I'll Be Your Friend, I'll Help You Carry On

eight

“’Allo Maman! Je dois vous dire quelque chose,” Chantal said excitedly the next morning.

Sidney and Chantal had left the restaurant as soon as Sidney had proposed. They came back home and spent the rest of the night in bed. Their night was full of love, everything coming from the heart, and neither would have it any other way.

Sidney stood behind his fiancé, his arms wrapped around her thin waist, as she spun the phone cord around her finger, a smile permanently plastered on her face.

“Je vais être mariés!” Chantal exclaimed loudly as Sidney’s arms flexed just enough to feel his arms.

Sidney could hear a scream from the other end of the phone and grinned as he pressed his scruffy face into the crook of Chantal’s neck. He pressed a soft kiss on her clavicle with his plump lips and laced his fingers together, resting on her stomach.

“Je suis tres contente, Maman! Je ne sais pas…. C’était le meilleure nuit de ma vie!”

Chantal pulled away from Sidney’s arms as he became too big of a distraction for her, and walked over to the counter wearing only Sid’s dress shirt from the previous night. It hung lightly around her body, barely covering the swell of her bottom. Her creamy thighs were on display as she wriggled her white-painted toe nails on the cold tile.

“D’accord. Je t’aime aussi, au revoir Maman,” Chantal finished her conversation and hung up the kitchen phone, putting it back in its place.

She smiled up at Sidney as he opened his arms, leaving his chest bare. Chantal smiled back shyly and tiptoed into his arms, laying her palm on the side of his chest as she kissed the cleft at the top of his chest.

“Je t’aime,” Sidney whispered.

“Je t’aime aussi.”

“I love when you speak French, it’s so sexy,” Sid said as he rubbed his hand over her back, effectively lifting the shirt higher from her body and leaving her bottom uncovered.

“Ah, oui? Well then, voulez vous-couchez avec moi?” Chantal asked with a smirk as Sidney reached down to cup her bottom.

He groaned right beside her ear, “Oui, oui, oui, oui.”

Chantal giggled as she pushed his shoulder, pushing him away from her and letting the shirt fall back into place, “Maybe later, I’m hungry.”

Sidney rolled his eyes as he knew that that was the final decision, and took a seat on one of the bar stools, “What are you hungry for?”

“Continuing with the French theme; French toast?”

---

Chantal’s mouth gaped open as she stared at the newsstand on her way to the grocery store. There, on more than eight different magazines and newspapers, including People, US Weekly, and even the local news, were pictures of Sidney and herself at the restaurant.

Most of the pictures looked like they were taken with phones, which they no doubt were, with headlines varying from, ‘Sid the Kid engaged!’ to ‘Sid’s Secret!’ Chantal moved closer to the stand and picked up a few magazines, the more well known ones, and laid a $10 bill on the table for the man.

She walked down the street, her blue skirt swishing around her knees, her white top tucked in the waist and a grey cardigan covering her shoulders, and she flipped through the magazines. There were four page spreads with ‘inside information’ from people who had been at the restaurants as well as pictures of Sidney down on one knee and the two of them kissing.

Most of the information was true, well the recounts of what happened anyways, but as she read on the story was becoming more twisted. One magazine was calling her a ‘paid date to start a story’ while the other was calling her ‘the childhood sweetheart of the biggest NHL star’. Both were incorrect.

As Chantal walked into the grocery store, her purse hanging off her shoulder and two magazines in her hand, she stopped to the side and pulled out her LG Voyager from her purse. She folded the magazines and pushed them into her oversized black purse, then dialed her home number.

“Hello?” Sidney asked, the television making sounds in the background.

“Have you seen these magazines?!” Chantal whispered harshly while walking towards the carts.

She pulled one out as Sidney answered, “Uhm. No?”

“Do you have your lap top with you right now?” She asked, holding her phone between her shoulder and her ear as she pulled a few bags from the spinner.

“Yeah, what do you want me to look at?” Sidney asked, pulling his Mac Book onto his lap.

Chantal looked over a few tomatoes, squeezing them slightly, before putting three into the plastic bag and tying it in a knot, “People Magazine.”

Sidney was quiet as he typed on his thin, white lap top, going to the People Magazine site. Immediately, a picture of himself and his fiancé filled the screen. Wait, not just one picture, but a bunch of pictures and headlines.

“Oh my gosh, Tal I’m so sorry. I tried to be discreet about it, but I knew they’d get a hold of it some how,” Sidney apologized, placing his head into his hands.

Chantal sighed at the thought of the two magazines in her purse as she pulled a package of green beans into her cart, “I know, and I’m not blaming you. It’s just, I was reading one of the articles and they’re all making up stories about how we met! They have no idea how we met!”

Sidney agreed with her, “I know baby. That’s what the media does though, if they don’t have a story, they make one up. Do you want me to release a statement?”

Rolling her eyes, Chantal shook her head, “No, that’s stupid. I just wanted to vent; I don’t understand why they need this story anyways. They never write anything about you.”

Sidney started to laugh at the blatant insult she had just given him, “Thanks baby!”

Chantal started to giggle as she pushed the cart further down the aisle, “I didn’t mean it like that. I just… why do they have to pick this as a story when they don’t bother with anything else? Why am I so interesting?”

Sidney shrugged, “Maybe because you’re beautiful and you make the story, not me.”

Chantal scoffed loudly into the phone as she bent down to get some pasta shells, “I doubt it. I’ll let you go though, don’t make a mess in the house or you’re cleaning it up.”

“Alright, I love you,” Sidney said.

“Love you too,” Chantal said brightly, bringing her phone down from her ear and pressing the END button on her touch screen.

Chantal sighed as she maneuvered her way around the other people in the aisle. If it was only day one of being engaged to Sidney Crosby, what would the other days bring?