The Class of 1999
#65 of Hockey Hunk Season 4
The dinner goes on.
Art courtesies of Gritou - thank you mon orque!
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Hehhey, and welcome to the Hockey Hunk! It's Friday and it's another chapter, and I must say, I am doing just fine and having a blast writing this story, as always! I hope you'll enjoy the tale as much as I do, and hopefully you'll leave me a comment once you've read - all the feedback is always appreciated, and will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!
Have a nice read!
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"...and you must taste these cocktail sausages, they're delicious when you dip them in this sauce!"
Tate rubbed one of his long ears as he stared at the massive array of food on the table, seemingly puzzled at where to begin sampling, despite Cobb's best efforts at advertising the miniature wieners. Hell, he even grabbed one of the little toothpick-impaled things and pushed it into the small pot of sauce before he stuffed it into his grinning muzzle, made a slurping sound, and then pulled the toothpick out between his teeth while he chewed loudly.
"Hmmm...garlic and mayo and a little bit of extra finely chopped sweet pepper..." Cobb murmured in a whiff of strong-smelling breath waffling in my direction.
"Well...looks like one of you knows his way around the kitchen...or is that both of you?" the fox commented, glancing over to each of us in turn.
"Oh that's me, obviously," Cobb winked, his muzzle still making those rude slippery sounds.
Of course.
"Seriously, I've probably gained ten pounds while Cobb's been here," I mused as I stepped closer, now aligned so that Tate was to my left on one side of the kitchen island, Cobb on the right side, behind it to act as the chef once more.
Cobb chuckled and patted his own belly happily.
Clap clap clap.
"That's because he can't resist my hot sauce," Cobb winked. "Seriously, you must taste it! You can dip anything in it."
His ears flicked madly as he gesticulated wildly over the buffet table. Tate's tail flapped against his ankles, I noticed. I reminded myself not to let my eyes linger there for too long, in those white sneakers.
"Well this really is much more than I'm used to..." the fox spoke in a low, rumbling voice, "I guess I could eat a week with all this stuff..."
Cobb's paw flew over the table and jammed against the fox's slim shoulder. For a moment I almost thought his knees were going to buckle or something...but he took it alright, if a bit tensely.
"Well you are slinky, man!" Cobb rumbled loudly.
"Guess I don't eat so much nowadays," the fox replied.
"Seriously," Cobb departed from his shoulder with another pat, "I've seen this man down five hamburgers and a massive Coke in one go, I know how he can eat!"
I snorted.
"Wendy's memories again, Cobb?" I inquired, arms folded over my chest.
"RAH RAH RAH HURRAH!" Cobb threw his paws in the air and bellowed out the fighting chant of the Alfred D. Hynemann High School Chargers for the second time in the last five minutes, which might suggest a worrying trend on how this evening might turn out to be if he got his paws to too much beer.
God forbid if he tried to offer coffee and brandy to Tate...that combination might finish us all off. I shook my head at the thought.
"Easy on the beer, Cobb," I mused.
Cobb pouted.
"He was always a party pooper wasn't he?" Cobb addressed Tate with another wink.
Tate gave me a look and seemed almost mournful, somehow, looking over at me while Cobb stared at both of us, his ears practically wagging with delight at seeing his old teammate again. I wasn't sure what to think. He seemed oddly...smaller, somehow...less boisterous...less...less everything, it seemed. Just much more quiet, physically. The same couldn't be said about Cobb. He looked like he was preparing for liftoff.
I hurried to smile.
"I must've crashed a few of yours," I said, "considering how you liked hanging out in our backyard..."
"That yard never recovered," Cobb winked. "Especially not after that accident with the barbeque...remember that, old buddy?"
I remembered all too well. Trying to put out a fire with a garden hose while a bunch of drunk high school kids (Cobb and Tate included) cheered you on wasn't really how I liked to remember those sweet years of youth.
"I think so..." the fox mused, brow quirked.
"I was sooooooooooooo grounded!" Cobb declared as if that was a point of pride.
"So was I," I said. "For allowing it to go on."
"Aww you could've joined in..." Cobb patted my nearby shoulder, grinning stupidly.
"I think I'll join in on the salad now," I stepped closer to the table, to steer the conversation away from past misbehavior and into the things that were at paw instead, "I've been starving myself all day so that I can enjoy this stuff."
I picked up a plate from the small pile of three Victor had set up and shuffled closer to the bowl of salad Cobb had taken out of the fridge only a moment previously. I was really hungry, too, knowing that there was so much to eat tonight that I'd only had a sandwich at work...and Cobb hadn't really let me have too many tasters beforehand.
"Well you heard the man!" Cobb declared to Tate as I stuffed the salad fork into the bowl and scooped myself a good portion. A few bits of salad spilled onto the cloth-covered kitchen island. "Dig in!"
"Well I don't really know where to start..."
"The hot wieners, trust me," Cobb grabbed another toothpick-pronged treat from his plate and destroyed it in one gulp, it seemed. "Then you can work through hot and sweet and sour and start all over again!"
"I think I'll just start with the salad," I said, happy with my portion as I picked up a fork and then headed for the table.
"NOOO, VICTOR!" Cobb bellowed, causing me to freeze.
"Huh?" my ears flattened as I whirled about.
"This is a buffet," Cobb finger-waved me in a tsk tsk tsk tone, "nobody's sitting on the table tonight! Go sit on the couch, you can put your plate down on the coffee table when you're not eating, we're all going to sit down and relax and have a really nice chat!"
Well, this sounded awfully programmed for being as informal as Cobb was claiming it to be. Guess it would be better to do his bidding for now...maybe being further away from the fridge of beer would keep him from drinking too much and becoming a total nuisance.
"Alright," I rumbled and headed for the couch as told.
"You must taste this sirloin, I cooked it just right, I think, and it's as great cold as it is hot, you must try this!" I could hear Cobb enthusing.
"Well, thanks..."
*
":..so yeah, that's how business is going, but what about you, Tate? Victor said me you're studying or something...how is that going?"
Cobb had just flopped down onto the armchair after a 15-minute monologue on the topic of "All the great things I did in the past 13 years since we last met", and was now sitting there with a bottle of beer and a satisfied look on his muzzle. An empty plate covered in sauce stains rested precariously against his beefy thigh. His shirt was showing similar signs of his gluttony. My own plate had a couple of those damn cocktail wieners and a little bit of the potato salad now. Tate's plate was only half-done, and he was holding a fork. Seemed that there was some beer left in his bottle, too. It can't have been too nice anymore, considering we'd been sitting here for good half an hour already, mostly chatting this and that until Cobb began his tirade.
The fox was sitting on the armchair next to the one Cobb occupied in throne-like capacity, and had spent most of the time looking down to his knees while listening to my brother talking. He seemed to perk up a little now, those brown paws flexing a little over his lap. His crutch rested against a knee...his own, I thought. I wasn't so sure what was going on under those pants.
"Oh...uh...well, yeah, I'm studying computer programming...CSS and JavaScript...at the community college...at least trying to..."
"Well that's great, man!" Cobb's paw flew over to pat Tate's shoulder for umpteenth time today, almost knocking his own plate down, as much as threatening Tate's constitution.
"Yeah...kinda...re-educating myself, you know?!" the fox mumbled. "I'm not much good in doing anything I used to do so...maybe I'll find something new to...new thing to help with."
I couldn't help but look again. The leg looked all too innocent from this angle, with the pants covering everything...all the way to an ankle that I knew no longer existed.
"You'll be running your own Facebook soon or something!" Cobb grinned, beer in his eyes, definitely.
"Well as long as I'm getting a job..." the fox's ears jumped up and down. "Gonna start on work practice in a couple of months...there's still small web development company, I'm going to be doing some work for them and...you know...trying to get the hang of things..."
"That's the spirit!" Cobb grinned. "If you lived in Chicago, I'd ask you to come to work for me, hehehe!"
More shoulder-slapping. I was surprised Tate had managed to eat or drink anything with Cobb always shaking him around.
"That sounds really good," I said, "lots of work in that field when you find it."
"Yeah, I guess," Tate rubbed his muzzle, "we've got...programs and stuff, of course, for vets but...not everyone gets lucky."
"You seem to be doing pretty good, from what you wrote," I commented.
"I'd say!" Cobb chuckled.
The fox's whiskers shook.
"I suppose...better than it could be...much better..."
"Didn't expect anything else!" Cobb grinned, and surprisingly, didn't pat his shoulder now.
"Well don't know about that..." the fox mumbled, "don't think I've done so much..."
"Hell yeah you have, man!" my brother yelped. "Fighting old Saddam's ass."
The fox looked tense.
"Guess we were fighting, but I'm not sure we knew what exactly anymore," Tate mumbled. "We just kept going...one dusty road after another..."
I didn't like where this could be going. Cobb could do some serious damage with this if we weren't careful. I cleared my throat to rouse attention. I got their eyes and ears.
"And that's how it keeps going and going," I noted. "No matter what anyone says here."
"Damn towelheads," Cobb grunted.
I bared my teeth.
"Lay it off, Cobb," I said.
"Well they tried to blow up my buddy - "
I raised my paw in a warning.
"Let it be, Cobb," I grunted.
My brother opened his muzzle to say something, but a glare from me silenced him up. I suppose that was a small relief. Tate's tail twitched between his legs. He'd seem to have shrunken even smaller in the big armchair while our argument went on, brief as it was. I hoped that the night wasn't ruined.
"So you didn't tell me exactly where you lived, "I said, "Or do I remember incorrectly, Tate?"
Anything to keep going. Anything to stop Cobb from going nuts and making a total asshole out of himself. He didn't deserve that, now that this was the first time he was meeting Tate in so many years. He deserved better. Tate deserved better.
The fox's nosepad wrinkled a little.
"Well, I live in...I suppose that part's called Kenneth..."
"That's on the eastside," I noted, seeing Cobb's blank expression.
"Oh, on the other side of the river!" Cobb yelped.
"Yeah," Tate nodded, "It's a kind of a...kind of a supported living thing, I guess...for veterans and...I don't know who else lives there, really, don't really hang out there so much..."
Must be those city-owned blocks in Kenneth...ugly things...only seen them a few times, driving through that part for some reason...couldn't even remember why...didn't really want to go back, either. I tried not to flinch.
"Do many of you live there?" Cobb asked.
"A few, I guess," Tate nodded. "We've got that rehab program going on here in Kirk City and I guess that's where we live..."
"Nothing quite like a place of your own eh?" Cobb grinned as he elbowed the smaller male on the chair next to him. "Can just let it all hang out, heheh...heh...all free...heh...flopping free..."
Oh, Jesus.
At least Tate chuckled, looking at my brother's dirty expression.
"Well I suppose it sometimes gets like that, even with a roommate..." the fox said.
"Oh?" Cobb sounded curious.
"Yeah...Marker...he was in Iraq too..."
"Heheh, guess you've got a lot in common, then!" Cobb grinned.
The fox glanced down to his knees.
"I suppose a bit, yeah."
"Good to have buddies around!" Cobb grinned. "Now all you're missing is a nice vixen and you're all set eh?"
My brother's leering gaze made me feel slightly uncomfortable, for sure, though Tate seemed to shrug it off with a chuckle.
"Sure," he winked at my brother, "how about you guys then? Didn't hear mentions of any better halves yet...."
Cobb let out a loud chuckle and stretched his paws out in front of him, fingers spread.
"No ring yet for me!" he snickered. "Nobody caught me yet! Free as a bird, Cobb Holden, the most eligible bachelor in Chicago, hahah!"
Oh, really, Cobb?
Tate looked at me.
"Same true for you, Victor?" the fox asked.
Cobb kinda got this strange look on his face when Tate asked that, but the fox wasn't looking at my brother, and I hoped that this state would persist, too.
"No, no, "I said, "not married or anything yet, no."
Not even fucking legal.
_ _
"Doesn't matter," Cobb chuckled, "we're still young and pretty, aren't we, Tate?"
He gave the fox a passionate look, and the fox let out a chuckle.
"Yeah, sure do," the fox mused.
"YOUNG!" Cobb bellowed, suddenly getting up from his chair as if he'd sat on an up right beer bottle or something.
Get it, eh?
Both me and Tate almost jumped when my brother got to his paws and stormed away towards his room.
"What is it now?" I rumbled, exasperated by his weird behavior.
"I FORGOT THE PHOTOS I'VE GOT ON MY IPAD! I'VE GOT PLENTY OF OLD PHOTOS THERE I SCANNED AND MADE DIGITAL, I GOTTA...YEAH, HOLD ON!"
Oh, how marvelous. Embarrassing photo time.
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