Just across the street from Sid's parent's hotel is a tiny poutinerie. Nothing fancy, but we weren't dressed for a high end restaurant anyway. A bell rings as we open the door, the only two other people there turn around in their seats to look at who walked in. They are two men, maybe in their late thirties, one is wearing a Penguins baseball cap, and the other is wearing a Habs shirt. When their eyes lay on Sid they almost choke on the fries they're eating and start coughing intensely. I giggle and look up at Sid, he's used to this, but I can still see a hint of a smile on his lips. Calmly Sid places his hand on the small of my back and guides me to a table. I glance over at the men from time to time, they stare at Sid debating whether to come say "hi", but quickly revert their eyes when they notice I'm looking. A kind waitress hands us our menus, but doesn't seem to recognize Sid, much to his relief.
"Hmmm... this Mexican poutine sounds good," Sid thinks out loud, "What are you getting?"
"The perogy one is making my mouth water," then I pause and nod in the men's direction, "So are you gonna go say 'hi' to them or what?"
"After we eat, we're on a date right now. If they really want to talk they'll come up to us, but if I went out of my way to say 'hi' to every person that recognized me, I wouldn't have any time for myself."
"That's true, you're not some fourth liner who's lucky if he even gets recognized in public. Pretty much every Canadian knows what you look like, or at least your name."
"Yeah I think I'm going for the Mexican," he says quickly changing the subject.
I can tell he feels uncomfortable discussing his fame, so I let the topic go, hopefully he'll eventually open up to me about it.
"Perogy it is for me."
The waitress takes our orders and in a few minutes a steaming plate of fries, gravy, cheese, bacon, sour cream, and perogies sits infront of me. Instantly I dig in, within minutes I've dripped gravy on my pants, dropped 3 fries on the floor, and got sour cream all over my face.
Laughing Sid says, "you must be hungry!"
I blush and grab a few napkins to tackle the mess.

---

Scraping the remains of our poutine off our plates, we finish up our dinner. The men still haven't approached us all night, yet they finished their poutine, and their plates are long gone. Me and Sid get up from our chairs, we almost walk past the men without even a glance, before I gently squeeze his arm. Looking down at me he sighs and turns around.
"Hey guys, how's it going?"
"Oh uh-uh great! How are you?" the man wearing the Penguins hat replies.
"I'm good. You guys catching the hockey game tomorrow?"
"Yeah I'm actually from out of town, I just came into the city see the game," Penguins hat guy replies again, with only a smile from the man in the Habs shirt, "Would it be alright if we got a picture? We've been wanting to ask, but didn't want to interrupt your uh... date."
"Sure, and I appreciate it thanks."
I offer to take the photo and roll my eyes as Sid subconsciously puts his hands in his pockets.
"Have a good game!" the man shouts as we make our way out of the store.
"Thanks!"
We faintly hear the man in the Penguins hat say, "see I told you he'd come say 'hi'. He isn't some jerk, we just have to respect his privacy."
"Alright, alright, maybe he isn't so bad after all," the guy in the Habs shirt says in defeat just as the door closes to the restaurant behind us.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Sid smiling.
"See? Aren't you glad you talked to them?" I say with pride.
"I am, thanks. You know you really do make me a better person. I should talk to fans more often, but I guess I just try to shut them out because I'm under so much pressure all the time. I'm so scared I'll say something that will blow out of proportion. Or the fact that they saw us on a date...."
"It'll be fine. Did you see how excited that guy was that you came up to him? Why would he say anything bad about you after how happy he was. Plus you may have even converted a hater, that Habs fan seemed impressed. Now we just have to work on getting those hands out of your pockets, " I wink.
"Why does that bother everyone so much? What else am I supposed to do? It's just a natural place for my hands to go," he says in exasperation.
"It would be fine if you had pockets that actually fit your hands. But no, it's just your finger tips that make it in for the picture, and it looks ridiculous."
"If you really cared about me, you'd except me for who I am. A finger tips in small pockets picture guy," he fake pouts.
I laugh, he becomes more relaxed around me every day I'm with him and it sends a surge of love through my veins that I can't contain. I get up on my tip toes and kiss him with a smile. He does the same.

---

The world fades away, along with my worries... and memories. All I see, all I feel, all I know, is him. It's the most beautiful and magical thing I've ever experienced, it's like nothing I've felt before. My past relationships have never given me as much happiness and joy as this one has, and it makes me wonder if I even know what love is. I thought I was in love with Kyle, but was I? Every minute I spent with him was like falling further and further into a deep ocean of nothing. Slowly I drowned in his anger and violence, until Sidney pulled me up and saved me. Saved me from Kyle, and from myself.

Notes

Sorry it took so long to update. I've been really busy with exams and other stuff, but now that it's summer I'll try harder to update faster. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, leave a comment on what you thought. Also don't forget to rate and subscribe for more chapters!