Party Games
"No fair!" Riley shouted.
He balled his yellow paw into a fist and pounded it on the table. The table shook violently, and Ray was sent sprawling to his side. The mouse-wolf hybrid scrambled back to his feet and dusted off his jeans. He brushed the long, dark hair out of his face and smoothed the wrinkles out of his purple- and black-striped sweater. He laughed, and pulled the pile of poker chips toward him to join the rest of his massive pile. He peered up at his friend.
"Another round?" he asked innocently as Riley took a drink.
"Definitely," Riley said without hesitation. "But no more poker. . . . You cheat."
Ray laughed. He hadn't cheated at all. He was just better at the game. But he didn't say that to Riley. "How about Tic Tac Toe?"
"Okay," Riley agreed. "What's the bet?"
"How about . . . the loser has to pay for dinner tonight?"
"That sounds fair. I'll get some paper." Riley stood and towered over the little hybrid sitting on the table. He was an average size for an anthro wolf, gray, with yellow fur at the tips of his ears and tail, and completely covering his paws. His green eyes focused as he rifled through the desk behind him, searching for spare paper to play on. He found a stack of computer paper and plopped it on the table. He grabbed the top sheet and drew three Tic Tac Toe boards. "You go first," he said, handing Ray a small pencil.
"Are you sure?" Ray asked. "I thought you wanted to win this one! Letting me go first gives me the advantage."
Riley looked at Ray skeptically. "It doesn't matter who goes first. It's just Tic Tac Toe."
Ray trotted to the other side of the paper. "Okay," he said, and he drew an X, dragging the pencil behind him, using his tail to push down on the led so the line would be dark enough, and starting all over again from the other corner until the X was formed.
"I'll go here," Riley said, drawing an O in the top box of the other side of the board.
Ray drew an X two squares below that and Riley blocked his potential three-in-a-row by putting an O in the middle. "You blocked me!" Ray said with fake astonishment. "I'll go here, then." He drew an X in the bottom left corner.
But Riley wasn't fooled. He saw what the mouse was doing. There was an empty box in the middle of the bottom row. He put an O here to block it, and looked up to the top row. If Ray didn't put an X here, he would win! Maybe he wouldn't notice!
But Ray was grinning. "I win," he said.
"What do you mean?" Riley asked, confused.
"Look," Ray walked to the left side of the board and put an X. "Three in a row. Drink up. And you have to pay for dinner."
"Oh yeah . . ." Riley muttered, still a bit confused. He'd pay better attention from now on. "Next one. Go."
The next game went similar to the first. Ray put his first mark in the top-left corner and Riley put his in the box below it. Ray went in the top-right corner and Riley blocked him in the middle of the top row. Ray put an X in the bottom right corner and Riley swore. It had happened again! No matter where he went now, Ray would get a three-in-a-row next move.
"You let me win!" Ray laughed as he finished the game, two turns later. "You really gotta stop doing that."
"That's it," Riley said. "I'm going first this time, buddy. Give me that pencil."
"Just don't go poking your eye out," Ray teased.
Riley ignored him. Maybe the secret was Ray's starting spot. He put a circle in the top-left corner. He nudged Ray roughly . "Go," he said. "Hurry up."
"Give me a second! And calm down there, champ." Ray drew an X in the top-right corner.
"I am calm . . ." Riley muttered. He drew a mark under his first. Ray blocked him by putting an X under that and Riley blocked his line by putting an O in the middle. Ray blocked Riley's next move by putting an X on the bottom-right corner and Riley put his O . . .
"No way!" he shouted as he was beaten yet again. "You must have cheated!"
"At Tic Tac Toe?" Ray questioned. "How is that even possible?"
"How else are you able to beat me every single time?"
"Maybe I'm just lucky."
"Rock Paper Scissors."
"Huh?"
"We're playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. Now," Riley ordered.
"Okay. You count," Ray said.
Riley started the game.
"Rock, paper, scissors . . . shoot!"
Riley's paw was in a fist and Rays paw had two fingers jutting out.
"Rock, paper, scissors . . . shoot!"
Both chose rock.
"Rock, paper, scissors . . . shoot!"
Ray stretched out his paw, and Riley's . . . was still in a fist. Ray raised an eyebrow.
The game proceeded like this, and Ray won ninety-percent of the time. But by the end of it, both spoke loudly and laughed and joked about things that made no sense. Riley's stomach growled and they stopped, alert and focused at the strange sound. It happened again and they laughed.
"How about we get some pizza?" Ray said, clearing tears from his eyes.
"Yeah," Riley agreed. "Sounds good."
"Remember. You're paying."
"I got it. Hold on."
Thirty minutes later, the doorbell rang. Riley was slumped on the couch and Ray sat on the table counting his poker chips. "Pizza!" he shouted happily.
Riley groaned. "Can't you get it?" he complained.
"I'm small, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah . . . Oof." Riley forced himself to get up from the couch and drag himself to the door.
"Pizza delivery for . . . Tim the Wolf?"
"Oh yeah . . . That'd be me," he said thickly, and handed the guy a $20. He staggered.
"Are you alright?" the guy asked with concern.
Riley bared his teeth. "Get out of here!" he yelled. The pizza boy ran off like a pup.
"Everything alright over there?" Ray asked as Riley trotted back into the house with one box of pizza.
"Everything's fine. Here," he said, dropping the box on the table.
"Hey!" Ray exclaimed angrily and rubbed his tail with his paw. "That almost landed right on top of me!"
"Shaddup and eat some pizza." Riley opened the box, revealing the steaming bread topped with sauce and cheese and all kinds of good stuff. Ray forgot about his tail and dug right in. His little paws scrambled to lift the corner of the dough so he could munch on the end.
Ray could eat a surprising amount for his size. He'd downed three slices before Riley could even eat two, but by then he was stuffed. He laid down on his back, right inside the box, and just absorbed the delicious scent rising all around him.
Riley grabbed for another slice but his paw found Ray instead. He opened his maw wide and was about to stuff him in when he felt two red-hot pinpricks on his finger.
"Ouch!!" he yelled and dropped the mouse heavily on the table. He shook his paw until the pain faded away. "What was that for?" he said angrily.
"You were about to eat me!" Ray said hotly. "I'm not on the menu!"
"I wish we'd gotten toppings," Riley said thoughtfully.
"You were too cheap to get toppings, remember?" Ray reminded him. "We just have cheese here."
"Yeah," Riley said absentmindedly and picked Ray up again by the tail. "I know."
"What are you doing now?" Ray yelled. He squirmed in midair but Riley wouldn't let go. He couldn't even bite him this time. "Hey!"
Riley dropped the micro onto a slice of pizza and folded it up before he could get away. "I'm still really hungry," he said with a grin.
"You can't eat me! I'm your friend!" Ray cried wildly.
"A friend who cheats."
"For the last time, I didn't cheat! I was just - mmph! Mmph!" Ray was silenced by Riley's tongue as it wrapped itself around him. He and the pizza were stuffed into Riley's maw and everything went dark. He hung on for dear life as the pizza around him was chewed to bits. Light, dark. Light, dark. Riley munched on the pizza and globs of saliva-covered dough hit Ray in the face and tried to pull him down with them. His arms were wrapped around his friend's tongue and he tried his hardest not to fall off. "Let me out! I'll buy food next time! I can even get more now!"
Riley swung his tongue around inside his mouth and Ray felt like he was riding a squishy, warm, wet bull. The throat below was practically calling out for him with its hungry noises. "I don't want to be wolf noms! Argh!!"
Riley pressed his tongue up against the roof of his mouth and rubbed backwards until Ray lost his grip. He fell into the throat and the muscles pulled and worked at him for a while. There was a plop! as Ray fell into the belly. He started pleading again, but Riley ignored him. Riley may not have been the best at drinking games, but he knew all the ins and outs about voring his friends.
He lay back on the sofa, leaving the pizza box open and the table cluttered with food and papers and mess. He smiled lazily as he felt Ray pounding from the inside. He rubbed his belly and let out a loud burp. He smiled as the sound reverberated through the empty house. That was some game, for sure!