Prove It To Me

In and out of consciousness I drifted. Each time I’d find myself looking into deep hazel eyes. But who’s eyes were they? My head is still spinning and my thoughts are jumbled. It’s so hard to think clearly. Blackness. Bright light… Hazel eyes. Blackness. Bright light… Those hazel eyes again. How long has this been going on for? It seems like hours.

(6 hours later)

I open my eyes again, this time though I manage to keep them open for more than two seconds. Everything is starting to get clearer. What is that bright light? It's starting to really bother me. My eyes begin to adjust and focus. I can now tell who those hazel eyes belong to.

“Sidney?” I whimper.
“Oh thank goodness you’re ok,” he gasps.
“Wha-what happened? Where am I?” It all starts to come back to me, and now I have even more questions, “Why are you here? Where’s Kyle?”
“Whoa whoa whoa, relax, calm down. One question at a time,”he replies.
“What happened?” I repeat.
More seriously, he answers, “I saw Kyle drag you outside of the club. When you didn’t return a few minutes later I decided to go check if everything was ok, considering he seemed pretty mad at you inside. When I got outside I saw him um….” He trails off.
“You saw him what?” I ask impatiently.
“You know, do stuff to you…. and then he slammed your head against the wall. I ran over and tried to shove him off of you. You were unconscious at that point. He started throwing punches, but he was so drunk I easily fought him off. After he ran off I couldn’t find him, so I took you to the hospital to make sure your head was ok. You woke up for a bit but then slept the rest of the night. You’ve been in and out since this morning for about half an hour now.”
For the first time since I woke up, I paid attention to where we were. We were in a hospital room, that's why it was so bright. I was lying in a stiff emergency patient bed that crinkled whenever you moved. When I tried to turn my head to look around some more I winced.
“Ow!” at back of my head I could feel some bumpy stitches.
“Careful, your head was pretty banged up. They had to give you 4 stitches, plus it will be bruised for a while. You might even have a mild concussion… which isn’t fun at all,” he explained.
“You would know,”I joked. It got a little chuckle out of him.
“You know I never even got your name,” he said.
“Rebecca.”
“Nice to meet you… Rebecca. I like that name, it’s nice,” Sidney said with a sheepish grin that made me blush, “My friends call me Sid.”
“Can I ask you something Sid?”
“Anything.”
“Why’d you go check on me outside? Why do you even care?”
He was silent for what seemed like forever.
“Because I sensed you weren’t truly happy with Kyle, not as happy as you could be, but you seem like a genuinely good person who deserved better. Behind the fake smiles and laughter there was hurt, I could see it in your eyes.”
It was at that moment I realized he was right. This whole time I was trying to convince myself I could change Kyle, I was in denial that he had a problem that I couldn’t fix myself. Every time I saw him there were those bad memories nagging me at the back of my mind, trying to push through the laughter and the smiles. No matter how much I wanted them to just disappear, they wouldn’t. Instead they got worse and worse as the months went on. Fight after fight. As I was deciphering this in my mind, tears began to form, and soon they were streaming down my face.
“I am so sorry you had to go through that,” Sid whispered softly right before he wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight.
And I hugged him back. Soaking his shoulder with tears, but he didn’t seem to mind. Never have I cried so hard in my life. Months and months of holding it in, trying to be “strong”. None of that mattered anymore. Now it was just me and Sid. Sid and me. That is until we hear someone clearing their throat next to us.
“Sorry to interrupt, but we just need to take a few quick final tests so we can see if you can be released today,” a doctor says.
Embarrassed, I desperately try to keep the tears from flowing as I’m wiping my eyes dry.
“Can I just ask what time it is first?” I say.
“7:30am," the doctor said checking their watch.
I turn to Sid with wide eyes, “You stayed all night?!”
He just nods while looking down with a shy smile on his face. Which makes me blush… again.

The doctor runs the tests through and I find that I'm free to go about an hour later. We make our way out the front doors of the emergency room and I come to a stop just outside. People are giving us wide eyed looks. We are in Pittsburgh after all so what do you except just waltzing around with Sidney Crosby? It seems as though people are too concerned going about their buisness at the hospital though to stop to ask for an autograph.
“So what now?” I ask as I turn to Sid. I’m not sure what exactly I’m referring to. Me and Sid? Whether to go home to Kyle or not? Or both? And, to be honest, I’m a little scared to hear an answer.

Notes