Chapter 9

Jess’s Point of View
I arrived at the game on the 11th with a knot in my stomach. I actually paid attention to how I looked for once, considering I was going to meet the great Mario Lemiuex. I did a blow-out on my hair, making it even bigger and curlier than it usually was, and I had put on a pair of black skinny jeans, grey plaid button up Henley and gold flats. I was never one for heels for quite a few reasons. One, I ended up being even taller than I already was, two, they hurt, and three, they were never practical, no matter where you wore them. My shoe wardrobe consisted of Sperry’s, loafers, sandals and the occasional flats, but never heels. I walked up to the window and received my tickets from another unenthused teenager before making my way through the crowd. I was stalling as much as possible. I really didn’t want to meet these people, even thought Sid wanted me to. It came within 10 minutes of game time and I finally stopped buying random food items and made my way up to the club boxes. I wandered down the never ending hallway to the box marked on my pass. I opened the door, expecting the worst, and was greeted by smiling faces. The woman who I took to be Nathalie stepped forward, beaming. “So I take it you’re Jess! I’m Nathalie, Mario’s wife. Sid’s told us so much about you. I hear you play basketball?” she said. She seemed extremely nice, and I realized this night wouldn’t be as bad as I had expected. I was surprised Sid had told them so much about me.
“Played basketball,” I corrected. “I tore my ACL about a month ago, and I’m having surgery in a few weeks.” I nodded as if that would ease the pain that just talking about it brought.
Nathalie’s face faltered for a moment, but then she was back to her cheery self as she said, “Well, let’s not have that hampering our evening! Come over here and I’ll introduce you to Mario!”
We walked over to a very serious looking Mario Lemiuex. I knew who he was and what he’d accomplished. He was just as nice as his wife as he introduced himself and told me to help myself to the bar and food that were laid out in the mini-kitchen before turning back to another serious looking business man.
“Don’t mind him, he gets so serious at games. Why don’t we go up to the railing and watch the game,” Nathalie said. “You’ll have such a great view!”
She led me over to the railing, and I settled myself into a chair. I was watching Sid down on the ice skating and shooting before the puck dropped, when I glanced up at the jumbo-tron to see my face looking back at me along with Mario’s and Nathalie’s.
“They always show our booth before games,” Nathalie said to me.
“OK, I was a little confused for a second,” I said with an attempt at a laugh.
“Don’t worry honey, relax and enjoy the game! Sid always manages to make it interesting.”
The game started and after two periods of awkward chatter between myself and Nathalie, I excused myself to the concourse and therefore the bathroom. Just one more period of this, I said to myself as I wandered down the hall to the bathroom. What if they ask us to do something with them after the game? I asked myself as I was washing my hands in the bathroom next to some snooty looking girl with perfectly coifed hair. My hair on the other hand had deflated quite a bit since the blow-out I had given it an a few hours ago. This girl also managed to be taller than me, with the help of four-inch heels. The point is, I felt like a pile of dog poop in comparison. I slinked out as quickly as possible and back to the suite feeling even more disheartened than I already had, but when I walked in, I was met with a pleasant surprise.
“So, Sid said you were going to be Pitt’s star center?” Mario asked me. He seemed so much more cheerful than when the game was about to start. I guess going up 8-1 with one period left could do that to you, and I had to admit, it had a nice effect on everyone around me. Before the game everyone was serious and talking business, but now everyone was laughing and cracking jokes.
“Yes, but I’m sure you’ve also heard I tore my ACL.”
“Sid did mention something about that…” Mario said with a thoughtful look. “Anyway, how are you managing?”
“Oh, well, it’s hard, but I’m determined to come back even better next year,” I said smiled, knowing I’d have to work to accomplish this.
“I’ve had a few setbacks before, and you’re right, you always want to come back even better. But enough of this talk. Tell me about last year,” He said with a smile, and I was off.
I told him about blocked shots, rebounds and steals. I admitted I wasn’t much of a scoring threat, but that I wanted to work on that while I had time; and that my dribbling needed work. He nodded the whole time, looking genuinely interested in what I had to say, which encouraged me to keep talking. I even told him about high school and how I was the only freshman on varsity, and how hard that was. He said he knew what it was like being the youngest and still one of the best, and how hard that could be. Just as I was beginning to get into how I tore my ACL, the final buzzer rang.
“Well, Jess, it seems like you have a bright future for basketball, and I truly mean that. Don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ll be looking for your name in the paper next year,” he said with a wink as he shook everyone’s hand in the box and left to go downstairs.
I left a few minutes after him, gathering up my stuff and taking my time as I ambled down to the locker room. Sid was actually waiting for me this time, and in a decent outfit no less.
-
Sid’s Point of View
Jess was looking even better than usual as she walked towards me after the game. Her hair looked nice and even though I really couldn’t tell a good outfit from a bad outfit, I could tell that she spent time on this.
“What?” she asked as she got closer and slowed down. “Do I have an arm coming out of my face?”
I laughed as she closed the few feet between us and kissed my cheek. “No, you just look really sexy,” I whispered in her ear before she pulled away with a smile on her face.
“You don’t look half bad yourself. Who dressed you?” she said with a smirk before grabbing my hand.
We ambled hand in hand out to the parking lot and waiting fans. We had talked to Mario about being public with our relationship after games and he told us with a laugh that it was alright as long as we weren’t making out against the side of the building, so we walked out from under the shelter of the service gate and into the watchful eyes of fans. I could feel the girls’ eyes on us, mostly Jess, as her hand tightened in mine and I hurried her over to the Range Rover, my hand on her lower back, pushing her forward. “I won’t get out to sign anything today.” I said with a smirk as I pecked her lips once we were safely inside the Range Rover.
“Good,” she said before asking, “What’s my prize?!” For the second time in a week, she looked like a little kid, excited for whatever the surprise was.
“We’re going to go back to my place, and I’ll show you,” I said with a sideways smile and a wink.
“You’ll show me?” she asked slowly, contemplating what I had just said.
“You’ll like it, I know it.”
-
We pulled up outside my house and without delaying on the front walk, made it into the house before freezing to death. “Right this way,” I said, leading her up the stairs and down the familiar hallway we had traveled yesterday. “You said more relaxing, you’ve got it. I’m all yours, all night.” I walked into my room to the bed and turned around to face the doorway where Jess was standing, hands on either side of the door frame. A broad smile spread across her face, and I had never really noticed how beautiful she really was until just now; her curly blonde hair sticking out at odd angles, but still managing to look just right and beautiful, her blue eyes vibrant against her alabaster skin and one of the best things, her smile. It could light up a room. Some would consider her teeth big, but with her, it fit just right with the rest of her face and all the proportions of her eyes, her teeth, her nose, worked to her advantage. “You’re so gorgeous,” I whispered making my way over to her. She dipped her chin and turned a cute shade of pink before looking back at me. By that time, I was within inches and had my hand on the lowest button of her shirt.
-
Jess’s Point of View
He wanted to sleep together so much more than I did. I expected it to be the other way around, him being the gentleman, and me being pushy. I also didn’t think it would come to this so soon. We only met a little less than two weeks ago. A fleeting thought crossed my mind: You’d better get on this. You’re having surgery in 2 weeks. I knew I couldn’t do anything afterwards, let alone have sex, and so did he. That was why he wanted it so bad. You can’t do anything right now, why not? This was also true. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t jump, so really, why not? 6 months of rehab. My thoughts convinced me that if I wanted this to happen, it had to happen before surgery, not after.
We ended up curled up in his bed watching a West coast hockey game, clothes still intact and on our bodies, except for my Henley which did get pulled off. I had a tank-top on though, so no harm done. He had pulled a big sheepskin blanket up over both of us and snuggled in close. A sudden wave of exhaustion hit me and with my head on his chest, listening to his heart beat, I drifted off to dreamland.
I woke up to see Sid was gone, the place where he had been, cold. I sat there in a panic for a total of 5 seconds before I heard him banging around in the kitchen downstairs. I got out of his bed and shuffled down the stairs to see what he was banging on about. I walked into the kitchen still rubbing my eyes when Sid grabbed me in a huge hug. “Guess what today is,” he said in my ear.
“I don’t know Sid, let me go. I’m grouchy in the morning.” He didn’t let me go.
“We’re leaving for Philly!” he said overenthusiastically. It hadn’t even dawned on me that we were leaving today. I hadn’t even packed! And I knew Melissa would be livid when I walked into the dorm wearing the same clothes as yesterday and on top of that, not calling her. Was she my mother? Sid finally let me go and I sat down at the counter.
“I know I should be excited, but it’s too early for excitement. What time is it anyway?” I asked, my eyes falling shut again as I set my forehead on the cold granite counter.
“7:00!” he said way too brightly and cheerfully.
“Sid, you’re going to have to stop with the happy and cheerful until at least 9:00.” He just laughed and continued cooking whatever it was he had been cooking. Smelled like omelets to me, which immediately perked me up. “Are those omelets?” I asked, my head still on the counter.
“Yup, you want one?” he replied.
“Yes please.”
“Well, you’re going to have to be happy and really nice if you want any,” he said with a smirk as I raised my head off the counter. I figured I’d play along. I walked over to the stove and sat on the counter next to it.
“Sidney,” I said in my most sugary sweet voice, my fingers playing with his shirt sleeve, “I’d really appreciate it if you could make me an omelet.” He turned to look at me, a look of absolute shock on his face, his mouth open slightly. “Please?” I continued, biting my bottom lip for emphasis and looking up through my lashes, not only being nice, but sexy at the same time. I jumped down off the counter and leaned into him. “It would just make my day. All I want is that omelet, on that plate.” He flopped the omelet down on the plate and handed it to me, then turned back around to put the spatula down, but before he could turn around to where I had been seconds before, I was back at the counter, eating the omelet.
“Really Jess?” he said with an exasperated sigh. “I got excited for a second.”
“You said be nice,” I replied as a piece of omelet fell out of my mouth before I could catch it. I was anything but a neat eater. He laughed at me, shaking his head.
“Anyway, so, we need to go back to your place and get all your stuff together. The bus leaves tonight a little earlier than it did for New Jersey, I’d say around 6.” I nodded as more omelet made its way out of my mouth and onto my plate. “Have you talked to your parents recently?” Sid asked, eyeing the half-chewed piece of omelet in disgust.
“Well, they know I’m coming, but they don’t know you’re coming with me,” I said slowly, waiting for his reaction.
“OK, you might want to do that before we actually get there,” he said with a small laugh as he finished up his own omelet and sat down next to me at the counter.
-
Sid’s Point of View
We left my house around 1 with everything I needed for a week of travel. Jess picked out specific outfits for me to wear everyday we were in Yorktown so as not to embarrass her. I guess she wanted to visit old friends and stuff while we were there, which I was all for. We pulled up at her dorm and walked up the stairs through the doors and past the still waiting fans. “I’m warning you now,” she said. “Melissa may be a little angry with me if she’s home. I didn’t call her and I’m wearing the same clothes as yesterday.”
“Doesn’t she sleep over at guys’ places all the time? She strikes me as that sort.”
“Well, yeah, but ever since I hurt my knee, she’s been super protective of me.”
“What does she think of me?” I prodded.
“She thinks you’re just what I need,” she replied and kissed me quickly before the elevator doors opened to her floor and we walked down the hallway to her room. I was surprised at that. It seemed like you needed a lot to get Melissa to like you, but I guess since I was involved with her best friend, she had to like me. Jess let us into her room, peeking around the door first to make sure Melissa wasn’t there. “She’s not here, it’s OK,” she said as she pushed the door open completely. “I’m going to have to face her eventually to tell her we’re leaving. She actually lived down the street from me in Yorktown,” she said as she pulled a duffel bag out of her closet with the words ‘Tabb Basketball’ printed on the side.
“Was that your high school?” I asked.
She glanced at the bag before replying, “Oh, yeah, no fancy boarding school for me. Plain old public school 5 minutes from my house.”
“Are we going to see that?”
“Of course. I want to go back to see my old coaches and stuff. I haven’t been home since I’ve been here. It’s always just seemed like too much travel, but my parents come up here a lot because my grandma and aunts and uncles and stuff live here.”
She was throwing things in the bag now, filling it up to its top with an arrangement of clothes in all different colors. When she was done there, she moved into the bathroom and pulled out another bag which she started to fill with makeup and perfume and anything else that you could think of.
“Do you really need all that?” I asked in a state of amazement.
“You never know,” she replied and continued to add things to the already brimming cosmetics bag. She finished filling the cosmetics bag with things I had never heard of. She had a hair-dryer that looked like some sort of ray-gun, but according to her, it was a diffuser, which didn’t sound much better.
After about 3 more hours of her rummaging through drawers and filling up 2 more bags with things that, to me, seemed useless, we made it out the door, but Jess said she had to call Melissa before we left, so I took the bags down to the Range Rover and waited for her.
-
Jess’s Point of View
I pulled out my phone and punched Mel’s speed dial number in before hitting talk. After a few rings, she picked up.
“Hey what’s up?” she said. She must not have known I’d spent the night at Sid’s.
“Hey, where are you?”
“Oh, I’m at Adam’s. I spent the night.”
“OK, well, I’m just calling to tell you that I’m going home for a week or so,” I said bracing myself for her reaction.
“Really? OK, that’s cool,” she replied. Adam must have been there. She was never this calm, about anything. I debated for a few seconds whether I should tell her Sid was coming with me or not. I decided against it.
“Yeah, so I’ll be back the 19th…” I trailed off, waiting for her to say something.
“Alright. Have a good time!” She was so calm about this, I was a little scared.
“You’re not angry I’m not taking you?”
“No, I think it’ll be best for you if just you go home before your surgery,” she stated. There it was. I knew she had a soft sensitive side.
“Thanks Mel, I’ll see you on the 19th!” I said before hanging up after her goodbye.
Now, I had to figure out a way to tell my mom that Sid was coming with me. I’d told my parents that I’d met him, but I never said anything about us dating. I dialed my house phone and after a few rings, I heard my mom’s voice on the other line, “Hello?”
“Mommy!” I had never gotten out of the habit of calling her that.
“Hi Jess! How’re you? You’re coming down here tomorrow right?”
“Yeah, we should be there around 8 or 9 tomorrow night.”
“Jess, honey, who’s we? Is Melissa coming? Because I was just talking to her mom and she said that-“ I had to stop her now.
“No, Melissa’s not coming with me.”
“Well then, who is?”
“Uh, don’t get mad at me.”
“Why would I get mad at you?”
“Because Sid’s coming with me, not Melissa.” I spit it out like it was poisonous. There was silence on the other end. All I could hear were re-runs of General Hospital going on in the background.
“Well, this is surprising to say the least,” my mom said after a pause. “Are you two seeing each other?”
“Kinda, I guess you could call it that.”
“Is it a friends with benefits deal?” “No mommy, we haven’t even had sex yet,” I said. I felt slimy saying this. Any sex talk with my mom was always awkward, no matter what I was saying.
“OK, good. You know how I feel about sex before marriage,” she continued. Little did she know, I had lost my virginity to Steven, my longtime boyfriend in high school. I regret it now. I never knew he’d just leave me so quickly, but with Sid, I knew he’d never do anything so heartless. The way he’s been acting about my surgery, wanting to be there when it happened… that’s not something Steven would have ever done. I’m not quite sure what I saw in him. I think it was the hockey.
“Mom, I have to go. I’m going to Philadelphia with him tonight for a game and he’s waiting in the car.”
I heard a deep sigh on the other end, and I knew she wasn’t happy with what I was doing. “OK honey. Be safe, please? Don’t let him turn into another Steven. And while you’re in Philly, stop in and say hi to Uncle Patrick.”
“OK mommy, I love you,” I said.
“I love you too,” she said, and then she was gone.