Chapter Nine

“What the hell is she doing?!” Leah screeched. Morgan and Riley were just standing there with their mouth gaping open. Megan, on the other hand was practically on the floor laughing. By this point, Sidney and I had broken apart, and he was laughing too. “You didn’t tell them?” he smiled. “No, she didn’t,” Riley said, fake-glaring at me. “Don’t you think this might have been…I don’t know, something worth mentioning?” she cocked her head to the side. I laughed, “Well now you know, right? No big deal.” “Oh, right, no big deal. No big deal that you were just making out with quite possibly the best and most famous hockey player of our time?” she snapped. “You mean Sid?” I asked, smiling. “Mmmhm,” she said in a pretty ghetto way. “Megan, can you believe this?” Leah asked, her mouth still slightly open. Megan looked up from the chair she was sitting in. “Oh, nah she told me like two years ago,” she shrugged. Riley slapped her forehead. “For God’s sake…how long has this been going on?” Sid and I looked at each other and shrugged, “About…8, 9 years, would you say?” he asked, nonchalantly. “Sounds about right to me,” I nodded. We looked back at Riley in unison. “Sidney fucking Crosby…” she trailed off. “My middle name is actually Patrick. Close though. Anyway, you guys know Marc-Andre Fleury? He’s having a party tonight if you guys are interesting in coming. I’m warning you, though, avoid being alone with Max Talbot. The guy is dangerous,” Sidney said. “I guess I can flip out on you later,” Riley said to me, as we made our way to Sidney’s car.

When we got there, it was already packed. Fleury’s house was colossal, complete with a full-sized ice rink in the backyard. He was there to greet us when we walked in, man-hugging Sidney, then looking down at our interlocked hands said, “You must be Haley,” with that electric smile of his. “Yep, and you are…?” I asked jokingly. He looked at Sid confused. “She’s kidding, Flower,” Sid said and dragged me through the crowd of people. I looked back at my friends, and they were all showing some sort of sign of approval, so I went with him. “Hey, you’re hot!” I heard a husky, French voice say. “Thanks Max, not too bad yourself,” I laughed. “Oh…you’re Haley,” he said, sounding disappointed. “Yeah, I am. Is that a problem?” I asked, smiling. “Actually, yeah. But I’ll get over it. Did you bring any hot friends?” he asked. “Yeah, but the blonde one is taken so don’t try to hard with her, she’ll get mad,” I answered. “DAMN. I mean, I’m not jealous…” and then he walked away. I met a few other guys, like Jordan Staal, Kris Letang, Tyler Kennedy, and Evgeni Malkin. After a few hours, I noticed Sidney was getting kind of nervous, he was running his fingers through his hair a lot and fidgeting more than usual. “What’s wrong?” I asked, burying my face in his shoulder. He took a deep breath, “Noth-” “Don’t say nothing. I know you too well,” I interrupted. “I’m just…nervous, I guess,” he answered. “About what?” I asked. “Well…I mean, you’re in Pittsburgh. I’m in Pittsburgh. Our parents are not even in the same country as us, I have a house…do you know where this is going…?” he said slowly. “Aw, big bad hockey star is afwaid of a girl,” I cooed, running my fingers through his hair. He didn’t even smile, “No, not afraid. I just promised you it would be special and I don’t know if I can live up to any expectations this…girl…may have,” he said, turning a little bit red. “Sid,” I said harshly, “as long as you weren’t lying about not being with any other girls, I have just as little experience as you. Don’t worry about it, I don’t have any expectations because I’ve never done it before.” This made him smile a little bit, “Let’s get out of here.”