One of the Guys

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary:

Disclaimer: Sydney, Vaughn, etc are properties of JJ Abrams and ABC.

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Parts 1 - 5

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Part One

All of her life, Sydney Bristow had been just one of the guys.

It all started when she was just seven years old. She never had any interest in collecting Barbie dolls and dressing them up in fashionable pink, sparkling clothing. She never wanted to play with dolls or play “house” despite her mother’s encouragement. She wanted to be outside, playing games or simply running around, doing cartwheels or riding her bike. The problem was that in her quiet suburban neighborhood none of the other girls around her age wanted to do this. They wanted to be inside on their family room floors surrounded by Barbie Dream Houses and Barbie’s pink Corvette. The mere concept of this made Sydney want to gag.

Being an only child, Sydney needed to find other children in her neighborhood to play with unless she wanted to play by herself, of course, which she did not. Due to this need for companionship she was forced to seek out those of the opposite gender. Unfortunately for her, seven-year-old boys were not very keen on playing with girls; to them, girls had cooties and all other sorts of gross things. Sydney did not let this superficial animosity keep her down, though; instead she saw it as a challenge.

One scorching hot June day in her Virginian home town, Sydney walked straight up to a cluster of boys her own age tossing around a football. Her head held high, her chest puffed out, she requested to join their game. Naturally, all the boys laughed immediately.

“You’re a girl; we don’t play with girls,” a carrot-topped boy with dozens of freckles told her with disgust. Prepared for this, Sydney responded with a challenge. She would race one of the boys to the neighbor’s fence and back. If she won, she could participate in their game; if not, she would walk away. The boys chuckled and clustered together, choosing the fastest among them. A moment later, a smug dark-skinned boy stepped out of the pack and accepted the challenge.

If one thing was indisputably true about Sydney, age seven, it was that she was the fastest girl in her elementary school. She had proved that a few weeks earlier at the end of school field races held every year. She was fully confident in the fact that she would win the race with ease and she did.

When she crossed over the makeshift finish line several body lengths ahead of the sputtering boy gasping for breath, the look on the other boys’ faces was priceless. They were stunned that their friend had been beaten by a girl and even more floored that they had to let a girl join their football game. To them, it was a disgrace, but Sydney could not have been prouder.

Later that evening, Sydney went home for dinner covered in grass and mud stains that her mother would never be able to wash out of her clothing. Despite the tongue lashing she received for getting filthy, Sydney could not have been happier. For the first time, she was one of the guys.


As she grew older, Sydney always found it easier to find companionship with males than females. After all, she had much more in common with them. True, the guys were not talking about bras and makeup, but Sydney did not want to talk about those things. She wanted to talk about the latest baseball score or find out who was going to the park to play soccer that weekend. Her life revolved for the most part around sports, most of all ice hockey.

Ice hockey was Sydney’s father’s favorite sport, so she had been watching it ever since she could remember. As a youngster she learned that one of the only ways her father communicated was through sports metaphors, so to understand them she needed to understand sports. Otherwise, she and her father would have hardly spoken a word all day long.

Father and daughter would watch hockey games together either sitting on their couch at home in front of her father’s big screen TV or on rare, special occasions, watching from seats high above the ice rink itself. More than anything, Sydney wanted to play hockey. She wanted to be on the ice, skating, checking and scoring. Sadly for her, there were no girls ice hockey leagues around and it was far too dangerous for her to play on a men’s team (not to mention the fact that she would not have been allowed). She was forced to settle for playing other sports.

Using her speed, which only became perfected with age, she was on the track team and earned several state titles during her high school years. She also played soccer and field hockey, but was not as good at the latter as she was at the former. She went to college on a track scholarship and there continued her love of sports.

By the time her teen years were fading away, Sydney finally realized one of the reasons why half of her male friends were intimidated by her on the soccer field or ice rink; they were attracted to her. Having never worn a stitch of make-up in her life save her high school graduation when her mother practically tied her down and forced some mascara on her, Sydney had never been concentrated on her looks and thus on being attractive. Soon boys who she thought were just her friends were tripping over themselves to ask her out on a date, wanting to have “cool” girlfriend who would watch sports with them while drinking beer and burping.

With this Sydney’s femininity was resurrected ever so slightly. Using the help all too willingly given to her by some of her fellow track runners and soccer players, Sydney discovered the joys of preening. Of course, she was far from spending hours in front of a mirror every day, but she was no longer opposed to wearing some lip gloss or mascara on a fairly regular basis.

Towards the middle of her junior year at college, Sydney found her first long-term boyfriend in the form of Matt Abernathy, a blue-eyed brown-haired starring forward on her school’s ice hockey team. Due to Matt’s sports fixation, he and Sydney hit it off immediately and continued to date well into their senior year. Sydney frequently spent time with Matt and his hockey teammates since she loved hockey and was one of the guys, like always. In doing this, she met Michael Vaughn.

Michael, also a senior and also a forward on the hockey team, was Matt’s best friend. Sydney was immediately physically attracted to the green-eyed blonde boy. Then again, so was every other female within a fifteen mile radius of him. What she was not attracted to was Michael’s personality. She saw him as a cocky and sometimes reckless player who was inferior to her boyfriend. She was cordial with him, though; it was not in her nature to be unkind to anyone.


After graduating, Sydney put her business degree combined with her love for sports to work by managing and doing the book keeping for a local sporting goods distributor. It might have been less pay than an ordinary office job, but it worked perfectly for Sydney since she was surrounded by the relaxed athletic-loving atmosphere she loved.

For a while, she lost touch with her college acquaintances. Just a few days shy of her twenty-fourth birthday, Sydney was manning the register in the shop area due to some staffing problems when, much to her surprise, Michael Vaughn walked into the store. They recognized each other and chatted heartily for over half an hour about their present lives. As it turned out, he had recently moved to the area because of a new job opportunity. Since he did not have many friends, Sydney offered him her phone number and promised he could call her anytime to hang out, play hockey, or whatever.

A few nights later, Michael did just that. He called Sydney up and invited her to the ice rink with him, which she immediately agreed to. While Michael had seen Sydney skate before, he had never seen her pick up a stick and play. He was pleasantly surprised to find that when she did this she was actually very good. She even managed to sneak a few goals past him, despite his best goalie efforts.

When their game was over, Sydney invited Michael to join the pick-up hockey league team sponsored by the store she worked for. Since it was a pick-up league, their regulations were not like that of official hockey teams and violent checking was not allowed. Therefore, Sydney was a participant in the team, though she did not play as much as some of the other men did. Michael agreed to this quickly, needing a weekly hockey fix in his life.

Nearly four and a half years later, Sydney and Michael were still playing together on that pick-up team. In addition to being teammates, they had become practically like best friends, calling each other a few times a week to talk over the phone and double dating with their respective significant others. This caused a few problems in Sydney’s dating life, most notably those from jealous boyfriends who could not tolerate Sydney’s friends-only relationship with another man. That’s the way it was, though; she was just one of the guys, a person who just happened to be Michael’s friend, no different than his male friends. Sydney felt the same way about Michael – that he was just a friend – until something changed, that was.

The day on which her earth-shattering revelation occurred was just another pick-up team practice like all the others on a Sunday morning; nothing at all out of the ordinary. As the guys (plus Sydney) were stripping off their sweaty gear and returning it to their oversized duffle bags, they were discussing marriage of all topics. The reasoning for this was that one of their teammates, a man named Jim, had recently proposed to his girlfriend of several years. With Jim making this commitment, it meant there were only two members of their team left who were not married or engaged: Sydney and Michael. Sydney had no boyfriend at the time and thus escaped the inevitable razzing from the guys; Michael, on the other hand, was not as fortunate.

Michael and his girlfriend, Alice, had been together for over a year. They were not living together nor seemingly over serious in any other ways. Michael was not a self-proclaimed commitment phobic like many of the other men, who were terrified of walking down the aisle. He simply did not bring up the issue at all, until forced to, of course.

“So, Mike, when you go shopping for Alice’s ring let me know, okay? I got a great deal on Jan’s and I’ll get one for you two,” Jim said casually.

Michael laughed as he put on his gold-toed socks. “Yeah, okay,” he said in a sarcastic tone.

“What’s the matter Mikey? No wedding bells for you and Alice? Marriage isn’t as bad as they say you know,” another teammate, Tim, told him.

“Yeah because your wife is smokin’,” Brad laughed. All the other guys howled for a minute while a smug expression crossed Tim’s face. Fortunately for him, his wife had once been a Victoria’s Secret underwear model. Interestingly, no one was quite sure why she had chosen him to be her husband.

“I dunno guys… I don’t think Alice is the one,” Michael sighed.

“‘The one’? What are you a chick?” Brad laughed.

“I’m serious… I dunno I like her and all but… I dunno.”

“Well you’d better figure it out soon,” Jim cautioned. “Girls don’t like to wait around forever and it has been along time. My advice is either show her that you’re committed and take the next step or break-up with her, because you can only live in limbo for so long.”

Michael was silent for a moment before he concluded, “Yeah you’re right. We are kind of in limbo… Maybe I should ask Alice to move in with me…”

“There ya go!” Tim clapped Michael on the back with the palm of his hand.

As the guys’ conversation continued, Sydney could hardly process one word being said; her thoughts were focused internally. Her stomach was twisting painfully, almost as though she had eaten five chili dogs topped off with some garlic breadsticks and cheese curls to seal the deal. Why was she suddenly so nauseous? Okay, so she hated Alice with every fiber of her being and had ever since the moment Michael introduced the two of them, but that wasn’t it… was it?

Only when she heard her name did Sydney snap from her thoughts. “What’s with Bristow? She’s looking spacey…” Tim commented.

“Sorry guys,” Sydney sighed, forcing a smile as she shouldered her bag filled with hockey gear. “I guess I’m just really bloated and I’m getting these terrible cramps that-” She was interrupted by all the guys groaning and throwing things at her, nauseated grimaces on their faces. She, of course, had been teasing them, knowing how much the men hated “female issues.” “See you all later,” she said, throwing them a wave as she went. All she needed was a hot shower and some comfortable sweatpants; that would surely cure her churning gut.



Part Two

Two days and a box of Tums later, Sydney’s peculiar stomach ailment finally seemed to have disappeared. She just could not understand what had started it. Little did she know the answer was right in front of her.

That evening, Michael called her as he often did to ask for her advice. While to him Sydney was just one of the guys on his hockey team, he was also well aware that she was, in fact, a woman. Whenever he needed womanly advice, which was more times than not over an issue with a girlfriend, he would call her and they would hash it out for a while until Sydney flat out told Michael, the idiot male, what he was supposed to do.

On that particular evening, Michael’s queries related to Alice and the razzing he received from their teammates earlier that week. He was uncertain if he should follow their advice and ask Alice to move in with him if he was not one hundred percent certain moving in together was something he wanted to do. Upon receiving this question, Sydney fought the urge to throw up into her cell phone.

For some reason she did not understand, something about Alice Watson made her skin crawl. Alice simply rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe it was her ugly haircut. Perhaps it was her ever-perky demeanor. Or it may have just been the fact that she just seemed so damn perfect Sydney wanted to beat her with a hockey stick until she cried. Whatever it was, though, she could not stand to be in the same room as Alice for more than a few minutes at a time. Giving Michael advice as to how to properly please his girlfriend was more than she could take.

“Um, I dunno Michael.” She shifted uncomfortably on her couch. She had only a few minutes to come up with a plausible and not rude response and frankly she was having great difficulty with that. “If you really don’t want to move in with her you shouldn’t. I mean, how awful would it be if like a week later you were like, ‘yeah you have to move out now’?”

“That’s a good point,” he sighed. “But I don’t know what to doooo. Tell me what to do Syd,” he whined slightly.

“Michael,” Sydney sighed heavily, rubbing her fingertips across her already wrinkled brow. “I can’t tell you what to do in this case, but if you want my advice you should think about it for at least a week since it really is a big decision.”

“You’re right,” he resigned. “Thanks Syd; you’re the best. Talk to you soon!” With that, he hung up.

Once she heard the click on the other end of the line, Sydney shut her cell phone and tossed it towards the other end of the sofa. Then, she stood and began to pace around her coffee table, wringing out her trembling hands as she did so. When Michael had been asking for her advice, all she wanted to do was absolutely demand that he break up with Alice. No, not even that. She wanted to give him an ultimatum; break up with Alice, or lose her as a friend. With this, she surprised herself. That was a completely irrational, not to mention unfair, thought, so why was it swimming around in her brain?

She pondered this thought and paced until the answer hit her. She did not want Michael to be with Alice because Alice was not good enough to him. Sure, she was perfect to the point of repulsion, but she was just too… vapid. She didn’t care about Michael, either. In all of their relationship, Sydney had only seen Alice at two of Michael’s hockey pick-up games at the very beginning of their relationship. She vaguely remembered Michael mentioning in passing that Alice disliked hockey. This was baffling to Sydney. Hockey was such a huge part of Michael’s life, disliking hockey meant disliking part of him.

As she continued to pace, practically wearing holes in her carpet with her constant footwork, Sydney listed dozens of poor qualities about Alice. Qualities that Alice lacked and she possessed; qualities that, in her mind, were imperative to a woman who would be Michael’s significant other. It took her the better part of half an hour to notice she was comparing herself to Alice and, when she consciously did so, she came to an earth-shattering realization: she did not want Michael to be with Alice; she wanted him to be with her.

Somewhere between the hockey games, double dates during which they did most of the talking and ignored their partners, and the late-night phone calls over four years she had fallen in love with Michael. No longer was he the self-centered showoff she met when she was just twenty-one years old. He had matured into a man she respected; a man she cared for; a man she loved.

“Oh my god,” she sighed, sinking down into her couch. She pulled a cranberry colored pillow into her lap and hugged it tightly as her mind continued to spin. How could she not have realized? How could she have been so stupid? So blind? She was in love with Michael.

In four years, she had not had a boyfriend that lasted longer than a few months, the longest of which being a six month on-again-off-again relationship. She had chalked it up to a dry spell combined with a busy work and hockey practice schedule, but perhaps there was a deeper reason. Why did she need a boyfriend, when she already had a significant number of males in her life, Michael being the foremost of all of them.

Why did one need a boyfriend? To lift heavy things? Michael already did that whenever she asked. Someone to call and say goodnight too? That was Michael, of course. A back massage after a long day at work? Well, not after work, but Michael was known to give a massage after hockey practice as long as he received one in return. True, there was the physical companionship a boyfriend brought that she was lacking, but most of the time she was too exhausted or battered from hockey to think about sex anyway. For all other things, there was Michael.

Michael was the man she compared her boyfriends too as well. If he did not like hockey that was an immediate deal breaker. A Yankees not a Mets fan? Oops, gone. Loved basketball? See ya. The rest left all by themselves, unable to handle the closeness between Sydney and her male teammates-slash-friends. It really was quite a one-sided pattern that she was entirely oblivious to until that exact moment.

After an hour of scrutinizing every aspect of her friendship with Michael and every part of her dating life, she realized that she was in love with Michael. This, however, brought about another problem – what was she going to do about it? She surely could not tell him her feelings. He would either laugh at her or politely tell her he did not feel the same and, frankly, she did not know what was worse. To add more terror to the situation, any revelation of her true feelings would surely bring their friendship to a screeching halt and that she knew she could never handle. In the end she decided she just needed to ignore her feelings. After all, she had gone years not knowing they were there; she could certainly continue that pattern at least for a little while.



Part 3

Two weeks later, Sydney and the guys gathered at the rink for their typical practice on Sunday morning. As they were all sitting on the bleachers strapping on their ice skates and putting on their other gear, Tim brought up the subject being discussed a few weeks earlier; the subject Sydney was trying desperately not to think about.

“So, Michael, whatever happened with Alice? She moving her stuff into your apartment as we speak?”

Michael laughed softly. “Actually it’s interesting you brought that up. I’m taking her out to dinner tonight and I’m going to ask her to move in with me.” Immediately, Sydney felt her stomach jump all the way up into her throat. She fought to keep the bile down as she took a few large deep breaths, willing herself to focus on something else.

“Really?” Brad asked. “You caved?”

“Well yeah… I mean, I don’t really want to break up with Alice; we have fun together and you guys said this was the only other option so…whatever,” he added with a slight shrug.

“Gee, Vaughn, sound more excited about it, would ya?”

Michael laughed again. “It’s not that. I want to…yeah, I want to,” he said, sounding more confident that time.

“C’mon guys, can we freakin’ get out there already?” Sydney asked as she pushed herself up off the bleachers. If she just focused on skating her nausea would disappear, or so she tried to convince herself.

Instead of feeling better as she skated and worked out her frustration, Sydney only felt worse. Every time she caught a sight of Michael’s perfect smile her heart lurched all the way up into her throat and tears burned in her eyes. All she could think was that if Michael asked Alice to move in with him, soon they would be married and she would lose any chance she ever had with him. As it was, her chances of him actually reciprocating feelings were virtually non-existent, surely they would disappear entirely if he moved in with Alice.

As she skated, taking a few very weak shots at the puck, Sydney decided she needed to bring up her feelings with Michael then or she would never have the chance again. It was a big risk, especially if it meant she would lose him as her friend. Keeping this in mind, she almost abandoned her plan. She stuck by it though knowing if, by some miracle, Michael felt the same as she did, well then the benefits far outweighed the risks.

“Syd, what’s with you this afternoon? You’re like on a different planet. I passed you like five pucks and you just ignored them,” Michael said to her once their practice was over. His tone indicated annoyance, which Sydney could not really blame him for. Her performance on the ice rink had been dreadful, the worst she had ever done, in fact. And, as far as Michael could tell, there had been no reason for it.

“I know I’m sorry,” she sighed. Her hands were already trembling with nerves; that was not a good sign. “I just… I’m kinda distracted today, sorry.”

“’s okay,” he assured her. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“Yeah… I’m…not actually,” she sighed honestly, tossing her skates into her bag rather violently.

“What it is? Did the doctor tell you something bad at your appointment yesterday?” he asked with genuine concern.

“What?!” she asked with general surprise and confusion. She hardly recalled her doctor’s appointment and was rather shocked Michael had. “Um no… no I was at the gyno; it was fine…”

“Oh…then what is it?” he asked.

Instead of answering, Sydney merely exhaled as she looked down at her feet. Carefully, she glanced around the bleachers and noticed about half of their team was still there, pulling off gear and packing it haphazardly into their bags. If she was going to have the conversation she was dreading, it absolutely could not be with other ears within hearing range. Preferably, it could have been done in the middle of the desert, but she knew this was not a possibility; she would settle for not having any of their teammates around to hear her heartfelt confession.

Michael sensed her hesitation and noticed her cautiously looking around at their fellow hockey players. He gave her a firm nod, indicating that he would wait around until the other guys left and the two of them could have a conversation in private. He absolutely wanted to know what was on her mind and upsetting her so; after all, she was his best friend.

Ten minutes later, they were as alone in the busy rink as they would ever be. His bag fully packed, Michael sat down beside Sydney on the bleachers and posed his question once more. Glancing up at him nervously, Sydney crammed her hands in between her thighs and took a deep breath; it was now or never.

“Okay well it’s just… I didn’t want to tell you this because I was afraid… I was freaked out really because I didn’t even realize it and then when I did realize it I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ But I was so scared that I would lose our friendship and losing our friendship would just be the worst thing ever; it would suck so much I couldn’t stand it, but now I… I think I have to tell you or I’ll never get the chance and I would regret that. I just know that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t tell you.” Okay, so she was rambling – really rambling and speaking rapidly as well. In short, Michael was utterly lost.

“Sydney what are you talking about?!” Michael demanded, confused. “I’m in love with you,” she blurted out a bit louder than she wanted to. So much for subtlety or tact. She really should have written out a speech to read before then, then she would have at least had a chance to defend her position before Michael inevitably turned her down.

Michael blinked. Sydney couldn’t even breathe as her eyes met his and he merely stared at her. “Oh,” he said after a solid minute of silence. He did not say one word more.

“Oh god, see I was afraid of this!” she said, panicking. “I just… When you asked me for advice with Alice I freaked! I never felt that way before I just… I wanted to kick her and then I realized that I loved you. I love you and… and you shouldn’t be with her… she hates hockey and she’s annoying! I mean, God that sounds awful – I’m an awful person, but it’s the truth!

“I know you’re going to ask her to move in with you tonight so I had to tell you now because… because I don’t know and I was just so stupid! God, why am I so stupid!? I should have known this would happen! I’m just one of the guys, right? I’m just like Tim and Brad… you just see me as a guy,” she concluded sadly.

For a minute, they just sat there, neither of them knowing what to say next. “Sydney,” Michael began, but Sydney shook her head, refusing to let him continue.

“No just forget it, Michael; this was stupid. Just go, have a nice dinner with Alice, invite her to move in with you. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Yeah… I’ll just… see you next Sunday.” Then, she grabbed her bag, shouldered it, and walked quickly from the ice rink, never once looking over her shoulder. She could not stand to see whatever expression was on Michael’s face.



Part 4

A few days later, after her confession-gone-wrong with Michael, Sydney was still feeling uneasy about it. Even more so, she was feeling regret. Why had she been so rash as to tell Michael then and there that she was in love with him without any deep consideration? What had possessed her to be so spur-of-the-moment when usually she thought things out methodically before making a move, especially ground-breaking things like confessions of love? She had no idea but hated herself for her actions more and more with each passing day.

In telling Michael flat out that she loved him, she had effectively ruined the best relationship she ever had. She was sure that at that very moment, Michael was off somewhere with Alice. They were probably smiling and laughing together as they boxed up her belongings and carted them over to Michael’s apartment. He had not called her since the incident and probably never would, she decided. Of course, she was not going to call him either. She made it perfectly clear how she felt and he had done the same by not responding. They would simply see each other at Sunday’s practice. They would smile cordially and have meaningless chit-chat while lacing up their skates. That would be the most interaction they would ever have again.

Sitting on her couch, a ball of used tissues in her lap, Sydney hated herself. She had never been a crier, especially over boyfriends. Sometimes an overly-emotional movie would have her misty-eyed. She had also been known to shed a tear or two over a particularly gruesome sports injury, but as a general rule she was not a crier, least of all over boyfriends. She always thought the girls who cried over their guys were silly. Well, if she was crying over Michael, a man who was not even her boyfriend, she was surely the silliest of them all.

The thing that hurt the most, the thing that kept the tears welling in her eyes, was that a part of her (albeit a small part) actually thought Michael might feel the same way about her. Alright, so maybe he wasn’t head over heels in love with her like she was with him, but part of her believed he had at least some romantic feelings toward her. Or, at least she hoped he found her the slightest bit attractive. Then again, she reminded herself, she was nothing like any of the girlfriends she had known Michael to have.

Simply put, Michael liked blondes, tiny ones at that. With her chestnut hair and five-foot-nine frame Sydney was neither blonde nor tiny. He also went after non-athletic bookish girls, as surprising as that was. Clearly, former tomboys with flat chests and gangling limbs were not his type, not his type at all.

Sydney was so consumed with her self-hating thoughts as she sat there, staring blankly across her apartment, she did not hear the doorbell ring. In fact, she did not realize anyone was outside her apartment at all until very impatient banging roused her from her state. Slowly, she shuffled her way to the door and was shocked to find Michael there looking perturbed.

“You weren’t answering your phone,” he said flatly. “And you didn’t answer the doorbell either; I thought something happened to you.”

“No… my cell battery died not to long ago and I’m sorry I didn’t hear the doorbell,” she told him quietly.

“Oh.” A moment of silence passed before he continued, “Can I come in?”

Sydney shrugged and stepped aside, allowing him into her apartment. She really was not in the mood for a confrontation with him, yet after her confession on Sunday it was inevitable. She was sure Michael wanted to make at least an attempt at a rebuttal to her admissions of love, even if it was a cordial, “I’m sorry but I just don’t feel the same.” The sad fact was she was almost positive she did not want to hear it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything on Sunday… I was… shocked,” he said simply.

Sydney nodded and led the way to her couch. That she fully understood and expected; after all, her admissions were seemingly coming out of the blue. “Yeah I get that; it’s fine.”

“No, Sydney, it’s not fine. We…we need to talk about what you said because the thing is I love you too,” he told her.

“Yeah, as a friend love me, I know that,” she assured him with a casual hand wave. She wanted their conversation to be over as quickly as possible, before her tears started up once more. The last thing she needed to do was cry in front of Michael, who had never seen her cry. Okay, well there was that one time she fell head first into the ice arena wall and put her teeth right through her tongue, but anyone would have shed some tears in that situation. If Michael saw her cry, surely he would relay her girly behavior to their teammates, which would result in mocking for life.

“Sydney, I…,” he paused, obviously trying to collect his thoughts. “When I decided to move in with Alice, I wasn’t doing it because it was something I really, really wanted to do. I mean, obviously, I called you to ask you what I should do. I just decided to do it because I thought it was what I was supposed to do; it was the next step.

“With Alice, I’m happy and when I say I’m happy I mean… I don’t feel unhappy with her, so I guess that makes me happy right? But I’m not over-the-moon happy, nor have I ever been with any of the girlfriends I’ve had in twenty-eight years of my life.”

“Wh-why are you telling me this?” Sydney asked softly. She did not need to hear about how happy Michael was with Alice. Frankly, that fact made her want to vomit all over him, but she refrained.

“I have a point I promise,” he assured her with a wry smile. “What you said was right – I do think of you as one of the guys… or I did before Sunday anyway. I mean, Syd you’re my best friend; I think that’s painfully apparent to anyone. You get me better than anyone else; we get each other. We love hockey and the Mets and we can do stuff together – hang out and talk.

“My point is,” he exhaled as he reached over for one of Sydney’s hands. “If I lost you from my life – if I no longer had you as a friend that would kill me. It would kill me. I need you in my life Sydney, as a friend; I don’t want to lose our friendship.”

“Yeah,” Sydney croaked out, “friends. Just friends – I get it.” Just friends – yep, that was the kiss of death. So that was the reason for Michael’s unannounced visit. He wanted to assure her that while he did not love her like she loved him he did not want to lose their friendship because it was too important to him. She could definitely handle that since she did not want to lose him either. The only issue would be getting over the mountain of awkwardness she had created with her stupid love admission. Stupid.

“Sydney,” Michael began, that time with an amused smile. “You’re not listening to what I’m saying, are you?”

“Yes I am. You just said I’m your friend,” she summarized his speech back to him with just that one sentence. Again, Michael smiled with amusement and, before Sydney could even blink, he leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the lips.

Sydney’s first reaction was to remind herself that she actually needed to breathe – Breathe! Once that was accomplished, she blinked and questioned in shock, “Why did you do that?”

“Because I love you, idiot,” he laughed softly. “Okay, so I might not be in love with you like you are with me but…but that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings for you. Contrary to what you said, I don’t just think of you as ‘one of the guys’. I am well aware of the fact that you’re a girl – a beautiful girl with the most gorgeous brown eyes and the cutest dimples I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

With this, Sydney blushed and cracked a small yet dimple filed involuntary smile. Had he really just said that to her? “Michael,” she managed to mumbled out with embarrassment.

“I’m serious. So maybe I never really thought of it before, but I have been known to have some jealous moments when you were with some guy who I didn’t approve of. Then, after you left on Sunday, I sat at that rink for another two hours just thinking about you, about us and I realized dozens of things I never thought of before – like how beautiful you are and how you’re the coolest girl on the planet,” he told her with a smile. She smiled back.

“If you’re willing, I’d like to maybe… maybe try a relationship between us. Who knows? It might be really awesome since, you know, you are my best friend and all. Besides, maybe this whole crazy thing has been right in front of us all along. I mean, what two males and females get along better than us, huh? We love the same sports and movies. Could be kinda perfect,” he smiled.

Sydney laughed softly with utter disbelief. “Are you serious?!”

“What do you think?” he responded. Then, he leaned forward, cupped her face with his hands, and gave her a longer kiss. That time, Sydney responded by leaning towards him and kissing back.

Suddenly, she pulled back and demanded, “Wait, did you break up with Alice?”

“Sunday night,” he responded with a grin.

She laughed, happily that time. “Then what took you so long?!”

“Well I didn’t want to seem too much like I was on the rebound,” he smiled. Again she laughed and leaned forward to give him another kiss.

After a long, searing, much-anticipated kiss, Sydney pulled back and nuzzled her face against his before locking her arms around his neck. “You know,” she said softly, “the other guys on the team aren’t going to like this at all…”

“Eh, they’ll live,” Michael concluded. When he leaned back, he saw Sydney’s eyes sparkling with something other than the pure joy that they were both feeling at that moment. “Hey, you’re crying,” he pointed out as he reached a thumb forward to brush her cheeks dry. “You’re not going to start going all chick on me now are you?”

“Hey,” she said, shoving him playfully as she sniffed back her tears. “I am a chick.”

“You know,” he began playfully, pulling her closer to him, “I had noticed that actually.”



Epilogue (Part 5)

~Six Months Later~

“Well,” Tim began with a heavy sigh, “Jamie filed for divorce.”

All the men (plus Sydney) stopped rummaging through their gear and let out sympathetic sighs. For a few months, Tim and his former model wife, Jamie, had been having difficulties. They were in couples counseling, but it appeared their union just was not salvageable. “Is it all about the not wanting kids thing?” Sydney asked, knowing that was their main issue. Tim wanted children, but Jamie refused to ruin her perfect figure. Their therapist suggested adoption, Jamie revealed that she never wanted children; apparently, she disliked them.

“Mostly, but its other stuff too,” Tim said sadly.

“Sorry man,” Michael said, giving his back a firm pat. Tim gave him a half smile.

“Think of it this way,” Brad chimed in hopefully, “now Bristow and Vaughn aren’t the only single ones!”

Both Sydney and Michael smiled softly to themselves at this comment, but did not make eye contact. Throughout their six-month relationship they had somehow managed to keep the whole thing a secret from their teammates. Of course, this most likely because the only time they saw their fellow skaters was during practices or pick-up games; they rarely saw them otherwise, thus secrecy was easier to keep up. Tim, Brad and the others were completely oblivious to the fact that Sydney and Michael were practically living together and had been for a few months.

As it turned out, their romantic relationship was just as perfect as Sydney dreamed it to be. Their friends to lovers transition was seamless and soon Michael was just as in love with her as she was with him. They were deliriously happy, as were their parents, amazingly. Of course Sydney’s father liked Michael due to his hockey fixation, but his parents liked her as well and they were all glad their children were finally happy.

“Actually,” Michael began casually, “I’m not single.”

“Oh right we forgot your secret girlfriend,” Brad said with a notable eye roll.

“Exactly,” Michael smiled. “Things are pretty serious between us.” With this comment, Sydney’s ears perked. Was he really going to talk about their relationship with her standing right there? Was she to pretend not to hear, or could she participate, play along?

“Pretty serious? But how long has it been? A few months?” Tim asked.

“Yeah but she’s, you know, it – the one,” he said. Sydney fought to keep her gasp trapped in her throat as tears burned in her eyes. Quickly, she turned her back to the rest of the group so that they would not see her.

“Actually,” Michael continued, “I’m thinking of proposing soon… you know, when she least expects it.”

“Whoa, dude for real?!” Tim exclaimed as the other guys commented as well. Sydney, on the other hand, could hardly breathe. She was desperately fighting the urge to spin around and pounce on Michael and give him a searing kiss, despite the fact that the guys were watching.

Feeling her legs begin to collapse beneath her, Sydney flopped down onto the bleachers and reached for her skates. When she lifted the left one up, she heard something strange rattling inside. Confused, she plunged her hand down into the boot, where her hand came in contact with something small and square. Pulling it out, she found that it was a small jewelry case and could not stop herself from gasping aloud.

After a minute of staring at the box in her hand, she cautiously glanced up towards the cluster of men towards her left. For the most part, they were still conversing with each other over Michael’s sudden admission, but Michael had his eyes trained directly on her. Slowly, the others noticed this, and looked in her direction as well. When they locked eyes, Michael stood from his position on the bleachers and walked over to her. He had a whole speech planned out, but Sydney had no intentions of hearing it.

The second he was in arm’s reach, she grasped the front of his shirt and pulled him towards her, locking their lips together immediately. After a minute of kissing, Sydney pulled back as a beautiful smile blossomed across her face. “So, uh,” she began softly, “this thing that somehow found its way into my skate…”

“Yeah,” Michael smiled.

“It wouldn’t happen to be for me, would it?”

“Actually I think it might be,” he told her. She grinned even broader, if that was even possible, and kissed him again.

“Dude!” Brad exclaimed. “I totally called this!”

Michael gave Brad a curious look. “You knew Sydney was my secret girlfriend?”

“No… but I totally thought you two were sleeping together!”

Sydney laughed deeply. “Well he was half right…”

“I think with Brad that’s as good as we’re gonna get,” Michael sighed.

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