The drive to the rink was silent. Every now and then I would look over at Karrington and see her pointed out the window, her eyes never seeing anything we drove by. I'd known her long enough to be able to tell what kind of a mood she was in, and those instincts were telling me to keep my mouth shut now.
After the 'episode' in my bed she had curled around me, resting her head on my shoulder while I managed to sleep for an hour, believeing we had experienced some kind of break through. When I woke up she was already out of the shower and getting dressed, the invisible barrier that had kept us apart for so long; back up. I showered quickly, afraid she would be gone when I got out. But she had been sitting at the table waiting for me, and now here we were, pulling into the parking lot at the Arena.
I still had no idea what to say to my father when I saw him, but we were about to play Washington and I knew any conversation we want to have would have to wait, I needed to focus.
Karrington timidly followed me in the back doors. It took all my willpower to not reach out and take her hand as she walked half a step behind me towards the locker rooms. There was still a while before the game so I knew my parents would be still there with Mario. I prayed my father wouldn't say anything about who Karrington was to the guys, the last thing I needed was the third-degree before a game.
I stopped infront of the door and looked behind me, Karrington was gazing back at me, waiting for me to make the first move, "It's alright, they should all still be decent." She smiled at me as I pushed the door open.
When we walked in everything went quiet, all the guys now focusing their attention on Karrington. Thanks alot Dad. "Umm... this is Karrington, a... friend... from back home. Karrington, this is everyone." Random echoes of 'Hi', and 'How's it goin' filled the room as they all spoke at once. Karrington, never liking to be the centre of attention smiled back and gave a half-wave, taking a side-step to hide behind me. This caused Max to laughed as he pushed by me, extending his hand to Karrington.
"It's a pleasure to meet you ma peu de beauté!" He exclaimed taking her hand in his, "I hear this is your first NHL game, I hope you enjoy it! I am quiet a thrill to watch you know..." The room erupted into laughter and Max looked around questioningly "What, this is true!" He was unable to keep a straight face for long, I however found nothing funny about the situation.
"Sit down Max." I said hard, leaving no room for discussion. Anger was stabbing through me and I tried to control my breathing, I could feel my face heating to a deep red. The laughter died out the boys began exchanging silent smirks with one another.
"Alright Karebear, what do you say we head up with Mario... we're gonna watch the game from his box if that's ok." My Dad's voice cut through the silence, as Karrington nodded back. My dad gave my shoulder a pat as he and Mario walked by us and holding the door open. Karrington started to follow, pausing for a second at the door to look back at me. We stared at each other for an awkward second before she kept walking, the door closing quietly behind her.
As soon as it shut the room erupted once again, this time with cat-calls and whistles. "Oh come on guys, come on! We have a game..." I eventually sighed in defeat, heading over to my stall.
"So I must say that I am surprised, I thought you would have mentioned something this big to me..." Marc said quietly as I took a seat beside him. As much as I loved all the guys on the team, Flower was the only one I had ever confided in about Karrington, he knew everything.
"Yah well, I didn't really know myself until I found her in my bed a couple hours ago." I couldn't keep the smile off my face any longer, he smiled back.
"This is good, I'm happy to see you happy again. You have made up?"
"I don't know Flower, I mean, it seemed like it, it seemed like she really wanted me when she first saw me but, now it's back to the way it was... I just, I don't think I can go through losing her all over again."
"Well, she's still here, that's a start."
"Yah, it's a start..."
I sighed before beginning to undress. The way the guys were carrying on I knew it was going to be hard to focus on anything but her... and I was uncharacteristically nervous about the game. How long had it been since she'd seen me play?
"Geez Crosby! Looks like someone was happy to see you man..." Staalsy called from across the dressing room, everyone started to laugh again.
"What?" I turned around annoyed.
"Your back looks pretty bad..." Talbot answered a smug look on his face.
I turned around and walked into the bathroom, where I knew there was a mirror hanging above the sink. I turned around so that my back was to it and looked over my shoulder. There was a number of scratch marks going criss-cross over my entire back, I let out a chuckle, I didn't remember feeling this.
"Hey Crosby!" Talbot yelled, as I walked back into the locker room. "So we heard your Dad talking to Mario about her... he said this is the girl you use to date. I'm just saying to Staalsy that you were hiding her from me. You're scared she's gonna drop the zero and get with the hero!" He grinned pointing his thumbs at himself and raising his eyebrows as he said hero.
"Surely you're not referring to yourself," Mario said, as he walked back into the room "I mean, I wouldn't really consider you an upgrade." He began to laugh at the look of mock hurt that now played on Max's face. "And besides, according to Sidney's Dad he's already got this one sealed." He chuckled, giving me a smile as he passed, heading into the Medical room.
I let out a quiet groan and Marc chuckled as I sat back down beside him. "Well hey, Troy likes her... alot! And that's no small feat. You should be glad your parents love the same girl as you."
"No it's not that man, it's that she doesn't love me. I can still remember the day she told me she wouldn't come down here with me, it was the worse day of my life."
"She never actually said she didn't love you though, she just said that she needed to do her own thing. You already know what Vero has to say about this..." He said simply, as if that solved everything. You had to admire a man that never went against his better half, when Vero spoke he always listened, that was probably why they had such a good relationship.
I nodded, putting my head down and trying to get back into my routine. Allowing the banter in the locker room to drown out my thoughts as I went over the plays we had discussed at the early morning skate.
It felt great to be on the ice. It was the only place that I ever really felt whole anymore. I tried to ignore the fact that Karri was out there, tried to avoid looking for her. That lasted about 2 minutes. Before I knew it I was skating around aimlessly searching Mario's box for her familiar face. I finally found her, squeezed in between my father and the wall. He was busy talking to Mario but not busy enough that he didn't see me looking. I saw a smile cross his face and he elbowed Mario and said something. They both looked back at me and laughed, I felt my face heating up again. "Hey Sid, we practice now?" Genos' deep voice startled me and caused me to jump. I could hear Max and Jordan laughing from somewhere behind us.
"Yah Geno, sorry, let's start with shots, tell Marc to get in nets." I exhaled slowly, please, please don't let me screw this up.
We won. 5-1, I had gotten 2 goals and 2 assists. The team had played excellent together and I was ecstatic. The best of the whole game was looking up into the box everytime we scored and seeing Karri jumping up and down in her seat, clapping her hands and cheering. It brought me back to my days with Dartmouth and Rimouski when she use to cheer herself hoarse for me. It was fun to pretend that she was excited for me again, and not just excited to be watching a professional game for the first time.
The reporters were swarming on me, like usual, in the dressing room. The were hyped up about how we had 'shut Ovechkin down' and 'knocked him off a nine game scoring streak'. Normally I would be glad to talk about how great we did, but tonight, all I wanted was to get out of here as soon as possible.
After what felt like forever the room began to clear and I finished up the last of my interviews, heading quickly for the shower. By the time I came out only Geno and Marc were left. They were standing by the door talking, and waiting for me.
"Sid, we go to the Diesel. You going to come with me and Flower or you're going home?" Geno asked, leaning back against the wall, keys in hand.
"Ummm... I think I'll go out with you guys actually."
Marc and Geno both grinned, "I don't believe it! We try for whole season to get him to come and all along we just need to bring girl with us! Who knew?"
I laughed along with them as we made our way up to Mario's box. My eyes automatically looked for Karrington and I found her easily, leaning back against the wall, her arms wrapped around herself. She was looking very uncomfortable and it wasn't hard to tell why.
"...Max..." I mumbled under my breath as I made my way over to them. "Hey Karebear-- umm, Karri, some of the guys are going out to Diesel, do you wanna come or should I just take you home... to my house... not home but, to where you guys are staying..." I trailed off, seeing Max and knowing exactly what he was up to was making me flustered. I couldn't even talk right and I was feeling like an idiot. This will win her back for sure... girls love guys that can't form coherient thoughts...
"What are you doing?" She asked, catching me off guard as she stepped out from around Max to stand in front of me.
"Well, what are you doing...?" God! I'm an idiot! I sound like I'm nine again...
She laughed quietly, "I'm not really dressed for a bar but if you want me to go, I'll go. Don't go home on my account."
"Alright cool, ok if we ride with Geno and Flower?"
"Hey, hey! What about me?!" Max pouted, glaring at Geno, who was laughing deeply. "...Russian..." He complained walking past Geno and Marc, towards the parking lot.
"So, do many people go here?" Karri asked from the back-seat, between Marc and Max.
"Most of the young guys from the team. My Vero will be there too so you can meet her, Geno's girlfriend too. Sorry..." Marc answered going quiet beside her, he seemed to think he had said something wrong, bringing up the girlfriends. I was glad for the darkness, so no one could see the look of pain on my face. Karri would never fit into that category again... at least not for me.
"Sorry for what?" She pressed, she must assume they still didn't know about our past.
"I don't think she'd be mad... but... if it was me I would be embarrassed too if I use to date Crosby..."
"Oh!" She exclaimed, finally picking up on Marc's apology.
"See, you can count on me to tell you anything... I'm the only one who will tell it to you straight. Flower's too much of a gentleman," Marc nodded in agreement as Max went on, "Sidney doesn't have the balls, and the Russian kid doesn't know what's going on..."
"Hey! I know where we're going!" Geno called over his shoulder causing us all the burst out in laughter.
So my whole family loves her, and now my friends are starting to love her... I was sure things couldn't be set out better for us, but for whatever reason, I couldn't see it ever being like it was before.
We pulled into the parking lot and made our way into the club, up to our normal VIP area. I took a seat on one of the couches and Karrington sat down beside me; filling the space between Jordan and I. Marc made his way over to us with Vero on his arm, I stood up to give her a hug before introducing her to Karrington. She was unsurprised and perfectly composed when they shook hands and this lead me to believe that Flower had alraedy gotten her up to speed on everything. Jordan got up and allowed Marc and Vero to sit down, Karrington and her started chatting right away, laughing and smilling while I half-heartedly carried on a conversation across the couch at Marc.
Oksana and Geno were the next ones to hit the VIP lounge, the random girls in the area started shooting the trademark 'God I hate that Russian bitch' look that hanging out with Oksana had gotten me so accustomed to. I chuckled as she came forward to give me a hug and I accepted her congradulations before introducing her to Karrington. I left the three girls talking and Marc, Geno and I made our way over to Max and Jordan. After a few minutes of picking on Geno I turned around to see Oksana leading Karrington onto the dance floor, Vero in tow. I laughed out loud at the look on her face, Karri hated dancing more than I did.
"So, they all seem really great." Karrington said, her legs curled up underneath her as we drove out of the parking lot; Geno having just dropped us back at my car.
"Yah... Sana an Vero seem to be pretty smitten with you."
She laughed and started looking out the window, "they're not what I expected that's for sure. I'd always heard people say that Vero was really nice, but she's even nicer than I thought and well... Sana... usually..."
"Usually people go on about how awful she is." I finished for her. She nodded and sighed.
"It must be hard, having everyone hate you... it's like, it doesn't even bother her though. I remember people us to hate me when you played on Rimouski. I'd be walking with you somewhere and there'd be random people glaring at me. I wish I had of had her composure."
"Well," I began, my voice husky, "She loves Geno and he loves her. She's not going to let anyone come between that... she just knows what she wants." I finished quietly, hoping Karri couldn't hear the emotion in my voice. It caught me off guard how easily she could bring up our past like that, it looked like it didn't even effect her at all. I sighed.
We pulled into the driveway and got out of the car, walking up the front steps slowly. We stopped on the porch and stood there for a minute, looking around at everything but each other. "Well... tonight was alot of fun, thank you for taking me with you." She smiled, looking up at me.
"Anytime..." I whispered back, her face was inches from mine now, "I'm really glad you came down Karebear..."
The loud music of Hockey Night in Canada caused us both to jump as my phone went off in my pocket. We both took a step back as I pulled it out. "Hello Flower," I sighed holding it up to my ear and smiling at Karri.
"Hey! We're not interrupting are we?"
"We?"
"Yah you're on speaker, Vero is here with me."
"Hi Sidney!" She called from the other end.
"Hi Vero..." I sighed again, Kerri laughed.
"Well we just wanted to say that we really like her and we think that we should go out tomorrow night... double date eh?"
"You're speaking as a single entity now?" I chuckled, "Yah, that sounds good I'll ask her tomorrow."
"Ask her now!" Vero cried, I could hear her clapping her hands.
I sighed again, "Karrington they want to go on a double date tomorrow night... is that..."
"That'd be great!" She flashed me a grin.
"Oh... ummm she's says that sounds good... I'll talk to you tomorrow." I hung up the phone and put it back in my pocket. Before I had even pulled my hand out it was going off again.
"Hi Sana..."
"Hi Sidney! I just wanted to say that I was talking to Geno about this friend of yours, and he has told me that you were once together."
"Uh huh..." I rolled my eyes, Oksana had become like a second mother to me and often felt the need to keep women she didn't like away from me, not that there were many I made time for.
"As your adopted older sister... I feel is my duty to tell you that you'll be disowned if you screw this up again... she's a keeper!"
I laughed, "thank for the vote of confidence there Sana... I'll talk to you guys later, have a good night."
I turned my phone off before putting it into my pocket this time. We stood on the step for another minute before Karrington laughed. "I guess seeing as how we're both going inside... we could probably just... go in." I laughed with her.
"I never even thought about that... old habit I guess..."
I opened up the door for her and followed her through, we went up the stairs side by side and reached my bedroom door. The house was quiet and I knew that everyone else was already asleep. "Well, I'll grab my things and move into one of the spares... I don't want to impose on you again..."
"No really it's fine-" I was beginning to say when I heard someone getting out of bed. We both fell quiet and a minute later Taylor appeared in the hallway.
"Hey Karebear! There you are! Come sleep in here with me... I got a giant king sized bed all to myself!"
"Oh well, that's that solved then!" Karri smiled at me before entering my room. I stood in the hallway trying not to be angry with Taylor as Karri pulled her suitcase down the hall into Taylor's room.
"Night Sidney..." She called to me, stopping at the doorway to wave goodnight.
"Night Karrie..." I smiled as I went into my own room and flopped down on the bed.
She hadn't exactly come right out and turn me down that time and it was really the best I could hope for. Karrington had made it very clear that she didn't want to be with me like that... so why was I still doing this to myself?
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that chapter was really cute!I can't wait to see what happens next!! Please update soon!
ReplyDeleteupdate soon! i just found this story and it's awesome! keep it up!
ReplyDeleteGAH!! Can't they see that they both still love each other????
ReplyDeleteI loved this chapter! Keep it up!