Catch me

Chapter 9

"I hear you and Sidney Crosby are dating?"

I sat up.

"Where'd you hear that?!" I snapped.

"ESPN SILLY!" She laughed.

"Mal, that's not funny. We are not dating. And I know you may think that, but we aren't."

Sidney patted a seat next to him on the couch.

"Oh come on now, you know you want to kiss him. Unless you already have?" She was getting out of control.

"No. We haven't." I hung up and walked over.

"What was that about?" I rested my head onto his shoulder.

"She thinks we're dating. All because of ESPN."

"Who?" He sounded more alert now, I liked this tone. It was protective, yet calming, in a way.

"My one friend, Mallory." I said, trying not to cry. "Well...it's not true. Why would she even think that?" He now sounded more pissed than alert.

"I don't know. I guess ESPN made up something. But in my defense, she has no right to ask that." He looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Really? She has no right? That's like saying I have no right to kiss you right now." He did not just say that.

"Then kiss mem" I said. And he did. It wasn't a romantic 'we've just won, so kiss me' type. It was more of like an 'I like you' type.

"Good call." I heard Letango saying.

"Yeah, but he barely made it to the base. Just as the first baseman snagged a fly from the centerfielder..." I ignored the rest.

***

"You coming or what?" Sid asked me as I laced up my skates.

"Yeah...give me a sec."

To girls, 'give me a sec' means 'I'll be ready in like 5 hours baby.'

To guys, 'give me a sec' literally means, 'give me a sec'.

***

"Here's your stick. Oh and you'll be playing goalie." I froze.

"G-goalie?" I squeaked out.

"Yeah. Why?" I decided to shrug it off and just play.

"No reason." He smiled as I started hitting pucks into the goals.

***

"TEAM MEETING! HUSTLE HUSTLE!" I was already on the bench following some rules on being goalie. I had forgotten them and had to be reminded.

"Let me guess, it's an update on Sutter?" Khris asked.

"Partially. He's doing fine. The doctors say he should be back with us in 2 weeks." I felt relieved. No more thinking about Sutter. Time to focus on hockey.

"Now the second part," he started saying, "is our defense. Since Kelsey's at goalie, we need to step up our defense. I know that may sound like a waste of my breath, but it's true. Now Sid, you get to call the lines today." That seemed fair, since he was the captain.

***

A little while later, I was back at the hotel. Morning skate had finished up, and I was way beyond tired.

Knowing that Sutter was alright, made me happy.

"Hey hey! I brought Cinnabon!" I couldn't say no to Cinnabon.

"Alright!" I yelled.

"Someone looks happy," Sidney stated.

"Oh you know." I snapped in a sarcastic manner.

"Is it the fact that maybe Brandon Sutter is okay now?" I nodded.

"Yeah. And I get to play in the NHL."

Beau Bennett walked into the room with a confused look on his face.

"You're not playing," He announced.

"But why? I thought-." Just then, the coach came in.

"Hey guys, team meeting in an hour." Maybe coach knew.

"Hey uh coach? Am I not playing tonight?" He looked over at Beau, who was not happy.

"Well...we don't know yet." I was just so confused. "Well...can you please find out? I have a jersey and stuff, but no permission."

"As of yet." Sidney finished for me.

I looked at him. Half of his face was covered in glaze. "Sidney, clean off your face," The coach snapped. Wow. Who pissed in his Cheerios?

"An hour you three." Three? Well that was the case even if I wasn't playing. Which I secretly hoped I wasn't. But I didn't tell Sidney that. And I was hoping he wouldn't ask.

"Hey...um...I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime? You know like on a date?" My heart raced.

"Yeah. That would be cool." We smiled.

"Cool." Haha. We were so great at talking to each other, it scared me sometimes.

***

A little while later I was out on the ice after the team meeting. It was just coach going over the lines, me being allowed to play, and Sutter's status, (he was doing much better compared to when I last talked to him.)

"Hey Kels! You wanna get a chance to block NHL players' slapshots?" Crosby asked.

"Yeah. That would be a great idea."

I wasn't too fond on playing. Maybe I could fake being sick so I wouldn't have to play.

"You ready?!" Coach yelled. I waved my stick to show that I was ready.

"Ah shit. These guys don't give two damns about a girl being the goalie." I said to myself. But it didn't matter. I saved, blocked, and even slapped away every single shot that was hit my way.

Everyone's jaw dropped. "Oh my god." I could hear Sidney mutter.

"She's really really good," Letango said.

"Dude, she's like the best goalie I've ever seen." Beau tried to make me feel like a million bucks. But I didn't care.

Sidney had asked me out and that already made me feel like a million bucks.