Chapter 12

I glanced at the clock on the library wall and saw that Sidney’s game against Ottawa was just starting. I sighed, wishing I was at home watching the game instead of sitting in the library getting a head start on finals work. I had a paper instead of a final for my Social Justice class and wanted to get it done before next week when finals started and I would be spending all of my time studying.

I was sitting at a table across from Grace who was also working on a paper, and there was a small group of guys there as well. I looked back at my laptop and wrote a few sentences before looking up at the clock again. Grace noticed and commented on it.

“Are you wondering about the game too?” she asked. I nodded and rolled my eyes.

“I hate when they’re out of town, and it makes it worse when I can’t watch the game because I’m writing a paper,” I responded.

“I know. I miss seeing Jordan’s face,” she said while pouting. I giggled.

“I miss seeing Sidney’s face too.” I heard the guy next to us groan.

“Great, I’m sitting next to two of you kind of girls,” he said.

“Excuse me? What kind of girls?” Grace asked. The rest of the table looked up to listen to the exchange.

“Two of the Penguins groupies who only like the team because they think the guys are ‘like so cute’,” he answered. Grace and I exchanged shocked looks.

“Whoa, we are not groupies,” I defended us.

“Sure, you actually know them,” he said sarcastically. I narrowed my eyes at him and debated whether or not to continue this conversation. Grace however wasn’t about to let it go.

“Yeah, we do know them, thanks.” He laughed and I felt my face turning red when I saw the entire section of the library listening in to our conversation now.

“Okay, so you’re dating Jordan Staal, and you’re dating Sidney Crosby, right?” he asked pointing at both of us. I just nodded, not wanting to draw any more attention to us.

“Is there a problem with that?” Grace asked, not caring.

“You expect me to believe that the youngest captain in NHL history is dating her?” he asked pointing at me. What the hell was he talking about?

“Did you say captain?” I asked.

There was no way, Sidney would have told me. Then it hit me. The “C” on his jersey I’d kept meaning to ask him about. Did it stand for captain? How had I not put that together before? And was he really the youngest in history to be one? I suddenly wished I wasn’t so clueless when it came to sports.

“Yeah, I really believe that a girl dating Sidney Crosby wouldn’t even know he was the captain of the team. I suppose you also don’t know that there was a chance the Penguins were going to move out of Pittsburgh because they were so bad the city wouldn’t support them anymore until Crosby was drafted. He single-handedly saved hockey in this city.” I just stared at this guy in shock. Was what he was saying true? He decided he hadn’t had enough of ridiculing me.

“He’s only been called the ‘next Wayne Gretzky’ since he was about 15 years old and he was one of the highest touted number one draft picks ever. Not to mention the fact that he holds Penguins’ franchise records for assists and points by a rookie. Oh and he’s the youngest player to ever be voted into the all-star game, let alone as a starter. And he’s the youngest player to have consecutive 100 point seasons, score the most points in a season, and be voted as MVP by the other players in the league. Let’s cap it off with also being named MVP of the league by the media, winning countless community and charity awards, that $9 million salary each year, not to mention the how many millions he makes thanks to all his sponsorship deals. The guy is the face of the NHL and probably one of the best players the league has ever seen, but you’re his girlfriend and you don’t know that. The guy has girls throwing themselves at him all the time and he could have anyone he wanted and you expect me to believe he chose you, a college student at Duquesne?”

I couldn’t even respond. Sidney was everything that guy said? There was no way, he would have told me. He would have told me if all of that stuff was true. There would have been no reason to lie about it. I felt sick as I replayed everything the guy had said in my head. Things started to click in my brain and began to make sense.

The last thing the guy sitting next to me said hit me the worst. Girls threw themselves at him all the time. Did they really do that? Well, hey, I guess when you made $9 million a year before the money you made from all the sponsors, that would happen. Guys that made that kind of money definitely could have any girl they wanted. This guy was right, why would Sidney have chosen me? Probably because I didn’t know anything about hockey and he could play some stupid game with me.

“Tanner, are you okay?” Grace asked me from across the table. I looked up at her and shook my head.

“I don’t feel so well,” I said collecting my stuff and running out of the library.










“You’re an asshole,” Grace said to the guy sitting across the table from her.

“Why, because I just burst that girl’s bubble informing her that she never stood a chance?” he asked meanly. Grace picked up the phone that Tanner had left sitting on top of the table.

“No, because you just made her feel like she wasn’t good enough for her own boyfriend.” He laughed.

“You still expect me to believe that she’s actually dating Sidney Crosby?” Grace opened the camera application in the phone and put it in front of the jerks face.

“Look at these pictures and tell me they’re not dating,” she said as she scrolled from one picture to another.

The guy’s eyes widened in shock as he saw pictures of Tanner and Sidney at the zoo, hanging out in the living room, one where Sid was kissing Tanner on the cheek, and especially the one Grace herself had taken when she caught Tanner and Sidney kissing in the living room.

“Holy shit, she really is,” the guy commented. Grace pulled the phone away, packed up her stuff and went after Tanner.










I sat at my computer scrolling from article to article. Everything that guy had said about Sidney was true. I couldn’t believe the sheer amount of websites dedicated to him. He wasn’t just an average hockey player like he had told me, he was a superstar.

Tears fell from my eyes harder and harder as I read article after article about all the talents of Sidney Crosby. Why had he lied to me? I eventually fell onto a message board about whether or not Sidney had a girlfriend. While none of the conversation had anything to do with the answer to that, I saw that the guy was also right about the number of girls that would throw themselves at Sidney if given the chance. One post in particular caught my eye.

Why hasn’t Sidney been exiting with the rest of the guys to sign autographs for the past few weeks? I’ve been waiting outside after each game to get a picture and an autograph but he hasn’t come out in a long time.

Sidney had told me that guys always parked in different sections of the parking lot and that he always parked on the other side. That was obviously a lie if he just suddenly stopped doing it a few weeks ago. Then I remembered. I’d gone to my first game a few weeks ago. He must have started parking somewhere else when I started going to games.

Why was he hiding this from me? If he had changed where he parked his car, it meant he was actively hiding it from me and I just didn’t understand. He’d also told me that fans didn’t want his autograph and that was also a lie. He’d lied right to my face when I asked him about it without even blinking.

I’d locked myself in my room when the girls wouldn’t leave me alone. Grace had come back and tried to talk to me. When I’d told her to leave me alone the rest of the girls had come in to see what was wrong. Grace explained the whole situation to them and I just couldn’t deal with talking about it right now. My phone rang and I saw Sidney’s name on the screen.

“Nicknamed ‘The Next One’, he was one of the most highly regarded draft picks in hockey history, leading many to refer to the 2005 Draft Lottery as the ‘Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes.’ By his second season, he led the NHL with 120 points to capture the Art Ross Trophy, becoming the youngest player and the only teenager to win a scoring title in any major North American sports league,” I read off of the Wikipedia page on my computer screen when I picked up the call. There was silence for a moment on the other end.

“Tanner, I can explain,” he said.

“God, you’ve won a lot of awards,” I commented ignoring him. “So they give out two MVP awards at the end of each season? Am I right in reading that the media votes for one and the players in the league vote for the other, and you won both of them last year?”

“Babe, I’m sorry. I really can explain.” Hearing him call me “babe” really set me off.

“I’m sure you can, but I’m not interested. I don’t date liars. Why don’t you take your nine mil a year and find one of the millions of girls who would just die to date you?” I hung up the phone and then turned it off in case Sidney decided to try to call back.










“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Sidney yelled punching the seat in front of him as he saw the words “call ended” on his phone screen. Everyone on the plane turned to look at him, especially Flower, who had been sitting in the seat he just punched.

“What is the matter with you?” Marc asked.

“She knows. Tanner knows,” he said as if anyone could understand what he meant.

He didn’t care. He was talking more to himself than them anyway. They’d just lost to Ottawa and he hadn’t played very well. The whole team hadn’t played very well and he was already upset. Then he had to deal with that very pleasant phone conversation.

“Tanner knows what?” Letang asked from across the aisle.

“Everything. About me, about the hockey stuff.” Everyone got it then. They all knew Tanner wasn’t a sports fan, and that she didn’t seem to have a clue who Sidney was to the game of hockey.

“How did she find out?” Max asked. Sidney shrugged, not sure. Then his anger flared up again and he did something completely irrational.

“You fucking said something!” he screamed at Staalsy standing up and making his way over to him, fist clenched, ready to throw. Jordan threw his hands in the air, and he was holding his phone in one of them.

“I didn’t do anything. Grace just told me some guy at the library overheard them talking about us and got on Tanner’s case about claiming you were her boyfriend. Apparently he really ripped into her and told her everything,” Jordan explained.

Sidney collapsed back down into his seat. This was not good at all.