No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way

Sidney knew what he had to do. He needed Lily back. He needed to be her hero.

People idolized him. They worshipped him. The entire city called him a “hero” when he brought back the Stanley Cup. He couldn’t understand why they considered him a hero. He didn’t do anything other than live out his dream. He was simply doing what he loved, skating on ice while pushing a puck.

Yet he was a Pittsburgh hero.

But that didn’t seem to matter much to him now. He would give it all up for Lily. He would turn back the clock and never touch a hockey stick again if he could have her.

Sidney’s eyes snapped open as the thought crossed his mind and his body jolted into full consciousness.

“Are you okay sir?” The overzealous flight attendant asked.

He gave a curt nod.

“Please buckle your seatbelt, we’ll be hitting some turbulence soon.”

Jesus would I really give up hockey for her?

He would.

He would do it because he could be a real hero for Lily. He could save her from her past and somehow that meant more to him than protecting his future.

He could be her hero.



“Keep your shoulders down Bailey!” I critiqued as I watched the little girls that had become like daughters to me go through their exercises.

I had gotten a job at my old gymnastics gym. I looked different than I did when I was 16, but Coach still recognized me and he promised to keep my secret.

When I first started coaching, I felt the need to dye my hair dark or cut it short. Something. But I knew I shouldn’t. That’s what Tiger Lily did. She hid behind her cotton candy pink bobs, her platinum blonde waves and tomato red bangs. I was done with the shame, the guilt and the hiding. I needed to start believing in a future as Lily Copeland.

As much as I tried, I could still hear the whispers. Some of the mothers went to school with me and started asking questions. Not that I blamed them. After all, no one wants a porn star coaching their little girls back handsprings. God forbid!

“Good Abigail, keep your toes pointed!”

“Do you think, do you think it’s her?” A heard a mother whisper.

“Maybe but who knows. She always had such a common face. Cheap beauty. A face you could buy, if you had enough money and a good plastic surgeon.”

I couldn’t help but wonder how long I could keep this charade up. How long before I get bullied out of here? How long before my past catches up with me?

I let out a weary sigh, “Good job everyone! See you Monday girls!”

I was drowning in deceit and lies.

Chad, Dad, Sidney, now Coach. Either I betray them or they betray me.

God I’m such a mess.



The minute I got home, I collapsed onto my bed, desperate for a few stolen moments of sleep before I had to wake up to work the third shift at the local Waffle House. The house was too expensive for me to stay in without Pat financially supporting me so I needed to save as much money as possible and find a more appropriate home.

Home.

Would this city ever truly be home for me again?

I thought of my parents living in an ignorant bliss of my return.

I thought of Chad who was probably still living Iowa City, desperate to relive his glory days of when he was a Hawkeye.

I thought of Sidney. In fact I thought of Sidney almost every day. Where was he now? In Pittsburgh? In Cole Harbour for the long holiday break? Maybe he was in some tropical paradise with a girl on his arm? I nearly burst out laughing at that image. Sidney had the snow and the ice and the cold in his very DNA. He hated the heat.

He hated me now too.

And with that rather depressing thought on my brain, I rolled over and went into a dreamless sleep.



Sidney groaned as Lily’s face filled the darkness behind his closed eyelids. In the weeks since the breakup, he would dream of her constantly. Jolting awake, shaking his head as if trying to shake her out of his memory and life, however now he welcomed her sweet face. He welcomed the thought that he would see her soon and he would fight for her like she had asked on the voicemail.

The same voicemail that he listened to like a prayer. It was the only thing that convinced him this was the right decision. She was asking for him to fight for her and he was going to.

He fought for her, when she kept the sex tape from him. He fought for her, when she broke up with him in the doorframe. But this was different. He knows the whole truth now. He may not know much about Elena Thompson but he knew the truth and everything about Lily Copeland.

And that’s all he needed.

“Sir, we’re going to be landing, can you please put your seat in the upright position?”



“Is that going to be all tonight?” Lily asked politely, writing down the orders.

“Uh-huh,” The boys, with their hair wet from the spring showers, nodded in unison.

The third shift was never easy. Think about it. The people, who frequented The Waffle House from midnight to 6 AM, were rarely the most savory of characters. Basically drunks, truckers and the occasional high school student flexing their new licenses and freedoms

Lily gave the order to Peter in the kitchen and began to busy herself with making two more pots of coffee for the morning staff, which were bound to come in to relieve me any minute.

The third shift was usually pretty quiet but there was always a quiet buzz of chatting between the patrons and Peter rhythmically scraping down the grill. But at that exact moment, when Lily had just finished putting on the two pots of coffee, it got eerily quiet. Not just third shift quiet. But almost complete silence.

It felt like a horror movie. The dead silence. The splash, the splash of water logged steps approaching the counter. She didn’t dare turn around but looked up at Peter whose mouth was hanging open as he placed the boys’ orders on the tray for me to bring to the table.

Tray in hand, Lily turned on her heel and froze. Her mouth hung open as she stared at the man before her. Soaked from head to toe, head down, was the unmistakable figure of Sidney Crosby.

If he noticed her, he hid it well as he made no move to speak to her.

Lily delivered the plates of food and approached Sidney, menu in hand, “Go ahead, you can sit anywhere,” she said softly.

His head snapped up at the sound of her voice and his eyes locked onto hers, “Lily?”

“Yes,” Lily smiled, a real smile. One that reached her eyes and caused tiny wrinkles to form and a little dimple in her right cheek. A smile just for him. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” He said it so low and deeply, Lily thought she imagined it. He hung up his coat and sat down at the empty counter. Sidney looked around at the tiny diner, the only other people were the group of college boys ending a night of drinking.

“How are you?” She handed him a menu and for a brief second their fingers brushed and it felt like sparks were igniting her skin, “You’re soaked!”

“I’m okay. I’ll take a coffee for now.”

With a deep breath, Lily filled a mug with coffee and placed in front of him, “So.”

“So,” Sidney stared up at her. He had waited at her house, sitting on her porch until she came back home. Then the spring sprinkles turned into full blown downpour and he sought refuge in the dive restaurant near her house. And here she was. Eyes ringed with dark circles and she had clearly lost some weight. Not that she had any to spare as it was. But she was there nonetheless. Flesh and blood in front of him. “How long have you been working here?”

“A couple weeks,” She looked tired. She was tired. The morning crew was going to come any minute. She noticed that her other customers were finishing up, “Wait a minute, I have to give those guys their check.” Before Sidney could even nod, she plastered on her work smile and handed the boys their check.

“What you got there?” The noisy teens paused.

“The bill.”

“We ain’t payin’ that,” The words were slurred just enough to let Lily know they were still fairly drunk.

“You ate the food so you’re paying for it,” It took all Lily had to keep her voice even.

“We’re not payin’ so what you goin’ to do about it?”

Sidney could imagine the kids’ expressions and he cringed at the thought of trouble. His ears were carefully trained on the conversation going on behind him.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble. Tell you what, why don’t you guys go home and sleep it off.”

“We don’t gotta listen to you! Who do you think you are? Our Mama?” One of the boys slid out of the booth to stand directly behind Lily, “What do you boys think about that?”

With that, Sidney snapped his menu down on to the counter and stood. He towered a good six inches over the kid, “Look here, punk,” he said, ignoring the murmurs of the other males in the booth, “you and I both know your Mama raised you better than this and I’m quite sure that if she knew you were mistreating a waitress at the Waffle House, she’d probably slap you silly, wouldn’t she?”

The boy blushed slightly. “Uh, yeah, I guess so.”

“You guess what?”

“I guess so, sir.”

Quinn nodded. “That’s what I thought. Now I’m going to call a cab,” he pulled out a cell phone and started dialing, “and you children are going to say thank you to the nice lady, you’re going to pay your bill, you’re going to leave an enormous tip, and then you’re going to get your asses into that cab and go home. Got that?”

“Are you…are you really…” Sidney glowered at the speaker, a pock-faced thug in a high school letterman’s jacket from a local high school.

“Yes, I am.” He had no idea what had gotten into him, all that he knew was that Lily was in trouble and she needed his help. And maybe he enjoyed throwing his weight around a little. Fame did have it’s perks.

“Shit man, we’re sorry.”

“Yeah, we are so sorry.”

Sidney noted their expressions. Cockiness was gone, replaced by fear. Do heroes inspire fear? “Don’t apologize to me you little assholes. Apologize to the lady and then get your no mannered drunken butts into that cab out there. And I wasn’t kidding about the tip.”

The group filed out, quietly mumbling apologies to Lily who stood, looking amazed, next to the table. Once the glass door closed behind them, “Thank you.”

He smiled at her and sat back down on his stool. “Please, that was nothing.”

“Maybe not to you,” A slight pink blush colored her cheeks as she refilled his coffee, “You saved my life back there. You’re my hero.”

Sidney stared at her dumbstruck.

“So, why are you here?”

“Pat told me everything.”

“It was-”

“I know.”

“And now you’re here.”

“I didn’t know you worked here. Pat gave me your address and I waited. I waited until well until I was practically falling asleep inside my coat and I was soaked to the core. Then I came here looking for a warm place and a coffee.”

“And here I was.”

“Here you are.”

“Thanks again for saving my life back there. You really are my hero.”

Sidney paused as he heard her say those words again. My hero. She really is sleep deprived. “I want to be your hero.”

“Look what Pat made me do was wrong but really what good could I possibly do for your career.”

“Have a little faith in us, Lily. Have a little faith in me.”

“I do have faith in you. It’s me that I’m not so sure about.”

“I don’t care what people say. I’m happy when I’m with you and you’re happy when you’re with me. When I’m happy, I play better and usually when I play better, the Pens win. I don’t see any losing in this situation.”

“But your image-”

“Doesn’t mean nearly as much to me as you do. What do you want? You wanted me to fight for you. So here I am fighting for you.”

“I just didn’t think you would,” She looked up at him and she brushed a tear from her eye.

“Well here I am. Ready to be your hero.”

“Then save me.”

With those three words, Sidney scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the diner.

Lily didn’t care that he was soaking wet or that the morning crew hadn’t come yet.

All she knew was that the rain had stopped and the sun was rising and she was in the arms of the man she loved.