Bottle Rockets

SIX - Not Same Tanger

"Hey, Ty, a bunch of us were planning on going out to dinner to celebrate tonight's win and Flower's shutout. Wanna come?" Sutter questioned, his hair dripping with sweat.

The Penguins had just finished kicking the Flyers' asses with a six goal shutout, two of them from Tyler. She wiped a towel across her forehead and gazed up at Brandon, still slightly out of breath.

"Sure. Who's coming?"

Sutter glanced around the room and crinkled his eyes, struggling to remember. "Uh...Flower, Sid, Geno, Beau, David, Horny, Tanger, and his girlfriend," He counted on his fingers.

"Tanger has a girlfriend?" Tyler frowned and glanced over Sutter's shoulder at Tanger.

Sutter nodded and gritted his teeth, "Yeah. We thought you should come since it would have been just her and a bunch of guys. You being there would ease the tension."

"Tension?" Tyler kept her gaze locked on Kris' back.

Brandon coughed and choked on his laughter. He rubbed the back of his neck, nervous, "Yeah. Tension..."

"What are you talking about, Suttsy?"

"You'll find out when you get there, Ty. Just please don't be late," He breathed, dark eyes pleading.

Tyler wrinkled her nose in confusion but nodded. She bumped her hand against his thigh, "No big deal. I'll just follow you there. Now, go get dressed."

Suttsy was right when he mentioned tension. The minute Tyler shook hands with Tanger's girlfriend, Amanda, she felt the muscles in her palm tighten. Tyler could see the irritation crackling in her eyes like lightning and it made her uneasy.

But Tyler did as Suttsy told her to and sat directly across from her and Tanger, Sid and Suttsy on either side of her. Geno sat beside Sid, Beau next to Amanda, Flower next to Tanger, Hornqvist beside Geno, and David next to Sutter.

Throughout the entire night, Tyler tried to hold multiple conversations with Amanda but she seemed disinterested in every single one. Instead, she would turn to Tanger and whine to him, scold him, downright abuse him with her words.

She called him names and threatened to take things away from him. All of this was whispered but Tyler heard every word of it and saw it through Tanger's body language.

The longer the dinner lasted, the more destroyed Tanger looked. His shoulders sagged and his eyes grew heavy. Tyler felt her heart ache and she wanted to reach across the table to hold his hand but feared Amanda would bite her head off.

She kicked Tanger's foot under the table with her own, drawing his attention.

Are you okay? She mouthed.

He stared at her with sad brown eyes before Amanda yanked his arm, causing him to look away. Tyler sighed and played with her food.

"So, Amanda. How are you? What's life like?" Sidney politely asked, leaning on his elbows to hear her better.

She straightened herself and a thin smile plastered itself onto her lips, "I'm fine, Sidney, thank you. Life would be much better if this excuse of a man did more for me, but what can you do, right?" She laughed.

Sidney shared careful glances with the boys around the table. Tyler swallowed hard as she stared at Tanger's hanging head, his fork pushing around his food.

"Tanger does what he can, Amanda," Sidney murmured, tone gentle.

"Seriously?"

Sidney prepared himself for Amanda's attack but was surprised when she focused on Tanger.

"You're going to play this card tonight, Kris? You're going to have your friends defend you?" Amanda hissed.

Kris didn't answer or look at her.

"Typical," She scoffed and threw her napkin onto her plate. "Come on, Kris. We're going home. Leave some cash," She ordered, pulling out from the table and storming out of the restaurant.

No one at the table said anything as Kris stood, fumbled with his wallet, and dished a few twenties next to his plate. He hesitated before he left, looking across the faces of his teammates. He parted his lips as if he were going to say something but stopped himself and left.

"Oh, god. What the hell was that? What the hell did I just witness? Suttsy, you lied to me. That wasn't tension. That was war, that was brutal," Tyler's hands pressed themselves against her face and she leaned onto her elbows.

Sutter's palm brushed along her back as he spoke, "I'm sorry. I spoke a little lightly."

Tyler laughed, "Lightly?" She shot a shaky glare at him. When no one spoke, she groaned, "Is anyone going to explain to me what just happened? Why was he just sitting there? That's not the Tanger I know. He took all of her bullshit and didn't say anything! Why didn't any of you say anything?!"

"Ty, it's complicated," Sidney commented.

"What's so complicated about it, Sid?! She's abusing him and no one's doing anything about it!"

"They've been dating for awhile, Ty. A few years, I think. They used to be happy. He used to be happy..." Flower explained, a sigh seeping from his lips.

Patric intervened, "She was nice at first but then things got really messy. With Tanger away from home so often, she became a little disloyal. Tanger brought it up but she lied to him and then Tanger cheated."

"She started to blackmail him. Instead of just dumping him, she blackmailed him. Why? I don't know. Because she's a manipulative little bitch, probably," Sutter growled.

"Tanger couldn't do anything. He couldn't break up with her because if he did, she would tell the media he cheated on her and the media would have a field day with that. So he stayed with her. And then she got worse," Sidney explained.

"Kept cheating, kept using Tanger. No good anymore. Tanger got sad. Really sad. Not same Tanger," Geno frowned.

"She's probably forgotten about the blackmail, by now. It was such a long time. She's most likely staying with him because she thinks it's fun to see him like this, to get what she wants all the time," Flower told Tyler, shrugging.

"And we can't do anything?" Tyler whined. They all shook their heads and Tyler groaned. Her face fell into her hands again.

Brandon's hand resumed stroking her back, "Now you know how we feel. We've tried talking to him countless times but he won't do anything. He's too afraid, not confident enough."

"But he looked so sad. Oh God, Tanger..." Tyler sighed.

"You shouldn't let it get to you, Ty. It's nothing we can fix. It's something Tanger has to do himself. Don't let it get to you." Sidney urged, pulling one of her hands away from her face. He looked in her the eyes, "Promise me you won't, okay?"

Tyler hesitated, reluctant to promise. If she promised, that meant she couldn't go chasing after their problem trying to fix it. Maybe it was better that way.

"Fine. I promise."

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