Chapter 17 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I think Mrs. Crosby was really surprised and more then a little angry when I got into Sidney’s truck with him, but she said nothing as she got into her car and headed back to Sid and Eric’s. When we got there, Mr. Crosby, Eric, and Sidney’s little sister Taylor were all in the kitchen having breakfast. Eric’s glance was apologetic as he looked at Taylor. “Hey TayTay, want to come play video games with me in the living room?”

“Can I Daddy?” The little girl asked.

“Sure thing kiddo.” He said, his eyes on me, not his daughter.

As soon as they were out of the kitchen, and therefore, out of earshot, Sid took a deep breath and said. “Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Nickie Roy.” He squeezed my hand reassuringly. “Nickie, I’d like you to meet my Mom and Dad.”

“Nice to meet you Mr. & Mrs. Crosby.” I said, forcing a smile.

Neither of his parents bothered to answer my greeting. Instead, Mrs. Crosby looked at her son. “What on earth made you go over there last night?” She demanded of her son.

“Umm….” Sid said slowly. “I missed her. I hadn’t seen her all day.” He told his parents, carefully leaving out the fact that we had actually been together until early afternoon the day before.

“And you!” Mrs. Crosby said turning on me. “Where on earth were you’re parents?”

“Umm in Airdrie, Alberta, where they live.” I said simply with a shrug.

Mrs. Crosby looked at me, clearly confused. “If your parents live in Airdrie, why on earth are you here?” She demanded.

“Because of an English teacher who decided that my parents marital problems are responsible for what she called “anti-social” behaviour. So they decided to ship me out east to a relative I didn’t even know I had.” I said with a shrug. “Not that its solving anything, but at least it shut Ms. Kulak up.”

“And where was that relative last night?” She demanded.

“Out of town.” I said with a bit of a blush. “So Mark and I had a bit of a party and then Sid came over."

“You both showed very poor judgement.” Mr. Crosby spoke up.

“Sorry Dad.” Sidney said, looking down at our hands, which were still clinging tightly together. “But she’s the best thing that’s happened to me since I’ve been here.”

“Well I don’t think you too should spend so much time together.” Mrs. Crosby said adamantly.

“That’s kind of hard to do.” I said slowly. “I mean, Sid and I are among the only English speaking kids in Rimouski. Plus, we’re both doing correspondence school. We’ve been studying together since second semester started.”

“Really?” Mr. Crosby asked, looking a little surprised.

“Yeah we have Dad.” Sid said, sensing opportunity. “She’s the one who helped me with my final project for psych.”

“Did she now?” Mr. Crosby replied with a pointed look at Sid’s Mom.

“Well yeah. Turns out Nickie’s into that whole psychology thing. If it weren’t for her, I totally wouldn’t have managed a 80% in psych.” Sidney said to his parents, his hand squeezing mine. “She told me all this stuff, that I’d been studying all year, and wow, it made sense all of a sudden. And this was before I was even sure that I liked her.”

“Well then I guess that’s something to say for her.” Mrs. Crosby grumbled. “Though I’m not sure what I’m supposed to think when my 16-year-old son’s girlfriend appears to meet me for the first time wearing my sons pants.” I immediately turned beet red, because really, there wasn’t much that I could say. Apparently, Mrs. Crosby decided that our silence was an invitation for her to continue. “How long have these, umm, sleepovers been going on?”

“Trina.” Sid’s Dad said warningly. “We can’t be here all the time, and we have to trust our son.”

“Thanks Dad.” Sid said, a blush still on his cheeks.

Mr. Crosby turned. “Don’t think this means I approve.” He said firmly. “I don’t. You two are too young to be having sex. And don’t try to tell me that you haven’t been. I maybe old but I am not stupid. I played in this league once too son.”

We both blushed. But Sidney decided to defend himself and me. “You have been in this league so you do know how it is Dad.” He said. “You know that most guys have a different girl every weekend. At least I’m with Nickie and only Nickie.” He pointed out. “There is no chance of either of us getting anything this way either, because I’m not like Tobin or Stewie or some of the other guys on the team, who have a girlfriend at home, but who most definitely enjoy their time on the road.”

“What about pregnancy?” Mrs. Crosby demanded.

I blushed bright red. “Umm I’m on, umm deprovera.” I said. “I’m anemic and I bled really heavily, they tried the pill, but it didn’t help, and with depro, I don’t have a period at all.”

I was so totally embarrassed, discussing this kind of thing in front of my boyfriend AND his parents. I mean, Sid knew that I was on deprovera, but he didn’t know that it was because of my anemia and my period. “I still don’t approve.” Mr. Crosby said pointedly. “But there isn’t much we can do from Cole Harbour.”

Mrs. Crosby however, wasn’t so resigned. She looked at Sidney. “I want you to promise me that this is going to stop.” She said.

“I can’t do that Mom.” Sidney said.

“And why not?” She demanded.

“With all due respect Mrs. Crosby.” I said quietly, finding my voice. “We’re both 16. Sid and I could promise you that we’ll stop having sex and then we go to a party one night and we get carried away…. Well then we’ll break our promise to you, and I know Sidney well enough to know that he wouldn’t want to break a promise to his parents. He loves you too much for that.”

“Nickie’s right Mom.” Sidney said. “I won’t make a promise to you guys that I don’t know that I can keep.”

His Dad nodded. “The kids are right Trina. We can’t ask the impossible of them. They are kids after all, and stuff is bound to happen.”

“But it shouldn’t.” She said. “They shouldn’t be alone.”

“Umm with all due respect Mrs. Crosby, it’s pretty impossible to keep us from being alone.” I said. “I mean, Eric can’t be here all the time, and Mark can’t be at Tante Amèlie’s all the time, and even Tante Amèlie can’t be there all the time. I mean they could try, but still, if we really wanted to, we both have vehicles.”

She sighed. “Troy we can’t leave these two here like this… no parents.”

“Trina, we do have Taylor to consider.” Mr. Crosby said.

“I just don’t like it Troy.” She said with a sigh. “I don’t like waking up in the morning when I come to visit my son only to find him missing, and not know where he is.”

“Mom, I’m sorry.” Sid said. “I was just going to hang out with Nickie until she fell asleep, but I ended up falling asleep too, and neither of us noticed I guess. I didn’t mean to scare you. We didn’t even have sex last night for God’s sake.”

“Then why was she wearing your pants?” His Mom demanded.

I raised my eyebrows at Sid. This was going to be a lot harder to wiggle out of then he thought. “Fine.” He snapped. “We were going to have sex, and then I said something that caused an argument and then we stopped what we were doing, and I told Nickie I’d hold her until she fell asleep. I just didn’t bother to get dressed.”

“Humph.” Mrs. Crosby said. “So you’re telling me that you snuck out of this house last night to go have sex?”

“Actually Mrs. Crosby that wasn’t the original intention.” I said boldly, getting a little angry now. I mean, Mr. Crosby said it himself, he’d been in this league, so he KNEW full well the way things were when you were getting billeted or when you lived on your own. Why was he judging US so harshly? Besides, if I remembered correctly, he had quit hockey when Mrs. Crosby had found herself pregnant with Sid. “Originally, Sid came to my place, picked me up and we lay on the couch and watched Sportscentre. We just wanted to spend a little time together. We don’t exactly get a ton of that, what with him on the road all the time.”

“So you’re saying my son snuck out, snuck you in, and then snuck out again?” She said louder then I think she intended, because she quieted down and added. “Sidney how could you?”

Sidney sighed and sat in one of the kitchen chairs, pulling me onto his lap. “Sid….” I whispered as he hugged me tightly, burying his face in my neck.

“Stay.” He replied refusing to let me go. “Please.”

“Your parents….” I whispered, as Mr. & Mrs. Crosby starred at us, Mrs. Crosby turning redder by the second.

Sidney took a deep breath. “Mom, I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but Nickie is probably the one thing keeping me sane right now. I’m under so much pressure to break all these damn records and everyone is watching my every move, but with Nick, its, well different.”
“Different how?” His Dad asked, seeming far calmer then Mrs. Crosby.

“Well she cares about the records and stuff, but ONLY because they matter to me. If I stopped caring about scoring points and goals and if I never got another point, she wouldn’t care as long as I was happy.” He explained. “And I’m just as important to her as she is to me. Her family is falling apart….” He paused and turned to me. “Can I tell them?” He asked. “About Frankie too?”

“Yes.” I whispered quietly, burying my face in his neck for a second, needing the smell of him and the comfort that always gave me.

“Mom, Dad, Nickie’s family has been falling apart since her little brother died in an accident six years ago. Her parents don’t even talk to each other anymore. Nickie has known for years that they’re having sex with anyone but each other. They didn’t even talk except through Nickie. Then this English teacher interferes and Nickie gets shipped out here on New Year’s Eve to an old, eccentric Aunt, who barely speaks English. Nickie doesn’t speak French, and here she is, with no friends but Mark Tobin.”

Sidney paused, taking a deep breath. “Then she meets his girlfriend and Catrine decides that she hates Nickie because she’s as absolutely beautiful as she is and she’s living with Mark. Catrine convinces most of the girls to feel the same way, so all Nickie has is Mark and a couple of guys on the team who want in her pants.”

“And I’m sure she let them.” Mrs. Crosby muttered to my amazement.

“Actually Mom.” Sidney said angrily, glaring at his mother. “Nickie was a virgin when we had sex for the first time, not that its any of your business, but since you are the one who decided to bring Nickie’s honour into it.”

I blushed beet red as Mrs. Crosby said. “And you know this for sure?”

“Trina….” Sidney’s Dad said warningly. “I trust our son’s judgement in this one and I trust Nicole. She clearly cares about him and he cares about her. I don’t want to hear anymore about this. I want to spend some time with our son and get to know Nicole. We raised a bright boy Trina. He wouldn’t go to such lengths to defend her if she wasn’t worth it.”

“She’s worth all this and more Dad.” Sidney said, his eyes meeting mine meaningfully. “All this and more.”