Chapter Sixty-Nine

“Oh my god, I can’t believe we are here right now.” I said as soon as I walked into Sidney’s house. I had been there once before. Last summer, I came for a few days right before we broke up and that whole Simon thing went down. This time, I would be spending over a month with him in his comfort zone and I was so incredibly excited. I couldn’t wait to just chill and watch him fish and see him interacting with his family. I had never even met his whole family, which thinking back on it is crazy. I never met his grandmas. They had come to Pittsburgh this past season, but we never got together for some reason. For some reason, I think I had a huge test or something. Oh well, none of that mattered now. I would be here with him. Just he and I hanging out like a normal couple. I couldn’t even explain how excited I was.

“Well, believe it.” He said setting down all our bags. At that moment he grabbed me from behind and gave me this huge hug in his foyer.

“I still can’t, Sid. I can’t wait to see Sam.” I said thinking about his dog, who I loved.

“I can’t wait to show you everything. You have never even seen my parent’s house before.” He said walking towards the living room.

“I know.. it seems so weird. I mean you do live in like Antarctica.” I said exaggerating.

“Oh gosh, that’s right! That’s why its so cold here!” He said mocking me.

“I hate you!” I said laughing.

“Wow, that really sucks then for you.. I mean since you are stranded in Antarctica with me!” He said.

“Stop it!” I said.

“You know I love you.” He said walking towards me.

“Come on, lets walk down to the dock.” He said grabbing my hand and leading me out the back door.

“I can’t believe we are here right now.” I said sitting and dangling my feet above the lake.

“I always knew I would ask you to come up this summer.” He said.

“What? Since when did you know that?”

“I wanted to have you spend the summer last year, but it didn’t seem that it would happen because we were so up in the air. But this year.. it was different.”

“This year is very different than before.” I cut him off by saying.

“I know, and I knew leaving you would be so hard, but I figured I owed it to the both of us to figure out if it would work this time. Basically by the time I got back to Canada, I already missed you.”

“Then I was a bitch about following you.. I’m so stupid.” I said.

“I just can’t wait to do this all summer long.” He said just taking in the fresh air.

“You do know that I don’t fish.” I said.

“Oh you will.. give it time.” He said laughing.

“When do you train?” I asked.

“Usually in the mornings. I will wake up and have a small breakfast, then head to the gym and meet my trainer. Then maybe in the afternoons or evenings play another sport, like golf or tennis.” He said.

“too bad you are so competitive or I would play with you.” I said laughing.

“we should work on that. I mean we don’t even ever play board games with eachother.” He said.

“I know, its kind of pathetic.”

“We will work on that this summer.” He said standing up and I followed him.

“So how is the knee?” He said sitting on his couch.

“Oh you know.” I said plopping down beside him and putting my legs on top of him.

“No, I don’t really.” He said kind of letting out a little laugh.

“Its not worse, but it doesn’t really feel like it getting any better.” I explained.

“Did you tell anyone that?” He asked.

“I don’t know what to say or who to tell. I mean I run and I work out with the trainers, or atleast I did. I play soccer with Jake atleast once a week, and I work out everyday, but I don’t know how to make it better.”

“I just ask because you haven’t talked about soccer in a long time.”

“I don’t know whats going to happen this year.” I simply said.

“What do you mean? Don’t you want to play?” He asked me with a confused look.

“Soccer isn’t what it use to be for me.”

“What do you mean?” He asked again.

“Soccer use to be that one way I felt good enough. It was when my dad looked at me the way he looked at Jake during his hockey games. It was when people would forget about my grades or what happened with Colin, or my brother, or even that I knew you. It was like when I got out on that field, nothing mattered.”

“Its not that way anymore?”

“I don’t know. When I think of soccer, I don’t think of Academy soccer, I think of RMU soccer, and RMU soccer meant me and you fighting. RMU soccer means Simon, and I mean Simon is one of my best friends, but Simon meant no you.”

“But that’s not the case anymore.”

“I know. I know that you are here, and we are stronger this time around. Its just I wish I could decide if soccer was what I wanted to make my college life around without thinking about money.”

“I don’t get what money has to do with it.”

“No soccer, no scholarship.” I simply said.

“Jo.. if you don’t want to play soccer, don’t play. If you don’t want to play, I will pay for school.” He said so seriously.

“Don’t be stupid, Sidney.”

“I’m not. I’m serious. I have all this money, and I know its my money and not your money.. but if I can help, let me help.”

“You are not paying for my college, that’s just ridiculous.”

“no what is ridiculous is that you will devote so much time to something you don’t love anymore, just because of money, when I have more money than I know what to do with.” He said.

“But its your money.”

“But you are apart of my life.” He said.

“Yeah, I am and I hope to always be. But, my education is not your burden.”

“But your happiness is. I want you to be happy and if its playing soccer, great. If its playing Frisbee, great. I don’t care what brings you happiness, as long as its there. Don’t let money change that, when it doesn’t have too.”

“My parents would never let you pay for it, and neither would I. I will probably just get redshirted this season anyways.”

“Just think about it, Jo. The money is yours if you want it.” He said.

“Thanks, babe. But you know how money talk gets me..” I said.

“I know, which is probably why you didn’t bring it up sooner.”

“I know that you want to fix things. You always have wanted to make everything in my life better, and I love you for it..but I don’t want to be a burden.”

“Stop saying that. You are not a burden. I love you with all my heart, and that could never be a burden.” He said kissing me.

“Okay, lets get you unpacked.” He said pulling away from me after a few moments.

“What are we doing tonight anyways?” I asked when I got up to his room.

“Going to dinner with the family, and then just going to Halifax.” He said.

“Speaking of the family..” I said.

“My dad does not hate you!” He blurted out.

“Good to know, but I was going to ask what they thought about me staying here?”

“My mom thinks is good, because she loves you obviously. And she thinks its important that our relationship grows outside the confines of the hockey season. My sister is thrilled to have you here, because she doesn’t know you very well and I mean she is 13, of course she is going to be excited to have a 19 year old girl around.” He said.

“We should have had Jaydyn and Jocelyn meet Taylor..” I said.

“That would have been good. She is friends with Stephanie.” He said.

“Yeah, which probably means she wouldn’t like my sisters.” I said laughing.

“What?”

“I mean Jay and Jocy are close with Lauren, I mean they are friends with Stephanie, but you know how it is when you are into a sport and other people aren’t.”

“Yeah.. Taylor is pretty easy going.”

“Oh like her big brother?” I said laughing.

“Whats that suppose to mean?”

“Nothing.” I said just laughing.