Part 8 - Nodbody's Perfect

The next night, D, Coly and I were gathered back in front of my computer screen. I had a feeling in my gut that this was the last one. The boys were going to end it tonight. They wanted to be well-rested when they hit London, and another game would not help that.


I knew when I talked to Sidney on the phone at lunch that he was in the zone. He was almost D like with the lack of talking. But he wanted to hear me talk, so I talked. Unfortunately, the game didn’t start as well the Nics as they had in the previous games.


Halifax opened the scoring in the first period on the power play and the boys were unable to answer back in the first frame. So I did what I do best when my team is down and out. I cursed.
Coly and D just laughed at me. They didn’t seem at all concerned that Rimouski was down at the end of the first. In fact, while I was cursing colourfully in several languages, Dion laughed at me and said. “There is still forty minutes of game left Drew. Calm down.”


I stuck my tongue out at him. “I am well aware of that. I just don’t like the idea of my boys being down. I’d feel the exact same way if it were you boys out there on the ice.”


Coly rolled his eyes. “I am totally well aware of that.” He said. “Remember, I’ve sat with you at games before when I was hurt.”


I shrugged. “You both have. So you both know.”


“Well calm down and have a drink Drew.” Dion advised. “You’re going to see him soon anyway.”


I glared at D. “He won’t want to see me if he’s not playing and you fucking know it.” I snapped.


D rolled his eyes at my outburst. The nice thing about having a friend like Dion, someone who knows you as well as he knows me, is that they don’t freak out over your freak-outs. D knew full well that I wasn’t angry with him. “Fuck you need to get laid Drew. Maybe that will calm you down.”


“I got laid this weekend remember?” I grumbled. “You guys teased me mercilessly last night.”


“I mean you need to fuck Sidney.” D clarified. “Good sex always calms you down, and no matter what you say, I’ve heard enough stories to know that sex with Aaron is never really all that great.”


“It’s a good thing you qualified that statement with I’ve heard stories.” I teased him with a smile. “Because if you hadn’t I would so be demanding how you came across this knowledge unless you were playing for the other team.”


D grinned at me and ruffled my hair. “I know you would. I’ve learned a thing or two since we’ve met Drew.”


Coly meanwhile, was doing what he always did when D and I were snarking at each other. He sat back, drank his beer and laughed. “She did get you good a few times Neuf.” He pointed out, in case D had forgotten.


D glowered at him. “I haven’t exactly forgotten Fraz and its not like she hasn’t gotten you good more than once.”


I yawned, feigning disinterest. “What can I say? I am perfection personified.”


D and Coly both snorted, but said nothing. The second period was about to start. It took nearly seven minutes, but finally Sidney was able to light the lamp for the Nics. It was his fourteenth goal of the playoffs, and I couldn’t help but feel proud of him. Junior got the assist and I was momentarily appeased and elated, especially when it looked like the Nics had taken control of the game.


Unfortunately this did not appear to be the case when four minutes or so later, when Halifax took the lead back to the joy of the hometown crowd. D, Coly and I moaned however, as the Mooseheads’ player managed to get one by Cèdrick. None of us would say it, but we were all questioning whether or not the Nics had enough left to pull this one out.


Less then two minutes later, Zbynek Hrdel scored unassisted to bring the Nics back. D and Coly laughed at me as I jumped up in excitement and spilt diet coke all over the place. Fortunately for me, I also spilled all over the two of them. I headed to the kitchen to grab a cloth when I heard D and Coly yelling in excitement.


“Drew hurry up and get in here!” D called.


“I’m…. why?” I demanded trailing off, having thought better of yelling, I’m coming, which would only have resulted in a plethora of dirty comments from D and Coly.


“Because they just scored again.” Coly replied.


“They who?” I demanded, rushing into the living room.


“Rimouski.” D said. “Francis Charette, unassisted.”


“Good. This is more like it.” I said.


I was always much more comfortable when my boys were leading. Now that the boys were up by one I was much happier. Just over three minutes later Marky added to the tally with his sixth of the playoffs. So I relaxed with Coly and D during the intermission and let Coly make me a drink.


Dion had offered to make me a drink, but I learned a long time ago that the way D mixes drinks means that you get drunk very, very quickly. I had to work the next day, so letting Coly do it meant that I wasn’t getting totally wasted, but they couldn’t give me a hard time about not drinking.


The third period was pretty boring. The Rimouski boys were pretty much just trying to hold the lead and keep their excitement under control. The Mooseheads did manage to get within one with about nine minutes left in the period, but Sidney and the boys were able to hold on, and D, Coly and I jumped up and hugged each other in excitement as Sidney and the boys won.


The boys continued drinking in celebration and D called some of his friends to come hang out and drink and so I retreated to my bedroom to wait for the phone to ring. Sidney would call eventually, and it was just a matter of time before the phone rang.


Except that time didn’t seem to come. D, Coly and their friends in the living room were getting louder and louder and rowdier. Anxiously I started pacing back and forth. Eventually I even ventured out into the living room to see if someone was on the phone.


No one was though. Angrily, I stormed back to my room. It was nearly 11 our time, which meant it was approaching two am in Halifax. I was pissed off. I picked up the phone and dialed Sidney’s cell number.


“Hello?” A perky female voice answered.


I was instantly jealous, but I decided that I was going to take the high road here. “Trina?” I asked. “Is Sid around?”


“Who’s Trina?” The girl replied suspiciously. “I think you have the wrong number.”


“Is Sidney around?” I asked again.


“He’s busy.” She replied, again sounding suspicious.


“Who are you?” I asked, forcing myself to keep my voice calm.


“Who are you?” She snapped back.


“I asked you first.” I snapped.


“Amber.” She snapped. “And like I said, Sidney is busy, so who are you?”


“I’m Drew Whitney.” I replied. “Tell him I called please.”


“Why would I want to do that?” She snapped.


“Because Sid has call display and if he sees that I called and that you didn’t tell him that I did… well just trust me, he’s going to be upset honey.” I told her condescendingly.


“Doubtful.” She snorted. “How do you know Sidney anyway?”


“Honestly honey, that’s none of your damn business.” I replied.


“Well if you want me to tell Sidney that you’ve called, you should probably tell me how you know him.” Amber said nastily.


I rolled my eyes. “I’m Dion Phaneuf’s cousin.” I told her. “I went with D to Grand Forks and I met Sidney.”


“Well like I said, Sid isn’t available.” She said in a snooty tone of voice.


“If Sid’s not available at the moment, is Eric Neilson or Junior around?” I asked, determined not to let her win.


“Eric’s busy.” She replied. “And I don’t know who Junior is.”


With that, she hung up on me. I waited until midnight and then decided that enough was enough and I was going to bed. Not that I really slept. I spent several hours tossing and turning restlessly before I finally drifted off to sleep. I felt like I had just drifted off to sleep when the phone rang and woke me.


Jumping up, I reached over to answer the phone. “Hello?” I muttered sleepily.


“Drew?” Sidney’s voice asked, yelling over loud music.


“Sidney? Where the hell are you?” I demanded loudly, knowing that I was probably going to wake Dion (and whoever was keeping his bed warm) up, but totally not caring.

“At a party.” He replied. “Give me a second, I’m going to try and find someplace quieter.”

I waited about two minutes as Sidney clearly made his way through the party and upstairs. “Sorry I missed your call.” He said, as soon as he was somewhere the music couldn’t quite reach.

I shrugged and rolled over, yawning as I did. “That’s okay.” I told him, unable to keep the jealousy from my voice. “I got to talk to your friend Amber.”

“Well that must have been about as fun for me as talking to your friend Aaron was.” Sidney said, clearly hearing the jealousy in my tone.

“Actually it was probably less fun.” I told him. “Because you just had to listen to him insult me and not believe that you’re Sidney Crosby. I had to listen to her insult me and demand to know who I was and how I knew you.”

“Sorry baby.” Sidney said, and I knew then that he was drunk. “But turnabout is fair play.”

“You’re drunk.” I replied.

“Yes.” He said. “We just won the freaking President’s Trophy. And it broke.” He added. “Did you see that Drew?”

“Sidney? Do you have any idea what time it is here?” I asked tiredly.

“Well….” He said slowly, and I knew the he was peering at his watch. “It’s seven am here.”

“Which means that it’s four here honey.” I replied. “Can you please stop calling me in the middle of the night? I love you and all, but I’ve barely slept. You promised me that you’d call and you never did, and I waited and waited, and I’m exhausted and I have to work tomorrow.”

“All you ever do is complain.” Sidney snapped angrily.

“Excuse me?” I replied, instantly completely awake and angry.

“I said, all you ever do is complain.” Sidney replied. “I called didn’t I?”

“In the middle of the bloody night.” I snapped, tired and easily irritated. “I have to work tomorrow, so I’m going to go now. Call me when you’re, like, sober or sane again or something.”