Love Will Keep You Up All Night

****
To my surprise I saw mom and dad walking away when the team was talking after the game. Dad still hadn’t completely left, he was talking to someone in the parking lot. Then he got in his car and left. I guess I was going to have to get a ride from Katie, but I watched as a black car pulled up in front of the batting cages. I pulled my gaze away from the car and focused on the coach as she told us what she thought about the game. She ended the meeting with a round of applause for me.

“Hey Katie,” I said as we walked back to the dugout.

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to need a ride home, my parents decided to ditch me.”

She laughed, “Okay.”

I threw my batting glove at her and laughed at her shocked face. When the dugout was cleaned up, we all filed out to the parking lot. I headed towards Katie’s car to put my stuff away, when a hand grabbed my bat bag and pulled out of the trunk.

“Hey what are you-“ I stopped mid-sentence as my gaze locked with eyes that I would know anywhere. I turned away so he wouldn’t see my reaction to him. “What do you want?” I practically growled.

“To talk to you.” He whispered. “Come on I’m taking you home.”

“No that’s okay, Katie’s giving me a ride home.”

“I already told you parents that I was bringing you home.”

“Well, why did you do that?” I asked finally looking at him. He didn’t look good, he looked really tired.

“I already told you, I want to talk to you.” He said.

“About?

“Stuff.”

“Sorry Taylor, I was-oh.” She stopped when she saw Sidney.

“Thanks for giving me a ride Katie, but Sidney promised he would drive me home.” I said trying to hide the fact that I wanted to cry.

Katie gave me a look that said it all, ‘are you sure?’ I nodded and smiled.

“Oh okay. No problem. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?’

“Yea I’ll see you. Good game today.”

“Thanks and same to you. Nice hit.”

“Thanks.”

Sidney and I walked back to his car quietly. He took my bat bag and book bag and put them in the trunk. He started the engine, but didn’t pull out. I wouldn’t look at him, I couldn’t bear to.

“So how are you doing Taylor? We haven’t spoken since before the game on Sunday.” He said

“I’ve been better.” I said. “Can we go please?”

He put the car into gear and drove off, but not in the direction of my house.

“Sidney, where the hell are you taking me? This isn’t the way to my house.”

“I know, we need to talk and I really don’t want to do it in front of your family.”

What the hell was he talking about? We haven’t spoken in almost a week and he shows up to my softball game, what is going on? Sidney pulled into the middle school bus parking lot. He shut off the engine and turned in his seat so he was facing me.

“How come you didn’t stay after the game?” He whispered

“My dad wanted to go.” I said

“Okay, so then how come you didn’t return my call that night or the next day?"

“Why does it matter? You didn’t call after that, so apparently it wasn’t that important.”

“I wanted to talk to you. I was so excited after them game. I wanted to share it with you, but you just left.” He voice lowered as he spoke. “Why did you leave without saying good bye?”

He sounded so sad, but I couldn’t look at him if I did then I would lose my cool. Why did I leave without saying good bye? Because I was scared? Because I was losing a battle with myself? They all sounded really lame.

“I left because I was scared.” I finally whispered.

“Scared? About what?” he asked confused.

“Everything.”

“What do you mean?”

I took a deep breath and turned to look at him, big mistake. His brown eyes were filled with hurt, hurt that I apparently cause him. Well did he see the hurt he was causing me or caused me?

I took another deep breath. I have never done this before. “Mostly I was afraid of myself. I was feeling really weird, but it was a good weird. Since the day you came to my party I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you and that scared me. I thought maybe I was just star struck or something so I didn’t really think much about it, but then you would call or text and I would find myself smiling like crazy and happy as ever.” I took a shaky breath. “Then we met up in Philly and those feelings like doubled and that scared me more even more. All I could think about was seeing you or hearing your voice.” I decided to answer his question while I was at it. ”I didn’t call you back the night of the game because I was sleeping.”

“What about the next day? How come you didn’t call then?”

“Because I was scared and I needed to figure out what was going on. I kept telling myself that it was just a crush and that was all. I mean there was no way you feel the same way about me, you were just being a nice friend. Plus, you’re four and half years older than me and that wouldn’t work out. So I figured that if I didn’t think about you or talk about you, then I really could convince myself that what I was feeling was just a little crush.” I wasn’t going to finish, there was no way I was admitting to crying over him

****

She felt those things too! Sidney could have shouted with joy. Instead he placed his finger under her chin to get her took look at him.

“You asked before why I didn’t call back after that first night?” She nodded so he continued. “Well I was doing the same thing. I was trying to convince myself that I wasn’t having those feeling about you.”

“Wait, you felt them?” She asked shocked

“Mhm, Taylor, I couldn’t get you out of my head after your party. All I wanted to do was spend time talking to you. So after you didn’t come talk to me after the game I was crushed. I didn’t know if I did something wrong or what, all I knew is that I waited down in the locker room as long as I could for you, but you never showed.” He paused and looked into her beautiful hazel eyes and smiled. “I figured that if I didn’t hear from you or think about you that I would forget my feelings.” He found himself leaning closer to her. “I was actually upset with myself because I really shouldn’t have these feeling towards you because you’re only eighteen, but that didn’t help. I still have them.”

“ Sid, what are you saying?” She whispered as tears filled her eyes.

He took a deep breath, “What I’m saying is that I am falling for you Taylor.”

“Sidney, I think I might be falling for you too.”

That was all he needed to hear, he quickly closed the little space between them and lightly placed his lips on hers. He pulled away, not knowing how she would react. When he looked up into here face, she was smiling with tears running down her face. He leaned in and kissed her again, this time lingering.

****
OMG! I was kissing Sidney Crosby! And Sidney Crosby likes me! Where the only things that were running through my head. I could not believe it, he had the same feelings for me that I had for him.

“I really have missed your voice.” I said when he pulled away.

“I really missed yours too. I would call your number just to hear you voicemail message.”

I laughed.”Isn’t that weird that we love each others voice?” I asked and sighed. “This is going to sound really sad, but one day I was flipping through the channels and I stopped on ESPN and you were giving an interview. I actually sat there and cried. Thank God I was by myself because that was embarrassing. Then to make it worse I got mad at you because you were everywhere I looked.” Then I laughed. “Do you hear us? We’ve only known each other for about two weeks and we are acting like we had our first fight or broke up. What does that mean?”

“I think it might mean that this is real. That this isn’t some crush, that it’s stronger.” He said rubbing my cheek.

“What are we going to tell people?”

“I’m not sure, I think we should tell people who aren’t our friends and family that we are just friends. Because I don’t think many will like the idea that you are so young,”

“I guess that’s the best way to go about this.” I looked at him seriously. “So does this mean we are going out now?”

He laughed and kissed me lightly. “Yes.”

“Cool.” I said laughing as he kissed me again.

“What are we going to tell your parents?”

“Nothing, at least not yet. Let them keep thinking that we are really close friends. We will eventually tell them, but not yet.”

“Okay, well I better get you home.” He kissed me one last time before starting the car. I couldn’t help but smile the entire way home. I was finally feeling like my old self again.