Walk in the Sun

Kaitlyn drove back to the hotel, and I could tell that she was in desperate need of girl-talk. When we reached our room, I pulled out the room service menu and sat on one of the beds. I watched Kaitlyn as she slowly walked into the bathroom. Once I heard the door lock, I looked over the menu. I figured we could order in something to munch on before we went out to eat dinner.

When Kaitlyn came out of the bathroom, I could see that she had tears in her eyes. I could feel my heart ache for her. I knew how hard this was for her. She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.

“How do you do it?” I saw her lip begin to tremble before she continued. “How do you say goodbye to Sid and be okay so easily?”

I let out a soft sigh and patted the space on the bed beside me. She sat down and I turned to her.

“I’m not okay. I know, I may look it, but I’m not. I hate saying goodbye to him. Those moments, when I did, have been the worst moments of my life to date, including today. But one thing gets me through it.” As if on cue, my phone went off. I picked it up and saw the text message from Sid. I smiled and showed it to Kaitlyn. She looked at it and sent me a sad smile. I nodded and continued. “That, those little texts, the phone calls, and the chance that I’ll get to see him again soon, is what gets me through it.”

She nodded. “I know, and I guess I should be used to this, after the first time, but…”

I cut her off, “you don’t have to be used to it and today was different than last time. Last time, you said goodbye to Kris Letang, a new-found friend that you had begun to develop feelings for. Today, you said goodbye to Kris Letang, your boyfriend. This was much, much different. It will get easier, but not right away. It, like anything else in life, takes time. Kris will call you or text you soon, rather to tell you that he’s made it safely to Pittsburgh, or just to say he misses you. Either way, today wasn’t goodbye forever, it was a see you later. You’ll see him again before you know it.”

She gave me a small smile and pulled me into a tight hug.

“You’re awesome, you know that?”

I brushed my shoulder and cocked my head to the side.

“So I’ve been told.”

She stuck her tongue out at me.

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

I grinned at her. I noticed that there was something else in her eyes. While she may have smiled and laughed, I could sense that something else was bothering her.

“Okay, spill it. What else is bugging you?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know. I just can’t help but think that without you there, I won’t be able to see Kris. The only times I’ve seen him, I had you there with me. Obviously, Kris and I have had our alone time, but you know what I mean. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to come out to Toronto, or go to Pittsburgh without you.”

I looked at her with a sympathetic smile.

“You’ll be able to do it. You’ll do anything to see Kris again. Whether or not you know that right now, is irrelevant. I know it and I can see it in how you act around him. I would do the same to see Sid. I mean, hey, we could’ve stayed home this week and lounged around our houses doing nothing, but instead we came here and surprised our boys and had one of the best weeks of our lives. More than just seeing our boyfriends, we got to experience this together. As fun and awesome as it would be to always be able to do these things together, we both know there’s going to be times where we can’t do that. Sid and Kris may have the same schedule during the season, but summer is a whole different ball-game. I’ll probably go down East again, and you’ll more than likely go to Quebec, Land of the French people.”

We both let out a soft chuckle. Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow at me, which caused me to send her a look of confusion. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. We shared a grin as she picked up her phone.

“Hello,” she stood up and walked back into the bathroom, which only confirmed that she was talking to Kris.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sid’s POV

I was sitting on the plane. I was shocked that we had gotten the “okay” to talk on our phones on the flight. Normally, we were only allowed to text or use the Wi-Fi, but apparently, it was now okay, as Coach had told us just before we took off.

Out of habit, I had texted Steph to let her know that we were about to take off and that I already missed her like crazy. Kris was sitting across the aisle from me. I could sense a look of sadness on his face. I leaned over and asked Brooks, who was sitting beside him, to switch me seats. Normally, I stay beside Flower, but I didn’t want to have this conversation leaning across the aisle and having Kris lean in front of Brooks just to respond. Thankfully, the tall defenseman agreed and I sat down beside Kris. I lightly nudged him as his gaze was stuck on the floor in front of him.

“You okay, dude?”

He slowly nodded his head.

“Yea, I’ll be okay.”

I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder.

“Call her.”

He looked up at me with his eyebrow raised.

“Dude, you look exactly how I felt the first time I left Steph. Go, call Kaitlyn.”

He gave me a small smile and stood up from his seat. He made his way through the plane. I came to the conclusion he was probably going to the bathroom to have some privacy. I leaned back in my chair and pulled out my phone. I only heard three rings, which followed by the voice I had missed so much, even though it had only been just over an hour since I saw her.

“Why, hello Captain. What can I do for you?”

I heard a slight chuckle in her voice. I smiled as I answered.

“Hey, how’s Kaitlyn doing?”

She chuckled once more.

“So, you phone your girlfriend, who you don’t know when you’ll see again, to ask her about another girl? Smooth, Crosby, real smooth.”

I lightly chuckled.

“You know what I mean. I just told Kris to call her, he’s feeling really down. I’ve been there.”

“Oh, you have, have you? Enlighten me, because from what I remember, you were always happy to get on that plane and away from me.”

I feigned shock.

“You caught on to that? I thought I hid it so well with the goodbyes and all.”

I could hear the smile in her voice as she responded.

“Well, maybe next time you should try and hide it a little bit better.”

I smirked as I tried to find words for a comeback.

“Well, do you have any suggestions for me?”

“I’m pretty sure you can figure that out on your own. You definitely don’t need any of my help there.”

I was about to comeback with something but Kris sat back down. I looked over at him and nodded.

“Well, Kris just got back, we’re going to play some video games. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay, have fun. Call me when you land in the ‘Burgh. Love you.”

“I will. Love you, too.”

I hung up the phone and I looked over at Kris.

“Feel better?”

He looked over at me with a small smile.

“Yeah, I’m hoping we won’t have to wait long to see them again.”

I sighed and closed my eyes as I leaned my head back.

‘Yeah, I hope so too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steph’s POV…

Kaitlyn came back from the bathroom and sat down beside me just as I hung up from Sid.

“So, how’s Kris?”

She smiled at me.

“How’d you know?”

I raised my eyebrow and shook my phone in my hand.

“Sid says you’re welcome.”

She smirked at me and looked over the menu for room service.

“So, did you wanna stay in or go out to eat?”

I shrugged my shoulders and leaned over to take a closer look at the menu.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m kinda tired, plus if we eat in here, we could pack while eat. That way we won’t have to rush back from a restaurant.”

Kaitly nodded.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. So, what shall we eat?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We ate our feast of “breakfast for dinner.” I had French toast with a side of bacon, and Kaitlyn had bacon, egg and cheese on an English Muffin. After we finished eating, we packed up our bags. We didn’t want to hurry up and leave, and since we didn’t have to check out until the next morning, we decided to watch tv and relax. I was trying to decide what to watch, when Kaitlyn grabbed the remote.

She looked at me with a questioning look.

“So, Rebecca, huh?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“Yeah. God, I hate her so much. She could’ve cost me my relationship with Sid.”

Kaitlyn’s eyes widened.

“Seriously? What in the Sam hell did she do?”

I ran my hand through my hair.

“Well, she played her game really well, I must say. I just wasn’t expecting Sid to believe it. Before Sid walked up to where we were standing, I told her that you and I were just out with friends. I didn’t say that because I was ashamed to be with Sid, you know I’m not. I love him, but she had to hash my words back up in front of Sid. She told him that she was one of my best friends and that I never told her that I was friends with a hockey superstar.”

Kaitlyn’s jaw dropped.

“That bitch! Why the hell would she do that?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t know, but it shook Sid up to the point where he questioned our entire relationship. I was so scared that that bitch ended it all for us.”

Kaitlyn sighed.

“Well thankfully she didn’t.”

I smiled and leaned back against the headboard.

“No, she didn’t.” Just then, a thought popped into my head. “Hey, did Kris give you any date as to when you’d see him again?”

She shook her head, sadly.

“No, he didn’t. Did Sid say anything to you?”

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders.

“Nope, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sid’s POV

The flight back to Pittsburgh was shorter than I expected, but that’s probably due to me falling asleep after one round of Call of Duty. Leaving the plane, I fell into step with Kris.

“You need a lift home?”

He nodded, sleep obviously alluding him as well. I put my hand on his shoulder and proceeded to walk to the car that was waiting for me. I asked the driver if we could make an extra stop before taking me home. He had no problem with it and Kris and I piled into the car. Once we were buckled in, he turned to me.

“So, what’s the plan with Steph?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Not sure, what about you and Kaitlyn?”

He shrugged his shoulders and looked out the window.

“I’m thinking of inviting her here for the Christmas party, but I don’t know.”

My eyes widened as my head snapped towards my French friend.

“I’ve got an idea.”