Chapter 35 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

It was really no big surprise after the way that first period went when the Nics won the game 8-2. Every single goal in the game was scored on the power play. Marc-Antoine and Zbynek Hrdel each bagged one in the second, then Dany Roussin scored his second of the night early in the 3rd. Finally, Mark hit the goal side of the score sheet and so did Michal Sersen.

It was actually a horrible game to watch despite the win and despite the fact that Sidney managed 4 assists (2 in the first and then one on the Zbynek Hrdel goal and one on the second Dany Roussin goal). He was the 2nd start of the game too, but that really didn’t make it a good game. There were too many penalties and too many guys from Shawinigan gunning for the phenom as far as I was concerned.

Either way, we made our way down to the visitors’ dressing room, only to find the place crawling with Shawinigan fans who wanted the phenom’s autograph and press was everywhere. I caught sight of Troy and waved. “You kept your promise Nicole?” He asked, his eyebrows raised with a smile.

“Of course.” I said. “I got kill and then Mich went out and filled it up again and she is really, really drunk, whereas I am only mildly intoxicated.”

Troy laughed again. “Why don’t you girls go to the hotel?” He said. “There is no way you are going to get to see the boys in this crush. Does Sidney know what room you’re staying in?”

“I don’t think so.” I said. “We just got here just before supper. We checked in and then had supper and came here.” I paused. “B what’s the room number?”

B, being the good, responsible sober friend for the night, had been given the responsibility of the car keys and the hotel room key card. She pulled the card out of her purse, in the little envelope thing with the room number that hotels always give you. “214.” She said, only she said it in French so it was more like, deux cent quatorze.

“Well why don’t you get these two back to the hotel?” Troy said. Then he paused and looked a B closely. “You are sober right? Because I can put you girls in a cab if you need one.”

“Non Monseuir.” B said with a smile. “Je ne suis pas ivre… I’m not drunk.”

“Good.” He said with a smile. “Then you take these two back to the hotel and I’ll tell Sidney what room that you girls are in so he and Danny Stewart? Can come visit.”

He said Danny’s name like a question. “Yes, Danny Stewart.” I said, as Michelle said something incomprehensible (to me at least) in French and B tried to shush her. I caught the word ‘chum’ so she was clearly talking about being his girlfriend, but the rest of it didn’t make any sense to me. “Do you think they’ll be long?” I asked, glancing in to the room.

Troy chuckled. I guess I am fairly transparent when I want to see Sidney. “Probably.” He said. “Sidney will probably have to sign at least 100 autographs still tonight.”

“Fucking phenom.” I muttered under my breath. I glanced up at Troy, who clearly hadn’t heard me (thank goodness) but who had seen the look on my face. I shrugged. “What can I say?” I said in answer to his unspoken question. “Every now and then it’s hard to be the phenom’s girlfriend.”

Troy nodded and gave me a one armed hug. “Don’t worry about it kiddo. It’s not always easy being his Dad either.”

I smiled as Mich, B and I turned to make our way through the crowd. “Thanks Troy. See you later.”

I didn’t hear his reply, it was swallowed up by the crowd. I grumbled to myself as we made our way through. Back home in Rimouski everyone knew us, so we didn’t really have a hard time waiting to see the boys after games, in fact, we were usually the first ones in once the media was out and the boys were ready to go. This was the first time I’d traveled to see Sidney play and I wasn’t sure that I was very impressed.

Either way, we headed back to the hotel (and managed to get lost twice), so it was a good ½ hour before we were in our room. “Oh lord I want to get out of these shoes.” I moaned, reaching for my bag.

B rolled her eyes. “I do not know why you insist on wearing shoes like that to games.”

“Because they make my legs look sexy.” I said rolling my eyes. “And Sidney likes my legs. Like you wouldn’t do the same for Marc-André.”

“C’est vrai.” Michelle said, as she pulled off her own shoes. “You would for him. You used to for Sidney.”

“Do not remind me.” B said, rolling her eyes. “I will never be that stupide again.”

“Jésu Chris B. Tu n’étais pas stupide pour la dernière fois.” I said firmly. “You made a mistake, suck it up and move on.”

“Easy for you to say.” She snapped. “You have Sidney.”

“Yeah right, have him.” I snorted. “I barely see him, and when I do, I’m so busy worrying about the fact that he has to leave soon that I can’t even enjoy being with him. I can’t sleep without him next to me. When he’s not there I’m up all night with nightmares about Frankie or I worry about my parents or I worry about Sidney and I. I love him B, but sometimes I think I love him too much.”

B and Mich stared at me. “You do not sleep without him?” B asked. “Then what have you been doing?”

I sighed tiredly. “Not sleeping.” I said. “Every now and then I get so tired that I can sleep for a couple of hours if Mark is around. But when I do fall asleep I typically wake up in a cold sweat breathing heavy.” I paused. “Sometimes Mark will sit next to me on the couch while I try and get a couple of hours of sleep in.”

“No wonder you are such a bitch lately.” Michelle said. “And here I thought it was just because you were not getting laid.”

I laughed. “I wish.” I paused. “Look I just want to change into something comfortable. Maybe Sidney will cuddle with me until I fall asleep if the two of you can find some place else to be.” I hinted.

“Pas un problem.” Michelle assured me as she reached for a pair of jeans.

“If Sid falls asleep too, make sure you wake him up when you guys get back here.” I said to B, who was clearly far more sober then Michelle.

“Sure.” B said. “Pas de problem.”

I changed into the Ocèanic sweats that I had totally stolen from Sidney. He’d actually ordered another pair so that I could have his original ones. I was exhausted, but I knew that I wasn’t going to sleep very well without someone else that I really trusted around. I mean, I like Mich and B, but they aren’t as close to me as Sidney and Mark.

The girls also changed and then wandered down to the lobby to wait for the bus and to get a couple of diet cokes. I lay down on one of the beds and waited for Sidney. I didn’t have long to wait. Michelle and Bianca had been gone for maybe 10 minutes when there was a knock on the door.

I stood to answer it, tiredly rubbing sleep from my eyes. I’d already washed off my makeup and I knew that anyone who, well, wasn’t blind would see that I had huge dark circles under my eyes. “Hey.” I said quietly kissing him softly.

“Hey brat.” He replied, wrapping his arms tightly around me. “How you feeling?” He asked. “Dad said you were a little wasted tonight.”

I shrugged. “I stopped drinking after the start of the second period.” I said. “He made me promise. I made him promise not to tell your Mom that I was drinking.”

Sidney chuckled. “That sounds like Dad.” He said.

I nodded and yawned broadly. “Sorry.” I said.

Sidney looked at me anxiously. “Are you okay brat?” He asked. “I mean, have you been sleeping alright? You look absolutely exhausted.”

I shrugged. “Not really.” I said. “And I am exhausted.”

“When’s the last time you got a full night’s sleep?” He demanded, leading me over to the bed that I’d clearly been laying on earlier.

I shrugged, snuggling into his lap. “When we were in Cole Harbour.” I said. “Well the night we got back.”

“Since then?” He asked softly, smoothing my hair away from my face and pressing a soft kiss on my forehead.

“A couple of hours at most.” I told him. “Sometimes if Mark and I sleep together I can manage 2 hours. But he’s not you, and it just isn’t the same.”

“You’ve been sleeping with Mark?” He asked, looking confused and a little angry.

“Only when I’m really desperate for a couple of hours of sleep.” I told him honestly, a little upset by his anger. “Not every night or anything. But when I haven’t slept in 2 days for more then 30 minutes at a time, a couple of hours looks pretty damn good.”

Sidney nodded. “You need to sleep Nickie.”

“Don’t we all?” I replied, a little sarcastically.

“Don’t fucking do that Nickie.” Sidney replied angrily.

“Sorry.” I replied blushing and burying my face in his neck. “I’m just tired and cranky and I don’t know….”

He kissed me softly on the forehead. “It’s okay brat.” He said. “We haven’t exactly spent a lot of time together lately, and when we have you’ve been kind of distant.”

“No I haven’t.” I replied defensively. “You’ve been so busy we’ve barely had any time for each other at all. I haven’t been around you enough to be distant.”

“Yes you have.” He insisted firmly. “Saturday night at your place you barely looked at me let alone spoke to me.”

“I was tired.” I defended myself. “And Mark went and got so drunk and then Marc-Antoine and Dany R were mad at him and I didn’t want him to get in shit… he is my friend after all. Plus Alex and Patrick were there, and it was just more people then usual.”

“You’re making excuses Nicole.” Sidney said, his eyes burning into mine. “Then tonight you leave the rink before I even get a chance to say hi and give you a kiss. I would have made time for that you know.”

“Your Dad told us to go!” I replied, sitting up and turning to face him. “He told us that you were going to be signing at least a hundred autographs and that it would be awhile. He said he’d tell Danny and you what room we were staying in and that you should come visit, which he clearly did, or else you wouldn’t be up here.”

“He told you to go?” Sidney asked, as though he hadn’t heard me correctly or something.

“Yes.” I said. “Michelle was incredibly drunk and I was still tipsy and he said it would probably be a good idea to just go back to the hotel. So we came back and B got us lost like three times.”

Sidney chuckled. “You’re the only one of you three with any sense of direction Nickie.”

“True.” I said. “But I wasn’t really paying attention when we checked into the hotel.” I told him. “I’d been sneaking drinks since B took over driving about an hour before we got into town. I was pretty tanked before we got to the game and the first period didn’t exactly help matters anyway.”

“Why did you drink?” He asked. “I mean Nickie, brat, it’s a Tuesday.”

I shrugged. “I figured maybe the booze would help me sleep. Or at least be unconscious for a little bit longer then I normally am.”

“What would help you sleep?” He asked looking concerned, not only about the fact that I hadn’t been sleeping but also about the fact that I’d been using alcohol to help me sleep. “I mean, I can’t spend the night obviously, but is they’re anything I can do brat?”

“Yes.” I mumbled, cuddling in his arms again. “Can you hold me until I fall asleep?” I asked. “Michelle and B will wake you if you fall asleep too.” I told him. “They already promised me.”

Sidney sighed as he lay down with me, smoothing my hair and kissing my neck softly. “You know what I want to do more then anything right now don’t you brat?”

“Yes.” I mumbled sleepily. “And if I get a good night’s sleep tonight, then we can tomorrow night when we get back home after y’all have wrapped up this series.”

“You think we’re going to finish them off in four?” He asked, his arms tightening around me as he placed soft kisses along my neck.

“I know you are phenom.” I replied as I drifted off to sleep. “It’s already a done deal.”