Harbour Lights and Lonely Nights

Sidney’s SUV slid quietly across the bridge, leaving the city lights behind as Emily watched their reflection in the water fade. A peaceful smile rest softly on her rosy lips as she shut her eyes. She hated driving across bridges which he could remember from a trip to Montreal. The hockey player glanced over at her affectionately.

“I hate you.” Emily said, eyes shut in the backseat of the van. The 16-year-old girl despised bridges.

Sidney only laughed from his seat beside her. “I could have left you behind. Next time just tell me you want to pass up a chance to see Souray and Markov and… Koivu…”

The girl peeked one eye open to glance over at him in disdain. In the driver’s seat Sidney’s dad was concentrated on the traffic, mumbling about toll bridges, while beside him Mrs. Crosby smirked at the two teenagers’ conversation.

“That doesn’t make me feel safer on this bridge. Montreal Bridges are the worst.” To punctuate her statement a car behind them honked its horn and Emily jumped in her seat before squeezing her eyes tighter. For a few minutes Sidney laughed and shook his head at how silly his friend was acting. For someone so brave she certainly did have some weird fears. Unafraid of what people were usually afraid of and afraid of what people were usually unafraid of. It was a weird combination he had noticed in his friend.

It wasn’t long though before Emily felt a light squeeze of her hand and when she opened her eyes Montreal sprawled out in front of them and the bridge disappeared behind them, eaten up by the horizon.

“We’re almost there.” He informed her as the SUV once again reached land.
It took a few minutes before her eyes began to flutter open but when they did she watched the car moving up an inclination in the road. Looking out her window she could see an overgrowth of trees just a little ways away.
“Where in the world are you taking me?”
“You’ll like it. Trust me.”

It had been almost a week since they had decided to try a relationship and this was supposed to be the first date. He hadn’t planned it to be this way but crossing the bridge almost seemed like representation of their friendship. They were crossing from friends to more, they were finally leaving purgatory and making it over a hurdle that had stood in their way for so long. It made his superstitious self smile that it had worked out in such a way.

When the car finally finished the drive it was situated in a remote lightly wooded area where the faded glow of the setting sun traced the leafy outlines of the trees.

“Where did you bring me?”
Sidney turned off the engine and pushed open his door, “Somewhere where it can be just you and me. You did ask for it.”
He watched as her blue eyes filled with suspicion but he was sure she’d like this. What she hadn’t seen was the view behind the car. When she stepped out of the vehicle and Sidney brought her to the back of the SUV a beautiful sight rose from the ground with every step. Stars were peaking out from behind the black curtain descending on the sky and across from them the city of Pittsburgh twinkled with nightlife. It was a beautiful view of the city in a place that felt so far removed from it. But Sidney hadn’t finished just yet. He opened the back of the SUV and inside sat a simple yet familiar blanket laid out across it. A couple of cushions were sporadically hurled from driving and a reebok backpack sat looking out of place.
Quickly Sidney pushed the cushions against the back of the back seats and signalled Emily to sit among them on the wool blanket.

“I love the sky here,” Emily said as she lay in the bed of her truck. Her hands were tucked under her head and above her the stars spread out across the sky; almost white dotted with the dark instead of the other way around. Sometimes the two teenagers, 17 and free to go where they pleased in the dumpy old truck, would drive as far inland as they could, as far away from the harbour as manageable, to where it was more remote and even less light polluted. There they’d lie on Sidney’s old wool blanket he had got on a trip to BC, with its colourful and intricate pattern hand woven into sheet of wool.
Sidney’s eyes scanned the sky as well, “Me too.”
“I’m glad I skipped class today. It was worth it.”
Sidney shook his head. “You shouldn’t have.”
“But my best friend was actually back in the harbour, how could I sit in school knowing that?”
She heard a soft laugh escape Sidney’s lips. “Your parents must hate me. Wasn’t that your parents’ liquor we were drinking the last time I was in town.”
The memory made Emily smile but she played it coy, “Maybe…”
Her slender body turned to face him. The sun that year had already started to bring out the freckles across her nose and as his eyes travelled, soaking in her appearance, he reached the oh so familiar scar just below the hem of her shorts.
“You have to admit, it was pretty good though.”

From the back of the SUV the view was perfect. Sidney had even brought a bottle of wine and a couple of thermoses.
“What is that?” Emily asked upon seeing it.
“Wine.”
“No, the other thing,” Blue eyes rolled at him but he only smiled in return. A guilty look followed.
“What I tried to do was call your mom and get her old pea soup recipe but I don’t think it turned out like hers. But I tried!” He opened up the thermos and the smell of what was definitely pea soup permeated from its depths. It was romantic in a really dorky kind of way. Emily and Sidney had spent many nights warming up from the outdoor rink with a bowl of her mother’s soup by the bay window of their kitchen. It was something she hadn’t had in a very long time.

---

“You know what this view makes me feel like?” Emily said from her spot leaning against Sidney on the blanket. The thermoses had long been put away and Sidney had consumed only one glass of wine but most of the bottle was gone.
The amber eyed boy smiled at her enthusiasm. He thought it crazy how much he could love her and after all this time that she could be his. “What? What does it make you feel?”
Cool air rushed in against his skin as she got up and out of the back. She reached her arms out and spun around, her long hair spreading out like a fan, before stopping and facing him. Her eyes stared at the dark brown of his hair to the pale contrast of his skin. His amber eyes. His dark pout. Hockey player shoulders.
“It makes me feel like I made a very good choice... ANNDDD” She emphasized the last word a lot and very matter-of-factly in her tipsy state. This only made Sidney laugh. “like the dream team can do anything.”
“The dream team?”
“Em and Sid take on Pittsburgh. America! Everything!!”
“Sid and Em take on everything.” He joked back at his friend.
She brushed him off with a gesture of her hand. Again the hockey player laughed because there was something he couldn’t resist about when she got in this state.
“You’re a little bit drunk aren’t you?”
A sigh preceded her simple answer, “Yes.”

Sidney climbed out of the back and stood beside her, pulling her body close to his. The autumn air was chilly but together they generated more than enough heat.
“Did I do good?” Sidney asked as his arms fell resting on her lower back.
Emily thought back over the night. The view and the familiar soup, the talks of their lives apart and even the moments of silence in which they held onto each other reluctant to let go. “Yes. Yes you did Mr. Hockey star.”
To one side of them sat the intimate little cave they had created with the open hatchback. The warm familiar blanket and cushion compressed from their weight. On the other side the lights of Pittsburgh made a warm glow around the city.
“Missing Canada?” His voice was almost a whisper.
“Nope.”
The cool skin of his nose met Emily’s. Her long eyelashes blinked at the darkened honey so close to them.
“I love you Emily Greene.”
“Et Je t’aime Sidney Crosby.”
The two shared a slow kiss, their bodies mere millimetres apart. Long slender fingers ran up the back of his neck into the warmth of his hair. Strong hockey player hands locked her against him, making her smile into the softness of his lips. It could have been mere moments later, or it could have been hours that they pulled away and looked at each other. In his arms Emily burrowed into his chest. Resting her head and holding him close, as his chin sat atop her hair. She breathed in his cologne and any fear she had washed away. He felt the familiar contour of her lower back and knew he would protect her.
The warmth and just the feeling of holding onto each other made speech unnecessary, but as Emily’s mind began to wander, she suddenly had a question.
“What are we going to do about telling people?”
The question seemed trivial to Sidney but he humoured her nonetheless. “Have you told anyone?”
“Just Micha.”
“Do you want to tell people?”
Her dark eyes looked up at him. “I’m not the one whose privacy is constantly invaded.”
A part of him wanted to shield her from it but there was no way he could hide it from everyone. “I can’t really keep something that big from my team. They’d find out.”
“But I don’t know if I’m ready to tell mum and dad.”
His thick thumb brushed her cheek, “This is only date number one. We don’t have to rush telling anyone.”

And Sidney believed in that statement very much when he said it. But neither of them knew how hard that would turn out to be.