Just Another Pretty Face in the Crowd

Chapter Nine – Lunch

The hockey practice ended exactly at noon. I guess Coach Bylsma got tired of the hockey players bitching and moaning about being hungry. Or maybe he was just very prompt.

I was finally able to stand up when the hockey players were exiting the rink.

“Finally, freedom!” I shouted, stretching. I groaned, though, as my knees cracked from the sudden movement. As comfy as it was to sit on a hockey god’s lap, my knees did stiffen up a little bit.

“Oh, you know it wasn’t that bad!” Sid commented.

I remained silent and reached for my winter cloths but Sidney’s massive body stood in the way. “That’s not nice,” I said, playfully.

“You liked sitting on my lap, didn’t you?” he questioned. There was an equally playful glimmer in his eye.

I still didn't answer as I tried to reach my stuff.

“You did!” he stated, smugly.

“Did I say that?” I countered.

“You didn’t say anything, so that means that you did!” he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh, it does, does it?”

“Yes it does.”

I just raised my eyebrow, “May I please got my stuff?”

“So does changing the subject,” he said with a smug smirk.

I just rolled my eyes at him, “Please?”

He stepped aside and I slipped past him. I put my jacket on and pulled my gloves on. I placed my knit hat on my head and looked at Sidney, who was staring the thing that sat comfortably on my head.

“You know I just realized that your hat looks a lot like a penguin,” he said randomly.

“That’s because it is a penguin, darling,” I said, pointing to the little orange-ish yellow beak that stuck out where the black and white met. “You just noticed this now?”

“No!” he said, stupidly and obnoxiously, making it plainly obviously that he did.

“Sure,” I said, dragging out the ‘r’. "Where are we going for lunch?”

He grabbed his own jacket that was draped over the back of his chair. “I was thinking about going to this little dinner down the road. I usually go there after practice."

“Okay.” I silently thanked the Lord that it wasn’t some place that was fancy because let’s face it; we weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion.

He led the way out of the aisle and up the stairs towards the hallway that surrounded the arena. Once out in the open space, he stepped aside a little and allowed me to walk beside him.

It didn’t really hit me till we reached the lobby doors, “How are we going to get there?”

“We’re driving,” he said in a ‘duh’ voice.

“But what about me?”

“You are coming with me,” he replied still in the ‘duh’ voice.

“But what about my car?”

“You ask a lot of questions,” he said with a smirk. “I’m not going to kidnap you. I’m gonna bring you back after lunch.”

“I really wasn’t expecting you to kidnap me.”

“Okay, then I’ll continue with my plan,” he said, playfully.

I giggled silently as we walked through the parking lot towards the truck that he had picked me up in the night before. He opened the passenger door once again. “Thank you, kind sir."

“You’re welcome, ma’lady,” he said in a horrible British accent.

I burst out laughing as I climbed into the truck and sat down in the grey seat. He closed the passenger door and then walked around to the driver’s side. He got in much easier than I did and put the key in the ignition. He turned the engine over and back out the parking spot.

“You really have nothing going on today?” he asked.

I nodded, “It’s one of the few days that I have nothing to do. Sadie didn’t schedule me and I don’t have classes today.”

“You only have class two times a week, correct?” he asked, stopping at the stop sign and pulled onto the road.

“Every other day. I work the weekdays when I don’t have class,” I explained. “Weekends are almost always free because I work mornings during the week.”

He nodded, “That’s cool. What do you do on your free time?”

“Study, watch TV, play with Caesar. You know stuff like that,” I said, listing off a couple of things.

“Sounds so…” He paused a little to think of nice word to place my life in.

“Boring,” I filled in.

“I wasn’t going to say boring,” he claimed.

“But you were thinking it,” I accused.

He just didn’t say anything as we pulled up to a red light. We stayed silent to the rest of the trip. It wasn’t necessarily because we didn’t have anything to say. It was because we enjoyed the comfortable silence that we somehow were able to maintain between ourselves. I never felt awkward around him (unless you counted last night when he was standing at my apartment door unexpectedly).

“Here we are!” He said as he pulled into the parking lot of a dinner that looked like it jumped out the 1950’s. He turned off the truck and I got out before he could open the door. I’m not going to lie I loved that he was chivalrous but there was also I point when I always wanted to feel independent.

We walked up the steps and he opened the glass door of the dinner.

“Hello, Sidney, how can I help you today?” an gray-haired woman asked, kindly.

“Looking for something good to eat,” he replied.

She looked at me with eyes that reminded me of my own grandmother’s eyes, “Did bring your girlfriend along this time?”

My eyes widened a little, ‘Did she really think that I was his girlfriend?’ I mouth didn’t really seem to want to say anything. It just opened and closed making me look like a complete retard.

“She’s just a good friend,” Sidney corrected, politely.

“Oh, okay, darling. Well, you can sit anywhere,” the old lady said.

Sidney smiled and nodded. He led the way to a little booth that was in a corner. I scooted in on one side and he did the same on the other, sitting right across from me. The old lady came over and handed us the small menu that they provided. It mainly consisted of hamburgers and hotdogs just like what the 50’s dinners did.

“What are you getting?” Sidney asked.

“I don’t know. What’s good here?” I looked at him as he scanned the menu, silently debating what he wanted himself.

“Everything.”

“That’s truly a big help, Sid,” I said in a fake annoyed voice. I glanced down at the menu and my eyes immediately attached themselves to the hamburger section. I really didn’t like hotdogs and it made it even worse when I found out what was in them.

“I know,” he replied, not even thinking what he was saying.

I scanned over the list of burgers. There was about ten of them there. The regular burger, the regular cheeseburger, California cheeseburger, the mushroom burger (with or without cheese), the BLT, the bacon cheeseburger, the Cajun burger, the veggie burger, the turkey burger, and the steakhouse burger. I bit the inside of my cheek debating what I wanted for lunch. I liked all of them.

“I might take the mushroom burger,” I announced, proudly, placing my menu down.

Sidney gave me a confused and amazed look, “You… like burgers.”

“Yea, why?” I asked.

“I just thought that you were a salad kind of girl,” he said, placing down his menu, decidedly.

“I usually am, but I also like a good burger,” I replied, matter-of-factly.

“Good, I can’t stand those girls that are always ‘How many calories are in the ranch dressing?’” he said in girly voice.

I snorted a little and looked at him, “You mean like fake, bleach blonde bimbos that are usually found with you.”

“That happened one time,” he said, jokingly, pointing a finger at me.

I couldn’t help but laugh at him, “More like a hundred.”

“Are you kids ready to order?” The older woman was standing in front of us with a kind smile on her face.

“Yea,” Sidney said. “I’ll take the steakhouse burger with a water.”

“I’ll take the mushroom burger with cheese and a Pepsi, please,” I ordered, politely.

“Okay, I’ll be right back with your drinks,” the lady said, leaving us alone. Within a minute the woman was back with our appropriate drinks, “Here you go, darlings.”

“Thank you.” I thanked her politely as she set my drink in front of me. I put a straw in my ice cold Pepsi and I silently drank some.

Sidney just nodded at the lady and then drank right out of the cup. He set it down and watched me as I fiddled with my straw.

“So,” he started, breaking the silence that was between us. "What got you interested in softball?"

“I really don’t know." I answered truthfully. "I guess I fell in love with baseball. I played Tee ball and Little League when I was a little girl. I had to switch to softball when I started getting strange looks from the boys that played with me."

“You play catcher, right?” he guessed.

“Yea,” I nodded with a shadow of a smile playing on my lips. Having him remember something as small as me playing the catcher position in softball made me feel special. “What about you? How did you get into hockey?”

“Family thing,” he said, simply. “It was pretty much expected that I play hockey, but it was never pushed on to me.” I nodded my head, allowing him to continue. “I can’t even remember when I started playing. My mom says that I was constantly shooting pucks into the dryer."

I smiled at that, “I know what you mean. Dusty did the same thing, except he used the doggie door.”

“What about you?”

“I walked around outside, throwing a baseball in the air and used my bat to hit it. Nothing super special,” I replied.

The two of us continued to talk, changing the subjects around every once in a while. We talked the whole time even when the older waitress came over with our food.

My mushroom burger sat in the middle of a red basket with steak fries surrounding it from all sides. Just looking at it made my mouth water and my stomach growl.

“Someone’s hungry,” Sidney teased, hearing my stomach growl and almost groan as I debated on how to pick up the giant sandwich.

“Be quiet,” I scolded.

I timidly picked up the burger and carefully debating where I should bite into it. I was always my luck to get something on my clothing.

“It’s not going to bit you back,” Sidney continued to tease as he took a huge bit in his steak burger.

“I said be quiet,” I said with a smirk on my face. I took a small bit out of the greasy burger, “This is really good.”

“I told they were good,” Sidney claimed.

“Actually you never told me anything,” I challenged.

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

I don’t know how long we sat there arguing about it but we stopped when the older woman came over and dropped off our check. I started reaching for it, but he slapped my wrist.

“What was that for?” I asked, snapping my wrist back in surprise.

“I’m going to be pay. Do not touch that check,” he said as he took another bite from his burger.

“You didn’t have to slap me!” I said, laughing a little. I didn’t know why I was complaining about him slapping my wrist. It wasn’t like was going to bruise or anything, he only hit it hard enough to chance my hand away.

“Would you have listened if I asked you not to touch it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me almost accusingly.

“Maybe,” I said.

He shot me a look that clearly said ‘that’s a lie.’

“Okay, probably not.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said, starting on his steak fries.

I took the final bites of my burger and licked the grease off the tips of my fingers. I grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and wiped them clean, having my hands almost feel dirty after I did so.

“Want ketchup for your fries?” Sidney asked, having the ketchup in hand deciding that ketchup would go better with his own fries.

“Nope, I don’t like ketchup,” I stated, not looking at him. His expression was probably the same as everyone else that heard that I don’t like ketchup.

“You’re weird,” he stated, simply.

I just shrugged, chewing on a steak fry. “How much was this meal?”

“You will never know,” he said, grabbing the check off the counter and looked at it himself.

“Fine, be that way!” I said. I stuck out my bottom lip and folded my arms over my chest. “Meanie.”

“How am I a meanie?”

I didn’t look at him but dramatically swung my head to look out the window, a sure sign that I was just playing around and not being an overactive drama queen.

“Come on, Dru. Don’t be like that.”

I huffed dramatically in reply. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him get up and leave the booth. I heard him walk away, probably to pay the bill.

It wasn’t even a minute later when I felt the booth bench shift from the weight of someone else sitting beside me. I felt two arms hug me from behind and instantly knew it was Sidney. I mean who else would it be?

“I’m sorry, Dru. Please forgive me,” Sidney whispered very close to my ear, causing chills to go up and down my spine and goose bumps to rise on my arms. I could feel his chin on my shoulder.

“I don’t know. Why should I forgive you?” I said flirtatiously. ‘This boy seriously doesn’t know what he does to me.’

“Maybe because I’m your ride back to your car,” he said, smirking but still had that flirtatious feeling to it.

“Good point!”

“Come on.” He sled out of the booth and held out his hand for me. I took it politely, even though I knew how to get out of the booth myself.

Once again, his hand went start to the small of my back, guiding me out of the front door of the dinner. He led me to his truck, holding the passenger door open for me. I do have to say that I did like being treated like a princess when it came down to it. I climbed into the truck and closed the door myself.

Once we were all buckled and ready to go, he pulled out of the parking lot, driving toward the arena where my car was parked. The ride was silent but once again the enjoying-company silence, not that awkward, get-me-the-hell-out-of-here silence.

He pulled into the arena parking lot. My car was the only car there now since all the hockey players were gone. I sighed a little when he parked his truck next to my little Neon. “Thanks for lunch,” I said jumping out of the truck.

“Any time,” he said smiling at me. “Maybe we can do another time?”

His suggestion actually caught me off guard. Words couldn’t form in my head but almost on instinct I replied, “Sure. Uh, where’s your phone and I’ll program my number in it.”

He started digging into his jean pockets and pulled a iPhone, of course. He stretched across the seats and handed it to me.

“Good God, I barely know how to work these son of a bitches,” I mumbled as I toyed with it. Eventually I found the contacts and programmed my number under 'Dru :). “Here you go.” I was only able to reach to reach halfway.

“Thanks, I’ll text you sometime,” he grinned taking his phone from my hand.

“Yea, just text me where and when,” I said with a smile. “Thanks again for lunch.”

“It was my pleasure. Are you still coming to the game tonight?”

“Yea! I wouldn’t miss it,” I said with excitement. “Even if you aren’t playing.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said with a laugh.

“I’ll see you later,” I said with a smile and closed the truck door. I walked over to my car, unlocking the door. I turned the engine over and surfed through the songs of my iPod that was hooked into the radio of my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Sidney backed out of the parking spot and drove away.

‘I guess all I have to do is wait.’