Chapter 24 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Completely predictably, Bianca had run off to the one room every teenage girl runs off to when things go wrong. Everyone was so busy getting drunk that they hadn’t even noticed that Bianca was in tears. Which, honestly, was a good thing for both her, and for Sidney and I. Taking a deep breath. (Because, well this was actually a little scary after all Ms. Kulak, because this is the same girl who showed up drunk at my Tante’s house to scream at me.) I knocked on the bathroom door.

“Go away.” Bianca’s voice called, and I could immediately tell that she was still crying.

“Are you alright?” I called back.

As soon as I was done talking the door opened, and an angry looking Bianca opened the door. She’d clearly been crying… hard. Her eye makeup had completely run and she had mascara all around her eyes. “What do you care?” She demanded angrily.

“I care because you’re upset.” I said quietly.

“Go away.” She snapped. “I don’t need you here celebrating.”

“I’m not celebrating.” I said, knowing exactly how she was feeling. “I’m here to make sure that you’re okay. There is nothing for me to celebrate in this whole thing.”

“Of course there is.” She said, allowing me into the bathroom now and she backed up and sat on the toilet seat. “Not only do you have all the boys who adore you, you have Sidney, who loves you so much that he has given up les autres femmes.” She said, briefly changing to French. “The girls they are deciding that you are not as bad as Catrine, Claire and I have said. They want to be your friend because of the boys liking you.”

I snorted. “Bianca, I did not get where I am today by not being able to tell when people only want to be my friend because of something I have. Not only are my parents completely loaded and I’ve been dealing with it for years, but I far too smart for that.” I took a deep breath and paused, knowing full well that this needed to be about Bianca, not about me. “But Bianca, I may have come into this thinking of it as a contest, but really as soon as I actually got to know Sidney, it wasn’t about that at all anymore.”

“But we were so mean to you.” Bianca admitted, to my surprise.

I shrugged. “That’s not something that hasn’t happened before.” I said. “But as soon as I got to know Sidney I didn’t care about how mean you and Catrine had been to me. I didn’t care about bagging the phenom. I just wanted Sidney because of how he made me feel about myself.”

Silent tears ran down her face. “I’m not telling you this to hurt you Bianca.” I said softly. “I’m telling you this because everyone woman deserves that kind of happiness… the happiness that Sidney and I have found together.”

“He is what I wanted.” She admitted, her tone softer now too. “When I first saw him in the paper, when he was drafted. I knew that he was the guy for me.”

I sighed. “You knew, but you weren’t the girl for him Bianca.” I told her, my voice gentle once again. “You were far to ready to adore him and let him get away with doing anything he wanted to do. He needed someone a little stronger.”

“That is why il t’aime.” She said, as if it were just dawning on her now. “It is not your clothes, or your car, or that you can drink like a boy. It is because you are strong.”

I shrugged. “That, and I don’t care about hockey. At least, I don’t care about how well he plays or if he plays at all, so long as he’s happy. I care about him and his happiness more then I care hockey. With you, he was never sure.”

She glared at me, suddenly suspicious again. “Why are you being so nice to me?” She demanded. “So that I will tell you les choses and then you and Sidney can laugh at me together?”

I sighed. “I’ll admit Bianca, I’ve made fun of you before, and so has Sidney.” I said. “But it was wrong of both of us. I’m sorry.” I paused. “The thing is Bianca, you need to know that you are worth more then that. You are worth more then just a puck.”

“I know that.” She said. “But I wanted Sidney so badly that I was willing to do whatever it took to be a part of his life.”

“And now, you aren’t a part of his life at all because of it.” I said bluntly. “But, you know Bianca that you could have been his friend.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t want to be his friend. I wanted to be you Nicole. I wanted to be his amour.”

“You say that you wanted… what do you want now?” I asked gently.

“What you have with Sidney… but not with Sidney. With someone else, because after what he said to me tonight I know that Sidney will never, ever love me the way that he loves you.” She told me.

“No.” I said honestly. “He won’t. But don’t take it personally. Sidney will never love anyone else the way that he loves me. Even if we do someday break up, I’ll always be the first girl he loved. The same way that even if we don’t last forever, I will never love anyone the same way that I love him, because he will be the first guy that I fell in love with.”

“You love him so much it is disgusting.” She said with a small smile.

I laughed and shrugged. “He loves me the same way, so really, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter because we so in love that it’s disgusting, together.”

Bianca shook her head. “I am not sure that I should trust you.” She said, honesty clearly being the theme of this conversation. “But you are being so nice, and none of my friends even saw that I was upset or took the time to come and check on me.”

I shrugged. “Sometimes people aren’t as good of friends as you think they are.” I pointed out, thinking of my own so-called “friends” back home in Airdrie who hadn’t bothered to contact me at all since I’d moved. “And sometimes, friends come from surprising places.”

“I must look horrid.” She said, running a hand through her now tangled hair.

“You do need to wash your face.” I told her. “You’ve got eye make-up and mascara everywhere.”

“Oh mon dieu.” She said, looking in the mirror.

“I’ve got my travel make-up kit in my car.” I said, offering what little help I could, knowing full well how uncomfortable it was for a girl to go out in front of a group of people after she’d been crying without fresh make up. “I can run and get it for you.”

She looked at me, a little suspicion still in her gaze. “That would be good merci.”

“I’ll be right back.” I said, sneaking out into the hallway.

Sidney was immediately by my side. “Is everything okay?” He asked, looking concerned. “You’ve been in there with her for a long time.”

“Everyting’s fine Sid.” I said, kissing him gently on the cheek. “Bianca’s been crying, we talked, sorted some things out, and now I’m going to go get the make up kit out of my car.”

Sidney rolled his eyes. “I cannot believe that thing is what you travel with. That thing must weigh at least five pounds.” He said.

“Yes and the one that I leave at home all the time weighs two or three times that.” I pointed out. “Of course, if you wanted to be helpful, you’d offer to go get it for me… and fill up the flask at the same time.”

“Is that a hint?” He replied, kissing the pulse of my wrist as he grabbed my keys.

“Maybe.” I said, my fingers playing with his.

“Well I’ll be right back.” He said. “You go back to Bianca, and I’ll bring the kit to you.”

I kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks phenom.” I said softly. “I love you.”

“I love you more.” He replied.

So I headed back to the bathroom. Plopping myself down on the edge of the tub I said. “Sidney went to get the kit for me.” I announced.

Bianca shook her head. “He would never do that for anyone but you.”

I shrugged. “I’d prefer not to find out that he’d do that for someone else thanks.”

She laughed. “I did care about him Nicole.” She said seriously. “I just want you to know that I did care.”

“I don’t doubt it B.” I said simply, because it was clear that she did in fact care about Sidney at some point. “Unfortunately for you, he didn’t feel the same way about you.”

She sighed. “I tried to make him feel the same way, but nothing I did worked.”

I patted her on the shoulder. “You’ll find someone B.” I told her reassuringly. “I mean, it just sometimes, like happens that the first person that you think is right for you isn’t actually right for you.”

“Did that happen to you?” She asked.

I shifted uncomfortably. I’d never thought that Coby was “the one”. The fact is, I totally knew that he wasn’t. For me, he was a victory over the other girls. I didn’t care what he was like as a person, so long as I could claim him as a boyfriend. “Well no.” I admitted. “I knew that my ex-boyfriend Coby wasn’t really the guy for me. I mean, I could never, like, talk to Coby. All we ever did together was get drunk and make out. We couldn’t just, well talk about what was going on in our lives and we couldn’t just be together without talking. Any silence we had wasn’t comfortable, it was awkward.”

“It is not like that with you and Sidney, non?” She asked, tears running down her face.

I sighed. “No, it’s not like that with Sidney and I.” I said. “I can just be with Sidney. No talking, no making out, and I’m completely comfortable with him.”

“I was never comfortable with him.” She admitted. “It was like he was always wanting me to do something or be something that I could not. Or he just wanted to have sex.”

“I’m sorry he did that to you B.” I said softly. “He really is a better guy then that, I promise.”

“I know he is.” She said, sniffling. “That’s why I wanted so badly to be with him. Because I wanted to be the girl who made him show the world how good of a person he really is.”

I sighed. This sucked. “You do know that’s why I told him he had to be honest with you right? It wasn’t just because I wanted him, because after hearing what you had to say that night that you found us together I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be with him. But I did know that no matter what I felt about you deserved better then how Sid was treating you.”

“Thank you.” She said, wiping her eyes.

Just then Sidney knocked the door. “Nickie I brought it.” I could hear people laugh outside, and I could see Sid shrug. “You guys know how Nickie is… her make up is smeared.”

I could hear more laughter and then I opened the door. I took the kit from him and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m only happy when I look my best.” I said, loudly enough so everyone else could hear. “And we both know that when I’m happy, you are definitely happy.”

He shrugged with a grin. “We may not always agree Nickie, but you are definitely right about that one.” He said, smacking my ass.

“Thanks.” I whispered in his ear, kissing him.

“No problem.” He replied, handing me my flask.

I turned and handed the kit to Bianca. “You carry this in your car?”

I shrugged. “I have a lot of make up.” I said simply.

“I would never have guessed.” She said, looking at the kit in awe. She went to say something more.

“And you thought Catrine was spoiled right?” I said, filling in the blanks.

She laughed. “Tout le monde, everyone says that do they not?”

“Yeah pretty much.” I said. “Everyone except Sidney, who just started calling me brat all the time, but since I call him phenom, I guess its only fair. Now here, you should try this emerald green. With your dark eyes it will look amazing.”

She took the colour. “You have an eye liner to go with it non?” She asked.

“Somewhere in here yeah. I’ve got some foundation that looked like it was my colour in the store, but was actually a little too olive. It should look fine on you. Bronzer will help. Oh and here’s my black mascara and my eyelash curler.”

“Tout le monde… everyone must say you are very spoiled Nicole.” Bianca said, really smiling at me for the very first time. “But they must also say that there is no one else come toi… like you. And for that I am very glad.” She paused before finishing with a grin. “I do not think this town could take the excitement.”