way he spoke could make anyone sick. This was a game to him, it satisfied him purely knowing he had the girl Sidney Crosby wanted but couldn’t have.

“What’s going on over here guys,” Jordan came to his friend’s defense.

“Nothing,” Sid didn’t rip his eyes away from Richards.

“Why don’t we get outta here,” Jordan suggested.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Mike spat out.

“I wasn’t talking to you, asshole.” Jordan violently spat back.

“Jordan, he isn’t worth it. Let’s just go,” Sid turned to leave.

“Yeah,” Mike screamed at him. “I might not be worth it, but I’ll be the one fucking her. Not you.”

Sid inhaled very slowly but couldn’t let it go. He quickly spun around and went after Mike again. Mike went to defend himself, but Jordan intervened, helping his friend.

“Sid, let’s go. We’ll deal with him tomorrow.”

“I don’t care,” Sid said in a low tone.

“I can tell by the sweet shiners to your face that you do,” Jordan joked.

“I hate that guy,” Sid shook his head. “He has no idea what he has.”

“I know,” Jordan said sympathetically as they walked out the door.

The next morning Jordan went to Sid’s room to see how he was doing. Neither one of them were hung over and Jordan wanted to make sure his friend would be alright.

“How you doing today?” Jordan nodded his head at Sid when he opened the door.

“I’m fine.”

“Clearly. Look. I know I’ve been a dick to you about you and Richards’ girl, but I’m on your side. I just don’t know what the big deal is about her.”

“You don’t get it man, she believes in me- she has faith in me,” Sid emphasized to his friend.

“Crosby, man, I don’t think there’s a person in Pittsburgh who doesn’t have faith in you,” Jordan responded.

“No, she doesn’t judge me based on how many goals I score, or what moves I make on the ice. She doesn’t think of me as someone who is expected to constantly produce stats and outplay the opposition. She looks at me like a normal man…and it’s a nice feeling,” Sid breathed out his words. “She makes me want to be a better man.” He couldn’t make Jordan understand how he felt about her, or why, but he wanted to try.

Jordan shook his head and let out a sigh. “Wow. I didn’t realize she meant that much to you. What are you going to do?”

Sid let his head drop and buried his forehand in his hands. “I don’t know,” he sighed.

“Sid,” Jordan had uneasiness in his voice. “I, uh, I know this probably goes without saying, but…are you in love with her?”

He didn’t lift his head from his hands. “I am…more than I ever thought possible.”

Jordan patted his friend on the back. “I kinda figured that from the first night I saw you two together, but I was hoping you had more common sense than that. Why of all people would you fall for Richards’ girl?”

Sid sarcastically laughed at himself. “I couldn’t even fight it if I wanted to,” he looked up at his friend. “I know she loves me too. I don’t care what you or anyone thinks, I know she does.”

“I never said she didn’t. I actually agree with you on this one, but what do you expect from her? She’s already settled in a relationship…she might not be wiling to just walk away.”

“She will,” Sid insisted. “I know she will. You don’t understand…I’m the one who’s supposed to marry her-not Richards.”

“Woah,” Jordan sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you absolutely positive?”

“I am.” Sid looked up at Jordan.

“I just hope you’re right man. I really do.”