87[...2
Dylan slammed her bedroom door as if it could lock out her mortification. For years she followed Sidney around, secretly wishing he would kiss her. And tonight, the icing on the cake of the most horrific year, Sidney Crosby pulled her bare ass out of the lake! He saw her, all of her. Dylan played it over in her mind, for what seemed like forever, just how long he was able to see her before she covered herself up.
But then again, he did stare, lingered was more like it. Even though Dylan was only twelve when Sidney left for the NHL, she had already had a crush on him for years. But, who was he to her anyways? Sidney had been out of her life for almost seven years. People change, she changed. Dylan grew up and her childhood crush faded over time.
Sleep overtook Dylan for the first time in months, not releasing it's grip until the sun went down again. Sidney's scent still radiated on his shirt that, through all the commotion, she forgot to take off. Remnants of the previous night tore through her, building the heat of embarrassment over her face once again. She would have to return his shirt, see him again. But could she? Dylan rose from her bed, ready to start her nightly routine of a shower and then a walk when the first rumble of thunder set in. A thunderstorm at the lake had at once been a cherished evening, but when the basic survival need entailed constant movement, being confined in the house gave way to another dark night.
The laundry lay unfolded in the dryer for days. Dylan shoveled her clothes into a basket, not even attempting to fold the already wrinkled mess. She turned the cycle to warm, emptied an entire load of whites into the washing machine, including Sidney's shirt, and headed for the shower. She bathed, ran the load through the dryer, attempted to eat, and began her next task of finally stowing her laundry into the empty drawers of her dresser. She held an unfamiliar shirt, trying to remember when she bought it. Dylan held the fitted shirt up to her chest thinking it may have been Lauren's, and then it hit her, it was Sidney's shirt, and she shrank it. The frantic stretching of the fabric did little to fix the situation other than stretch it out in an awkward way. Great, she thought.
The thunder became louder and the sky lit up with bright zig zag's of white light. Lemons to lemonade, Dylan thought as she filled a cooler full of ice and beer, dragging the load onto the screened in porch. If she couldn't walk around the lake, she was going to enjoy all of its wonder with alcohol and a light show. Dylan rested her legs on the opposing chair and popped the first lid off of her bottle.
Her third beer was almost gone when an unfamiliar knock appeared on the wooden screen. Without warning, the door pulled open and the sound of the same crackled voice broke the silence of Dylan's porch.
"Can I come in?" Sidney said, as he stood in the rain.
Dylan sprang forward from her lounged position, her face giving way to the shock of her visitor. "Yeah, sure," she said, greeting the man who surprised her two nights in a row.
Sidney slowly latched the screen door, keeping himself and the air about the room in check. He wiped his brow from the drizzle that spattered his forehead, just as the downpour began to fall. He lifted the bag that had hung from his arm as his face changed to an expression that should have shown a rosy glow. "You forgot your clothes last night."
The porch was dark, but Sidney could still see the color illuminating from Dylan's face. She covered the side of her head with her one hand, extending the next for the package that awaited. "Thanks," she said, with an awkward sigh. "I am so embarrassed."
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about," Sidney said with a whisper. Dylan knew she heard him correctly, but the flames still flared beneath her skin.
Dylan reached for her bag of clothes, brushing the fingers of Sidney's grip on the canvas straps. They seemed icy, probably from the rain. "You are soak and wet," she said, erasing any calm the night once recorded. "I have your shirt," Dylan said before the realization hit that she was the world's worst dry cleaner. "Oh. Shit," she mumbled with a panicked stare.
"I shrunk it!" Dylan said in a vast confessional. "I didn't mean to, I mean, who buys 100% cotton?"
Sidney's face broke with an awkward grin, followed by an enormous laughter, something he hadn't done in a long time.
"Why do you think this is so funny?" Dylan said.
"Because," Sidney said, "it's just a shirt."
"It was a nice shirt," Dylan said, slapping her arm to her side. "I'm sorry." Her head wondered the porch indecisively. "Do you want a beer?"
Sidney's laugh came to a halt. His existence rested on her words. A beer. Such a normal question. Could he have a beer? Would he be able to control himself? He was only half a vampire, so food was not so terrible to him. He knew he could drink it, but the effects? Dylan was still a woman, one that apparently he coveted, full of warm blood that would taste so quenching in his throat. Self preservation, the need to maintain his persona consumed him. Like she would catch on that he was a vampire because he turned down a beer. But...what 24 year old would say no to a beer? And it was the off season. "Maybe just one."
Dylan reached for the icy cold bottle and handed it to her visitor. Reaching for her own drink, Dylan took a swig, relying on the mixture to calm her nerves. They sat on the porch, as the sky bellowed out like hammers, neither knowing what to say. The rain lay in sheets across the horizon deafining their awkward silence. Sidney finished the smooth liquid as its contents were still able to warm his face. A nostalgic feeling ripped through his bones that a simple beer was still able to have the same effect on a wretched vampire.
"I'm sorry to hear about your Grandmother," Sidney said, finally breaking the ice. He paused for a moment, remembering how much of a Mother Tess had been to him.
"Thanks," Dylan said with a smile. "We received your flowers. They were pretty. She would have liked them."
Sidney took a long breath, thinking about how much of the past year he had passed up. "I should have come, to the funeral."
"No," Dylan said, finally looking into Sidney's eyes. "She never missed your games. She would have been mad if you missed one second on the ice because of her."
The guilt still rang true. Neither Shane nor Dylan had a Mother or Father growing up. Tess was the closest thing they had, and wherever the siblings went, Sid usually followed. Sid was closer to Tess than his own grandmother. "It was still pretty shitty of me. I should have seen her in the last year."
"She wouldn't have known you," Dylan said.
"But still..."
"Don't worry about it," Dylan said, looking into the night sky. "You had enough to worry about."
Another lie. Another person buying it, Sidney thought as Dylan handed him a second beer. A second beer. Hesitantly, Sidney twisted the top off the bottle and nursed his second round. "So, what have you been up to? Still hanging around Cole Harbor?"
Dylan laughed. "No, I got out," she said in a reluctant smile.
"I hope so," Sidney said, placing his beer on the side table. "Aren't you supposed to be a math wizard? I didn't give you all my stats to figure out for nothing," he said with a smile.
"Yeah, I took the college prep classes and graduated early. I got a full scholarship to Montreal. Do you remember Lauren DunLeavy?" Dylan said with a pause. "We both went there together."
"But that was only, what, three years ago," Sidney said, trying to calculate. "Did you graduate already? I mean, I know you are smart, but, that is quick, isn't it?" Sidney's eyes gazed as Dylan reached over her chair to grab another beer. Her legs ran long until their backside reached the ample curves that rounded her bottom. No more beer, he thought.
Dylan's sighed. She popped her fourth beer and thought, this is so surreal. "Um yeah, I was majoring in," but then she stopped.
"In?..." Sidney said, allowing himself one more drink from his bottle.
"I was majoring in Structural Engineering, with a minor in architecture," Dylan said, once again blushing. Boys typically didn't like hearing about her accomplishments, that's why she fared so well with Charlie. He was pre-med, smart as a whip, and able to compensate for her achievements.
"And..." Sidney said smiling.
"And," Dylan repeated hesitantly, "things were going well."
"Until.." Sidney said, without question.
"My grandmother got sick, so I took a took a sabbatical from school this Spring," Dylan said, catching her voice. "And then she died."
"So, you will be going back this Fall," Sidney said, taking another sip from his beer. The liquid was like a toxin that fulfilled his skin.
"I don't know," Dylan said slowly, wishing her unintentional interrogation would end.
"Don't be another Cole Harbour drop out because of this," Sidney said, leaving his seat.
"I'm not a drop out!" Dylan said, leaving her internal sensor behind. The beer was doing it's best to make sure of that. She stood to meet his gaze. "I just, I can't go back there."
"Why not?" Sidney said, taking a step back.
"Because, because I can't." Tears swelled in Dylan's eyes, as much as she fought to produce them. She wiped the dew from her eyes and tucked her long chestnut locks behind her ears. "I'm sorry, she said with a sarcastic laugh, "I haven't seen you in years. First I'm flashing you and now I'm blubbering like an idiot about things that don't matter anymore."
"No really, it's fine," Sidney said, leaning against the screen post. And he didn't mind, not at all. Being around Dylan felt like he hadn't left a day of his life in Cole Harbor. She felt like the same kid he used to help onto the ice or pretend would catch him when they played tag. She was like a younger sister to him, only... Dylan wasn't a kid anymore. Granted she was young, probably younger than he should be interested in, but she was smart and extremely beautiful, sexy even. The way her tiny shorts cut along her...Sid's face began to harden. A year and a half ago, sure. He would have been all over her. Sidney would have made her laugh with his boyish charm and probably have been to bed with her already. But now, no. There was no chance. His only hope for companionship was with another vampire, but they were so cold and conceited.
Sidney looked into Dylan's eyes that shone green when the sky lit up. They were still glistening from the moisture, and it took every ounce of control left in his body not to grab her and kiss her. "Tell me what happened."
Dylan sat back on her chair with her elbow resting on her knee and her chin in her hand. She kept things to herself for so long, bottled up. Her mouth started moving and Sidney became her confessional.
"Lauren and I went to Quebec, and that's where I met Charlie and Kate. Charlie was Pre-Med, and Kate was in Lauren's Nursing school. We all got along, and this past year, we rented an apartment together. Charlie and I had been together for three years. We lived together in one room while Lauren and Kate shared another. When my grandmother started to get sick, I would leave on the weekends to take care of her. But the time before she died, I came home to find out Kate was pregnant...to Charlie. So I left."
"And so, you are hiding out here?" Sidney said, realizing the irony.
"Exactly," Dylan said, as she took another drink. "My grandmother signed the lake house over in my name when she first got sick. She left me some money too."
"Well, that's one way to deal with it?"Sidney said, not having any room to judge. "And you've been out here all alone, by yourself, with no one to talk to? Does anyone even know you are here?" he said, desperately needing someone on the planet to know where she was. Accountability for his own actions, Sidney thought.
"Pretty much," Dylan said forcing a smile. "You make it sound like I'm out here contemplating suicide or something..." her face became serious, "I'm not. I just needed some time to figure things out. And yes, Lauren knows I'm here. What about you? It seems to me that you are doing the same thing."
"What makes you think that?" Sidney said, kicking the lone stone at his feet.
"Sidney Crosby at his lake house," Dylan said, raising her eyebrow. "Don't they usually hold a parade in your honor every time you come home?" She said jokingly. "Seriously, every time I go to the grocery store or pretty much anywhere in this town, someone asks me if I had seen you at the lake. And somehow, someone always seems to know when you are here or when you are planning on coming. Nobody said a word last week. You are hiding out too."
"Maybe," he said smiling back. "That's actually what I came over here to talk to you about, besides bring you your clothes." Another devilish grin swept across Sidney's face thinking about how the moon had danced on her flesh the night before, leaving every part of Dylan exposed. Her legs seemed long enough to wrap themselves around his engorged thighs. He liked it when women held on as he dove himself deeper into their..."
"Sidney?" Dylan said, watching his face change with a multitude of expressions. "You needed to ask me something?"
"Huh? Oh..yeah, sorry," Sidney said, wiping the carnal thought from his eyes. "Yeah, about that hiding out thing. My parents don't exactly know I'm here. In fact, if I did things right, you are the only person who knows I'm here. I needed some time too. "
Dylan knew what he meant. His injury was dissected and torn apart over the last year and a half. She could tell by the interviews that it hardened him, something she understood well. "I get it, you want me to pretend I never saw you here."
"Especially to my parents," Sidney said more seriously. "My mom," Sidney paused. He always hated referring to his mother around Dylan and Shane. Mom's can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he was sure that was a pain they would liked to have had. "Trina, she just wouldn't understand why I needed some time, that's all."
"Ok," Dylan said with a warm smile, "I can do that. I won't say anything, for a small price.
Sidney eyebrow dipped, Dylan, an extortionist? He laughed. "OK, how much will it cost me?"
"I will keep your secret if you continue to let me have unlimited access to your pier," Dylan said. "I promise, I will wear a bathing suit next time."
"It's a deal," Sidney laughed, "but I never said anything about bathing suits." Dylan's face burned hot once again. "If I had a dollar for every time I made you blush."
"You'd have enough ones to tip me for the free show I gave you," Dylan said, desperately trying to downplay her mortification. "I wasn't drowning."
"It looked like you were," Sidney said.
"No, I was just panicked. I was wearing my grandmother's wedding ring and I felt it slip off of my finger. It must have looked that way because I was frantically trying to find it," Dylan said defeated. "I guess it's gone forever. At least it's in the lake. She loved it here. This place is all she talked about when she was dying, and how she loved to bring Shane and I here."
"How is Shane?" Sidney said, leaving his post behind for his chair again.
"I was kind of hoping you would know," Dylan said shrugging her shoulders. "He left when you did and I haven't seen him since. I used to get letters every once in a while and then they started to become more and more sparse. The last one I got was over a year ago and it was mailed from Vancouver. I was hoping maybe he still talked to you, or maybe even went to see you play."
"No, I haven't heard from him in years," Sidney said. "I tried to keep in touch, but he didn't seem to stay in once place for very long. My mom was meaning to ask Tess for his number a few different times, but I guess it never worked out. "
Dylan reached for two more beers as Sidney drank the rest of his bottle. "No, that's OK," Sidney said, fighting the urge to take another bottle. It was a cruel joke. He had the ability to enjoy the finer things in life that he once had, but on the other hand, he had little control over himself while he was doing them. "I really need to leave. I have a ton of things that still need done at the house."
"OK," Dylan said, standing from her chair at the same time as Sidney. There bodies became so close. Sidney could smell every ounce of her perfect skin. He felt the warmth from her body radiating towards him. "It was so good to see you again Sidney," Dylan said, as she put her arms around him, lingering longer than he thought he could bear. His body seemed tight, rigid. Sidney slowly forced his arms around Dylan's tiny frame, and for the first time in a long time, he let his body feel something.