The Girl Next Door Chapter 13

That Saturday, Kate had an early Saturday morning practice with her hockey team, and it went well. They would have their first game in two weeks, and they were almost ready. Later that day, Kate had some of the guys over to watch the Penguins game. The Penguins lost, again, but, of course, Sidney played well.
“Sidney is a machine,” one of the guys, Andrew, said. “He’s the only one out there trying.”
“Definitely,” Alex, a sophomore and the youngest boy on the team, agreed. “How is he, Kate?”
“Fine,” Kate told him. “I’ll probably talk to him later, he always does a ton of interviews after the games.”
“Do you like him?” Andrew asked.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You know, LIKE him like him,” Andrew explained.
“No,” Kate said, sounding very definite. “We’re just good friends.”
“Katie, since I’m going to the game with you on Tuesday,” Alex told her, “do you think you could get me to meet him?”
“Sure,” she said. “I’ve just gotta check with Sid to make sure it’s okay.”
“Cool,” Alex said. “He’s so awesome, you’re lucky you’re friends with him.”
“He is pretty great,” she said.
*****
When Sidney got back on Sunday, he went over to Kate’s to see her, and he told her that he wanted to talk to her.
“What about?” Kate asked him, as they headed down to Kate’s basement.
“Us,” he said.
When they got down to the basement, and Kate’s parents were out of view and earshot, he kissed her. They kissed for a couple of seconds, and ended in a hug.
“Katie,” he began, “while I was up in Boston, I was thinking about us.”
“What about us?” she asked him.
“We just started going out a week ago,” he said. “And I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“What are you going on about?” Kate worriedly asked him.
“If the press found out about this, they would destroy you,” he said. “They’re horrible. They would ask you a bunch of questions, and ask you about things that aren’t true, and all of that hurts. Trust me, I’ve been asked everything, and the questions can be hurtful.”
They sat in silence for a minute.
“So,” she began, “are you saying you don’t want to go out with me?”
“Oh, Kate, no!” he told her, giving her a hug, he could see where she could have drawn that assumption from. “Far from it. I just think that it would be better for both of us right now just to keep this to ourselves. The last thing I want to see, Katie, is you getting hurt.”
“I haven’t told many people,” she said.
“Have you told your friends at school?” he asked her.
“No,” she said. “The only people that know are my parents, Neal, Allison, and Rachel. I thought it would be best not to tell anyone else.”
“I’ve only told my parents and Taylor,” he told her, “but I’m sure the rest of my family will find out. But they’re not going to the press or anything. The guys on the team will find out, but we’ll just keep it at that. I just don’t want you getting hurt Katie. Reporters can be horrible people.”
“What if they ask you if you’ve been dating?” she asked him.
“I’ll lie,” he told her. “I don’t lie a lot, but I can’t tell the press the truth all the time. I really like you, Kate, and I just don’t want you to get hurt. Are you okay with this?”
“It’s fine,” she told him. “You’ve got enough publicity as it is, you don’t need any more.”
He smiled at her, and they decided to walk back upstairs to watch the Steelers game.