The Diary of an Unintentional Puck Slut

Jan. 14, 2014

Dear Diary,

Sid had a few days off after returning from Canada so we spent a lot of time together when he didn’t have practice. It was nice to spend time with him, but I kept thinking about who he might have told about the miscarriage.

Tonight during dinner I finally decided to ask him. I had made him his favorite food, so he would be happy.

“Sid, I was talking to Caeleigh the other day and she said some of the wags knew about the miscarriage. Who else did you tell?” I asked, trying not to look mad.

“I talked to Duper about it. He knew something was up, and I really needed to talk to someone,” he explained, looking sad again. “I didn’t realize his wife would tell the other wags.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me?” I asked feeling a little hurt.

“Because that would make it… worse, somehow,” he said looking down.

“Why?” I moved closer, feeling concerned now.

“I wanted to ask his advice. He’s older and more experienced at life and I thought he might know what to do in that situation,” he explained.

“And what did he say?”

“Um,” he paused and looked like he was trying to decide whether he wanted to tell me or not. “He said it was very unfortunate, but there would be other chances, to, um…”

“Oh.” I said realizing what he was getting at. “And did that help you?

“I’m still working on it, but yeah, it helped,” he sighed, “I knew he would probably tell his wife, but I didn’t think she would tell all of the wags.”

“It’s okay, they’ve stopped hating me so much now that they know. Except they all feel bad for me now,” I said twisting my mouth into a frown.

“Hey, are there any strawberry cupcakes left?” he asked after a moment.

“You are going to get fat, but yes there are,” I said hitting him as I got up to get him a cupcake.

We went to bed early that night to prepare for the ‘rival’ game between the Pens and the Caps tomorrow (Pen caps, I love it!)

Sincerely,

Emme

_____________________________________________________________________________



Jan 17, 2014

Dear Diary,

After practice on Thursday Kate told me Mario wanted to talk to me in his office. I wasn’t sure what it could be about, so I apprehensively knocked on his door.

“Come in, have a seat,” he said pointing to a chair across from his desk.

I sat down and waited for him to talk.

“Emme, we are sending you to another team,” he said after a minute.

“What? You can do that?” I asked.

“Yes, ice girls can be traded, but it’s different than trading players,” Mario explained.

“Where am I going?” I asked, still confused.

“Chicago. They’re a great team, but they need a good ice girl like you. And you could be the head ice girl,” he added with a smile, but I still didn’t feel happy about it.

“But why?” Why was he doing this now, in the middle of the season?

“We can only have one two-headed monster,” he said still smiling.

“A what?”

“You and Caeleigh are like a two headed monster, like Sid and Geno,” he explained.

I’d never heard anyone call us that, but I nodded.

“And I think it would be good to get you out of Pittsburgh for a while.” He added suddenly looking more serious. “I have heard rumors, and I hope they are just rumors, that you took advantage of Beau.”

“What?” I replied, but it was kind of true.

“I haven’t told Sid about that, but I have talked to him and he thinks this would be a great opportunity for you,” Mario said. “You leave next week.”

-

I was shocked. How could they send me away like that? And who else knew about what happened between Beau and I?

I tried to call Sid, but he wasn’t answering his phone. He was at something for the upcoming Olympics, being the captain of the Canadian men’s hockey team and all, and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. I felt like Mario waited until Sid was gone to tell me so I wouldn’t get too mad at Sid.

I was mad and decided to visit Brandon, just to complain about Sid, nothing else.

When I got to Brandon’s I stormed through his front door screaming obscenities about how much I disliked Sid.

“Just because he’s Sidney Fucking Crosby does not mean he can ignore my text messages all day!” I said as I took off my hat and mittens and threw them on the floor. “And now that’s he’s Captain Fucking Canada he thinks he can deport me to Chicago!” I said as I angrily took my shoes and jacket off.

“Emme?” Brandon’s voice cut off my angry rant and I looked up to see him eating dinner with what was probably his family.

“Oh shit.” I said after a pause, and they started laughing.

I walked over the table, rather embarrassed, and Brandon introduced me to his family. They were really nice, and thought it was funny, and were not even mad that I had interrupted their dinner.

“Why don’t you join us?” His mom asked, “we just started, and you… look like you could use some company.”

I sat down next to Brandon and his sister. They were all staring at me. “Why do I keep doing this? Coming over unannounced when you have guests.”

His mom gave Brandon a look, “this happened before?”

Brandon looked at me (there were a lot of looks exchanged, except me, I was just staring at my food) “Emme came over to visit her cat when Eric Staal and Jeff Skinner were up for a game. She actually saved me from ruining dinner.”

“You can cook?” His mother asked.

“I’m okay at it, I’m more into baking,” I replied, not liking that everyone was staring at me.

“Yeah, she makes amazing pancakes,” Brandon added, and then realized what that implied.

“She’s made you breakfast?” His brother asked from the other end of the table with a smirk.

“They were, um, dinner pancakes?” Brandon explained looking embarrassed (they were not dinner pancakes).

“Well that’s nice that you found someone to look after you now that you and Marie aren’t together,” his mom said, trying not to show that she was upset about that.

It was quiet for a moment until his mom decided to keep talking about Marie. “Why did you have to break up with that nice girl? You’d been together for so long.”

“Um, because she cheated on him?” I said, and then suddenly realized they didn’t already know that.

“She cheated on you?” His mom asked.

“Um, it was kind of complicated,” Brandon said as he kicked my foot under the table.

“Yeah, she had been for a while. They’re engaged now.” His sister explained.

“Oh, Brandon I’m so sorry,” his mom said, looking a little surprised. “I can’t believe she would get engaged so soon after you broke up with her. That explains why she left Alberta so fast.”

There was another pause.

“So, Emme, you’re Sid’s girlfriend, what’s that like?” His dad, who had been quiet, asked me.

“Well,” I laughed, thinking of my dramatic entrance, “Normally it’s great, but right now he’s doing something for the Olympics and isn’t responding to my text messages.”

“Did you say something about him having you deported?” His sister asked.

I had forgotten that I’d said that. “Yeah,” I said as I looked down, trying to think of how I was going to explain that.

“Deported out of America?” His mom asked, “Are you not American?”

“No, I am. I’m from New Hampshire.” I sighed. “He’s not actually having me deported, but he is letting Mario send me to Chicago.”

“What?” His dad asked, “Can they trade ice girls?”

“Sort of, but I would get to be the head ice girl and Sid thinks that would be ‘a good opportunity’ for me or something lame like that. I guess more teams are looking for actual figure skaters now, and the Penguins have two good skaters, so one of them has to go. And Sid volunteered me.” I didn’t want to explain the rest; they didn’t need to know about that.

I looked over at Brandon, and he seemed like he was trying to hide how disappointed he was that I was leaving.

“Wow, I get why you were so mad at him,” his sister said.

She and I ended up talking the rest of dinner, which made Brandon nervous. He kept checking in on us to make sure we weren’t talking about him.

Before leaving I made sure to see my cat. I realized I was probably going to have to leave her behind. It had been pretty hard for her coming to Pittsburgh, and she’s getting old. I’d only be gone a few months anyway.

.

That night I waited up for Sid to get home. I guess I fell asleep because I woke up to him putting a blanket over me on the couch.

As soon as I saw those soft brown eyes I forgot why I was mad at him. I got up and went to bed with him, happy to have his arms around me to keep me warm.

-

The next morning I had forgotten about it until during breakfast he asked if Mario had talked to me yet.

“Yes he did, why are you sending me to Chicago?” I asked, suddenly getting mad again.

“It wasn’t my choice. Mario asked if that was something I’d be okay with, and I think it’s a great opportunity for your career,” he explained, but I was still mad.

“For my career? I’m not looking for a career of being an ice girl. I have maybe two years, if I don’t get hurt, left to skate,” I said, not understanding why he wasn’t getting it.

“What? Why would you have to stop skating when you’re twenty five?” He asked looking confused.

“Nobody wants to see an old ice girl. But that’s not important. If you had told Mario you didn’t want me to go, I wouldn’t go.”

“I think it would be good for you, after what happened, to get out of Pittsburgh for a while,” he looked at me with those cute eyes, how could I be mad at him?

“Do you need some space, is that why?” I asked calming down a bit, “I won’t be mad if you do. I mean I live and work with you, the only time you don’t see me is on road trips.”

He didn’t say anything right away, and I knew that was why he wanted me to leave for a while.

“No, I just think this would be good for you,” he said, looking sad.

I got up to sit next to him and put my arm round him, “hey, it’s okay. We’ll get through this. I can visit whenever the Blackhawks have a road trip. And we have the entire Olympics to spend together, right?”

“Right, though I’ll be pretty busy in Sochi,” he said starting to cheer up, “and I can see you when we play the Blackhawks.”

We talked the rest of the morning until he had to leave for a pre-game practice.

Now I am looking at apartments in Chicago. Sid said he would pay for everything for me, and I’m still a little mad, so I’m trying to find an expensive one.

Sincerely,

Emme

Notes

Feedback and Suggestions are welcome!

Fyi, I changed my username from Purple Crayon to Poptart Cat