Practice went well. We had about a week until the actual season started, and the break from games and travel would be good. I went home to my apartment to clean up. There were dishes in the sink, and the place was just a mess overall. I began cleaning, turning the radio up and dancing as I worked.
My phone ran and I picked it up, "'Sup?"
"Hello to you, too," Justin laughed.
"Hey, J," I said as I folded the blankets Robert had used last night.
"What are you doing?"
"Cleaning my apartment."
"Mind telling me where that is?"
"Fourth street, why?" I asked.
"I'm coming over," I could hear the smile in Justin's voice.
"You're in Pittsburgh???" I shrieked.
"Yeah, we came to visit," he replied.
"Who's we?" I was suspicious.
"Oh, you know..."
"No, I don't. I'm not telepathic."
"So you're tele-pathetic?" He joked.
"Ha ha, who are you with?" I demanded, not amused.
"An old friend," he replied.
"Justin!"
"Which apartment is yours?"
"Fourth floor, 291," I sighed.
"We'll be right there," he singsonged and hung up.
I texted the team, 'J. Abdelkader and an old friend are visiting. Might need back up.'
'Now?' Sidney asked.
'Not yet,' I replied.
'Who's the old friend?' Beau asked.
'I don't know. Gotta go, they're here. I'll text you if I need you.' I hit send and went to open my front door. There was Justin and our friend Chris.
"Hey!" I said. I hugged both guys and let them in.
"Hi, how's the east coast treating you?" Chris asked. We hadn't seen each other since graduation.
"It's nice out here," I nodded.
"Better than the Mitten?"
"Maybe," I grinned.
"Dude, Abby, you didn't tell me there was a guy involved!" Chris yelled.
"What?" Justin said, surprised.
"What are you talking about, Chris?" I asked.
"You're blushing! There's gotta be a guy!" He exclaimed.
"I've been slaving away over the state of this apartment, which is why my face is flushed. There isn't a guy," I tried to convince him.
"Yeah, she would've told me if there was a guy," Justin said. Not true, I wouldn't tell him if there was a guy, unless it was him, which it wasn't.
"Oh, damn it," Chris said.
"Why are you so upset that there isn't a guy?" I asked.
"Your mom sent me to find out," Chris hung his head shamefully.
I laughed, "My mom sent you?"
"Yes. She said you seemed sad when you left and she thought it might be a guy's fault."
"Oh," I said.
"So, what are we going to do?" Justin asked.
"How am I supposed to know? I didn't invite you over; you just showed up! I didn't have any plans!" I said, shaking my head.
"I heard there's a nice library here. We could go check it out," Justin suggested. That was part of the reason we had gotten along. Justin loved books as much as I did; he read to kids in the Detroit area as a part of the charity work he did when he wasn't on the ice.
"Sounds good. I don't know where it is, but I can find out," I replied and texted the guys for directions.
Olli: 'The library? Really?'
Fleury: 'Who's mystery friend?'
Me: 'A guy named Chris. We went to high school together. He's Justin's best friend.'
Rob: 'Need backup?'
Sidney: 'We'll meet you at the library.'
Me: 'Seriously? I can handle myself.'
Sidney: 'Going anyways.' He attached a link with directions to the library.
Me: 'Thanks.'
Olli: 'See you soon.'
Me: 'Fine.'
"Come along, boys," I said, leading the way out of the apartment. The guys followed me and we walked to the library. It was huge. I saw Letang propped against the wall outside trying to blend in. He wasn't even being sneaky about it, so I went up to him and pushed him over.
"Aww, come on, Erin!"
"Shut up, Kris."
"Chris? That's me!" Chris said.
"No, it's a different Kris. Chris, meet Kris Letang. Kris, this is my friend from high school, Chris James," I introduced them.
"Cool," Chris said, shaking Letang's hand. I shook my head, guys were so weird. I walked into the library with Justin on my heels, and then Kris, and Chris. "I'm going to get a library card, go look around," I shooed them off my tail.
As I signed up for a card, I felt someone come stand next to me. "Erin L. Fitzpatrick. What's the 'L' stand for?" Sidney whispered.
"That's for me to know and you to find out. Or not," I replied, taking my card and beginning to wander among the shelves. Sidney followed me, looking at books as he went, but never straying very far from me. I turned a corner and bumped into Robert, dropping the books I had in my hands. "Sorry," I whispered.
"It's fine," he smiled, helping me pick them up.
"Are you okay?" Sidney came to find us crouching on the ground.
"She's fine," Robert said. Sidney nodded, and I could feel the tension rolling off of them. I grabbed my books from Robert and left them standing there. My gaze flicked around the library as I tried to find an empty corner where I could read without being found by any of my new, or old, friends. I found one and sat down, burying my face in the pages. I sat on my jacket to hide it, and slouched to make myself less visible. I heard them looking for me, and a few of them came really close, but walked right by without noticing me. Sidney walked right in front of me without looking, and he would have kept walking if I hadn't snorted in amusement at his stupidity. He whipped around and saw me. "You've been hiding here for an hour?"
"Shh," I pressed a finger to my lips and smirked. He gave me a dirty look and I shrugged, going back to my book. He sighed and sank onto the bench next to me.
"I won't tell them you're here," he whispered.
"Good," I replied.
"Why are you hiding?"
"To escape. My friends turn up without notice, y'all came when I didn't ask, you and Robert looked ready to drop the gloves... I needed some peace and quiet."
"Mhm."
I read a few more pages before Sidney sighed and took the book out of my hands, closing it.
"Hey! Now I've lost my place!"
"You're on page 105, do you think I'm monster? I wouldn't shut your book without knowing where you left off," he smiled. I crossed my arms and huffed. He frowned, but didn't hand the book back.
"I'll trade you," he said finally.
"What?"
"We leave. Together. And I'll give you the book back."
"Then what?" I knew there was more to this than he was letting on.
"Lunch? Dinner? A movie? Shopping? I don't know. But you aren't going home."
"Why not?" I complained.
"Well, you can," he paused, "but you wouldn't get the book back."
"That is evil," I hissed.
He shrugged, "Can't be good all the time, Erin."
He had a point. I rolled my eyes, "Let's go." He handed me the book and I threw my coat at him. "Do something with that. And give me something of yours to wear. We need to be disguised if we are gonna get out of here." Sidney handed me the Penguins beanie in his jacket pocket and I put it on, rolling it to cover the logo. I pulled some hair in front of my face and turned to Sidney.
"How do I look?"
"Beautiful, as usual," he started, then realized what he had said. "But they won't know it's you."
I rolled my eyes, "Thanks. Do you have sunglasses?"
"Yeah."
"Push them on top of your head to hold some of your hair back," I instructed. It didn't do much, but we didn't have much to work with. "Good enough. Meet me outside."
"Nice try, but I'm not leaving you alone; you'll try to run," Sidney took my hand and pulled me along to the checkout desk. We could hear the guys looking for us, but we kept our heads low and somehow got out of there. We walked to his car and got in. "Where to, madam?" He mocked.
"Surprise me."
"Okay," he started the car and began driving. I sat with my arms crossed in the passenger seat. I could feel Sidney looking at me every so often.
"Still crabby?" Sidney asked.
"I'm not crabby," I replied, but my tone said otherwise.
"Mhm," he said.
"Fine, I'm a little crabby. I was hoping for a calm day."
"Then we'll have a calm day back at my house," Sidney said.
"Why are you so willing to do what I want?"
"Why shouldn't I be?" Sidney was honestly curious.
"I don't know, but you had all those plans..."
"So? They were just ideas. I'm down for anything."
"Really?"
"Yeah," he said reaching over and patted me on the knee.
We pulled into his driveway and I followed Sidney into the house. He took my coat and his hat and hung our stuff up in a closet. I walked into the living room and sat down, not sure what to do with myself. Sidney came and sat down next to me. "So, what do you want to do?"
"You promised to show me your library," I remembered.
"Oh, right!" He pulled me to my feet and had me follow him down the hall to a closed door. He paused outside the door and grinned, "Ready?"
"Yes!" I was excited to see what he had. Sidney opened the door and my jaw dropped. The walls were covered with shelves filled with books. There were tables and comfy reading chairs and couches in the center of the room and it smelled like books. I walked into the room and started making my way around it. I traced the books' spines as I went, loving the feel of them beneath my fingers. Sidney sat down in the center of the room and watched me. I pulled a book off the shelf, it was an Alex Cross novel I hadn't read yet. "Can I read this?" I asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace in the room.
"You can read whatever you want," Sidney replied. I walked over and sat down next to him, tucking my knees under me. I opened the book and immersed myself in the story. As I read, Sidney tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. My eyes flicked up to his, "Aren't you going to read something?"
"Maybe," he murmured. I frowned, not wanting to be rude and read if he wasn't going to. I closed the book and set it down.
"What are you doing?" Sidney asked.
"I don't want to be rude," I said and leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder.
"You weren't being rude."
"I felt like I was being rude," I closed my eyes. Sidney wrapped his arm around me and rested his head on top of mine. I don't know how long we sat like that; I think I fell asleep.
"Erin," Sidney shook my shoulder.
"Hmm?"
"Wake up, sleepy head. I got us dinner."
"What time is it?" I slurred, rubbing my eyes.
"It's dinner time," Sidney laughed, "I hope you like Chinese food."
"Yum," I said, following him to the kitchen. He had already set the table and put out food and drinks. He had made me a Shirley Temple. "Thank you," I said.
"For what?"
"Dinner, the drink, the books, today."
"You had fun today?" He seemed surprised.
"So far," I smiled.
"Good," Sidney returned the smile.
After dinner, I thought Sidney should pick what we did. "Do you want to watch a movie?" He asked.
"Sure," I said. We went to the living room and Sidney switched on a movie. I'm not sure exactly what it was because I fell asleep again.
I felt myself being lifted up and carried, but I was not conscious enough to know what else that happened.
I woke up in a dark room that wasn't my own. I wasn't awake enough to be disturbed by this fact, so I closed my eyes again and curled closer to someone. "Mmm," Sidney hummed, his arms around me.
"What happened?" I whispered.
"Shh, we don't have to get up yet," he said. I nodded and wrapped my arms around his neck. We stayed like this, warm and content, until Sidney's alarm went off. "Okay, c'mon," Sidney dragged his ass out of bed and stood there, in just a pair of sleep pants, and stretched. I admired the view until he turned around, at which point I pretended that I hadn't been looking. "So? What happened?"
"You fell asleep half an hour into the movie, so I carried you up here to bed," Sidney yawned.
"That was very nice of you," I yawned too.
He chuckled, "I know," he paused and looked at me, "I should probably find you something to wear now, since your clothes are all wrinkled and we won't have time to go back to your place."
I looked down, he was right. There was no way I could wear this, but I probably shouldn't wear his stuff either. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place; I decided that clean clothes would be better than this, even if they were recognized to be Sidney's and people asked questions. "Thanks," I said, getting up.
"No problem," he handed me a pair of sweats and a Penguins T-shirt. He left to go shower and I changed into his clothes. They smelled like him, which I liked, but they were way too big. I rolled them as much as I could, but it didn't help.
I went downstairs and started making pancakes so we could eat before practice. He walked downstairs when they were ready, a towel around his waist. "Oh, shit," he turned around and headed back towards his room to get dressed.
"Hurry up, Sid! We're gonna be late!" I yelled, starting to eat the pancakes.
"I'm right here!" He joined me and we scarfed down our breakfast before heading out the door to go to practice.
Author's Note
Hey, hey, hockey fans! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please vote and comment to let me know what you thought! Thanks a bunch! Hopefully, I will have an update for y'all tomorrow :) until then, Let's Go Pens!!