The Girl Next Door Chapter 42

In the middle of the week, Kate started her spring break, and school didn’t start again until the day after the Penguins last home game. Kate’s first week of break was pretty boring, because her friends were all gone, skiing out in Aspen or in the Bahamas, and the Penguins were on a four game road trip. So, Kate spent the weekend at Ohio State with Allison and Neal.
When she returned, the hype around Sidney reaching 100 points was growing. Everyone thought that 100 points would be reached in one of the last two games, the first of which was at Mellon Arena. Sidney came back home to play the Rangers, then left again the next day to play the Islanders on a Saturday. Sidney came back late that night, and on Sunday, he and Kate just sat around, relaxing. Kate could tell there was a lot of pressure on him, and that he was nervous.
“Hey, you need to relax a little bit,” Kate told him as they sat on the couch, her head on his shoulder, as they watched a movie. “You are so tense, I can tell.”
“I’m just really nervous about the game tomorrow,” he said, reaching out to hold her hand. “Last home game and all. My parents and Taylor get in soon, and that adds to the pressure a little bit. They want to be here for my hundredth point.”
“That’s sweet of them, but I can see why that would make you nervous,” she said. “Talking about it is just going to make you more nervous, so I won’t mention it. If you wanna talk about it anytime in the next couple days, just to get stuff off your chest, you know who to talk to, okay?”
“Thanks Kate,” he said, giving her a kiss on her cheek.
They say there, finished the movie, and then Sidney left, leaving to pick up his family at the airport. After he left, Kate went upstairs to the family room to talk to her parents.
“Mom, Dad, we need to talk,” she said, sitting down on the couch.
“About what, Katie?” her mom asked.
“Next weekend.”
“What about it?” Tom asked.
“Well,” Kate began, “the Baby Pens are in the playoffs, and they start in the middle of this week. Sidney and I were talking about driving up to go. A lot of the guys are going back there too to watch.”
“No,” her dad said firmly and immediately.
“Can I finish?” Kate asked.
“Let her finish, Tom,” Sarah said.
“Mom, I know you’re going to see Grandma, and dad, you have a conference out of town, so you’ll both be gone, and that you were uneasy in the first place about it, cause I would have the house to myself. But, I talked to Colby’s girlfriend, Lauren, and she said I could stay at her apartment on Friday and Saturday night. We were going to head up on Friday, after I’m done with school, so we could hang out with the guys, and then come back some time on Sunday.”
“Your mother and I have to talk about this Kate,” Tom said. “Why don’t you go upstairs, and we’ll call you back down when we’ve made a decision.”
“Okay,” Kate said, getting up from the couch. As soon as her parents heard her bedroom door closed, they began talking.
“Absolutely not,” Tom stated, with a stern look on his face.
“I think she should go,” Sarah said, smiling.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because,” Sarah began, “I think she’s old enough, and responsible enough to not make stupid choices. And Sidney’s leaving next week, and he’s going away for over a month. That’s going to be really hard on them.”
“You know what’s going to happen don’t you? She won’t be spending the nights at Lauren’s apartment, she’ll be spending them at a hotel with Sidney. Didn’t you ever hear how Troy and Trina got married? She got pregnant with Sidney while Troy was in juniors, so they had to get married. That’s why he quit hockey. They were only about twenty or twenty-one.”
“I know that. But Kate’s eighteen now, and she’s responsible. She’s going to make her own decisions, and we can’t stop her on some of them. And next year, if the Penguins make the playoffs, you know she’ll be following the team and going to away games, watching Sidney play, assuming they’re still together, which I think they will be. We knew that when she started dating Sidney, this would happen eventually. I didn’t think it would be until next year, if they made the playoffs. But, she’s eighteen, and old and smart enough to make her own decisions. We just need to trust her to make the right ones.”
They sat there, quietly for a minute. Finally, Tom agreed with Sarah.
“Kate! You can come down now!” Sarah called up.
Kate ran downstairs, and stood in the family room, waiting to hear their decision.
“You can go,” Tom said, in a defeated tone.
“Thank you!” Kate squealed, running to hug her parents.
“But be careful, and don’t make stupid decisions,” Sarah warned. “Or there will be consequences.”
“I’ll be careful!” Kate said. “Thank you!”
She ran back upstairs to call Sidney.