You Can Let Go Now

Elizabeth, as she and Sidney got closer, quickly realized there were going to be good and bad days with Sidney. Every day she wondered what kind of mood he was going to be in. There were days when he was happy and outgoing and silly, the Sidney that had grown to be one of her best friends. Then there were days when he was grouchy and boring. The worst days were when he was feeling depressed and she literally had to drag him out of bed sometimes. “You can't keep doing this to yourself,” she would say, “you can't stop living life, Sidney. I won't allow you to lose yourself.”

He would always do the same thing, roll over for a moment and she would think he was going to ignore her. Then he would sigh and drag himself out of bed and put on his running clothes.

This morning, Sidney was the one to come find her. She was sitting in her kitchen talking with McKenzie when she heard a knock on her back door. Opening the door, she was met with a brightly smiling Sidney. “Hey, come in,” Elizabeth said, opening the door.

Sidney said hi to McKenzie and took a seat at the island. “Guess what?” he asked.

“What?”

“I'm getting the Cup on my birthday instead!” Sidney exclaimed.

“Really? That's awesome! Do you know what you're going to do with it?” She asked, truly excited for him. She knew he really wanted it on his birthday, not some random day.

“I have a few ideas, I've talked with my dad about it a little but nothing is for sure. I mean, we just found out,” he explained.

“Well I'm happy for you,” she said. “So, what are your plans for today?”

He shrugged. “I'm not sure, are you guys going to do something?”

Elizabeth looked at McKenzie, who looked up from the new Cosmopolitan magazine. “I have work until five, but after probably, yeah,” McKenzie said.

“You work a lot,” Sidney stated.

McKenzie snorted. “Yeah, well some of us don't get paid millions of dollars a year,” she snapped.

Sidney looked taken aback. Elizabeth choked on her water and tried to contain her laughter. She watched as Sidney blushed and turned to her for help. She put her hands in the air, as if to say 'I'm not getting in this one'.

However, she said, “McKenzie, can I talk to you for a moment?”

They walked into the living room where Elizabeth said, “What was that for?”

“I didn't do anything! It was one comment-and it was the truth!”

“Not just that, whenever he comes over you always attack him about something or say something unkind. I don't get it,” she whispered and the tint of annoyance was evident in her voice.
“Did you ever think that maybe I just don't like him?” McKenzie asked, with just as much annoyance.

“And why would that be? He's been nothing but nice to you!” Elizabeth asked back, unsure of what McKenzie was playing at.

“I'm not talking about this right now,” she stated before walking upstairs, not bothering to look at Sidney, who was sitting awkwardly by himself in the kitchen.

Elizabeth let out an angry sigh and walked back into the kitchen. “I'm sorry if I started a fight between you two,” Sidney said.

Forcing a smile, Elizabeth said, “You don't have to be sorry, you didn't do anything. Want to go get some coffee?”

Standing up, Sidney followed her out the door. The place they went to was only a mile away, so they always walked. “I get the feeling McKenzie doesn't like me,” Sidney said.

“She's really not that bitchy. I know she is to you, but I've never really been this close with someone else, especially a boy, as long as I've known her and she probably feels a little betrayed,” Elizabeth said, realizing her friend probably was a little hurt with the amount of time she spent with Sidney.

“You're the one who drags me out of bed every morning,” Sidney joked.

She laughed and denied it. “I do not!”

All he did was raise an eyebrow and she sighed in defeat. “Okay, okay. Only because it's not healthy to stay in bed all day and let your thoughts spiral out of control.”

“I didn't say I don't like it, in fact I appreciate it a lot. I would be a mess right now if it weren't for you and my other friends. All I'm saying is that you can hang out with her more often. I won't be offended.”

She smiled at him and said as they walked in the coffee shop, “Let's not worry about that right now.”

After they got their coffee they went to their usual spot in the corner so Sidney wouldn't be noticed. “When do you start training for next season?”

“Next week,” Sidney replied.

“What? That's way too short of a break!” Elizabeth couldn't believe, she thought it would be like next month or something.

“Yeah, well I want to be going into training camp in shape though,” he explained.

“You don't think you should give yourself a longer break? I mean, with everything that happened to you last year and winning the cup I think it would be understandable if you wanted a long rest.”

He was silent for a moment before saying, “Well, like you said, if I have a longer break it will only give me more time to think about all the bad things...hockey has always been my outlet.”

Elizabeth didn't say anything. She understood that sure, hockey probably was his outlet but she thought he should have a longer rest. But she also knew that he always is a busy guy, from what he tells her of what his season is like she knows he hardly gets to relax to it's probably weird to have so much free time in the summer.

“Don't be so sad, I'll still hang out with you,” Sidney said sarcastically.

Chuckling she said, “Oh, Crosby. You caught me. That's exactly what I was worried about.”

“I knew it!” He said, throwing his hands in the air.

She rolled her eyes and laughed as he quickly brought them back down and sunk in his chair when people started looking their way. “That's what you get,” she told him, and stuck her tongue out.

“Oh, that's mature,” he stated.

“You know me,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.

“Unfortunately.”

“Aren't you so funny,” Elizabeth said.

Sidney smiled and said, “You know I'm kidding. Now, let's go. That man over there has been staring at me for five minutes and it's making me uncomfortable.”

As she turned around she saw a man that was about forty that watched the both of them walk out of the store. “He must have a crush on you,” she said seriously and ducked, laughing, as Sid's arm came out to whack her.

“Sidney! I think I've got something!” he heard Elizabeth yell, excitement in her voice. Setting down his rod, he turned and saw that she did, in fact, have a bite.

“Start reeling in!” he yelled.

She started to reel in but she started struggling as the fish started to pull back. “Holy shit,” he muttered, “You have a big one.”

“That's what she said,” Elizabeth joked as she tried to keep reeling her fish in.

“oh ha ha. Here, let me,” he said, grabbing the pole from her. Pulling as hard as he could, he was finally able to get the fish on the boat.

“Holy shit, liz! Nice job!” He said as he saw the size of the 8 inch bass.

She smiled and said, “What can I say? I have natural talent.”

He laughed and said, “This is big enough to keep. We could eat it later.”

Her face turned into a horrified look. “No!” she said suddenly. “I'm just doing this for fun. I don't want to kill any of them.”

“Oh come on!”

“Sidney, no,” she demanded, grabbing the tail end of the fish from Sid's hands and threw it back in the lake.

“You're no fun,” he pouted.

“Yet you still love hanging out with me...” she said and laughed when he didn't have another comment.