The Girl Next Door Chapter 18

The next night, the Penguins beat Calgary, so Sidney was in a better mood than he had been, since Max, who was his best friend, got sent down. They could only stop for ice cream on the way home because of Sidney’s 11:30pm, Mario Lemieux-enforced, curfew. Kate’s curfew, however, remained midnight. They started talking about winter break. Kate had two weeks off, and Sidney was going back to Cole Harbour on Christmas Eve morning, and coming back early the day after Christmas. Kate’s family, at the beginning of the hockey season, decided to stay in Pittsburgh for Christmas, because there were four home games from the 23rd-31st, and they invited some of their family out. Only her dad’s sister, Megan, her husband, and their two children (whom Kate and Neal called the “Spawn of Satan” because they were evil), were coming out for a few days. Since most of their family members were still in Minnesota, most opted to stay there. Kate began to tell Sidney about her family that was coming out here, since she figured Sidney might meet them.
“They’re crazy,” Kate told him. “Seriously. The children, Mary and Andrew, are the ‘Spawn of Satan.’”
“Why are they the ‘Spawn of Satan?’” Sidney laughed as they ate their ice cream in the car.
“They’re evil children,” she said. “Andrew hit me in the head with a huge stone, and I had a goose egg on my head for a week. They’ve done tons of other horrible stuff too, there’s too much to tell.”
“What about your aunt and uncle? What are their names?” Sidney asked her.
“Megan and Jack,” she told him. “Well, they’re, um, how should I put this? Um, different. They don’t have cable cause they think it will corrupt their children. They also think public school will corrupt them, so they send them to Catholic school. My mom, brother, and I all have a bet on how we think they’re going to be when they get to college. They’re gonna rebel.”
“And they’re on your dad’s side, right?” he asked her.
“Ya,” she said. “My dad’s side is absolutely insane, and my mom’s side is completely normal. What about your relatives? Are they insane?”
“There are a few,” he told her with a big smile on his face. “But they’re mostly normal.”
“No crazy ones like mine?” she asked him.
“Nope, they’re not that bad,” he laughed.
“Hey!” she yelled, and she punched him in the arm. He laughed, then leaned in and kissed her, and they kissed for awhile.
“We’ve gotta go,” he told her, after they were done.
“Okay,” she said, taking their empty ice cream cups outside to the trash, and then getting back in the car, where Sidney gently took her hand and held onto it for the rest of the ride home. When they got back to Kate’s, he walked her up to the door, they kissed, and said good-bye, since the team was going on a road trip. She went inside, and talked to Neal for awhile. Neal was kind of down because Allison couldn’t come over here until two days after Christmas, but she was going to stay with them for a week until the two of them went back to school.
“Miss her already?” Kate asked him as she walked into the family room.
“Ya,” Neal told her, not taking his eyes off of the television.
“You saw her like two days ago, and you’ll see her in a little over two weeks,” she told him.
“I know, but still,” he said.
“What happened to my brother who didn’t need a girlfriend?” she asked him. “At least, that’s what you always told me in high school. You’d go out on a date or two, and then dump them. You were such a pimp!”
Kate finally got Neal to crack a smile.
“I was a pimp, wasn’t I?” he asked.
“You really were,” she told him. “You had a different girl every other week!”
He laughed, and then nodded in agreement.
“Well, what happened to my single sister?” he asked back, just to torture her.
“What do you mean?” she asked him.
“After Alex, you were totally pissed, and said you didn’t need a boyfriend,” he told her, jogging her memory. “And now you’re dating Sidney Crosby, who everyone thinks is still single, but he essentially hasn’t been single since the first day he got here in August.”
“Things change,” Kate told him.
“Exactly,” he told her. “Allison changed my ‘bachelor’ ways, and Sidney changed your mind about dating. We both changed after we met someone. I could tell the minute you saw him that you were going to end up dating him.”
Kate laughed, and they chatted some more, and watched some television. They went up to bed after midnight, and as Kate lay in bed, she thought about what her brother said, that someone can change who you are. She thought about going to college in Minnesota, then thought about going to college in Pittsburgh. While she was thinking, she fell asleep, still completely unsure of what she wanted to do.