Chapter 8: Headlines and Limlights

“Sidney no! Morning breath!” Karri giggled through her hands. She was covering her face trying to halt my early morning kiss-ambush with no avail.

“Aww come on Karebear, I don’t smell any worse than usual… stinky hockey player remember.” I chuckled pointing to myself.

“No not you, me!” She laughed back, still not moving her hands from her face.

“Babe… I have years of kissing to make up for, it’s gonna take a lot more than morning breath to stop me. She groaned and rolled out of bed, dashing off to the bathroom; I assumed she was going to brush her teeth.
I laughed when I heard the water running, confirming my suspicion. I rolled over onto my back, locking my hands behind my head and smiling in contentment.

My relaxation only lasted for a few seconds though, soon my phone was vibrating on the night table next to me. I sighed and picked it up.

“Hey Vero, what up?”

“Sidney… is Karri there?” Vero gushed quickly, before I had finished talking.

“She’s in the bathroom, I’ll go get her-”

“No! No… I wanted to talk to you…”

“Ummm ok…”

“Keep her away from the TV.”

“What?”

“Keep her away from the TV and the paper.”

“Why?”

“Sidney, please…” I exhaled, finally clueing in.

“Is this about that bitch reporter?”

“I’m sorry Sidney… it’s bad… really, really bad.”

“Okay, thanks for the heads up Vero. Are you guys going to be around today? We might head over there.”

“Yes, we’ll be here all day, come over anytime. I’m so sorry Sidney.” She hung up quickly and I set the phone down on the nightstand. A minute later Karri walked back out into the room.

“Were you just on the phone?” She asked, leaning on the door frame.

“Yah Vero called, wanna go over there later?”

“Yah sounds good! We should grab some breakfast first, I’m starved… mind if I hop in the shower?”

“No go for it babe. I’ll be here when you get out.”

I watched her disappear into the bathroom, a minute later I heard the shower turn on. I sighed to myself as I continued to stare at the ceiling; as much as I hated to admit it, Vero had peeked my curiosity.

I threw the covers off of myself and headed down the hallway towards my ‘office’. I wasn’t sure why I was putting myself through this but I figured I might as well see what was being said now.
It wasn’t hard to find the article that Vero had been referring to, it was everywhere I looked. I put my face in my hands, not even bothering to finish reading it.

I closed the internet windows and cleared the history before heading back down to my room. I paused once I got back in there, listening to the sounds of the shower. I looked around my room at Karri’s things spread out everywhere. She came down here to see me, she stayed because of me and now she was going to have to suffer through all this crap, because of me. I was sure I wasn’t worth this.

I felt like crap, not the best way to start the day. I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, and quietly pushed the door open to the bathroom. I could hear Karri humming softly and the guilt washed over me. How could I be selfish enough to put her through this? Besides the fact that I had never really gotten over Karri after we broke up, I had always worried about trying to find a girlfriend in general. The press in Pittsburgh and the hockey world overall was hard on me sometimes; but that came with the territory. It didn’t feel fair to put someone else through this, and worse, just because I wanted to have a relationship. Yet here I was, allowing the girl that I loved to become exposed to the worse parts of fame; without offering her anything in return.
I pulled my boxer down to the floor, stepping out of them as I pulled open the shower curtain causing Karri to suppress a scream.

“Jesus Sid! You scared the crap out of me!”

“Room for one more?” I asked mischievously, a smile spreading over my face.

“I don’t know… my boyfriend’s suppose to be home soon…” She shrugged nonchalantly.

“That’s alright, I’m sure I can take him…” She giggled and made room for me. I stepped under the hot water and pulled her tight against me. My thoughts were racing in what felt like a thousand different directions, I knew I needed Karrington to help calm me down. I might as well continue being selfish, I thought as I brought my lips down to meet hers. I knew without a question that Karri was worth more to me than anything they could ever throw at us; if only I could be sure she felt the same way.



“Soooooo far! Why did we have to walk?”

“Sidney! It’s like four blocks away! Besides, it’s too nice to drive.” Karri and I were walking hand and hand down a side street in Pittsburgh, towards Marc’s house. I had my cap pulled low over my face, and so far, it had either disguised me, or at least deterred people from approaching us.
When we reached Flower’s house, Vero and Marc were waiting for us in the living room.

“Bonjour Karri!” Marc yelled, much more exuberant than usual. I saw Vero elbow him in the ribs; obviously unimpressed with his attempt to be subtle.

“We were thinking beach day? Sound good?” Vero asked, getting up from the couch and walking towards us.

“Sure! That sounds great!” Karri said, “Oh… wait… I didn’t bring a bathing suit with me.”

“Don’t worry about it! I have lots upstairs with the tags still on them.” They both giggled as they headed up the stairs. I walked over to the couch and sat down beside Marc.

He watched over his shoulder until he was sure they were out of hearing-range; “You see it?”

“Yah.”

Marc let out a low whistle. “Vero had a fit when she saw it… flew into a rage, called the paper and everything. It’s the French in her…” He smiled fondly and I couldn’t help but laugh. “So are you alright?”

“Yah… well… as alright as I can be. I keep trying to tell myself that I’m doing the right thing, you know, having her back in my life but… it just seems so wrong.”

“Well, you love her, right?” I nodded. “And you want to be with her more than anything, right?” I nodded again. “Well, I think if you love her and you want to be with her… then you should be. Karri’s not stupid Sid, she knows that people are going to say things with her; it’s part of the territory.”

“Yah but that doesn’t make it any-”

“Any easier? No you’re right, it doesn’t. But that’s all I got for ya man…” He chuckled as he shook his head. “It goes away though, I promise. It’ll be worse for you cause you’re ’Sid the Kid’ and all that but eventually it’ll go away.”
I looked over my shoulder at the stairs, just in time to see Vero and Karri coming down the stairs.

“We’re all ready boys!” Vero called happily. Marc and I headed to the door.

“We’re taking your car man, she made me walk here!”

“Ugh! I hate walking!” Marc nodded as we proceeded out the door.

“You know,” I heard Karri say to Vero behind us, “for professional athlete’s they’re kind of lazy.”

“Oh, you don’t have to tell me!” Vero agreed.

“Hey! I might be lazy but don’t you forget who pays the bills!” Marc yelled before hopping into the driver’s seat of his SUV.




The beach was fun. It allowed me to get my mind off of everything else that was going on and just enjoy being a regular person.
We drove back to Marc and Vero’s house for supper, deciding to order Chinese. We had just finished eating when someone burst through the back door. “Vero! Vero! Did you see this? Has anyone talked to Sidney yet!? I can’t believe that dreadful woman!”
Oksana came swiftly into the living room, holding a copy of today’s paper in her hand, Geno in tow behind her. “I can’t believe they allow her to print this-” She cut off mid-sentence, her mouth forming an ’o’ as she saw Karri sitting on the couch next to me.

“What’s happened?” Karri asked looking from Oksana and back to me.

After a moment of deafening silence Karri got up and walked over to Oksana, holding out her hand for the paper. Oksana shot me an apologetic glance, “We didn’t see your car…” She placed the paper into Karri‘s hand.
She looked at the front page, her face falling, before she proceeded to flip through the whole paper. We all watched her, waiting for a break-down that never came.

“Well…” she said finally, “You have to give her credit, she is very good at what she does.”

“What?” I shouted, “Karri none of that stuff is-”

“I know Sidney! None of it’s true, but that’s what I mean… It’s kind of impressive that she can twist a few photos into this whole mess. More impressive that someone actually let her publish it.”

“What photos?” I asked, walking towards her.

“The ones from after the hockey game, and the banquet apparently.”

I grabbed the paper out of her hands and started flipping through it myself. There were several pictures of Karri; which made my blood boil. Taking pictures of me is one thing, but they have no right to take pictures of Karri.
The first picture was of Karri, I and a fan that we had posed for after the game, the next was one of me blushing as Karri walked away towards the car followed by the caption; Sidney is embarrassed by girl that followed him all the way from his hometown. “Sidney’s too nice to tell her to leave, but, we all know it’s what he wants. I feel bad for her actually, I mean, how can someone be so delusional?” An insider in the penguin family told us.

The next picture was one of Karri standing in front of Oksana, her finger in Emma’s face; The girls dating other players from the team are worried about Sidney and Evgeni. Everyone knows about Oksana’s issues with money and ’upgrading’ for a man with a bigger pay check, but no one thought Sidney would fall into that trap. “He’s so put together and intelligent. It’s just hard to see him get worked over, we had to do something. No one thought that she would get so violent.” Says our insider.

The final picture on the bottom of the page was one of Karri and Max. Max was grasping Karris’ arms, pulling her towards him. Karri had her in front of her chest, pushing Max away. Max’s lips were crushed down on top of Karri in a brute fashion. Sidney Crosby is already heading for heartbreak! His new girlfriend, who is already living with him, is keeping Max Talbot on the back burner, just in case.

I felt my face get hot as I stared at the picture of my team-mate forcing himself on my girlfriend. Karri had said that he had tried to kiss her and stopped once she pushed him away; there was no trying in this picture.
Reading my emotion Karri pulled the paper out of my hand and tossed it onto the table.

“Sidney, it doesn’t matter… don’t do anything drastic, please…”

I could hardly hear her, pure rage was taking over any other thoughts I had had. Even though I was mad at the thought of Max trying something, the knowledge that he had succeeded sent me into over-drive. Seeing it didn’t help either.
I looked up at Marc, he looked terrified. I turned to Geno. He was standing with his arms folded over his broad chest; his face tight. He nodded at me “We take my car.”

“Sidney, no! Please…” Karri grabbed my arm but I kept walking. I followed Geno out the back door and around to the garage where he had parked.
We both got into his vehicle without saying anything. We didn’t have to, we knew where we were going.

Wherever Max was.