Chapter 101: Modo V
It was misery all over again. It was complete and utter hell. Why was he condemned so? Why! He hadn’t looked at the schedule he refused to. When did they play the Avs again? Did he want to know? When would he be close to Joe again?
Damn that Tanguay and damn that Hinote for interrupting his precious time with Joe! And damn that Michele Roy too! He had gotten back at the team as best as he could with the brownies but he couldn’t get back at her. It wasn’t fair. He was so lonely...
"Christ!" Modano sobbed to himself, the tears streaming down his face and he curled up on his floor, his hands in his hair. He was beyond sad now. And he didn’t know what to do... he just wanted this pain to end.
He could feel the warm slide of Joe’s hand on his back, that comforting, caring hand. And it wasn’t enough. He wanted more, so much more! Still, something inside him told him that he would never have what he wanted. There was too much preventing him. Modano sobbed some more, hiccuping and then falling asleep.
The phone was ringing inside his brain and it woke him up. What time was it? Modano couldn’t tell. He blinked through his salty eyes and grabbed the phone.
"Yeah?" he said.
"Hey, Mike! It’s Jason, where ya been bud?"
"Uh... home," Mike said.
"Well, dammit Modo come on! We have only tonight off until we play again tomorrow," Arnott snapped. "You’ve wasted a three day vacation long enough at home. A bunch of us guys are at the Pig Parlor, come on and have some drinks, play some pool. There’s some hot chicks here too!"
Modano thought of those vacant eyed, wispy groupies and almost belched in disgust. "Uh, Jase I don’t know..."
"Come on! Mike you’ve been so shit in the dumps lately and you need a good night out with the boys, shit I’ll buy your drinks!" Arnott said.
Modano sighed and decided that he wouldn’t die socializing with his team. "OK," he said. "Sounds like fun."
The Pig Parlor was an expensive, bar/slash nightclub that Mike and Brett used to go to all the time. Ever since Brett left, Mike had not returned to it and he was quite nervous about how he would feel coming back to it. As he pulled up into the dusty, dusky parking lot, up to the huge, barn shaped structure with the huge pig in petticoats dancing above the doorway, Mike was surprised that he only felt a sense of recognition at it. There was no sadness or longing or sentimentality. Had he recovered from Brett? Perhaps, but that didn’t ease the pain he was now feeling for Joe.
Modano coughed dryly and walked with confidence into the Pig Parlor nodding to all the staff and customers who remembered him and missed him. He began to feel like his old self, he began to feel important. He was now coming in here, without Brett and he didn’t care one iota that Brett wasn’t with him. How cool was that?
He saw Arnott, Muller, Turgeon, Turco, Matvichuck and Morrow at the bar. All of them barked and waved at him and Modano felt manly as he slightly waved back, nodding. "Hey guys," he said.
"Great," Arnott said. "Back from the dead! How ya doing Modo?"
Modano shrugged.
"Well ya look like shit," Morrow said. "What’s up?"
"Eh." Modano said. "I just need a drink."
For awhile it was fun. It was relaxing just hanging with the guys, laughing with them, barking with them, whistling at girls who glanced at them over their nearly bare shoulders. Weak creatures to be sure but Modano didn’t care at that point, he was back in a group. He was back where he belonged.
"Hey Modo," Matvichuck whispered in his ear. "I think I want two of those tonight... want to join me?"
Modo startled and looked at Richard, at his thick dark eyelashes and dark face. He had a nasty smirk on his face, one that made him uneasy. "What?" he asked.
"Come on," Richard repeated. "I’m not as mean as Muller is."
"Oh I don’t know," Modano said slowly, he just wasn’t ready to touch a woman again. "I think I’ll be tired later..."
Richard winked. "Or perhaps not to your taste? These girls?"
A nervous flash went through Modano and he took a quick sip from his drink. Was Richard hinting at something or wasn’t he? Was there some sort of trap being set?
"Nothing’s wrong with these girls, Richard," he said. "I’m just tired."
"Maybe some other time..." Matvichuck said.
Modano was bothered all over again after that exchange and he couldn’t stop watching Richard for awhile. He wasn’t very attractive, but he seemed to have a good knack for getting girls to listen to him. He had a way about him. And Modano didn’t trust him either. Matvichuck was one of Mike Keane’s old cronies and Keaner although one funny son of bitch, worried Mike. What if Matvichuck knew something about his feelings for Joe and was fishing for something.....
Joe! Ooooh the pain intensified in him yet again. It all flooded back to him and then he began to worry. The question came back to Patrick and Michele Roy. Were they planning on hurting Joe? Was she? Patrick had no loyalty for captains Mike knew, and was he trying on hurting his current captain?
Keaner was the captain right now on the Avs... Muller had said that he was sure that was a plan of Patrick’s. Had phase one started of something dark and insidious to Joe? But Mike couldn’t really do too much because he didn’t know enough. He could never forgive himself if something serious happened to Joe.
"Hey Pierre," Modano said to Turgeon.
"Yes?" Turgeon said with a smile.
"You were a teammate of Patrick’s before, on Montreal?" Modano asked.
"Roy?" Pierre said with a nod. "Yes."
"What was his wife like?" Modano asked.
A heavenly glow overtook Pierre’s face and he smiled. "What wasn’t she like is the key, mother, sister, friend you name it she was it. A very pleasant woman, I like meeting with them in the summers, very nice."
Modano’s stomach turned as he thought of that woman’s narrowed, bitchy eyes. What the hell kind of planet was Pierre on? He didn’t find her attractive in the least, not that he found women attractive anymore.
"Why you ask eh?" Turgeon said.
Modano shrugged. "I just heard a...."
Pierre rolled his eyes. "Don’t be spreading the bullshit about her eh? I am in no mood."
Modano nodded and let Pierre slide away to mingle with the revelers. Well that wasn’t any help at all. Modano next crept aside Muller and took a deep breath. "Hey Kirk," he said.
Muller turned his dark eyes to Modano and sniffed. "So now you’re talking to me?"
Modano smile weakly. "Can I talk to you about something?"
Muller shrugged.
"You were captain in Montreal..."
"Yeah," Muller said with a sarcastic laugh. "I tried to believe that."
"What happened?" Mike asked.
"Stupid uppity goalie and fuckin haughty bitch of a wife that’s what," Muller snarled. "Hate that haughty bitch! She never knew her fuckin place in a chicken coop, on a team. Still don’t. Frigid bitty."
Modano grimaced. "You’re just the guy I wanted to talk to then..."
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