We All Need Somebody To Lean On

two

“Je croyais poser les questions!” The girl said, laughing as she turned the recorder on.

Sidney smiled, “N’évitent pas la question, Mademoiselle!”

Sidney could definitely speak French, but his accent was almost horrendous. It was so Canadian, and not French-Canadian, that it sounded like mismatched words.

“Je m’appelle Chantal,” she replied, her slight French accent rolling the words perfectly.

“Are you French?” Sidney asked, switching back to English, obviously finding it easier, and not having to translate all of his thoughts.

Chantal nodded, “I was born in Quebec City and I spent a year studying in Paris.”

“Wow, that’s cool. You have a nice accent, better than mine,” Sidney laughed, his hand twitching on his thigh.

“Pouvons-nous commencer?” asked Chantal, her eyes glittering as she giggled.

Chantal honestly could not believe her luck. She was expecting to come to the game tonight, and maybe get into the locker room to hold her recorder somewhere in the vicinity of Sidney Crosby to catch his responses.

Instead, after the media was told to leave, Jordan Staal had come up to her and told her to ask him for a private interview. When she asked him why, he just said, he’ll want one from you.

So Chantal had gone up to her idol, and stupidly called him Mr. Crosby.

What was she supposed to call him? Hey Sid! Sid the kid! Sidney!

She didn’t know him, so it was only polite to call him Mr. Crosby.

“Oui, commencer,” Sidney said, his smile infectious.

Chantal bit her lip as she ran through the questions she had planned for her ‘hypothetical’ interview with Sidney.

“Premier, comment ça va?” she asked, holding the record slightly in front of her to catch both her voice and Sidney’s.

“Très bien, merci. Et tu?” He asked, looking up at her.

“Bien, merci. Qu’avez-vous pensez du match ce soir?” Chantal asked, turning to her professional, business voice.

Sidney also turned into his professional voice, “La match ce soir était formidable. Nous avons gagné et nous sommes tous très fiers.”

“Comment ça fait d’être un joueur si important?”

Sidney paused at this one, his face set into confusion.

“I said, how does it feel to be such an important player? Just tell me if you don’t understand the question, no one will hear the audio but me.” Chantal said, patting his knee with her fingertips.

“Oh, je comprend le question, je pensais justement.” Sidney replied, a blush creeping onto his cheeks.

It was Chantal’s turn to blush now, “Oh, je suis désolé.”

Sidney sighed, “Je ne sais pas. Je ne pense pas. Les autres members sont tout aussi importantes.”

Chantal looked up at him and nodded. This was the Sidney Crosby she had heard about. The one that didn’t think he was all that import, who didn’t think he was needed on the team to win, who just thought he was a player like everyone else.

Chantal liked that.

She liked that a lot.

“Qui était ton héros quand tu était petit?” She asked, softly biting her lip in anticipation to his answer.

Sidney shrugged, “J'ai eu beaucoup de héros, mais je pense que mon père était mon plus grand héros.”

Chantal once again nodded and brought her right leg over her left one, trying to think of other questions to ask.

“Le dernière question.”

Sidney nodded, “Aller.”

Chantal took a deep breath. She couldn’t believe she was going to ask this question. It was more a question she personally wanted to know, and it probably wouldn’t end up being in her article.

“Avez-vous une petite-amie?”

Sidney was silent. Silent to the point that Chantal wanted to just stand up and leave the room, never looking back, and never publishing the interview.

“No.”

Chantal nodded, expecting a quiet, one worded answer from him, and quickly turned off the recorder. She placed both of her feet on the ground.

“Thank you,” she murmured, standing up.

Sidney ran a hand through his hair and nodded, “No problem.”

Chantal quietly stood up and started walking towards the press door, pushing a stray strand of her black hair behind her ear.

“It’s not like I don’t want one though. I just haven’t found the right person,” Sidney piped up, standing up quickly and walking towards her retreating figure.

Chantal turned around, her eyebrows pressed into a frown as she looked questioningly at him. What?

“I mean, I just wanted to, umm, make sure you knew that I date; because I do. Just… not right now. Well, until now I haven’t thought about it, cause of y’know, hockey. I mean when I first saw you I wanted to, umm. I’m rambling,” he said quickly.

Chantal started to laugh lightly, bringing her finger nail up to her mouth to lightly bite on it.

“I get it, I understand, don’t worry. Have a good weekend Sidney,” she said, waving a little with her other hand.

“No, wait. That’s not what I wanted to say. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to g out for coffee or something. If you want to,” Sidney said to her, walking even closer and grabbing one of her hands.

Chantal looked at him surprised.

Now this was the last thing she thought would come out of this night.

“I… are you serious?”

Sidney nodded, this time chewing roughly on his already chapped lips.

“Well, sure. I could use a coffee,” Chantal said casually, but inside she was ecstatic.

Sid smiled, “Good, let’s go now. It’ll be fun I promise.”

Sidney and Chantal both walked to the player’s door, instead of the media one, and Sidney held the door open for her, a smile plastered onto not only his lips, but his entire face.

He hadn’t been on a date in a while, and to the surprise of probably everyone, had had a few one night stands over the past few weeks.

This was going to change it though. No more one night stands. He actually wanted to date.

Chantal was going to change that.

She’d be the girl he’d stick with.

He hoped.