Chapter 25

Chapter 25
The next morning, Sidney had to go back home. Unfortunately, he had a road trip and would be gone for a week. This meant he had to miss Lauren’s graduation, but she understood, considering they were in the middle of the playoffs.
After graduation, Lauren moved home for the summer. She spent most of her time at the Lemieux’s with Sidney. Sidney always made sure she had tickets to the games, and most of the time, her and Vero would sit together. They had become pretty close friends.
One night, Vero and Lauren were sitting with a few other girlfriends during the game. At one point, Lauren could have sworn she saw Sidney’s old teammate, Jimmy, sitting in the stands near them, watching her. When she looked over again, however, he was gone. She got that same uneasy feeling and told Sidney about it in the locker room after the game. “I think Jimmy was here tonight. Did he tell you he was coming or something?” she asked.
“No, I haven’t talked to him since that night we saw him in Montreal. That’s weird – I don’t know why he would come all this way for a game.” Both Sidney and Lauren shrugged it off and Sidney finished his interviews. After he was done, they headed to a popular South Side bar, Diesel, to celebrate the night’s victory with Sidney’s teammates and their girlfriends/wives/significant others. When they got there, Sidney lead Lauren in the back door to the VIP area, where most of his teammates had already ordered their first round of drinks. Neither Lauren or Sidney liked to drink that much, so Sidney got a Pepsi for each of them while Lauren sat by the bar and talked to Vero.
“Lauren? Is that you?” A voice from behind her yelled. She turned around and came face to face with her ex-boyfriend, Ryan.
“Ryan! How are you? What are you doing here?” She said, giving him a hug.
“I’m doing great. A buddy of mine is a bartender here, so he hooked us up with VIP access. What are you doing here?”
Lauren grinned and nodded towards Sidney, who was standing a little ways down the bar getting their drinks. “Well, I’m actually here with my boyfriend.” Ryan turned around to see who she was talking about.
When he saw Sidney, his head snapped back around and his jaw was dropped. “That’s your boyfriend? That’s Sidney Crosby. Oh, you’re funny, Lauren. You always did have a good sense of humor. Now, really, who are you here with?” Ryan said in disbelief.
As if right on cue, Sidney returned with their drinks and set them down on the bar in front of Lauren, dropping a kiss on her forehead as he leaned past her. When he noticed Ryan, he immediately put a protective arm around Lauren’s waist. She smiled at him and put her hand over his. “Sidney, this is Ryan Jones. Ryan, this is my boyfriend, Sidney Crosby.”
The two men shook hands and Sidney gave Lauren a questioning glance. “Ryan?” He remembered her telling him about her high school boyfriend and figured that this was the same guy.
Lauren nodded her head in confirmation. “Yeah, remember I told you about him?”
“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you, man.”
Ryan’s mouth was still dropped but managed to find his words. “Yeah, you too. I’m a big fan.”
“Thanks.”
“Sid! Come here real quick!” Max yelled from a nearby table.
“I’ll be right back, babe.” Sidney said, planting another kiss on Lauren’s forehead as he went over to Max.
“Okay, how the hell do you know Sidney Crosby?!” Ryan asked.
She told him the story of how they met, and Ryan laughed hysterically. “Well, that’s definitely interesting. So you and Sid the Kid, huh?”
“Yeah, but he’s not really a kid. He’s a great guy.” She said, smiling over at Sidney, who was laughing about a story Max was telling. When their eyes made contact, he winked at her.
“As long as he treats you right, that’s all that matters to me. You know how those professional athletes can be.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I’ve heard the rumors. But none of these guys are anything like that –they’re a really great group of men.” She said, waving her hand around the room towards the players. “And he treats me well. He’s a great boyfriend.”
“A better boyfriend than I ever was, I guess.”
“Ry, you know you were a great boyfriend, but we were young and we still needed to find ourselves. Besides, you and I both know we were never in love. Not like I love Sidney, anyways.”
“Yeah, I can see that. You seem really happy, and I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks Ryan, that means a lot. It was great to see you, again. Don’t be such a stranger.”