Chapter 2

After I recovered from the initial shock of having Sidney Crosby touching me, let alone holding me, I realized we were in the depths of the Arena. I started to come out of the haze of pain flowing through my body and I could make out what was happening. I was apparently being taken to the training room. Part of me wondered why the hell he didn’t just call 911 or an ambulance or something, but the other and more overpowering part of me said, “STFU! You’re being held by Sidney Crosby!” To be honest, I didn’t really know anything about the guy other than he was the talk of the town. Constantly. I didn’t know how many goals he scored or what his plus/minus rating was. I didn’t know how many penalty minutes he got his rookie year, like most people around here hockey fan or not. All I knew was that at this moment he was gingerly carrying me to the training room and more importantly, I was enjoying every minute of it.
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We reached the training room and by then the pain had subsided into almost nothing. It was just a dull pain radiating down the back of my knee. He set me down on the table and said, “Are you OK? What happened back there?” I just looked at his flawless face. My voice seemed to not be working at the moment. What wonderful timing. He restated his question. “Are you alright?” I could feel my voice coming back, but all I could eek out was a semblance of an “OK”. It ended up sounding like, “Uhhkuhh.” Really, it was cute. He just laughed his boyish laugh and smiled at me. My facial expression must have been priceless; not being able to speak correctly and being in pain probably makes for a cute lovechild of a facial expression. I finally felt my voice come back full and strong. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “I tore my ACL a few weeks ago. Where’s Melissa?” He looked dazed and confused as he tried to understand what I wanted. I even had to think about what I had just said. After a few careful moments of thought I restated the phrase saying, “My knee gave out because I tore my ACL a few weeks ago. Would you happen to know where my friend Melissa is?” A look of comprehension washed over his face as he smiled and said, “I’ll have someone look for your friend Melissa.” “Ok, thanks.” I replied. It really hadn’t hit me yet that I was talking to Sidney Crosby. The beautiful, gorgeous, talented Sidney Crosby. “So who are you?” Crosby asked me after a pause. “Jess Spade. ‘Would be’ Pitt center.” I replied with a hint of anger in my voice at the thought of that horrible day that ended my season. “Oh so you go to Pitt? And you…played basketball there? Until you tore your ACL?” he offered. “That’s right.” I shot back. I was beginning to get annoyed with him, despite his gorgeous features. Where was the trainer?! “I’m sorry.” He said it like it was all his fault. Now I felt bad. “I mean, I’m sorry if I’m a little bitter about it. Well, a lot bitter, but I was supposed to be ‘it’, that ‘it’ girl. Every team has one ‘it’ player… like you I guess.” It was my turn to offer something now. He smiled and looked at me. I melted, right there in the training room into a pile of goop on the floor. It was like I was paralyzed. His look became concerned and he said, “What’s wrong? You’re knee? I’ll go find the trainer. Don’t go anywhere.” Not that I could, I was a pile of goop on the floor, remember? I daydreamed while he was off getting the trainer. I found myself doing that a lot lately. I thought about how cute he was. How sweet and caring he was. He seemed to care more about me, a girl he had never met in his life, than about his game that was happening in less than two hours. I was snapped out of my daydream by the sound of his voice. “…yeah, she said she tore it a few weeks ago. I don’t know what exactly happened out there, but I’m sure whatever it was it wasn’t good.” And then he appeared in the doorway, in some of his things for the game, like underarmour and things of that variety. My God did he look sexy. The trainer walked in right behind him and I was brought back down to Earth. “Alright miss…” the trainer began. “Spade.” I finished his sentence for him. “OK miss Spade, what happened out there?” Sidney was hovering nearby like an overprotective mother, so I definitely wasn’t going to explain this as, ‘I saw Sidney Crosby and freaked out.’ Oh no. My story was more along the lines of, “I took a wrong step, my knee twisted and popped and I ended up on the ground.” He checked me out and after telling me what I already knew, I had a torn ACL, I was free to go. The pain was completely gone by now, seeing as my little accident happened over an hour ago. Sidney walked me back to the civilian section of the arena, cutting it close for his game. “Hey, I’m really sorry that had to happen to you”, he apologized. He truly looked sorry. “You know, I’m really not supposed to be standing too long, going up and down stairs and walking on uneven ground… and this activity involves all three. It was a great choice on my part.” I laughed as I said it because I knew I was ridiculous for coming here, and it was ridiculous that I was standing here talking to Sidney Crosby. “I still feel bad it had to happen to you.” he said. “You don’t even know me, so you shouldn’t really feel bad” I stated. “Maybe I want to get to know you…” He said. “How about you wait for me after the game? I’ll do something nice for you.” My head was reeling from the fact that Sidney Crosby, superstar, wanted to take me out. I felt my voice leaving me again. Good thing he was still talking. “…and to get you down there afterwards I’ll go get you a pass. Wait here, please?” he almost pleaded. I nodded, unable to talk. He came back a few minutes later. “Just go down as far towards the ice as you can and ask someone how you can get to the locker room. Wait for me there. We’ll do something fun afterwards.” He smiled and handed me the pass. As he gave it to me, his fingers brushed mine and I felt a shock go up my arm. He felt it too, and smiled a sly smile at me, then took off down towards the ice to finish getting ready for the game.