Stage Five

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

Joanna shook her head, nibbling on her third chocolate bar of the day. Ariel stared back in disbelief. The stoplight had turned to green, but she stayed turned around in the driver’s seat, eyes intent on Joanna. Someone honked behind them.

“Ariel,” Jennie, the quaint blonde in the passenger seat, prodded, gesturing towards the traffic light. Ariel turned back around and sped the little teal Ford Taurus forward. Jennie turned around and took Ariel’s spot interrogating Joanna. “Are you sure it was him?” Jennie asked dumbly, owning up to her natural hair color.

Joanna’s eyes narrowed and she put down her chocolate bar. “What kind of question is that?” she grumbled. When Jennie continued to stare doe-eyed back at her friend, Joanna sighed. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Fuck,” Ariel glowered, banging her head off the steering wheel, “and you just sat there and stared? If Sidney Crosby were to walk into a house I just so happened to be in, I would have locked him in a closet and would not have let him out until he promised to be my husband.”

“And that’s why we don’t take her to hockey games,” Jennie giggled, patting her brunette friend on the shoulder comfortingly.

“You guys,” Joanna groaned, “can we change the subject? Like, back to why we’re driving around Pitt anyway? Because we’re supposed to be selling chocolate bars?”

Ariel hit the breaks despite being in the middle of the street; a car angrily swerved around her. “Good idea,” Ariel gasped, whipping around to give Joanna wide-eyed stare. “You said you kind of live by him, right?”

“What?” Joanna asked, even though she’d heard Ariel correctly. “We’re not going to-”

“Oh, c’mon,” Ariel pleaded, putting on her best I’m-peer-pressuring-you pout face. The same one she used when she got Joanna to take her first shot or come with her to Brad Johnson’s - a sophomore in college’s - Halloween party last year. And Joanna regretted both of those decisions.

Ariel pulled her car to the side of the street after several complaints from Jennie. “What if someone rear-ends us, Ar?” Ariel shut off the car and fully turned around; Jennie did the same, making Joanna feel like she was being ganged up on.

“You said he lives like, three blocks from you. So it wouldn’t be totally weird if we stopped by fundraising,” she explained, her eyes growing wider with every word.

“It’s seven blocks, actually,” Joanna noted, but Ariel didn’t hear her. Joanna led a blessed enough life to have parents that made good money and were able to afford a large home in the suburbs - which was one of the factors leading to why she babysat for the Dupuis’. They were the ones that lived three blocks away, but Ariel would have never remembered that.

“C’mon,” Ariel said again, already starting the car, “it’ll be funny. Especially if he recognizes you from the other night.” She looked at Joanna in the rear-view mirror. “Where did you say he lived, again?”

Joanna sighed and sunk back into her seat. “I’ll give you the directions when we get to the neighborhood,” she mumbled, accepting defeat.

---

By the time they pulled in front of the surprisingly modest, two-story home, Jennie and Ariel had gotten cold feat. Joanna felt a little smug at this - seeing Ariel in such a timid mood was normally unheard of.

“Well,” Ariel breathed, glancing back at Joanna. But Joanna could hear the ‘You go, we’ll watch’ tone in Ariel’s voice. Jennie just sat in her seat, eyes bouncing between the two girls, looking scared shitless.

Joanna grabbed the box and opened the door. “Fingers crossed he’s not home.”

Her legs felt like spaghetti as she walked toward the house, practically collapsing as she climbed the front steps and approached the door. Throwing one last glance at the girls in the car - who were both watching wide-eyed now - Joanna rose a shaking hand and pressed the doorbell.

There was nothing for a while, but still she waited. The box of chocolate grew heavier in her arms, and - just as she was sure there was no one home - she heard a lock unlatch.

Shit.

Five-foot-eleven, dark eyes, even darker hair. Joanna held back a pleased sigh and focused more on the pit of anxiety growing in her stomach. He opened the screen door partway, leaning casually in the doorway.

“Can I help you?”

She would have squeaked and ran far, far away, but her legs wouldn’t move. “I- um,” she stammered, holding out the chocolate like a waitress with a tray. “My school’s fundraising for a class trip,” she continued shakily, feeling like her tongue had swollen to double its size, “and I was wondering if, um, you’d like to buy some chocolate? Half of the proceeds will go toward my funds.” She swallowed, mentally shaking away the episode of Spongebob rolling through her mind - the one where Spongebob and Patrick decide to be chocolate salesmen, but couldn’t sell a single bar.

He studied her for a moment. “Yeah, uh, come on in-” She almost died. “-I don’t have my wallet on me.”

She followed suit, not daring to look over her shoulder as she stepped shakily over the threshold - she couldn’t bear to see the looks on her friends’ faces right now.

The house was roomy and spacious, despite its outside appearance. Definitely a guy’s home, though, she decided as she spotted an equipment bag thrown - Penguins logo side up - against the wall on one side of the foyer and several empty Gatorade bottles setting on open surfaces.

He didn’t lead her very far in, just into the kitchen right off the entryway. She stood by the wall and watched as he grabbed his wallet from atop the microwave. “So what’chya got?” he asked, eyeing the box of chocolate Joanna was gripping onto like a lifeline.

“Oh,” she mumbled, setting the box on the counter and flipping it open. “Um,” she began, trying to pretend this was any other house and any other person, “they’re one dollar each, unless you get the Mint Meltaways - they’re two each.”

When Joanna looked up, she found his eyes on her rather than the chocolate. So dark, with hints of gold and green. Another suppressed sigh.

He leaned forward on the counter. “You were at Duper’s last night,” he noted slowly, as if still a little unsure. “The babysitter with the shirt?”

With the shirt. Embarrassment clouded her already hazy mind. “Yeah, still have to get Kody back for that,” she joked nervously, praying the subject would go back to chocolate sales.

He looked at her a moment longer, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he reached into the box and pulled three products out - a caramel, a crunch and a Mint Meltaway. “How much do I owe you?”

“Four dollars,” she said without hesitation. She’d already calculated the amount as he pulled them from the box.

Sidney reached into his wallet and pulled out a ten. Joanna grabbed the money envelope from the box to make change, but saw him shake his head from the corner of her eye. She froze.

“Keep the change,” he told her.

“But-” she interceded, trying to protest.

“Keep it.”

She put the ten in the envelope, cheeks burning. “Thank you,” she mumbled almost inaudibly.

“Don’t mention it,” he said, seeing her to the door.

She didn’t - she was sure ten dollars hadn’t put too much of a dent in his wallet. But still.

They got to the door; he opened it. The two of them hovered there for a second, and then a second longer. Finally, she crossed the threshold, unable to handle the pressure building in the foyer anymore.

“Thanks for stopping buy, um…” he trailed off.

She got the hint. “Joanna,” she finished, feeling her cheeks flare a little more.

He nodded. “Sidney.”

“I know,” she said.

She couldn’t help it.