Someone Like That

Madison sat in the living room of her apartment, watching the Pittsburgh Penguins game on television. She had always loved that team, but her love for them was amplified when one of her best friends, Sidney Crosby, got drafted there. Since he started playing there five years ago, she had watched every single one of his games, making sure not to miss even one.
 
After every game, he would always call her, asking if she watched the game, even though he knew she had. This had been their arrangement from the beginning. No matter if he had the best or worst game of his career, he would always call her afterwards.
 
She watched as Sidney scored another goal, his second of the night, and he celebrated with his teammates. A smile formed on Madison's lips, knowing how happy her friend was. She watched the last fifteen minutes of the game, and then she grabbed her cell phone knowing that he was going to call at any minute.
 
Fifteen minutes later, Madison was still clutching the phone in her hand, waiting for Sidney to call. Maybe he had a bunch of interviews to do, and he was just running behind. He had to call her; he always called her!
 
Madison found her eyes fluttering open, and she tried to orientate herself. She looked around and realized she was still in her living room, lying on her couch. Her phone was still in her hand, and she glanced at it to see it was seven the next morning. He hadn’t called her.
 
She got ready for work, and an hour later, she arrived at the restaurant she worked at. She quickly threw her stuff in her locker and made her way back out to the main area, getting ready to take orders for the next eight hours.
 
“Hey, Madison, you’ve got a couple at table twenty,” her boss, Evan, told her, and Madison quickly grabbed her pad of paper and pen and walked out to the table. Halfway there, she suddenly froze, seeing that it was Sidney and some brunette girl she had never seen before.
 
She slowly continued walking, and she stopped at the table. “Hi, I’m Madison, and I’ll be your waitress today. Can I start you off with some drinks,” she recited, looking down at her tablet, not wanting to make eye contact with Sidney just yet.
 
“Madison!” Sidney said, as if he hadn’t expected her to be there today. He knew that she worked every day, so she couldn’t figure out why he’d be so surprised to see her. “Hey, um…this is Katy. Katy, this is my friend Madison.”
 
Madison hated the way that he said the word friend. She hated that he would never see her as anything more than a friend, no matter how much she wanted the exact opposite.
 
“Yeah, she just said her name,” Katy told him before looking up at Madison. “I’d like a diet coke,” she told her.
 
“And you?” she asked Sidney.
 
“Just a water,” Sidney told her.
 
“Okay, well, I’ll be back with your drinks in just a few moments, and then I’ll take your order,” she said with a fake smile as she walked to the back.
 
The rest of the time, she watched as Sidney and Katy flirted with each other across the table. It was obvious that there was something going on between the two of them, and it killed Madison to watch, but she just couldn’t turn away.
 
She was happy when they had finally finished their meal, and they were leaving. Just as they were about to go out the door, Sidney turned around to Madison. “Hey, I’ll call you later, okay?” he asked.
 
“Sure,” she said, not believing a word that came out of his mouth after the previous night.
 
Later that night, Madison heard a knock on her door, and she groaned, getting up off the couch and answering it. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Sidney on the other side. “Hey, come on in,” she told him, moving aside to let him come through the door. “What are you doing here?” she asked him.
 
“Katy and I got into a fight,” he admitted.
 
“Okay, well first you need to back up and tell me about Katy. I mean I just met the girl today. How long have you been going out with her?” she asked.
 
“A couple of weeks now,” he admitted, and Madison's eyes widened.
 
“A couple of weeks?” she asked incredulously. But then she started thinking about it, and it kind of made sense to her. The last few weeks, she and Sidney had been hanging out less and less, and his phone calls after the games became shorter and shorter, until he ultimately didn’t call her the previous night. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
 
“I don’t know,” Sidney admitted. “I guess I thought you’d get angry or something,” he shrugged.
 
“No, you know what makes me angry? When you don’t call me after a game,” she told him, sitting down on the couch while he sat down in a chair across from her.
 
He cursed under his breath. “I am so sorry about not calling you last night. I forgot. Katy came to surprise me after the game, and I didn’t even think about calling you.”
 
“Oh, thanks, that makes me feel better!” Madison said sarcastically.
 
“I really am sorry,” he told her.
 
“Okay, so what was the fight about?” she asked him.
 
“I don’t even know! We were talking on the phone, and I made a joke, and she got pissed off and hung up on me.”
 
“What did you say?” she asked, wondering what kind of joke would make a girl so angry.
 
“I don’t know. I made a joke about her wearing high heels and a short dress to a hockey game,” he said, putting his head in his hands. “I didn’t know she would fly off the handle like she did. I thought she knew it was a joke.”
 
“Just apologize to her,” Madison said, mentally sighing, thinking that Sidney was dating a girl that was the complete opposite of who he should be dating. He shouldn’t be with someone who wore high heels to a hockey game. He should be with someone who actually cared about the game and not how hot the players were.
 
“You think that’ll work?” Sidney asked skeptically.

“Well, it’s the only thing I’ve got. Other than getting a new girl who doesn’t take you so seriously,” she added jokingly.
 
“Thanks,” Sidney smiled, walking out the door to go talk to Katy.
 
A week later, Madison was once again watching the Penguins play at home against the Washington Capitals. Sidney hadn’t called her after a game in the past week, and she had only talked to him twice in that time frame. She was starting to get frustrated, but she couldn’t bring herself to not watch his games.
 
She watched as he seemed to be off of his game. He didn’t have the same finesse he usually did. He had a breakaway, which quickly turned into him giving the puck away to Mike Green, who proceeded to race down to the other end of the ice and put it right past Marc-Andre Fleury’s glove. Madison put her head in her hands, knowing that Sidney wasn’t himself tonight.
 
Later on, Sidney had a clear shot at the goal, and he misfired, causing the puck to go to the right of the goalie and right onto the stick of Alex Ovechkin. After Ovechkin scored, Madison could hear the crowd booing Sidney.
 
She couldn’t help but feel sorry for Sidney after the Penguins ended up losing six against zero. At least half of the Capitals’ goals were a direct result of Sidney. She grabbed her phone, setting it down next to her, even though she had a good feeling that he wasn’t going to call.
 
An hour later, she realized she was right, and she got up off the couch to get ready to go to bed. She had just changed into her pajamas, which consisted of a pair of flannel Penguins pants and a white camisole, when there was a knock at the door. She hurried to the door, opening it to see Sidney standing on the other side looking absolutely crushed. She had never seen him cry in the entire time that she had known him, but he looked like he was ready to right then.
 
“Come in,” she told him, and he walked in going directly to the couch. “What’s wrong? I mean, I know the game didn’t turn out exactly how you wanted it to, but that couldn’t have made you this upset.”
 
“Katy broke up with me,” he said.
 
“Oh,” Madison said, not knowing what else to say. How could Katy break up with him after that game he just had? “Why?” she asked, regretting the word immediately after it had come out of her mouth.
 
“She left with Semin,” he told her, and Madison's eyes went wide with shock. “She said she couldn’t be with someone who gets booed by his own fans.”
 
“Wow, harsh,” Madison muttered. “But, you know you’re better off without her, right?”
 
“Yeah, yeah,” Sidney said, annoyed.
 
“Come on, think about it! You were dating someone who was the exact opposite of who you should be dating,” Madison told him.
 
“Oh, yeah, and who is the right person I should be dating?” he asked her.
 
“Hmmm, I don’t know,” she said. “Someone who understands your sense of humor. Someone who wears a jersey to a hockey game, not high heels. Someone who watches every single one of your games,” she muttered the last part under her breath.
 
He looked over at her. “Someone who doesn’t care if they’re makeup is perfect every second of the game? Someone who doesn’t mind working two straight shifts, as long as she makes it home to watch the game? Someone who looks gorgeous standing there in her Penguins pajamas?” he asked.
 
Madison looked down at the clothes she was wearing, blushing. “Yeah, someone like that,” she said with a smile.
 
“Yeah, she sounds perfect,” Sidney said, closing the distance between them and putting a hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him. He leaned down, pressing his lips to hers. He reluctantly pulled away, looking down at her. “Yeah, you’re perfect,” he smiled.