Say That You Love Me

"How does one forget a fucking bracelet?" I cursed, walking down the winding halls of the Consol Energy Centre, where the Pens played their home games.
My gladiators clicked against the linoleum when I came speeding around a hall.

Sid had asked me, since I had to go back to change when I realized wearing shorts to a game was stupid, to get his bracelet. It was lucky.
I had to search for it, but it was clutched in my grip and I had less than five minutes to get to the locker room before warm-ups started.

I suddenly hit something in the floor and fell into the lap of the person sitting outside a locker room with headphones in. He startled and pushed me to the ground.

I cursed viciously when my ribs smacked hard against the tough linoleum. "Watch where you're fucking going!" He cursed at me, fixing his shirt and checking his iPod. I glanced over my shoulder at him, he was a cutie, curly red hair, a tooth missing in his top row and scruffy orange facial hair. "What I meant by that was... Hi,"

"I'm sure you did," I climbed to my feet and grabbed Sid's bracelet off the ground. Sid had huge wrists, like four times the size of mine so if I were to wear this, it would be like a necklace on my wrist.

"Hey!" He startled me when he got up on his feet. "I said I was sorry,"

I rolled my eyes. "No you didn't,"

"And you didn't apologize either for stomping my foot like that!"

"For christ sakes, I'm 115lbs, what damage could I possibly fucking do to you?" I threw in his face. "Whatever, goodbye," I turned to walk away from him. God, the faster I get away from him, the better.

"Stupid, sophisticated bitch," The boy thought he mumbled that under his breath. But we were in a hall, a silent hall. You could hear a pin drop in here.

"I heard that," I called back to him, not bothering to turn around. I didn't even want to see his face again.

"Good," He yelled after me.

"Asshole," I whispered, turning the corner and running into the chest of Kristopher Letang, obviously eavesdropping. He had tape on one hand and his stick in the other.

"Emily, I wouldn't do that if I were you,"

"If I were you, I wouldn't do a lot of things like go out in public," I laughed, patting Tangers chest. He remained stone-faced.

I went to walk down the hall towards the Pens locker room, when he stuck his stick out and stopped me from going any further.

"I'm just looking out for you," He lowered his stick, but not all the way. "You really don't need to be talking to that guy! Honestly, if Sid sees that, he'll flip his shit and Claude will go down!"

"It wasn't my fault, I tripped over his feet and he pushed me off his lap where I fell," I defended myself. "Believe me, you couldn't fucking pay me to talk to him," I handed Tanger, Sid's bracelet.

"Can you give this to Sid? And please... don't mention anything about this. It's fine, it's done, okay,"

"Whatever," Tang turned and walked off down the hall. I didn't know what he felt so righteous about, but I wasn't going to spend all fucking day trying to figure it out.

I hurried back through the halls, to the stands where I quickly located Gemma and ran through the seats to get to her.

Nobody minded me climbing over their seats and squeezing infront of them. I was shocked, I tried that in the one game and this guy threw his beer on me.

Once I was seated, the warm-ups had already started. "Where have you been?" Gemma asked after I stole some of my water out of the bottle to cool down. All that running and climbling made me sweat like a stuffed pig.

"Ran into this fucking guy in the hallway," I rolled my eyes, turning my attention up at the guy in the Flyers jersey staring down at me.

He was oddly swinging his stick around, but his eyes were focused on me. I waved him off and quickly found Sid at his bench, stretching his legs out.

I felt like everything between Sid and I was... different now. We barely talked this morning and I was already feeling bad about not being able to say 'Iloveyou' back to him, and even though he said 'no pressure' I still felt pressure at a time like this.

I didn't know if I loved him and what scared me the most about this, was Sidney loved me... he told me... he explained it to me. He really loved me.

And here I was, still unsure. I couldn’t figure it out. I mean, he meant everything to me and I loved spending time with him and he makes me happy, but was it love?

“You okay?” Gemma asked, nudging my shoulder lightly. I looked up from my lap where I was playing nervously with a hair tie on my wrist.

“Yeah, I’m fine, didn’t get much sleep last night,”

“No need to explain,” She held her hand up, obviously assuming Sid and I were having sex to much last night to sleep. Complete opposite.

I sat outside on his porch while he played his Xbox in the den, until bed time and we just climbed in bed and went to sleep. I just wasn’t in the mood and I had a feeling he knew.

He had apologized on the way home, for saying that he loved me, because he knew I wasn’t ready to hear it. I wasn’t expecting it from him, especially now.

“No Gem, it’s not that,” I rubbed my eyes tiredly. I spent most of last night while Sid was snoring in my ear, trying to figure everything out. I was pregnant, he didn’t want a kid now, he made it clear, so I was leaving him. But now he loves me, which I feels complicates matters.

“Well what is it?” She patted my back. “I mean, are you and Sid fighting?”

“Kind of…” I sighed, not really sure what to tell Gemma. She’s been dating Flower since they were fifteen, they were love and they both knew it. “It’s not really important,” I immediately just brushed it off, not wanting to bring Gemma into this. She’d want to talk to Sid and I’d rather not involve her.

“Come on,” Gemma grabbed my wrist after the horn sounded, saying the first period was over. “Let’s go see the boys,” I grabbed my jacket and followed her to the locker room.

The smell of sweaty hockey equipment entered my nostrils when we pushed open the door. “Cover what you don’t want seen,” Gemma called over the hooting and hollaring.

We circled the pillar and dispersed through the room. Sid was standing at his locker with his back to me, looking through his hockey bag. Gemma walked up to Fleury and crashed in his lap.

I noticed Jordan and TK were sitting around a basket of flowers, a wine bottle and perfume. "Oooh, who's the lucky boy?" I cooed, dropping down beside Jordan on the bench. TK and Jordan looked over at me and then back at the basket. "What?" I leaned over and smelled the flowers. They were orange carnations mixed with yellow and white. I knew for a fact that orange carnations were a pretty penny.

"They are for you," TK giggled. "Some guy dropped them off a few minutes ago claiming they were for a pretty blonde in the Penguins VIP," Awh Sidney. Tanger was giving me a look, obviously trying to tell me something.

I grabbed the card out of the holder on the wrapper and ran over to Sid, who was sitting in his cubby. I jumped into his lap and gave him a kiss.

"Ohmygod, you are so sweet, thankyou," I giggled, as he smiled and wrapped his arms around me. I couldn't believe he just gave me flowers. Sweetest thing ever.

"What the hell? I didn't send these. Why would I send you flowers?" Sid laughed, looking at the basket. I had a poker face. Why wouldn't he? "Wait, if I didn't do it, who is sending you flowers?" He quickly swiped the card out of my hand and looked at it. My eyes fell to the writing on the card.

- Sorry... <3 C

"C?" Sid arched an eyebrow, passing back the card. "I guess you really charmed someone,"

What? I expected him to flip his shit when there could be someone else wooing me. "You don't care some other guy is sending me flowers?"

"Not really," He smiled, kissing my cheek. I laid my head on his chest and got comfortable while the guys were deciphering if the guy who sent me the flowers was gay, because of the flower arrangement and the wine.

Apparently it was expensive French wine and French men are gay. Whatever. Tanger and Fleury didn't take to kindly to that. TK told them to relax because they were French-Canadian, it's not real French. TK was digging himself a grave.

- - - -
"Skiing?" Sid asked me, this goofy look plastered on his face. I shrugged. "I don't skii. And anyway, they've been dating like two weeks, I mean, honestly, are they still going to be dating at Christmas?" He sipped his iced tea out of the tall glass. I had one the same as his.

We both decided when the guys went out after the game, we'd be non-alcoholic. We were at Stripes, a bar in downtown Pittsburgh, sitting on stools on the far side of the bar. Most of the team were drinking beers, chatting up girls and dancing. "We'll need a plan to fall back on,"

"True," I giggled, resting my head on his arm. "We could always go see your parents or something, maybe visit Taylor, go see my brother or sister?"

"Or, we could ditch all of that and go to LA," Sid waggled his eyebrows. "Get nice tans and drink on the beach, it'll be fun,"

"Fi-" I got cut off when the guy from the hall popped up beside me. I was not sure why he was here. "Hi," I smiled, not lifting my head off Sid to acknowledge him.

"Hey, did you get the flowers I sent for you?" He asked, leaning on the bar, a weird smile on his lips. Who was this? "I've been wondering all night if you got them."

"Woah!" My head hit the bar as Sid was off his stool and came up to the boy. "You're the one sending my girl flowers?"

"What's the matter Cindy, you jealous?" He laughed in Sid's face. I was shocked when Sid joined in on the laughter and picked the boy up by the scruff of his tshirt.

"You really wanna do this, Claudia?" Sid glared viciously at this boy. I leapt off the stool and joined the forming crowd around them. TK and Jordan were amongst those in the crowd. "I'm telling you now, you come near my girlfriend again, and I will fucking destroy you, am I making myself clear?" The boy didn't get a chance to answer when Sid flung him into the crowd.

I dropped my jaw when I heard a 'thump' sound and the boy hit the ground. I couldn't tell if he was KO'd or in just so much pain that he couldn't move.

Sid turned back to face me, with my hands over my mouth. I couldn't even believe he just did that. Over nothing. A harmless basket of flowers. The crowd slowly dispersed when Sid reclaimed his stool. I didn't move back, I just was frozen on the spot. "You can come back over here, you know," He patted my stool.

How was he acting like that didn't just happen? He could've killed him.

I was absolutely furious. "Why do you have to be such a jerk?" I stood beside the bar. I wasn't understanding Sid's attitude right now at all. In the year we've been dating, has he ever, ever acted like that. Was he showing his true colours?

"Excuse me?" He laughed. "What did you expect? He was obviously hitting on you, he's a parasite and obviously wants in your pants,"

"He was just talking to me!" I shouted back. "You know, it's pretty sad when a random guy can send me flowers and my own boyfriend can't be bothered," I've got flowers once from Sid, for Valentine's Day, once.

"Don't start that," Sid growled. "Emily, if you lived closer-" I cut him off when I stuck my hand up and walked away. He shouted my name behind me.

I felt my bottom lip trembling and tears were on my cheeks by the time I got outside. I didn't know what I was going to do, and I knew I should just leave and go back to Buffalo. The faster I get back there, the better off I'll be. Maybe this was just fate telling me we aren't compatible. He may love me, but this sure wasn't showing me.

I turned the corner of the bar and headed out to Sid's Rover, to get my phone and call for a taxi to get back to Sid's.

I would leave tonight and hopefully before he got back home, I wanted this whole thing to be as less awkward as possible.

I got to his Rover and pulled open the passenger side door, as I swiped my hobo bag off the floor and grabbed my phone out of the console.

I pulled up the top to my strapless white tube top under my blue cardigan and looked at TK, standing by his car. "Hey Em," He smiled, just opening his door. "Where yah going?" Wasn't he just inside? I swear I just walked past by him, chatting to a pretty blonde. I shut the door and walked over towards him.

"Can you bring me back to Sid's?" I asked, knowing full well he lived in Sewickley too. Geno, Jordan and Tanger lived all over Sewickley. Fleury was the only one who didn't and him and Gemma lived in Franklin Park, Pennsylvania, about 40 minutes from Sewickley, on the other side of Pittsburgh.

It was an adorable little town, and Gemma absolutely loved living there.

"Sure," He laughed, unlocking the passenger side door. I was clutching my bag and climbed in beside him. He turned the key and SOAD came blaring out of the stereo, he quickly turned it down and steered out of the parking lot. "So, why are you leaving without Sid? I seen the whole deal with Giroux, did something happen?" He asked, as we stopped at the first set of lights. It was a 20 minute drive to Sewickley and Sid made it every day, driving back and forth to practice, and games.

"He's just being a jerk," I whispered. TK looked over at me briefly putting his hand over mine. "I couldn't believe he did that, I mean, all he did was talk to me," I felt more tears stain my cheeks. "He shouldn't have reacted like that and the fact he threw him was a little intense," Even though, I seen it with my own blue eyes, I still couldn't believe it.

"Giroux was okay, he got off the ground and resumed talking to this other girl," He laughed. "But yeah, I agree, I've never seen Sid act like that, ever,"

"And shit, Ty, you've known him longer than I have," I sighed. "I may be overreacting, but maybe this is the real Sid showing his true colours,"

"Who knows," He steered out of Pitts and into the country area. We were almost at Sewickley. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I don't wanna break up, but what if he acts like that with me next?" I was stunned at my own words. He has never raised his voice to me, let alone smack me around. "It kinda scared me,"

"Believe me, he does and Geno and I will put him in his place," TK grumbled. "Don't worry Em, we got your back," I felt relaxed with that. If Sid and I did... break up? Could TK and Geno and I still be friends?