Sister City

“So you’re from Nova Scotia, right?” He took a sip from the drinks they had just ordered and responded, “yeah, Halifax. So you’re from Ontario, based on your accent… what part?” Holly thought about it for a moment, considering how much she could give away without telling him who she was. “The middle part,” was her response. Sidney laughed into his drink. “Alright I guess I’m not getting more than that. But, don’t worry I’ve already shortened my list of players” he assured her.

Holly held back a laugh, knowing he wasn’t even close. “Hmm my next question is… who is your least favorite hockey player?” Sidney narrowed his eyes a little. “Wow I wasn’t expecting that question. Good one!” He thought on it for a minute and answered surely. “Giroux. Flyers. And yours?” Holly laughed inwardly. “Well mine is Rinaldo. Also on the Flyers.” Sidney looked confused. “Why Rinaldo? He isn’t particularly extraordinary.” “He plays dirty. He’s always injuring people for no reason and he is a real ass.” Holly responded easily. This time Sidney laughed. “He’s an ass? What makes you say that!?” “Everytime I run into him at a game or party he hits on me. He is a real jerk too, he won’t take no for an answer. He even pulled my arm earlier today when I tried to walk away from him.” Now Sidney looked mad. “You’re kidding me right? He didn’t touch you.” Holly shook her head. “Yeah, he did. He asked me to come up to his room later and when I said no and walked away he grabbed me and pulled me back over to him. He always does things like this.” Sidney was red. “If I ever saw a man do that to you I wouldn’t be able to handle myself. There’s nothing that makes me more mad than that stuff.

Holly was surprised. She hadn’t thought it was a huge deal at the time but thinking back on it she realized he really had man handled her. She subconsciously grabbed the spot he had been pulling on her. That caused Sidney to look at it, as he tried to see around her hand he reached over. “May I?” She nodded. He gently pulled her hand away from the spot on her arm and examined it further. There was already a bruise forming. This enraged him. He stood up, looking around the room. “No!” Holly grabbed him and pulled him back down. “Don’t make a scene I don’t think it would be good for us to even be seen together!” Sidney shrugged it off. “I don’t care I want to find him. Where’s your brother he should see this. He needs to take better care of you.” Or I will, he thought to himself.
Holly’s mind was racing. She couldn’t tell him that Claude was her brother or he’d be so upset. They’d been talking for a long time now and she felt like they were almost becoming friends. She didn’t want that to end yet. “Please.” She begged him to sit down. He conceded. “Seriously why don’t you say something to your brother at least?” Holly sighed. “First, of all he’d be really mad I didn’t tell him already. Second, he’d be thrown in jail. He’s really protective of me.” Sidney nodded. “He’s older, right?” “Yeah, by 5 years..” Sidney’s eyes opened wide. “I am 21 though!” Holly added. Sidney sputtered out his drink a little. “Good I was worried there for a moment that some huge guy was going to come pull me away from his 17 year old sister!” Holly giggled.

“No it’s just that there are a couple reasons he is like that. They’re good reasons so I understand.” Sidney’s warm brown eyes stared back at her. Not pressuring. Inviting. So she continued. “Our parents are dead-” “I am so sorry Holly..” He cut in. “No! Don’t be its really for the best. They weren’t good parents at all. They sucked.” Sidney was patiently waiting as she finished her drink. They ordered two more. “They were alcoholics,” she continued “they were never home. My brother was such a good hockey player that the local teams waived his fees to let him play. He worked at the rink full time during high school to pay for me to skate. It’s unbelievable he graduated at all, with how much he worked. But he did it so I could live my dream too. When he turned 18 he decided we couldn’t stay there anymore. Our father would hit us all the time and Cl- my brother was always scared to leave me home alone. So he told me one day that we were going to leave. We packed our bags and left. We were all the way to the airport when we saw the news report. ‘Two parents dead in car accident- authorities looking for their children.’ We could tell that was their car in the picture. ‘Drunk.’ I heard him say. We didn’t even get sad, that’s the worst part honestly. I just remember him looking at me and saying, ‘get in the car’ and he drove us back home. Right before we got to our neighborhood we went to an ice cream stand and he bought us ice creams. When we pulled up to the police cars all over our street he told me to say we were out getting ice cream and most importantly to cry when they told us.”

Sidney took all of this in with a truly concerned look on his face. He grabbed her hand. “Honestly it was easier this way. We were running away anyways and it was easier for him to become my legal guardian this way than on the run. He was able to finish high school and he had just been drafted. We moved to a new city and started a new life. He played for the NHL and put me through high school. And honestly, I’ve never been as happy as I am than with him now. My brother has given me an amazing life. I owe everything to him.”

Sidney smiled at her, still with his hand over hers. “I’m really glad you have someone like that in your life. It sounds like he really loves you and would do anything for you.” She smiled. “It’s true. I would’ve never been able to figure skate without him.” Sidney looked surprised, “wait you mentioned that, so you skate?” Holly smiled, “yeah I guess I kind of didn’t mention it. I actually do skate competitively.” “On what level do you compete?” He asked. “Intermediate? Novice?..” Holly’s eyes widened, “oh no I’m sorry I mean I AM a figure skater. I compete nationally and internationally with the Senior Ladies teams.” Sidney looked horrified. “I am so sorry! I just assumed you meant you skated some. That was so rude of me.” Holly laughed again, “no its alright I didn’t mention it sooner so how would you know!”

They continued talking about this and that. Sidney mentioned his mother Trina was a figure skater when she was younger so he knew a little about it. Holly and he discussed various players about they knew and liked- or not. Finally Holly said, “didn’t you come with someone or..?” Sidney shook his head, “no I’m not seeing anyone and I didn’t really come here to meet girls.” Holly put up her hands, jokingly “well then I’m sorry I bothered you- wait you bothered me!” Sidney laughed and jokingly patted her on the shoulder “oh come on now you know I didn’t mean you. I meant fans.” Holly laughed back. Then Sidney suddenly sobered up for a moment. “You just reminded me of something. Since you shared something with me I think I’ll share something equally as private with you. On the subject of the girls.. wow I have always wanted to tell someone this. Like someone who didn’t know me, you know? Everything you read in the media is bullshit. I don’t hook up with random girls in bars and I don’t sleep with ice girls. It’s ridiculous.. The last girl I slept with was my ex-girlfriend from high school and that was 2 years ago!” Holly’s eyes widened.. “Really..?” He looked away, “yeah its almost embarrassing but then again I’d rather not just randomly hook up with strangers so yeah.. The worst part was she only slept with me to say she slept with a hockey star. That left a bad taste in my mouth about girls I guess.” It was Holly’s turn to reach over to his hand. “I’m sorry it sucks when stuff like that happens. I’m really sorry that happened to you.” He nodded not really wanting to talk about it any longer.

“Look I can’t say I’ve ever had that happen to me but I dated this guy once- well I guess it doesn’t hurt to say- Jeff Carter, and he was a real asshole.” Sidney looked really confused now, “you dated Jeff Carter?!” Holly nodded, “yeah for almost a year, a couple years ago. I was 19 and my brother was friends with him so we thought he was a decent guy, well he wasn’t..” Sidney finished his drink again and so did Holly. “What happened.. if you don’t mind my asking?” She shook her head “not at all, it’s over now so it doesn’t matter. But, anyways, he cheated on me. A lot. And it was awful. I felt so insignificant. He was this big star and he ended up being just another asshole. He slept with so many girls… well I guess it’s not surprising seeing as I didn’t sleep with him.” Sidney nodded, “good. I’m glad you didn’t. He didn’t deserve it anyways, obviously.” Holly smiled.

They order another round of drinks, the time was really passing now. “I’m glad we talked and all but unfortunately you’ve been giving yourself away all night and now I’m sure of who your brother is!” Sidney looked confident. Holly knew there was no way he’d look this pleased with himself if he had realized who she was. “Alright then who is it?” Sidney sipped his drink and slowly set it down. “You gave yourself away when you said Carter, I was assuming as much when you said Ontario but now I know for sure. You’re Ryan Getzlaf’s sister! The Kings and Ducks hang out all the time I know that. Well for parties and such..” He trailed off as Holly threw her head back and laughed. “NO you great big dummy no! Absolutely not.” Sidney feigned a look of disappointment but laughed too.

“Alright then- speaking of where is your brother? Still with that girl?” Holly looked about the room and couldn’t find Claude at all. “Unbelievable! Un-freaking-believable!” she said. “What is it?” “He’s gone! He isn’t here and I bet you anything he’s taken her back to OUR room. I can’t believe that.” Sidney cringed. “Eh. If you go back now you’ll get to hear that all night I suppose.” She nodded. “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Sidney thought for a moment and then said very carefully, “well- now don’t take this the wrong way but I could take you back to my hotel and you can have my bed. I’ll sleep on the couch! I swear! Nothing funny, I just don’t feel right leaving you to find your way home now that we’ve been drinking all evening.” Holly considered it, what am I thinking! Absolutely not. Someone would see us together it can’t happen. No! But as much as she said no in her head her voice didn’t sound quite so sure.
After looking about for a few moments for ANYONE else on the team and finding no one she realized she had few other options. If her asshole brother could leave without even having the decency to tell her she could do as she wanted. So she turned to Sidney and said “alright but we really can’t be seen together. If a news crew picks you up leaving with someone it won’t take long to find out it is me, so please can we be careful? Even though we are just going to sleep it will be assumed…” Sidney put his hand on her shoulder, “Holly I would never let that happen, you’re a perfect lady and no one will see us leave together.”

He assured her that he had a back entrance out to his town car, and that it would take them to the back of the hotel, and sure enough they left without issue. When they arrived they were able to get to his room without anyone seeing them, surprisingly. He was right. He did have a beautiful room. It was a large suite with a very comfortable couch in the bedroom. Of course Holly offered to sleep on the couch but Sidney wouldn’t hear of it. He insisted she take the huge bed. And she did. But not after the awkward moment they shared when after her shower she realized she had nothing to sleep in, and he handed her a penguins t-shirt.

When he handed her the shirt she laughed. She laughed so hard her towel almost dropped. Sidney smirked, “alright come on now tell me who your brother is so you can stop picking on my team!” Holly went back into the bathroom and pushed the door shut as she took off her towel and began to put her panties on. “Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn you! Who did you say your least favorite player was?” Sidney thought for a moment and replied, “Giroux.” Holly called back “Well seeing as Gezlaf isn’t from Ontario….” She was just about to pull on the shirt when Sidney burst through the door catching her almost totally naked. “CLAUDE GIROUX?!”

His face of shock and confusion quickly changed to one of total mortification. He pushed his hands over his eyes “I’m so sorry! I’ll leave!” Holly pulled the shirt on and came out into the room where she found him sitting on the bed staring at the wall. She sat down next to him. “I’m sorry” she said softly, “I suppose I should have told you but we were having a nice time..” His head snapped up “No don’t be sorry! I’m sorry, this is awful. I’m always complaining about people judging me based on my name but now I almost just did that to you. I’m glad you didn’t tell me. We got to know each other and I decided I liked you before I found out and I’m happy that is the way it happened.
Holly’s face went red. He likes me. She knew he meant as friends but that didn’t matter. She liked him too and it was nice to hear him say that. She pushed her legs up against his, she was chilly and he felt warm. “Well I’m really glad we met. Thank you for everything tonight Sid.” He smiled deeply hearing her call him that. He put his hand on her legs and rubbed them until the goose bumps began to disappear. “Me too. Can we stay friends after this?” She nodded quickly “I really hope so.”

With that Sidney turned the lights off and Holly climbed into bed. Sidney made a bed up on the couch and they went to sleep. Holly knew getting home in the morning would be a problem but she would save that problem for tomorrow.

Notes