Page 2 of Four Letter Feelings

Hot shot, eh? What the hell else did Coach tell you guys in my absence?

“Ah, yeah. I got back late last night. I figured nothing really happens during the first week of term anyway.”

“You rebel, you!” AJ barely looked up as he picked up his third wing and started to pull the meat from the bone with his teeth. “Year out, eh? Where’d you go?”

“Europe,” he answered, curtly.

And please just let that conversation die right now 'cause I don’t want to talk about why I took a year out right now, thank you very much.

When AJ seemed to take the hint and didn’t reply, Jeremy took a bite. “Fuck.” He closed his eyes for a minute and savored the experience. “And damn did I miss chicken wings.”

“Not just wings, man.” Jeremy opened his eyes in time to see that AJ was very clearly amused at how close Jeremy’s experience with the wings seemed to come to being spiritual. “Bdubs,” he waved a wing in a small flourish as if for effect.

“Damn straight.”

He polished off a few more wings as the men watched the game together in contented silence – or rather as silent as anyone could manage while surrounded by newbie college students getting very quickly drunk. The server brought AJ his food and another round of beer for the both of them. The huge and noisy crowd that had overwhelmed the place began to dissipate before either spoke again.

Guess they weren’t here for a game after all, then.

“So, you’re on the team too, eh?” he gestured at AJ with a half-eaten wing.

“Yeah.” AJ nodded, as he plowed through the mountain of food on the table between them. “I’m ‘The Muscle’.” He used his barbecue sauce covered fingers to air quote his title and flexed his bicep before throwing an eye roll and turning his attention back to the food.

“Ah, you don’t seem nearly assholey enough to be, well, an asshole.”

“Thanks, I think. Though I don’t need to be an asshole, until I need to be an asshole, y’know?”

Jeremy nodded and glanced at the TV in time to see the Sabres get their second goal of the game so far. He cursed, loudly. The second period had just started and they’d scored in less than a minute.

AJ chuckled and shook his head. “We have no hope.”

“Keep the faith, man,” Jeremy insisted.

AJ looked at him as though he’d lost his mind and shrugged as he ate another wing. Without taking his eyes off the screen, AJ asked, “So, which part of Canada are you from, Jer?”

“What makes you think I’m not from right here in the beautiful south?” Jeremy added a deliberately thick southern twang to his question while side-eying his new teammate.

“Dude, c’mon. I spent most of my childhood up north; I know a Canuck when I see one. Bet you’ve even got a flask of maple syrup strapped to your ankle and everything,” AJ joked, pausing from the diminishing pile of chicken wings to take a pull of his beer and sliding back against his chair.

Ah ha! I was right!

“West Lorne, Ontario. You?”

“Born right here in Huntsvegas, but we moved up to Toronto when I was a baby.”

Jeremy nodded. “What brought you back to the deep south for college?”

AJ shrugged and tugged at the label on his beer. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. You?”

“Same.”

It’s pretty much as far away from home as I could get.

Home.

A pang of homesickness struck in his chest, and pushing it down quickly,he turned his attention back to the game. Realizing AJ’s gaze was still on him Jeremy glanced back across the table.

“What?” he asked, shortly.

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