Higher Than Hope

Magnus drove back to their apartment near Ryan's building in downtown Edmonton, the building in the Oliver neighborhood with its high-rise condos and apartment buildings. He parked the truck in the basement parking lot and helped Jonesy get out of the backseat, the three of them getting into the elevator to the tenth floor. "Taylor and Jordan live down the hall from us, a lot of us live around here except for the older guys with kids who live out in the suburbs", he explained.

"Da, that makes sense. What is this area like?", asked Nail.

"Nice and quiet, except for the area around the train station. But there are a few strip malls and shops and restaurants on Jasper Avenue, it's not bad. At least there's not so much noise and traffic if we lived on the lower floors", he replied.

"Magnus is right, my wife and I used to live in another building on the lower floor and we could hear the damn trucks and the cars in the garage a lot. Until I get this shit off, I'm stuck here", said Jonesy with a laugh.

"Jonesy, you can stay here all you want", chided Magnus.

"Dude, you're awesome. Looks like we're just two bachelors stuck with each other", he laughed.

They got off at the tenth floor and Magnus led the way to their apartment, reaching into his pocket for the keys and letting them inside. The inside looked very similar to Ryan's apartment with a large parlor dominated by a couch facing the plasma TV hooked up to an Xbox and PS3 and stereo, a large gleaming kitchen that didn't look very use, two bedrooms that both had unmade beds, a laundry room with a washer and drier and two bathrooms. "All the apartments in the building are built like this, and the cleaning lady didn't come in yet", said Magnus as he went into the kitchen and looked through the refrigerator. He frowned when he saw nothing but a gallon of milk, another gallon of water, a carton of orange juice, a shelf of Muscle Milk, another shelf of Big Rock beer and a Tupperware container of leftover macaroni and cheese. "Uh, if you want anything to drink we have normal milk, Muscle Milk, orange juice, water and beer. And the macaroni and cheese Jordan made, that's the only thing he can cook", he said apologetically.

"I know, that's the only thing he knows how to make because he's a dumb farmboy from Saskatchewan. Let's get some takeout", said Jonesy as he gingerly settled down on the couch and reached for the remote.

"Is that Kraft macaroni and cheese, we used to eat that all the time in Sarnia", said Nail with a laugh.

"Yep, Hallsy and Ebs have a whole shelf in the kitchen with KD dinners, that's the only thing they can make without making a huge mess. The one time they tried to make a tuna casserole, the kitchen was such a mess Ebs' mom had to come and clean it all up. They put the dish in the oven and baked it too long and it crap exploded all over the oven door and inside too, it stunk so bad from the tuna and the soup and all. I think it stunk worse than the time your mom made lutefisk", laughed Jonesy.

Magnus blushed as the tips of his ears turned pink, rummaging around in a drawer for the takeout menus. "Ja, I know lutefisk smells bad but if you eat it drunk you can't tell. But at least it was not rancid, the tuna and the cream soup was rancid and burned. Anyways, I have Chinese, pizza, Thai and Indian menus, what do you like?", he asked as he grabbed the menus and walked over to the parlor.

"We had pizza last night, I feel like having some Indian food. What about you, Nail?", asked Jonesy.

"Okay, we had a lot of that growing up in my part of Russia. Indian cuisine is popular there, since so much Russian food stinks we all developed a taste for spicy food", he chuckled.

"Awesome, dude. And after this we can play some Call of Duty, we have Call of Duty tournaments between us. Magnus is the better player but I'm not too bad myself", laughed Jonesy.

"Ja, it's because I play as the Russians and you play as the Americans, Jonesy. The Russian have better artillery and soldiers", retorted Magnus.

"Dude, your folks are going to call you a traitor", teased Jonesy.

"That's because there are no options for Swedish or Finnish troops, silly. And there aren't any good soldiers there either, neither country has a great military", he retorted.

Nail bit his lip to keep from laughing as he perused the menu. "I have to agree with you there, Magnus. Anyways, what looks good to you?", he asked, handing him the menu.

"We ought to have a tournament with Hallsy and Ebs if they're interested, we need to round things out. Nail, do you know how to play Call of Duty?", asked Magnus.

"Nyet, I don't play video games. And if you are going to fight Russians, I am not interested", he joked.

"What, you don't play video games, bro?", exclaimed Jonesy.

"Jonesy, not everyone plays video games. And we can teach you how to play Call of Duty, a lot of the guys play that on the road. A lot of the hotels have Xbox hook ups and some of us get together to have Call of Duty tournaments, it's a lot of fun", said Magnus.

"Okay, but I know I am going to suck at it first time", laughed Nail as Magnus took out his phone and called Jordan and Taylor.

Several minutes later there was a knock on the door as Magnus went to answer it, seeing them on the other side as he led them inside. "Hey, we are here to teach the noob how to play Call of Duty and have Indian food", teased Jordan.

"Da, but perhaps I will end up playing better than you", he joked.

"Yeah, maybe you'll have a run of beginner's luck. I had the same thing happen to me when I first played", said Jordan thoughtfully as Magnus ordered the food.

After lunch and the dishes and containers were all cleaned up, Magnus turned on the TV and the Xbox as he set up the controls for Call of Duty, making it a five player game and handing everyone a controller. "It's actually sort of easy, you shoot at other people. It's a first person shooter so it's pretty easy to figure out, just don't shoot at us", he said, showing him the right buttons to use the weapons.

Nail nodded in understanding and watched as the game screen showed on the TV, grabbing his controller and watching as the soldiers came on screen. The first few times he attempted to shoot his gun, he missed by a wide margin and the bullets landed harmlessly somewhere in the bushes but after a bit of practice he was able to wing the bad guys and eventually start killing them. "You're doing great, dude. Soon it'll be really easy", said Jonesy encouragingly.

Several hours later, they had won several rounds of the game and Magnus had saved all the information. "Looks like it is me and Jonesy who came in first place, Jordan in the third, Nail in fourth and Taylor in last place. Sorry about that, Hallsy", he chuckled as Taylor pretended to flip him off.

"Now what, it's almost five", said Jordan, glancing down at his phone.

"You know I can't go and drink, Ebs. I'm on all these damn meds and the doctor says booze is going to totally fuck up my brain if I drink and take those little shits", laughed Jonesy.

"I know. Besides, Ebs said he's going to make his famous tuna and KD casserole", laughed Taylor.

"Dude, anyone can do that", he joked.

"Yeah, but you do it the best", he retorted.

"Guys, you got the biggest bromance on the team", teased Jonesy.

"That means you don't get any tuna and KD", joked Taylor.

"No thank you, Taylor. I remember the last time you guys tried to cook", said Magnus dryly as everyone laughed.