Autumn
"Are you honestly being this stubborn when you love this kid?" Victoria scolded Autumn.
She rolled her eyes. "I don't 'love the kid', I resent him." She hissed.
Victoria shook her head. Autumn picked at her nails as she sat on the couch with her legs crossed. After her run in with Sidney the night before, she drank until she didn't know who she was anymore.
She woke up in a bed that wasn't hers. She freaked out, thinking she hooked up with some random, but she realized it was Victoria and Geno's house when she got downstairs. It was just the girls since G had already gone to the arena for his 3:30 game.
"Do you want to go to the rink?" Victoria asked from the kitchen.
"Do we play today?" Autumn referred to Canada and Tori nodded. "Then no. I'd rather avoid it."
"You're ridiculous." She growled, trudging upstairs.
Autumn rolled her eyes, laying back on the couch. She knew she was being childish, but she didn't want Sidney to try and convince her to crawl back. She refused to let him walk all over her.
Autumn watched as Victoria hopped down the stairs. She wore her hair down, it flowing over her jersey. Her Russian jersey, even though she was full blown Canadian. She carried tights in her hands. Autumn shook her head.
"Put em on. We're going to the rink." Victoria tossed the tights at her.
"No way." Autumn argued.
"Yes you are because you are not staying here." Victoria hissed.
"I'll go back to my hotel then." Autumn stood.
"Jordan took your keycard last night and she's at the rink with Jake. She messaged me that she brought your jersey for the Canada game." Victoria grinned.
Autumn gave in. She wasn't one to miss hockey, and if Sid was playing, he couldn't bother her. Not that she minded, she liked to remind him how big of an asshole he was. The Honorary Canadian was an Honorary Dick and she needed him to know that.
She sat, with her arms crossed, in the seats G had scored for her, Vic, and Stephanie. Jordan and Jake were watching the US play. She was trying to cover the 'C' on the left of her chest. Jordan thought it would be funny to bring her a 'Crosby' jersey.
Halfway through the Russia vs. Slovakia game, a group of assholes filed in below the girls. There was a bar on a ledge before some space between the ice and stands. It was where the teams came out. Autumn watched Stephanie shoot up when she spotted Jon. Victoria dragged Autumn down as well.
She stood against the wall with her arms crossed. If Sidney spotted the jersey, he wouldn't let her live it down. If anyone spotted her in it, she'd be harassed.
She scanned through everyone to make sure no one was paying attention. That's when she made a break for the hallway. She collided with something hard.
She gasped as she fell to the ground. Her eyes looked up to see an open door. She looked further up and saw who had opened the door. A shocked Sidney Crosby. He pulled her up. She dusted herself off.
"Is that a 'C' I see?" She heard the smirk in his voice even though she wasn't looking at him.
"Jordan thought it would be funny to bring me this instead of one of my many other, better, ones." She growled back.
"There is no way you resent me this much." He shook his head.
"Oh, but I do." She rolled her eyes, pumping past him.
"Stay and watch me play!" He begged. She scoffed. "Please, Autumn! You know I play better when I know you're watching!"
She stopped walking. He was representing her country, and she would love to see the other guys happy. She sighed before turning around. He had his same old grin on his face. She walked towards him, a glare on her face. She stopped in front of him, looking up. He looked down.
Sidney stood at least five inches above her. Her head just reached his chin. She used to love how tall he was, but now she wished he was shorter so she could get in his face.
"Listen to me, Crosby," Autumn spat his name. "We aren't getting back together and nothing is okay between us. Your 'sorry' didn't fix anything. I am staying to help my team by helping you. That is it. We are not friends. We are not acquaintances. You're nothing to me."
He nodded. "I understand and I'm sorry you feel that way." He breathed out. "But I'm still going to apologize to you now."
"Good, I'd love to hear another bogus apology." She laughed.
Sidney sighed. She crossed her arms, waiting for him to speak. He took a deep breath before looking into her eyes. There was something different about them. They were darker than usual and they were kind of glossy. Autumn realized why they looked like that. He was being sincere.
"What I did was completely wrong, I have no words to justify my actions." He began. "I was letting hockey get to me and making it overrule everything in my life as if it was the only thing I had that mattered, but I had you and you mattered a lot more than any sport I'd ever pl,"
"Sid, stop. I'm not mad abou,"
"Autumn, please?" He pleaded. She went quiet. "I understand it wasn't why I broke it off but how I did. I never meant to stand you up like that. My car wouldn't start and I was too much of a coward to call you and tell you that. I know I ended up calling you to break it off, but I'm a huge dick."
Autumn held back the smirk dying to come out. She loved hearing him call himself that.
"I'm really sorry about everything I did to hurt you because I never meant to, I never wanted to, yet I did. I hurt you and you were the only girl I've ever cared about." He laughed a bit. "I don't know why I thought breaking up with the girl I love was a good idea but I guess that's the concussions creeping in."
She sighed, looking down. She wanted to punch him in the face and tell him to stop trying to get her back, but she knew that wasn't the reason. He meant everything he was saying and he was only saying it to mend the wound he left. Cheesy but true.
Suddenly, she didn't feel as great knowing how badly he had beat himself up. Sid was a good guy at heart, he was a good guy all around, he just let his career get the best of his sanity. She looked up and found him watching her.
"I'm not saying this to get you back. I don't deserve that. I'm just saying this because you deserve it." He explained.
She smiled at him. She squeezed his arm. He gave her a small smile back. She walked back out to the rink. Victoria was focusing back on the game. Autumn walked right over to her, standing beside her.
A whistle blew and G skated past the two. He smirked at Autumn, nodding his head behind her. She cocked a brow before turning. Sid was watching over her head. He looked down at her as she looked back. He shrugged innocently. She laughed, shaking her head.
The game ended and the Russian and Slovakian men switch with the Canadians and the Fins. Geno stopped, pecking Victoria on the lips. He looked down at Autumn, eyeing her jersey.
"What?" She called him out.
"Ugly jersey and Sid on it." He smirked.
"Shut up. Jordan bought it as a joke." Autumn rolled her eyes.
"She hates him, G. C'mon." Victoria mocked.
"Hate so much that give google eyes." He stated. "She still love."
"I hope you break your leg." She hissed, walking away.
"Mad cause true!" He hollered.
Autumn sat away from her friends during the entire game. She was pissed that Geno would accuse her of that. Or was she pissed because she knew he was right? She didn't entirely know. She didn't want to know. At this point, she wanted to leave. For the first time in Autumn's life, she was tired of hockey players.
The game ended rather quickly. Autumn got out of the arena as quickly as she could, avoiding everyone at all costs. She hated feeling like her emotions were getting the best of her, and she refused to let anyone see them. A nice walk to her hotel helped calm her down. She got in her room and dropped on her bed.
She knew she still cared about Sid. She knew she still had feelings for him as well, she just didn't want to. She didn't want to continue feeling anything but anger towards him, but she couldn't. She internally debated with herself to run to him and beg him to take her back. She didn't think that would prove she was as heartless as she put out. She decided against it and just sat in her bed.
The door slammed before Jordan stomped in. "Autumn, you're a piece of work." She hollered.
"What did I do?" Autumn furrowed her brows in confusion.
"Running out of that arena without so much as saying good job to Sidney." Jordan stated. "The kid looked like he just saw his puppy get murdered."
"Pretty sure it's 'like he lost his puppy' not your extreme ending." Autumn cocked a brow.
"No, I meant what I said. He looked that upset." Jordan rolled her eyes.
Autumn looked at Jake for confirmation. She knew Jordan could be a little dramatic. He nodded at Autumn. She let out a quiet sigh, looking at her hands. She played with her fingers. She heard Jordan growl before stomping out of the room. The bed sunk beside her. She found Jake sitting there.
"Look, I know we aren't 'besties' or whatever,"
"Jake, please never say that again." She shook her head.
"Anyways, there's like guy intuition, where you can tell if a dude is into a chick or not." He explained. "It's like, if you're thinking of making passes at a girl, you look at your buddy and you know to avoid it because he's into the girl.
"If I was standing with Sid and you came over, I'd walk the other way because he'd probably kill me. He's that into you. More than I'm into Jordan."
"You should definitely never say someone else is more into a girl that you're into your girlfriend." Autumn slapped his thigh.
"Oh, whatever. Do you understand where I'm coming from?" He asked. She nodded. "Sid fucked up, majorly, but he seems to be dying to make it up to you."
"Wow, you're not just a pretty face." She tapped his cheek.
After Autumn's talk with Jake, she decided she needed to go talk to Sidney. She sent him a text, asking where he was. He explained he was just at his hotel with the guys. He argued with her that she shouldn't be walking outside at night but she ignored it.
"Ignoring me now?" Sidney's voice called.
Autumn looked ahead and saw his tall, muscular frame walking towards him in his typical peacoat. She smiled. She had an idea that he would come and meet her. He was really paranoid that the world was out to get everyone he cared about.
"I didn't want you to waste your energy." She explained as she met up with him.
"I'd rather you safe than me sorry." He smirked.
She rolled her eyes, smiling. They walked side by side in silence. Autumn never did awkward silences well. Actually, she never did silence well in general. She looked up at Sidney, who was quickly looking away from her.
"Let's quit the whole awkward silence and talk about what we both want to say." She spoke, stopping her walk.
"Why'd you want to meet up?" He questioned.
"Because I miss us, Sid. I miss you. I feel like complete shit because of how I've been treating you and how you've been treating yourself. I didn't let you explain anything, I just attacked you. It wasn't fair to you." She rambled.
"I wasn't fair to you either." He added.
"We both sucked." She teased.
"I think we could make it work again, Autumn." He said. She opened her mouth to speak. "No, really. We've talked about everything. I've gotten ahold of my shit. I have everything in place, I just need you."
She looked up at him. His eyes were burning into hers. She let out a laugh, shaking her head as she looked down. She looked back up at him, smiling.
"You have a gift, Sidney Crosby, and not just your hands." Autumn explained.
"Are you saying what I think? Please tell me that's what you mean." He begged.
She rolled her eyes while nodding. His hands grabbed her face before his lips met hers. She kissed back. It was familiar and something she had missed. Autumn wrapped her hands around Sidney's neck. They broke apart, smiling like teenagers.
"Better than any medal." He mumbled.
"Even I know that's bullshit." She argued.

Notes