[ Practice Makes Perfect ] --» Chapter Seven

Have you ever been completely amazed by something? I'm not talking about, "oh that's cool," or "yeah, that's incredible", nuh-no. I'm talking about being so amazed by something that words couldn't even begin to describe it. Or in my case, him.








Over the past couple of weeks, Sidney had been doing just that and did or said every little thing to amaze me. I had been going to a lot more of his games, just to give me something else to do than go out to the club every night. More than anything, I loved watching Sidney play. There are not many things more amazing in life than seeing a person completely in their element, and that's what hockey was for him. It was almost like that night I slipped up with Sean never happened, almost. But like Sidney said the day he came back, "we just have to put that behind us, we all make mistakes."







***







It was a boring rainy Saturday night. Since the Pens didn't have a game until Sunday, Sidney had spent the rest of his day with me after he got out of practice that morning. We had just hung around my apartment all day watching movies on the couch or just laying around doing nothing, and enjoying each others company. At this moment, I was perched perfectly atop of his lap with my arm lightly coiled around the back of his neck running the bottom of his dark curls beneath my hands. I pushed myself up off him and headed over to the refrigerator to grab a snack. To my dismay, when I pulled it open, I discovered a sea of bare shelves and a gallon of milk in the back. I sighed lightly as my stomach growled a bit beneath me.







"What's up Leigh?" Sid turned around to ask me while hanging one of his arms off the side of the couch.








I sighed again, giving the bare fridge another once over. "The fridge is completely empty, like there's nothing in here except for milk and maybe a Poland spring...I know this is so lame, but would you come food shopping with me? I can't stand seeing the fridge like this."







He smiled and got up off the couch and made his way over to me in the kitchen. "Of course I'll go food shopping with you babe, but I get to push the cart."







My expression lightened as his arms wrapped around my waist and mine instinctively around his neck. "Ahh, you're the best...and yeah you can push the cart."







We both let out a small laugh and simultaneously closed the gap between with a short kiss. My lips curled into a smile against his as he pulled away. "C'mon let's go," he said lightly reaching down for my hand.







I nodded and grabbed my north face jacket and slipped on my uggs. We headed down the front steps and over to his car since he insisted on driving. It took about 10 minutes to get to the Supermarket and find a semi decent parking spot. Once we found a cart and got inside, we figured it would all go quicker if we split up the list. I gave Sid his list and I took mine off to the other side of the store to grab all the food we needed.







I turned on my heel towards the frozen foods isle when Sid called my name to stop me.







"Wait, when I'm done getting all the food on this list where do I go?" He looked like a lost puppy and I couldn't help but laugh a little. He was capable of making incredible things happen out on the ice, but stick him in a supermarket and he's like a deer in the headlights.







"Just come find me silly. I won't be too far away, and if you need help finding something just text me. I know where everything is. Do you think you can handle that superstar?" I smiled and stepped closer to him once I was done with my teasing.







"Yeah, I think I can handle it," he answered with a small smile. I nodded back to him reassuringly and leaned up and gave him one last quick kiss before I went off in the other direction.






My shopping basket rested perfectly in the crease of my elbow as I made my way up and down the isles of the store. I reached up and attempted to grab some chips off the top shelf, but once again my lack of height failed me. I pushed up on my tip toes to try and tap it towards me and let it fall into the basket. No such luck. I squirmed up as high as I could to try and reach it when I felt a strong hand wrap around my arm. I fell back to my feet quickly at the initial touch of the cool skin against mine.






"Need some help shorty?" The sound of that smooth voice sent chills up my spine. I turned myself around and my eyes were met with a pair of piercing blue ones sending a wave of nervous chills up my spine.







"No, I'm fine get off of me Sean," I said trying to pry my arm out of his grasp. He flashed me a devilish smile and persisted on grabbing my arm tightly with his hand.







"It's been a while hasn't it?" He said in a low voice bringing his body closer to mine and pushing my back flat against the shelves.








I glared back at him and pulled my arm back again trying my hardest to get him to let me go. He grabbed onto my free wrist and bought them both to the side of my head. A bead of sweat fell down the side of my cheek as his face became unnervingly close to mine. I stood still and turned my head to the side, not allowing him any space to even attempt to kiss me. Sean let out a menacing laugh, "Oh what's wrong Leigh? Afraid Sidney's gonna see us like this? Wouldn't that be a bitch? I actually do want to meet the guy, he seems--"







"LET HER GO!" Sid's voice boomed down the isles, like I had never heard before and I quickly mustered up enough strength to rip myself from his grip and scurried next to Sidney. He glanced down at me and instinctively guarded my hand with his. My whole body un-tensed for a moment as my fingers slid into the spaces between his. I leaned tightly against his side and kept my glare straight at Sean.







"Oh isn't that cute," Sean said mockingly taking a step towards us. I stepped back, but Sidney boldly stepped forward pulling me along with him not showing a sign of weakness to Sean. "It's a shame we had to meet again like this Leigh. I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted Sid to be around...just like the last time we were together, right?"







"Shut up!" My voice shrieked at an abnormally high pitch, "Just shut up! You don't mean a thing to me Sean. That whole night was a mistake! You took advantage of me!"








Sidney hugged me closer against his side knowing that I was getting upset by the whole situation. Sean took another step closer towards us and I grew nervous anticipating the next thing that would come out of his venomous mouth.








"Well if I'm recalling correctly..." He began pacing leisurely in front of us, "I asked you if you had a boyfriend, and if I'm not mistaken you said something in the context of 'yeah, but he doesn't have to know'...you probably left that part out to your boy toy over here didn't you Leigh?"








A flood of anger erupted inside of me. I ripped my hand free of Sidney's grip and stomped over to Sean. I could feel Sidney's hurt and worried eyes behind me, but I persisted. Pointing my finger out, I drilled it against his chest and decided right then and there that I was going to have the last word in this conversation.








"You low life piece of scum! Do you feel accomplished now that you made me look like a total ass again in front of my boyfriend?! I wouldn't be surprised since you're such a sick demonic person. You have no idea how much I regret every moment of that night with you. Every time I look back on it I wish I could change it, because I let you bring out the old side of me."








I furrowed my brow once more and pushed my finger harder against his chest. "And let's get one thing straight. You were a mistake. Everything about you and me ever being together was a mistake, so quit trying to start something up that never was. I'm not the same person I was that night, and the new me doesn't linger on the past. I live in the present and after this conversation, you won't be any part of it. So this is goodbye forever, or until you decide to not be a conniving asshole anymore. Bye Sean."








And with that I turned on my heel and made my way back over to Sidney. His smile was radiating from all angles of his face and my whole body grew a couple degrees warmer as he laced his hand with mine and placed a soft kiss on the side of my head. We pushed the shopping cart over to the check out line and rung up all our food and headed back out to the car. Once we loaded up all the groceries into his trunk, I collapsed into the passenger seat and heaved out a deep breath. Sidney was soon to follow climbing into the driver's side and taking my hand with his lightly stroking the top of it with his thumb. I turned my neck and bought my eyes to his soft hazel ones and let another smile escape me.








"Well that was probably the most eventful food shopping trip, ever," he said smiling back at me.







I squeezed my hand inside of his and bit back on my bottom lip a little. "I'm sorry you had to be there for that Sid. I just feel like everything I do with you, something from my past comes up to try and ruin it."








"I don't care about your past Leigh. All I'm worried about is us, right here, right now." I glanced down at our intertwined fingers and my smile grew wider. I could feel him smiling from above me and almost as if on cue our lips met in a fiery passion filled kiss. His free hand found the side of my face and pulled me towards. I bought myself closer to him stabling myself with my hand on the center console. The feeling of his lips against mine let me know that everything he was saying was 150% true. Me and Sidney didn't have a past, but we are together in the present, and I was beginning to think more and more about our future, together.