Page 53 of Repairing the Wreckage

“It was kind of stuffy in here, so I opened some windows,” Juliet says.

“Thanks.”

Vapor closes the door behind him and drops my bags on the floor with a thud.

Eraser perches on the couch next to me. Ella squeezes in by his side. Vapor takes the chair to my left and cranes his neck to watch Juliet in my kitchen.

Everyone’s just…staring at me. Too stunned to speak? Waiting for me to entertain them? I don’t know.

“So, what happened here?” With monumental effort, I rub my hand over the top of Eraser’s unusually short hair. “Give yourself a haircut with a butter knife while I was away?”

He ducks away from my touch. “You keep touchin’ me, you’re gonna need more stitches.”

Ella laughs and curls her arm around her husband’s waist, then reaches up to smooth his short, chopped hair. “His favorite barber shop closed and he doesn’t want to find a new one, so he’s been doing it himself.”

“Bro, I’ll do a better job than that.” I scissor my fingers together. “Soon as I can move my arms.”

“You really think you’re one to give out hairstylin’ advice?” He flicks his fingers near my ear. “You came home lookin’ like a mangled sheepdog.”

I snort and lift my arm to run my hand over my hair. Pain sizzles from my shoulder to my elbow. I stop midway and rest my arm on the couch cushion instead. “Venom told me I needed to stand out more in the house. Naptime and I looked too much alike. So one night when all the dumb fucks got drunk, I shaved his head?—”

“We saw,” Ella says. “It was one of the show’s highlights.”

“Shit, I keep forgetting…” I shift my gaze to the wall. I’ve never felt so awkward around these guys.

Juliet returns to the living room and holds out an ice pack to me. “I don’t even know where to put this first.”

I take it from her and rest it over my knee. “I’ve got more.” I tilt my head toward the bags Vapor dropped by the door. “They’re in the black bag but need to go in the freezer.”

“I’ll do it,” Eraser volunteers.

The couch shifts as he stands. He grabs the bag and heads into the kitchen without a word.

I glance at Ella. “Your husband still mad at me?”

She shrugs.

“Are you mad at me?”

She stares at me for a few uncomfortable seconds. “No.”

“Let’s not.” Juliet, the peacemaker of our group, holds her hands in the air. “We have Griff back in one piece. That’s all that matters right now.”

It hurts too much to smile, so I dip my chin. “Thanks.”

Eraser returns and plops down on my coffee table, gently shifts my foot a few inches to the right, then rests an icepack over my ankle.

“Besides the thing we’re not going to talk about right now,” he shoots a pointed look at me, “you did us proud.”

A huff of bitter laughter eases out of me. “I don’t know about that.”

“You were the most ‘professional’ fighter there.” Ella exchanges a glance with her husband.

“I tried,” I mumble, embarrassed. I don’t even know what they saw of my time there. Which carefully chosen snippets of all the weeks, days, and hours of my life were splashed on television for the whole world to see.

“He needs to rest now.” Juliet nods at Vapor. “Help him into bed.”

“He’s twice as big as when he left.” Vapor slaps Eraser’s shoulder. “Get up. This is a two-man assignment.”

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