She Makes Me Wanna

“Jesus Christ Emily!” Jack cried as I slammed into him with such ferocity that the boards rang during practice.

“What’s gotten into you today?” Tanger asked, skating up as Dan blew the whistle.

“Nothing…I’m just excited to be back on the ice,” I shrugged, pulling my left glove off and taking out my mouth guard. Dan started bitching at some of the guys about how they weren’t practicing hard enough and then blew the whistle, starting the scrimmage up again. By the time we were done I had scored on Flower five times and the other guys were bewildered at how hard I was playing.

“Save some of that for the game chickadee,” Gronk said, patting my helmet as we headed into the locker room of the BankAtlantic center. I laughed and nodded, eager to get to the game.

I woke up a half hour before our wake up call. I tiptoed into the bathroom and showered quickly, not wanting to wake up Sidney. I got dressed and ready to go for the plane ride and slipped out of the room with five minutes left before the phone would ring and Sidney would wake up. I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened the night before and I wanted to avoid the awkwardness of the morning, so I scurried over to the conference room where we were having breakfast and ran directly into Marc-Andre.

“You’re up early,” he said, a glass of orange juice in his hand.

“You are too,” I said, heading towards the table where the hotel staff was setting up breakfast.

“So, did you sleep well?” Marc asked, and I nodded before stiffening up. It was almost like he knew something had happened last night.

“Yeah, perfectly. And yourself?” I asked.

“I got some good sleep…that was, until, my phone started blowing up,” Marc shrugged.

“Oh…that sucks,” I said quietly, grabbing an apple and a glass of water before flopping down into the first chair I saw.

“Emily…I know what happened,” Flower said shortly. I choked on my water before looking at him.

“What?!” I cried.

“He told me,” Flower said.

“He started it!” I said quickly. Flower laughed quietly.

“Je sais. Don’t worry, I don’t think badly of you for it. He has been fighting this too long,” Flower said, and I raised my eyebrows.

“What do you mean, he’s been fighting this too long?” I asked.

“Sidney ‘as ‘ad a crush on you since you met. Understandable, no? You play hockey, he plays hockey. You’re both a little quirky. You’re everything he wants and needs in a girl, and you’re close by all the time. It was bound to ‘appen with one of us,” Flower said quickly, his voice dropping lower and lower as he spoke. I turned around since Marc’s eyes were locked on the door, and swallowed roughly. Sidney was leaning against the door frame, his face emotionless.

“Interesting conversation we’re having?” he asked, walking over.

The moment we got back to the hotel room, I knew that things were going to get tense.

“So, talking about what happened with Marc this morning I suppose?” Sidney asked tersely.

“No. He said that you had texted him about it,” I retorted, irritation flaring up because of Sidney’s tone.

“Oh,” Sidney said, his voice instantly losing the edge it had had.

“Why would you assume that I would go running to tell our teammates about it?” I asked, irritation not leaving my voice.

“Just because I’ve…I’ve,” Sidney began, not turning to look at me.

“What? Kissed a girl who went and screamed to the media that you were together because of it? If you haven’t noticed Sidney, I’m your teammate. If I told anyone about this, how would it look on me? I’m still fighting to earn my reputation. I guarantee there are still some guys on that ice who think I slept my way to the top. I can’t go around saying that I kissed Sidney Crosby!” I said, my hands and voice beginning to tremble.

“Emily…I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to make you feel like this,” he croaked, turning around instantly.

“No…it’s not you,” I said, regaining my composure.

“Then who is it?” Sidney asked.

“You don’t spend enough time on the internet, do you?” I asked.

“What?” Sidney asked.

“Ever since I got drafted I’ve been getting emails, seeing blog postings, and a million other things on the internet from pissed off hockey fans, all guys, who think that I whored my way into the NHL. They say I don’t belong here, that I can’t take a hit, that they wished my concussion had ended my career, stuff like that. It sucks,” I explained. Sidney bit his knuckle and hissed something that sounded extremely close to “fuck” before shaking his head.

“That’s unbelievable…but do you know what? You’re going to prove to them otherwise,” Sidney said quietly.

“Thanks. I’ll sure as hell try anyway,” I smiled.

“No, you won’t try. Do or do not, there is no try,” Sidney said, and I snorted.

“Star Wars quotes? Alright Yoda,” I laughed. Sidney grabbed a pillow and smacked me with it.

“Oh hell no!” I cried, grabbing another pillow. We started hitting each other until Sidney was backed up against the armchair near the window, and he tripped into it. Of course, as he fell his legs took mine out and I fell on top of him, my hair falling into my face. I blew a few strands out of my face before cracking up. Sidney brushed the rest of the hair out of my face, and then cupped my face gently in his hands.

“Sid…” I said warningly, but he shook his head and pressed his lips against mine. Son of a bitch I thought, but I shifted so that I was sitting on his lap and kissed him back. His hands rested firmly on my hips, and I wound my fingers through his hair as our tongues collided. My entire body felt like it was on fire, and after a few minutes I felt Sidney smile. Breaking away, I raised my eyebrows.

“What?” I asked.

“We are so fucking messed up, you know that right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I laughed before getting up and tossing the pillows back onto the beds.

“I don’t mind though,” Sidney said, standing up and hugging me tightly from behind.

“Right now, neither do I,” I smiled.