I exhaled a labored breath and rested my head on Joey V’s shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked, pressing a gentle kiss to my neck.

“Yeah,” I said lifting my head and stepping away from him. “I’m sorry.” I mumbled, throwing on my bra and t-shirt.

“Sid?” I called as I entered the quiet, morning hallway.

Nothing.

I started to walk towards his room when I heard footsteps around the corner. I jogged to the end of the hall and turned.

“Sid?” I called again. I heard the stairwell door shut. I pulled the door open and saw the back of his head on the landing below me.

“Sid, stop!” I yelled bounding down the stairs.

The stairwell was hot and piercing with humidity. I didn’t realize I hadn’t been wearing shoes until the uncomfortably hot concrete steps burned my feet.

“Why, so you can explain to me how you DIDN’T have Vitale’s cock halfway in you.” He turned on a dime. I had to hold the railing to keep from running into him.

“Sid, we’re not together…” I trailed off, giving him a pathetic excuse.


“Oh yeah, you’re right. Because I didn’t sleep in your bed last night or get breakfast this morning. We’re just friends. Just tell me one thing, have you been fucking him this whole time?”

“No! It started…yesterday. It’s not…It’s not anything. “ I said pleading with my tears to stay in their ducts.

“Neither are we.” He said, before continuing to walk down.

“Sid, please…”

“What? What do you want from me?” he said, still descending.

“I want you to know that—“

“What?” he asked stopping.

“It’s not that I don’t care about you.”

“Yeah, you care about me so much that you hook up with our teammates, but you can’t be seen dating me.” he said, sarcasm splitting my heart.
I then realized how much of a piece of shit I was. I dated James, he was absolutely terrible to me in the end. Then I find Sid, the most perfect guy in the world and break up with him because I was scared of what other people would think. Then I screw around with Joey V for no real reason.

“Sid.” I said grabbing his hand, surpringly he didn’t pull away.

“I’m so sorry. I know what my problem is. I’m a coward when it comes to stuff like this.”

“You don’t get to use that excuse anymore.” He said softly.

“I can’t explain it anymore than that.” I begged, moving closer to him. I studied his face and saw a glimpse of forgiveness, but it soon faded.

“I never asked for an explanation. I don’t care.” he said ripping away from me and bursting into the lobby.

“There you are!” Sidney’s mother called, wrapping her arms around her son. His mother, father, and sister stood in the lobby waiting to see him on the off day.

“Oh this must me Mel! The girl you’re always talking about.” She said approaching me. I felt my palms get clammy as she wrapped her arms around me. This was the absolute worst time to meet his family. I cleared my throat and I put on a fake smile and hugged her back.

“It’s so nice to meet you Mrs. Crosby.” I said fixing my hair a bit.

“Oh, please, call me Trina. This is Troy and Taylor.” She said introducing me. I could feel Sid’s eyes hot on me from a few feet away.

“Will you be having lunch with us?” Troy asked smiling.

“Oh, I don’t think so. I’m not dressed—“

“Go get dressed! We wanna get to know you. By the way, you’re slapshot is perfect!” Taylor said enthusiastically.

“Thank you so much!” I smiled.

“Go change honey,” His mom encouraged.

I turned and had the elevator take me back up to my floor. I texted Sid when I got back into my room.

Is this okay with you?

Yeah, just pretend everything’s okay.

You owe me.

Fuck you.

I rolled my eyes and put on a pair of jeans and a pink floral peplum tank top. I hurried down to find the Crosby’s sitting and talking.

“I’m sorry for making you wait.” I huffed.

“No problem.” Troy said, standing. We headed towards their rental car and got in. Once on our way his parents pummeled me with questions.

“So Mel, Sid tells us you’re from Texas, how did you get into hockey?” Troy asked, making conversation.

“Well a friend got me into. She dragged me to a game for her birthday and I fell in love.” I said fidgeting slightly.

“That’s great. It’s amazing how good you’ve become in just a few years. THAT’S some talent.” Taylor said smiling at me.

“I don’t know how it happened really. I just worked really hard. Let’s just say my grades during my senior year weren’t so good.” I laughed.

When we got to the restaurant his family sat in a way that forced Sid and I to sit beside each other. In an attempt to appease his family Sid had his arm around the back of my chair. My heart raced and my eyes stung because I knew it wasn’t because he wanted to be close to me.

We had small talk, they asked tons of questions in which I usually wouldn’t have minded answering, but I had already had a rough morning and I had to pretend things were perfect with Sid. We got back to the hotel and went our separate ways. They’d later head out and see a little bit of Ottawa and I just wanted to lay in bed all day. We rode up the elevator together and his family got off, leaving us to get to our floor alone.

“Sid—“

“Thanks.” He said coldly.

“Just talk to me—“

“I’d rather not.” He crossed his arms.

I was starting to get furious. I pushed the alarm button on the elevator and it stopped abruptly, making a loud ringing sound. I’d seen it in a movie that if you pushed it, the elevator would stop and you could push it again and it would go back to working.

“What the hell?” he screamed, jumping as the elevator screeched.

“Talk to me!” I yelled pushing him against the wall.

“What do you want me to say?!” he yelled back, his eyes welling up with tears.

“I don’t know. We just need to talk about this.”

“No we don’t. We’re not together. That’s what you keep saying.”

“But Sid, I don’t want what I did to hurt you.” I said hugging him.

“Too late.” He whispered with his arms at his sides.

“I’m so sorry.” I said without letting him go.

“Why. We weren’t together.” He said. I released him and glared at him for a moment.

“Fine if that’s how you want to be, forget it.” I said pushing the button again, but instead of restarting the elevator did nothing. I pushed it again and still nothing. I pushed our floor number and it didn’t move.

“Shit.” I said under my breath.

“What, is it not working?” he asked coming over.

“Um…no.” I said frantically pushing buttons. He softly shoved me out of the way and pushed the phone button.

He explained that our elevator car was stuck and they said they’d be there as soon as possible.

I sat on the floor annoyed and pulled my legs to my chest. Sid sat next to me with a look of pure fury. Instead of just releasing his anger her said nothing and just seethed beside me.

After almost 2 hours of waiting Sidney softened.

“I still love you.” He said.