Chapter Twenty-Two

Sorry it took a little while to post, I am currently swamped in assignments, ISU's, homework, and an essay on top of that [I'm taking the academic or 'advanced' courses so that's why I've got so much]. I'm trying to write and post as much as possible but be patient because like I said, I'm swamped in school work. Thank you for your lovely comments, and just so you know I am open to constructive criticism. =]

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Coasting Down Memory Lane;
Chapter Twenty-Two.

Sidney had moved back in with Riley and they were trying to work everything out. The guys had begun to win a few more games but they still weren’t where they wanted to be and making the playoffs was their main goal. Generally Riley and Sidney were happy; things were back to where they should be.

“Come to the game tonight, we’re playing Toronto,” Sidney said while Riley was sketching out some more details on the new room design.

“Well that was random.”

“I know, but come, please,” he begged with the puppy eyes.

“I don’t have a ticket stupid!” Riley said in a ‘duh’ tone.

“You’re dating the captain, stupid!” Sidney said mocking her tone.

On the way to the rink Riley turned up the music when one of her favourite songs came on. She started dancing in her seat and singing along with every line, causing Sidney to break out into laughter. They got to the spot where this one guy waits every time. Sidney had told her about it before and she didn’t believe him at all. This was the first time she had actually witnessed it. “Here he is,” Sidney said as he slowed down. “Oh my god, you weren’t kidding.” Riley said as he rolled down the window. “Is this your girlfriend, Sid?” the guy asked loudly. “Yeah,” Sidney said, “Damn she’s hot!” the guy hollered; Riley burst out laughing.

They got to the arena and walked in together, hand in hand. No one was really there yet so Riley walked into the locker room with Sidney. They sat down on the bench in front of Sidney’s stall. Sidney kissed her and pulled her onto his lap. They sat there lost in their own intimate world that they didn’t hear the door open.
“RILEY, OH MY GOD WE THOUGHT YOU DIED! DON’T JUST LEAVE LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!” Marc and Max shouted as they rushed over to her.

The rest of the guys had a similar reaction as Marc and Max did when they walked into the locker room. The room started to fill up quickly so Riley told Sidney that she would make her way to her seat. Sidney followed her out of the room and into the hallway. He pushed her up against the wall and started to kiss his way down her neck, then back up to her lips, his hands roaming. They were interrupted by a man clearing his throat, looking up they saw that it was the one and only Mario Lemieux.

“Sid,” Mario greeted with a smirk.

“Heyyy Mario,” Sidney said. “Riley this is Mario Lemieux, Mario this is my girlfriend Riley.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said extending his hand.

“You too,” Riley said shaking his hand firmly.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” Mario asked Sidney.

“Yeah I was just telling Rye where her seat is…”

“Oh I’m sure you were.” Mario said with a laugh.

After that Sidney went into the locker room to get dressed and Riley made her way to her seat. She found out that she would be sitting with the rest of the girlfriends/wives. She got along fairly well with them, her favourite though was Vero. She was very welcoming and naturally a genuine person.

The guys got on the ice for their warm ups and Riley continued to talk with the girls. When she would look down at the ice she would catch Sidney’s glance the odd time. Other than that, he was a pretty focused boy. “Predictions?” Vero asked filling the empty silence. “5-2 Pens,” “5-4 Pens,” “6-1 Pens,” were what the ladies shouted out.

The game was a nail biter with the Pens opening the scoring in the first three minutes with a beautiful goal by Max. Then they netted another one courtesy of Geno, and then the Leafs got on the board thanks to Jason Blake, then a few minutes later Alex Steen scored. The Penguins won it 6-4 goals by Max, Geno, Jordan, Sidney, Kris, and Tyler. Once the final buzzer sounded Riley got up and headed down to the locker room with Vero and the other girls. Sidney was, of course, one of the last one’s out of the room.

“Ready to go home?” he asked as he leaned down to kiss Riley’s forehead.

“Didn’t you want to go and celebrate with the guys?” Riley asked confused.

“Nah, I’d rather go home tonight,” he said, grabbing her hand and leading her out the door.

“Okay.”

Once they got home Riley decided that it was best to not ask Sidney why he didn’t want to go and celebrate with the guys. She went and sat on the couch while he changed. After a few minutes Sidney joined her in the living room.

“So what did you do while we weren’t speaking to each other?” Sidney asked, bringing up a topic that Riley would prefer to forget about.

“I basically just looked for a job then I found the one that I have now. I’ve mostly been working and hanging out with some friends,” Riley replied. “What about you?”

“I’ve been busy with the team and stuff,” he answered.

“So what are you doing tomorrow?” Riley asked on a brighter note.

“We leave for Ottawa,” Sidney answered simply.

“Okay, kick Heatley’s ass for me.” Riley said with a laugh.

Sidney left the next morning before Riley had even woken up, but he was kind enough to leave her a note of when they would be playing, when they’d be at practice, and when they’d be leaving Ottawa.

She headed out later that day to do some Christmas shopping. The malls were packed with people, creating extra stress for Riley. She was already stumped on what to get the boy that has everything he’ll ever need, plus the fact that when he wants something he can get it almost by the snap of his fingers.

Chapter Twenty-One

Coasting Down Memory Lane;
Chapter Twenty-One.

Riley hosted the show with perfection. She was very poised and professional during the entire show; if you hadn’t known any better than you would’ve thought that she’s been doing it forever. Everyone one praised her on a job well done.

After talking with everyone Riley made her way out to the parking lot that was now emptying out quickly. She walked over to her silver Mustang GT that now looked oh so lonely in the large grey lot. She was grateful that there was no snow yet, saving her a lot of time. Finally she had some peace, in that whole ten or so minutes of bliss. That is until some jerk on his cell but her off. It was then where the aggressiveness kicked in.

Once inside her warm home, Riley took out a pad of paper and began to create design plans for the two spare bedrooms that she currently used for storage. She had taken some courses before on how to design properly. At first she had taken them for fun, now she was happy that she did take them.

She had come up with the idea that the room would have light coloured hardwood floors and dark maroon walls. The room had a good amount of windows so she decided to take advantage of it. All in all, the room design looked like this:


Satisfied with the design, Riley put the pad of paper down on the table just as Kaylan walked in while hollering, “I got pizza!” Riley jumped up from the couch nearly falling because her left leg had fallen asleep. “I love you!” Riley shouted when Kaylan came in with the box of hot pizza. “Oh, only because I have food, right?” she said as she took a pillow off of the couch and sat on it on the floor.

“So what’s going with you and Sid?” Kaylan asked out of the blue.

“We’re just going through a rough patch in our relationship,” Riley answered.

“I’m not the media; tell me the truth, what’s going on?” she asked sincerely.

“I don’t know,” Riley said with a sigh. “Everything was going fine, and then everything went wrong, you know?”

“Well, when did it start going wrong?” Kaylan asked.

“It’s nothing, really. We’ll get over it eventually. You don’t need to worry about it,” Riley said shaking her head but avoiding eye contact with Kaylan.

“Rye, just tell me. I’m like your best friend; I worry about you and not seeing Sid come around for a while now really makes me worry,” she said sweetly.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me,” Riley started. “It all started when I lost my job, then Cooper wrote about Sid and me dating, I couldn’t find a job, and then the guys started losing games and Sid…” she said as tears began to well up in her eyes after the last part.

“Sid what…?” Kaylan asked looking quite concerned.

“He… he would get really angry and I’d tell him to calm down and that they’d get better, he would eventually cool down but one time he didn’t,” Riley said as more and more tears formed. Kaylan swallowed hard and motioned for her to continue. “And he pushed me, not too hard or anything but when I approached him again he said hurtful things and when I tried to kick him out he didn’t go so I threw a shoe at him.” Riley choked out as Kaylan got up and pulled her into a comforting hug.

“Was that the last time you two spoke?” Kaylan asked, still holding Riley in a tight hug.

“Yeah,”

“You need to talk to him, pronto.” Kaylan said seriously.

The next day Riley woke up, her eyes still a little red and puffy, her make-up and hair was a complete mess. “Ugh, crying sucks big time,” she groaned as she got up out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Coming out fresh and clean from her hot shower Riley put on light make-up and plastered a smile on her face.

She got to the TV studio and started talking to some of the cameramen. They always had such a great sense of humour. Once more and more people arrived Riley was met by Cheryl asking her if she had a moment. She did so she walked off with Cheryl to a quieter place.

"You were amazing yesterday,” Cheryl started the conversation off with.

“Thank you, I’ve been observing since I started,” Riley said with a smile.

“I was wondering, would you like to be Kristen’s full time replacement?”

“Oh my God, yes I totally would!” Riley exclaimed joyfully.

“Great, if you do as good as you did yesterday then we might have a similar position for you when Kristen comes back.” Cheryl said, watching the smile on Riley’s face grow even bigger.

"Thank you, so much.” Riley said as she searched for words.

Riley got on with her day, she was in and out of the station all day long but this was her daily routine. She loved the job that she had, she loved the adventures that she got to take [okay they weren’t extreme but she had fun] and most importantly she loved meeting new people and dealing with different people every day.

She was sitting in a comfy executive looking chair walking to some people when she heard some high-pitched squeals. Riley turned around to see Sidney standing there with the most confused and frightened expression she had ever seen. She giggled slightly and then got up and walked over towards him. Some of her female coworkers who were surrounding him looked at her with wide eyes. She motioned for him to follow her to wherever she was heading.

Riley pulled him into an empty office room and closed the door behind them. They stood there awkwardly for a few moments. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind wondering what he was doing her and how he knew she would be at a TV station.

“Hi,” he managed to get out.

“Hey,” Riley replied quietly.

“How’ve you been?” he asked.

“Good, you?” she replied.

“Good. So, you work here?” he asked desperately trying to ease the tension.

“Yep for a couple weeks now,” she replied simply.

“Ah, I see. Uh… I missed you,” he said with sincerity and fear in his eyes.

‘Uh I missed you?!’ Riley screamed in her head. ‘Way to word that properly, buddy.’ She

criticized mentally. “I missed you too,” she replied as a wave of relief flew through Sidney’s eyes.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I should’ve talked about it instead but I didn’t and this is all my fault,” he said, his eyes pleading for forgiveness.

“No it’s not. I’m partially to blame for this as well. I wasn’t exactly been the easiest person to deal with after I lost my job… and I’m sorry for it,” she said as he walked closer to her.

“All’s forgiven?”

“In a sense but we need to work something out. You need to learn that I have my own life that involves my career, I need you to be able to accept that and take it seriously. I have to be independent and I need to learn that your life can be quite stressful.” Riley said seriously.

“We can work this out, I know we can. We belong together and these past three or so weeks have been so hard without you. Riley I use you for strength and most of all my sanity.” Sidney said as he looked deeply into her eyes.

“It’s going to take some work but I’m willing to try,” Riley said as Sidney smiled and pulled her into a hug.

“We’re going to make it work, no matter what.” Sidney said, still holding Riley close.

Riley tilted her head up to look at Sidney while still enveloped in Sidney’s huge hug. He leaned down and their lips collided in a kiss that was filled with fireworks. They didn’t want the moment to end but eventually it had to so Riley pulled away. Instead of walking out of the room she surprised him but hugging him tightly, he wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers.

Chapter Twenty

Coasting Down Memory Lane;
Chapter Twenty.

As the days passed it got closer and closer to saying goodbye to November and hello to December. That meant hearing Christmas songs go from joyful to painful. Riley had been searching for a job since she had lost hers, but unfortunately, was unsuccessful. Sidney and the team had begun to watch their winning streak come to a halt. They had lost five of the last six games. Sidney was not in the greatest of moods because of the slump that they were in. He blamed the losses on inconsistency and selfishness. After practices and games he would be in such a bad mood that Riley would try to find reasons to leave the house. Most of the time she said that she had job interviews when really, she would just drive around in her car. She had found a spot that was peaceful and would usually go there to think things through.

She had tried to tell Sidney numerous times that they team would get better and that this was just a bump in the road but every time he would just start yelling, saying hurtful things to her. When she’d had enough Riley would get in her car and drive for an hour or two, hoping that when she got back Sidney had calmed down. Most of the time that was the case but in one particular scenario he had not cooled down and he had pushed Riley out of the way. He hadn’t used too much of his strength but when Riley approached him again he glared at her and said things that cut her like a knife. She picked up a shoe and told him to leave, when at first he did not do as she said, she proceeded to throw it at him.

They had not spoken since then and neither of them tried to contact each other. On Monday, November 24th Riley had a job interview at a local TV station. The company had been around for eighteen months and was doing quite well. The position that she applied for was to be a journalist, not a TV anchor. Normally the woman who Riley would be writing for would do it herself but she was six months pregnant so the company was willing to hire someone to do it for her. Not many people had applied for this job yet because it was just new to the ‘market’ and most people wanted to be on TV rather than writing for someone who would be.

Riley was fine with those obligations, she just wanted to get back out into the work force. She had nailed the interview and was later offered the job at Sports Guide. This took her mind off of Sidney for the most part but she desperately wanted to share her good news with him. But she figured that they both needed some time apart, Riley needed to clear her head and start over. While Sidney needed to calm down and refocus on his career. Riley was grateful that this position didn’t deal with the Penguins. Well in a sense it did, she would be reporting new about the Baby Penguins. She took advantage of this; she was able to find out news about the ‘adult’ Penguins and mostly Sidney.

Riley had met with mostly everyone at Sports Guide. The TV anchors seemed really welcoming and sweet, instantly making Riley feel a sense of belonging. Kristen, the woman who Riley would be writing for, was very grateful that Riley was willing to do this for her. They talked for a while and instantly clicked. She used this as a learning experience, she observed everyone there, trying to find ways to improve. Mainly she watched the older, more experienced journalists/anchors soaking up all of the information and tips that they gave her. After hours, Riley would get together with her younger coworkers to just unwind.

There were usually five of which that would go out regularly. All within the range of twenty to twenty-six years of age. She had begun to meet more and more people over the course of her time at Sports Guide because another temporary position had opened as well; the company needed someone to fill in for Kristen while she was on maternity leave. Still, Riley and Sidney had not spoken. They were now approaching two and a half weeks of silence.

She figured that he would eventually collect his thoughts and maybe then they could work something out. But until then, they were keeping their distances. Riley no longer tried to follow the Penguins. She didn’t watch the games, she didn’t go to the games, she didn’t read up about them, and she stopped all contact with the guys. She needed to focus on her own life and her own job, without those two things she felt useless. She had been raised to be independent. Both her parents had worked when she was a small child and they had brought her up to think that a life depending on someone was no life at all.

She had begun to think that maybe Sidney being out of her life for now was best. The truth was that she couldn’t handle everything at once. With the loss of her dream job, a good friend, and her privacy all thrown at her in one time sequence she just wasn’t able to handle that heartbreak that came with a relationship.

Riley began to feel like she had stepped outside and watched her life move on without her. She felt like she had no control over what had happened and what would come. She so desperately wanted to start on a clean slate.

Her phone vibrating loudly interrupted the conversation that she was having during her lunch break with her new found friends. She glanced at the screen to see who was calling and noticed that it was Marc. She had been ignoring the team’s calls for a few days because she simply couldn’t handle it. She let it go to her voicemail, closing her eyes and biting her bottom lip while doing so.

“You OK?” Mike, one of the journalists who Riley would hang out with on a daily basis asked.

“Yeah I’m fine,” she replied, wiping a solitary tear away.

It was now December 17th and still Sidney and Riley had not spoken. Riley had pushed all of her thoughts and memories of Sidney into the back of her mind as she walked into the TV studio. She always stayed around to see how the show went. When she walked in she ran into Cheryl, the producer of the show.

“Riley, are you free right now?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Riley replied, some Australian accent slipping out. Living in Pittsburgh for a little while now was slowly eliminating Riley’s accent and replacing it with a Canadian/American one.

“Great. I need you to do me a favour,” Cheryl started, “Could you go and host the show?” she asked as a smile slowly crept on to her face.

“But I thought you guys were hiring someone to do that,” Riley replied, confused out of her mind.

“Yeah, well see… no one really did it for us, you know? I mean they were all good but not good enough. So, we figured that hey, you wrote it so you could very well present it better than anyone. So how about you give it a try?” Cheryl implied just before Riley bounced up and down screeching ‘thank you, thank you!’

Riley was sent to hair and make-up then to wardrobe. It was like her heaven had arrived. She was dressed in an emerald green short-sleeved blouse, complimented with a tight fitting black skirt. Her hair was straightened and left to hang beautifully. She was told to read everything off of the little TV screen beside the camera and to look pretty. After the countdown she live on national television.

“Good evening Pittsburgh. I’m Riley Jacobs, filling in for Kristen Macpherson. Tonight we have an awesome show for you, filled with hockey highlights of both the Baby Pens and the grown up Penguins.” She said with a bright smile. “Your Wilkes-Barre/Scranton guys are off to a phenomenal start in the season…”

Chapter Nineteen

Coasting Down Memory Lane;
Chapter Nineteen.

The next day the Penguins had a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Sidney was at practice before Riley had even woken up; he had left her a note explaining that he had to get to the arena early for more practice. Riley just shook her head thinking about how crazy and dedicated this boy was to hockey.

She had her breakfast then stepped outside to get the mail and newspaper. Once inside, she opened the newspaper up to the sports section. She always liked to see what her former coworkers had been up to. The title on the front page was written in large black letters. ‘Sidney’s Secret Spilled’ and under it there was a picture of Sidney and Riley looking pretty cozy in the park. As she flipped the pages she saw several more pictures of Sidney and Riley; some of them they were holding hands, some they were hugging, and some they were sharing a kiss. She began to read the article it starting off as, “All you ladies out there who adore Penguins’ Captain Sidney Crosby, you’re not alone. Sid the Kid has a lucky lady in his life and it doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere, anytime soon. So attention to all the bleach blonde barbies step aside, Sidney likes natural, educated women. Riley Jacobs, a former Penguins journalist and ‘The Next One’ have reportedly been dating for the past several months. Maybe that’s why he’s been on an impressive scoring streak…” The article went on to describe all of their public outings and such. Riley was shocked, not only does this man steal her job he portrayed her picture and personal life to everyone.

Riley now felt like this was all one big bad dream. How would she get a job as a sports journalist now? Everyone would now know that she was dating one of the NHL’s star players; and it’s not like she could just deny it – the article had the pictures to prove it. Her head was spinning and her mind was racing. Sidney would be back from the morning skate any minute so she decided to wait and tell him about the article that is if he didn’t already know.

Looking out the window, she saw Sidney pull up in his silver Range Rover. He walked up to the door and opened it. When she was home throughout the day Riley usually kept the door unlocked knowing that friends would pop in and out randomly. He walked into the kitchen to get a drink, saying hello to Riley on his way. After doing so he made his way over to Riley in the living room.

“How are you?” he asked, putting his arm around her.

“I’m alright, but I want to show you something…” she said as she reached over and took the newspaper off of the glass coffee table.

“Alright…” Sidney said with some confusion.

“Here’s Cooper’s first article!” Riley said, purposely acting horrible at being excited.

Sidney sat there reading the article, Riley tried to tell what he thought about it by his facial expressions but he showed none whatsoever. She sat there watching his eyes quickly moving from left to right as he read the article as quick as he could comprehend it. After he finished the article he placed the paper down on the table, still not saying a word and remaining that stone cold, emotionless expression. Riley sat there, staring at him intently. She didn’t want to say anything but the silence was killing her. Sidney then, after a little while of painful silence, spoke up.

“Well…” was all he said. Riley looked at him wanting him to say more. “What do you think of it?” he asked wanting to make sure he knew what she thought before he said anything.

“You really want to know what I think.” Riley said quickly, she was about to explode and Sidney had a look as if he were expecting it to be huge.

“I… I think that…” she stuttered as Sidney looked absolutely horrified for what was about to occur. “I think that you should confirm our relationship.” He sat there for a few seconds looking confused as ever.

“You do?” he asked timidly.

“Yeah, I mean how could we deny it now? That is if you want to tell people.”

“You’re sure that you know what’s going to happen when I say that you’re my girlfriend, right? There will be people that won’t like you and they might give you a hard time and…” he said but Riley cut him off.

“Sid I know. I can stick up for myself you know,” she said.

“I know you can and that’s one of the many reasons of why I love you. It’s just… some people are going to be jealous and I don’t want to cause you any problems,” he said sincerely.

“Sid, you’ve already caused a lot of problems for me,” she paused looking at his expression. It was like he was trying to apologize with his eyes, “I’m sure I can take whatever else your crazy life is going throw at me.” She concluded with a smile.

“Alright, I just hope you’re prepared for what’s to come…”

Soon after Sidney had to head out again to do some interviews, he had three booked for the day, which in the end, took up most of his ‘free time’. In each of them Sidney was his usual boring, lifeless self except when he was asked if he had a girlfriend or not.

“So Sid, do you have a girlfriend?” One of the reporters asked.

“Yes I do actually,” he replied, a little bit of life evolving within him.

“Oh really, care to share some details?” He asked, clearly surprised by Sidney’s previous response.

“Her name is Riley and that is all I am willing to share.” Sidney replied, losing what little life he had gained but remaining that famous smile.

“Alright fair enough, but just answer this, is she pretty?” the guy asked, raising his right brow.

“She’s gorgeous.”