Chapter Nine

Sorry for the delay, I have been quite busy with school lately. Thankfully I survived the first week. Please comment and enjoy! =]

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Coasting Down Memory Lane;
Chapter Nine.

Riley looked up, shocked. Troy stood there giving her a stony expression with his arms crossed. Riley closed her book and he approached her.

“So, you and Sid are...?” Troy said fishing for words.

“Over. Congratulations you were right,” Riley said with no emotion.

“That didn’t last long...” he said trailing off.

“Yeah well you’re partially to blame here,” Riley said now her temper rising.

“Me? What did I possibly have to do with you lying to my son?” he said coming pretty close to crossing the fine line.

“Let’s face it, okay. You don’t like me, you never did. And I don’t think that you ever will fully approve of a girl that Sidney dates,” Riley said shaking her head.

“So, it’s my fault that you two broke up because I am protective of my son?”

“Okay look, I was going to tell him, after all I just found out the day before--”

“Whoa, just found out?” Troy said, interrupting Riley.

“Yes, but there’s no use for me to even tell you because Sidney and I probably won’t be making up,” Riley said looking away from Troy.

“Why don’t you just tell me and we’ll see where things go,” Troy said sweetly with a warm smile.

Whoa that did not just happen. Was he being nice? He’s never nice! This cannot be happening; I thought Trina was the nice, sincere one.

“Alright, it’s kind of a long story but I’ll shorten it since we don’t have a lot of time,” Riley paused looking at Troy as he nodded.

“Basically I didn’t know it was Sidney, or well I knew it was him just not that we dated. When I was in Australia I went surfing one day and this huge, mega-wave came up from under me and I lost my balance and fell off my surf board and hit my head off of it, making me unconscious. I woke up later that day in a hospital room not remembering a thing, making things difficult since you know I was in university. Anyway, I got most of my memory back, like I remembered family, friends who I kept in touch with, school stuff and those things. But I didn’t remember Sidney,” Riley said with a frown.

“I had no idea,” Troy said looking shocked.

“No one did, but Sidney wouldn’t let me explain why I hadn’t realized it was him. He just went into this big speech about how I was selfish for leaving and such when again I tried to explain to him that I had to leave. I had no other choice. I couldn’t just wait around for Sidney to finish school I was a year older than him, it was bound to happen sometime. And even if I did stay, he would’ve left anyway to play with the Penguins,” Riley said as she looked at Troy for his expression.

“He doesn’t think things through, he was just looking at it from his point of view,” Troy said with a small smile trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter I mean I doubt that we are going to make up.”

“Well we’ll see how things go, why don’t you talk to him,” Troy suggested.

“I’ll see, but I have a question, why all of a sudden are you being so nice to me?” Riley asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Well don’t tell anyone this because I might get a reputation as a softy,” Troy said then paused to smile at Riley.

“When you left Sidney was heartbroken, devastated even. I saw the way he looked at you, even then that you were something special to him. Then seeing the way that he talked about you on Friday and even yesterday, just something about the thought of you lifts his spirit. That was also another clue that you were his ex. Anyway, I can just see that he cares about you a lot, even though he may act like a complete selfless moron at times, he means well,” Troy said as Riley’s vision started to cloud with tears.

“Thank you, Troy,” Riley said as they stood up.

“No problem, I just couldn’t bear to see my son upset again, over the same girl!” he said with a laugh and pulled her into a hug.

They stood there, hugging in silence until the guys barged through the door. “Awe Sid’s dad and girlfriend are having a heartfelt moment!” Max shouted as he made the weirdest expression. Sidney was behind Marc-André Fleury who was behind Max, making Sidney within earshot and he could also see the two hugging. He was shocked, utterly shocked. He never envisioned the two standing like that.

Troy and Riley both made their way out of the locker room so the guys could get changed. Riley had to go back in afterwards so she could do an interview after they were changed.

When Riley went back in to the locker room after the guys were done getting ready she did her interviews and saved Sidney for last. Something about the mood had changed, he seemed relaxed. As Riley turned around to leave Sidney grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her back to him. “Can we talk?” he asked with pleading eyes. “Yeah sure,” Riley replied her voice barely above a whisper. “Okay, give me five minutes,” Sidney said as Riley nodded and made her way out of the locker room.

Sidney came out five minutes later, like he had said. He said goodbye to his parents since they were going back to Nova Scotia. When they were saying goodbye Troy pulled Riley aside for a few moments, while Sidney was talking to his mother. Troy and Riley talked for five minutes or so and Sidney kept looking over at them. “I hope everything works out for you two,” Troy said to Riley as they were walking back to Sidney and his mom and sister. “Thank you so much Troy, really I mean it,” Riley whispered quietly but loud enough for him to hear.

After they left Sidney and Riley made their way to Riley’s house. When they got in they walked straight into the living room and before they could sit down Sidney pulled Riley into a huge hug. “I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear as she closed her eyes and nodded while saying, “Me too,” They stood there for a few minutes in silence, no one really wanting to start off.

After a few minutes they pulled away and started talking. Riley had explained to Sidney that four years ago she couldn’t wait around for him to graduate – she had to start a life of her own. Sidney had explained to Riley that he was heartbroken when she left and how he would’ve liked to have known about her applying to the university. They talked for an hour and a half when Sidney asked, “So what was with you and my dad today?” This shocked Riley, she wasn’t expecting this question. “Oh we were just talking,” she answered simply. He looked at her with uncertainty then said, “No I mean he usually doesn’t approve of anyone so why would he trust you? No offence.” Riley smiled at this and thought quickly about her answer then replied, “Maybe I’m just special,”