Chapter 46

I know, I know, it's been a long time. Things were crazy there for a while, but they've calmed down. I'll be able to write more now and then update more often, I swear! Please forgive any errors in this post. I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open, and just don't want to proofread.










Sidney walked out of his meeting with Mario after practice feeling just a little bit nervous. The Olympics were only a week away and they were going over the travel itinerary and ended up talking for a while about what he should expect. He’d always known he’d be nervous when he got there, but he didn’t expect to already be nervous.

He had to try to put it out of his mind and concentrate on the Pens games that were left before then. That’s what his focus needed to be on. That’s what was important right now. There would be time to think about the Olympics, but that wasn’t right now. Maybe it was better that way, to not think about it until he was there.

He walked in the door and was immediately greeted by Bauer. He gave him a little bit of attention before realizing that he hadn’t heard another sound in the house. Misty must be working out. He grabbed some lunch before settling down in front of the TV. It wasn’t long before he heard the front door open and Misty’s footsteps walk into the house.

“Hey, Sid!” she called.

“In here!”

He watched as she came around the corner and smiled in at him. He felt that little murmur, if that’s what you wanted to call it, in his heart when he saw her. It happened every time he saw her, and he liked that feeling. She plopped down onto the couch next to him and gave him a kiss. That was something else he was really starting to enjoy.

“So how was practice?” she asked. He told her a little bit about it before bringing up his meeting with Mario. “I can’t believe the Olympics are so close.”

“I know. This season has just flown by,” he replied. Misty rested her head on his shoulder.

“I guess I should start figuring out how I’m going to get home.”

Those words seemed to just shatter the moment. He’d known somewhere in the back of his mind that she had to leave at some point, but he hadn’t let himself think about it. He didn’t want to think about her leaving Pittsburgh and being 9 hours away again. He didn’t want to let her leave.

“You could always come with me to Vancouver,” he said, even though he knew she wouldn’t. She looked up at him and smiled.

“I can’t.”

“I know.”

Sidney knew there was a 0% chance that Misty would willingly go to Vancouver anytime soon. After what Andrea Kesler had said to her, and with Mason possibly being there, she wouldn’t step foot in the province of B.C., let alone Vancouver itself. He also knew that with them recently being outed, she wanted to avoid the spotlight as much as possible.

They sat there quietly for a while, neither really knowing what to say. It hurt to know she was going to be away from him again, just after he’d finally gotten her. He knew it wasn’t forever, just for a little while, but it got him thinking. He didn’t want to be away from her anymore. That was all he knew.

Misty finally got up to take a shower and change out of the clothes she’d worked out in. While she was doing that, he went out to get the mail. He sorted through the envelopes as he walked through the front door, and stopped when he reached the large one addressed to Misty. It was from her parents.

He knew that if any acceptance or rejection letters came from the schools she’d applied to, they were going to send them down to her at his place while she was here. He felt his heart speed up at the thought that a letter from Pitt might be included inside. Maybe today he’d finally know if she was going to be going to school here next year or not.

“You’ve got an envelope from home,” he told Misty when she came back downstairs. She rushed over to him and took the envelope out of his hands.

He watched as Misty ripped open the envelope and pulled two letters out. He saw ‘Pitt’ scrolled across the letterhead of one of them. He waited quietly, and anxiously to see what it said. Misty looked up at him before slipping a finger under the seal and opening it. He watched and waited to know what it said as she read over it. He also realized what he was going to do if they’d accepted her.










I ripped open the envelope nervously. They always say that the big envelope is a good sign and the small envelope isn’t. In my experience that wasn’t always true. The last time I’d received acceptance letters my first time going through this, most of them hadn’t come in big envelopes. They’d simply said I was accepted and I’d receive more information if I accepted their acceptance.

I hesitated before pulling the letter out of the envelope. I took a deep breath and began to read. ‘Dear Misty Harris, we’re please to inform you that your application has been accepted’. I felt a smile spread on my face, and before I even had a chance to say anything, Sidney had me in his arms and lifted into the air.

“What are you doing?” I asked with a laugh when he put me down.

“I’m assuming that smile meant you were accepted,” he said. I laughed again.

“You assumed right.”

He pulled me into a hug and spun me around right there in his living room. When my feet were back on the ground his lips were then connected to mine. We shared a long kiss before I pulled away to smile up at him. As long as I could figure out a way to financially swing this, I would be going to school in Pittsburgh next year, and I could be in the same city as Sidney.

“Congratulations,” he told me, a large grin on his face. I smiled right back at him.

“Thank you. I have to make a few calls.” He let me go and I went in search of my phone.
The first person I called was Vero. She was almost as anxious about me getting into Pitt as I was. When I gave her the news it took about 10 minutes for me to get another word in, and another hour for me to get my hearing back. I made a few more phone calls, including to my parents before making my way back out to Sidney.

“So now what?” he asked.

“Now I find out about financial aid and all of that to make sure I can afford to go,” I told him.

“I could pay for it,” he offered.

“You want me here that bad?” I joked. He didn’t laugh, and instead looked completely serious. “No, Sid. No way I’m letting you do that.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’ll be in Pittsburgh next year,” he said.

“I appreciate that, I really do, but no. It’s my choice to go back to school to get a degree, it’ll be me going to classes and doing the work, so it’ll be me that pays for it.” There was no other option as far as I was concerned. This was my thing, and I wasn’t going to pass the responsibility off on anyone.

“If you ever need any…..” he started.

“Don’t even finish that sentence. I’ll figure it out,” I told him putting a hand up to stop him.

“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about paying for housing.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. Had we had some sort of conversation I couldn’t remember?

“You’ll just live here.”

Sidney said it so matter-of-factly that I actually had to think for a moment about whether we had come to that decision. It only took me a moment to realize that we never had. I also began to have flashbacks to my phone conversation with Andrea. I wasn’t with Sidney to use him, I was with him because I loved him.

“I can’t do that,” I said. He looked at me in surprise.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t move in with you.” His expression changed to hurt and I felt awful about making him feel like that.

“Why not?” he questioned.

“Sid, I love you, you know that. You also know I’ve been spending a lot of the last year of my life proving to myself that I don’t need to rely on others and just myself. It’d be so easy to move in with you, but I don’t want to use you, and I want to prove to people that I wouldn’t use you either. I have to do this on my own.”

“What if I tell you that I want you to live here, not to save you money, but because I just love having you here when I come home and when I wake up in the morning?” I sighed and took his hand.

“I love those things too, trust me. Even so, I need to do this for myself. I’ll still be here in Pittsburgh with you. I’ll be able to see you whenever you want. Hell, we’ll probably still spend half of the nights together. I just need to have my own place to prove to myself I can do this. Please, understand.” He gave my hand a squeeze.

“I don’t like it, but I understand.” I got up and moved to sit down on his lap.

“Someday I’ll move in, just not next year.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he joked, a smile back on his face. I smiled back, and sealed the deal with a kiss.