Love Will Keep You Up All Night

****
Sidney was heading home when he got a text from Taylor, she didn’t have practice today so she was going to call him after school. With that news he went home and waited for her phone call. When he walked in the kitchen he saw his mentor, friend, and landlord sitting at the table.

“So you’re okay now?” Mario asked without looking up from his book.

Sidney chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck. “You heard about that, huh?”

“Yes, one, it’s my team and two you live in my house. I notice things.” He paused to shut his book. “So what had you all messed up?”

“A girl.” He admitted

“What about her?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about her and it was driving me crazy. So I decided to go see her and see if she felt the same way about me.”

“Does she?”

Sidney just smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I actually found out that she was trying to forget me all together.” Sidney laughed. “Which is hard to do because her dad is a Pens fan and watches all the games.”

“What have you done to the girl that made her want to forget you completely?” Mario laughed

“This is going to be a bit hard to explain, but I’ll try. Apparently she does have feelings for me and it scared her. She thought maybe it was just a crush, but the longer she didn’t talk to me or see me the crazier she went.”

“What scared her about having feelings for you?”

“She didn’t think that I had the same feelings because I’m who I am.” He paused not sure how to say this. “There is also an age issue and she thought it was weird and so do I "

Mario nodded his head like he understood. “How old is she?”

“Almost eighteen.” Sidney whispered, not looking at Mario.

“Almost?”

“She’ll be eighteen on Monday, I figured we could just be friends for a while and see where it goes.”

“How long have you known her?”

“Almost three weeks.” Sidney’s phone rang, when he pulled it out of his pocket and saw the name and smiled.

“Is that her?”

“Yeah.”

“Answer it.”

Sidney nodded as he opened it,“So no practice, huh? Lucky.”

“You’re jealous and you know it.” Taylor laughed.

“Oh, no doubt. Do you still have to work?”

“Yea, but I can now relax before I go in.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yes it is.” She paused and he could hear her keychain jangle as she opened her door. “So what are you doing?”

“Sitting at the table and talking to Mario.”

“Lemieux?” She asked awe struck

Sidney laughed. “The one and only.”

“Cool…”

“So what are you doing?”

“Nothing interesting,” She laughed. “Just letting the dogs out.”

“Oh come on, that is interesting.”

“You are so lying.”

“Yeah I am.”

“Jerk.” She laughed.

“Ow, that hurt.”

“Haha, no it didn’t. You’re just being a baby.”

“Am not!” he laughed.

Taylor was silent for a little while. “Tay, you still there?” Sidney asked.

“Huh? Oh yeah I’m here.” She said

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.” She said, clearly trying to get him to forget it.

Sidney got up from the table and walked outside. “Taylor, what’s wrong?”

“Really Sidney, it’s nothing to freak about.”

“Tell me what you were thinking about. Please.”

“It’s really embarrassing.”

“I don’t care, I won’t laugh.”

He heard her sigh. “I was just thinking about how much you make me smile and I love to hear your voice and your laugh. It seriously makes my day to hear you, even if it’s a text message.”

“Aw, Taylor that’s not embarrassing at all. I’m flattered.”

“Thanks Sid. Hey listen I’m going to go because I have some things that I need to do before work. If I have time I’ll call you back.”

“Don't worry about it.”

“Well I'll try. Talk to you later Sid”

"Bye, Tay."

When Sidney went back into the house Mario was no longer sitting at the table which he was happy for because he no longer felt like talking. He walked up to his room to take a shower and maybe catch a nap before going over to Geno’s.

*****
Work was insane tonight, it was so busy that we had to completely restock almost everything before we could finally leave. I didn’t get home until almost midnight, and we closed at ten-thirty. I was so tired that I went straight to bed and fell right to sleep. Only a few more days until my birthday, I was so excited.

When I woke up the next morning I had a message from Sidney and I smiled. I knew I forgot to call him last night but I was just so tired. After my shower I called him back and apologized. He said that actually worked out because he had went to bed early and probably wouldn’t have answered. We talked until I drove up to the school, and then we switched to texts.

Like I did for every Penguins’ game, I sat in the living room with dad and watched. It wasn’t such a good game for them, they were trailing by two in the first period. They came back though in the second when Sidney scored a goal to bring them just a bit closer. In the end though they lost and I felt so bad for them. I quickly called Sidney and told him to call me. When he did he sounded sad, but not too bad. I told him to tell the team that I’m still cheering for them and to keep their heads up.

“Thanks Taylor, you are amazing.” Sidney said after my little speech.

“Oh, I know.” I laughed.

“I gotta go, but thanks for calling.”

“No problem, talk to you later.”

“Yep.”

I didn’t talk to Sidney the rest of the weekend because I was busy working and hanging out with my friends for my birthday.

*****

He knew she was home because he had called a head of time. After practice today he had asked if he could go down to Raleigh early because he wanted to stop and surprise Taylor because it was her birthday. When he got the OK, he called Amanda and told her that he was coming and to make sure that Taylor would be home. Amanda had told him that they were planning on going out to dinner, but said she would stall that way he could go with them. That’s all he needed.