Sister City

Holly was mad. This was the third or fourth time this year her brother had done this. He always did this. He was so unbearably predictable that she felt stupid for not knowing better.

Her brother was a hockey player. Not just any player, an NHL super star (as some may say) and she was getting madder and madder at him by the minute. Her brother was always dragging her to these dumb NHLPA parties throughout the year. Galas. Balls. Parties. Whatever. He took Holly with him so that he didn’t have to go alone but also so that he didn’t have to get tied down to whatever girl he went with. Annoying.

Why do I keep going with him!? She thought. Because I have nothing better to do.. She conceded. Holly realized she would probably be at home doing nothing if she wasn’t here. Home alone, and she didn’t like that. As much as she hated to admit it Holly would rather be at the dumb party with her dumb brother than be at home alone.

She sighed again and sat down at the far corner of the bar. She looked back at her brother and the girl he was currently with, and shook her head. They weren’t going back to the hotel anytime soon. She put her head down for a moment. She was getting tired.

“You okay?” The unfamiliar male voice behind Holly startled her. Her head picked up a bit. Without turning around she said “Yeah. I’m fine.” She knew it was probably a player and she didn’t want him to get the idea she was interested. “Well I’m pretty burnt out from this so I’m gonna sit here quietly if you don’t mind.” Holly shrugged, head still down.

After a few moments in silence she turned the opposite direction from the player and looked for her brother again. With the same girl. Uh oh. That’s not good. She signed deeply. “Sorry?” The player was asking her what was wrong. She replied without moving her head again. “My brother brings me to these things to meet girls. He doesn’t want to come alone but he wants to be able to hit on girls all night without a date to bother him. Right now he’s been with this girl for the last hour and that is a bad thing for me. Usually he moves on by now but since he hasn’t that probably means he’s going to take her home. And to top it all off we got a suite so our freaking rooms are right next to each other and I’ll get to have breakfast with whoever he brings home.” She said all of this with her head buried in her arms because she didn’t really care if he heard her or not.

“That really sucks.” He had heard her. “I’m sorry about that.. Can you get another room maybe? So you don’t have to hear anything…..” He trailed off with that. She shook her head in her arms. “You act like I didn’t already call the hotel and ask. The whole city is booked for the weekend for this dumb thing.” The player sighed. “Okay I give up. I guess I can’t help. Your life is kind of awful tonight!” Then he laughed. Holly actually laughed a little with him. His laugh was so full. “Yeah I guess I’m not going anywhere for awhile. I guess I’ll have another drink.” She finally turned to look at the player. “Would you like to join in my misery for a drink?” He laughed again and turned to face her. As he laughed she took one last second to enjoy how nice it sounded before her face went white.

“So if we’re having a drink I guess we should introduce ourselves?” He suggested. Holly’s heart started racing a little. I can’t tell him. We’re having fun and I don’t want to ruin it. Just one drink then I’ll go and he won’t be the wiser. “Sure, I’m Holly!” She offered. No last name, that’s fine it didn’t sound awkward at all. He smiled and offered his huge hand to her. “Sidney.” She laughed and said “Wow I would have never guessed!”

Sidney Crosby shrugged his shoulders a little. “Yeah anonymity isn’t something I’ve got a lot of in the last couple years.” “I’d think not!” Holly said with a laugh. Sidney shook his head in agreement. “So… now that you know who I am, tell me who you are. Who is your brother? I mean I’m sure I know him but which one is he?” Holly rolled her eyes. “Well that would take all the fun out of it! If I tell you who he is all we will talk about is hockey so let’s not.” Sidney’s eyes lit up “thank god I’m so done with that right now. But, can I at least guess and make it a drinking game?” Holly considered it. Her brother was still showing no signs of being ready to leave so she agreed. “Yes! Alright so I’ll ask you questions about you, and then you get to ask me ones about me, and from that you can see if you can guess who my brother is.” She said, with no intentions of quickly revealing herself. “Deal.” They shook on it and began.

Notes