Chapter 6 :Game Face

This time Karrington watched the game with the rest of the girlfriends. It had been three days since our reconciliation and I had been to happy to pretend that we weren’t together. She was squeezed protectively in between Oksana and Vero; I knew that the two of them felt like she needed protection from some of the other girls. Although no one could hate Vero, Oksana had (and still had) a much harder time whenever she was visiting Geno. She alone truly appreciated the exclusiveness of the other girls’ ‘club’, and I was happy that she would be here for another few weeks, to help Karri get us to how down-right-awful some of them were.

The first thing I had done after Karrington and I had worked things out; was head over to Marc’s house. I had apologised numerous times but Vero and Flower had simply laughed it off, deciding that as long as it had worked out for Karri and I, they wouldn’t give it a second thought.
Mom and dad were a lot less forgiving. Mom felt the need to lecture me on how to treat a lady, and dad had exploded at how immature it was to take off without telling anyone where I was going. “You’ve got responsibilities Sidney! You can’t just run off! Do you have any idea what would have happened to this team if you went missing?! … You’re lucky Mario doesn’t bench you!”
Lucky for me, the last thing Mario wanted to do was take me off the ice. The team was playing great and I knew tonight would be no different; not with how badly I wanted to win my first NHL game in front of my girlfriend. It was such an amazing thing to experience, going through it all for the first time again with her. First time I arrived at the game, with my girlfriend; first time I got wished ’good luck’, by my girlfriend. I was desperately hoping that I could also add; first time I won a game; for my girlfriend, to that list as well.

I tired to focus on the warm up but it was impossible. The guys had taken to calling me ’lover boy’ and were giving me a hard time about looking over behind our net. Everytime I turned around and saw her smiling, I couldn’t help but smile… even if her smile wasn’t directed at me. Of course Talbot was the only one who seemed angry about the news. “Stop smiling like that kid… you look like an idiot.”

“Jealous Talbot?”

“Please, who wants a girlfriend anyway…”

I couldn’t decide if Max was jealous over the fact that I had Karrington or if he was angry that he was now the lone ’single guy’ on the team. Of course Max had his girls… but that’s all they were… just girls.


“Seriously Flower, I’m sorry!”

“I know Sid! Now for the hundredth time… shut up!”
I was following Marc around the dressing room, trying to apologise again. Marc had been my very best friend since I came to Pittsburgh and I couldn’t get past the nagging guilt I felt every time I thought about how I had snapped at Vero and him. “Could you at least get mad at me instead of being so darn nice about it?!”

“If I get mad at you will you drop it?”

“Maybe…”

“Ugh! Fine… Sidney, what you did was wrong. You had no right to yell at Karrington like that and you had no reason to disrespect Vero and I when all we were doing was trying to help. Now, let me get focused.” He shooed me away with his blocker before walking over to meet Talbot; they always got hyped up for the game together.


We won the game against the Flames 4-1; Geno had a hat trick and I ended up with 1 goal of my own and 1 assist.
I was happy for Geno, and I was also happy that the press would want to talk to him after the game now too; I might be able to get out of here a little early. Geno was thinking along the same lines. “I must be nicest guy ever! I get hat trick just so you can spend more time with girlfriend… now you owe me!”
I chuckled as I headed into the showers.

As captain I still had about 30 minutes of questions to answer after I was dressed, but as Geno and I both predicted, he was the main focus of the media frenzy tonight. I gave him a smile as I left the dressing room, he laughed and pointed at me on the way out; a reminder that I now ’owed him’, apparently.

When I got into the lounge, all the girlfriends and families who had come down for the game were waiting. I spotted Karri hanging out in the corner with Vero, Sana, Taylor and my parents. I walked over and pulled her into a hug, giving her a quick kiss before turning to take the game over with my dad.

“You need to make sure you’re pulling your elbow out when the defence goes in, they’re holding your stick on the rebound.” I nodded and continued to stare at the game tapes I was watching with dad, Mario and a few of the guys. I tried to focus as best as I could but I kept hearing Karrington’s laughter, and I knew that the attempts my father was making to help my game were futile.
I wanted nothing better than to go home with my girlfriend after the game, just like in the old days.

“I’m kind of tired, I think I’m gonna head home dad, I’ll see you there.”

My dad nodded at me and turned back to the TV, “I’ll bring a copy of the game home with me.”


Karrington and I made our way down the deserted hallways towards the back parking lot, where all the players cars were parked. Even though we used this parking lot in an attempt to avoid the large crowds and reporters, there was always a small number of people that managed to squeeze their way through the security.
Tonight was no exception. There were about thirty-odd fans of all ages standing by the back doors when we got outside. I pulled Karrington close to me as I felt her stiffen up.
“SIDNEY!! I LOVE YOU!!” “CROSBY, CAN I GET YOUR AUTOGRAPH?!”

I let out a sigh as people started screaming. “Do you mind?”

“No, should I wait in the car?” I looked over to where the car was parked, the other side of the parking lot.

“How about you just stay with me? I don’t want you going that far alone.” She nodded and followed behind me as I made my way over towards the people milling around.

“Thanks for coming, thank you, thanks. Thank you guys…” I signed autographs as quickly as I could, trying to be polite but also trying to get this finished. I knew this came with the territory but I was exhausted after the game and was really looking forward to just going home. “Sidney, can I get a picture with you and your friend?” I looked over at Karrington and she just shrugged and moved up beside me. The girl handed her camera off to a friend and came to stand beside me. The cameras started flashing and I pulled Karri close to my side.

“Sidney. Sidney! Is that your girlfriend?” I heard a voice I recognized. Ugh! Please, please not tonight! “Sidney! Who is she?”

Angela Thomas, the most annoying, awful, rude reporter I had ever had to deal with was pushing her way through a group of teenaged girls to get as close to me as possible. I thanked the girl for her support and took a step back from the crowd. “Thanks guys, I have to go but, we look forward to a great season and I hope to see you all out there!”

Security was moving in now and I looked at Karrington, “Get to the car now, go fast, please.” Thomas was on me now snapping pictures with one hand as she shoved a recorder in my face.

“Has the golden boy finally found love? Who is she? Where did she come from? Is it serious? How do you know she’s not using you for money?” I tried to push my way past her as she continued to hound me. “How do you parents feel about it? Do your team-mates approve? Are you sleeping with her?”

“What kind of question is that?“ I stopped walking and turned to her, I could feel my face burning. “Leave me alone! I don’t want to talk to you.” I started walking again and finally managed to lose her as I arrived at my car. I pulled open my door and jumped in. I slammed the keys into the ignition and peeled out of the parking lot.

“Are you ok Sid?”

“Yah.”

“You sure?”

“I said yah!” I let out a sigh and shook my head. “No, I’m sorry. I’m not alright. Her name is Angela Thomas and she’s a disaster. She’s the one that wrote those awful stories about Vero last year and she’s the one who started that hate on Oksana so… I’m not a huge fan. I was scared she was gonna start saying something to you and I didn’t want that. Sorry if I was rude.”

“It’s ok…” She smiled at me and reached over to grab my knee. “Why would someone want to do that?”

“It sells.” I said simply. “Everyone seems to hate the girls that date hockey players, I just don’t want you to have to deal with that cause of me.”

We both fell silent as we drove back to my house. We walked hand-in-hand up to my room and fell into bed exhausted. Karri rolled into me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I fell asleep to the sound of her breathing and the thoughts of what tomorrow, and tomorrows’ headlines would bring.