Page 31 of Forging Chaos

Instead, I tell them I’m proud of getting my dirty dishes to the sink when I finish my pita. Everything is different now, and I know I can’t stay in the apartment if I’m not an enrolled student. I know I can’t stay on the football team if I can’t play football anymore. I know all of that. But moving home isn’t something I can handle right now, either.

Dad shoves an entire falafel ball in his mouth and swallows it, turning to me. “Come on, kiddo. I’ll take you back to the Stag Lair.”

I roll my eyes. He and my uncles have been trying to name our apartment ever since Wes and Wyatt first moved in. I hoist myself up onto my scooter just as Mom shouts that we can’t forget more condoms for the safe and satisfied basket.

CHAPTER 24

ODIN

Turns out,Meech was more than happy to talk to me on a weekend. I texted him about meeting up on Monday morning, but he called me the second my message went through and told me he was en route to my apartment—something abouthisboss getting in trouble if too many college athletes fail out of school.

I don’t feel ready to make any decisions about the fall semester. It was going to be my final one, and I was probably going to graduate in December with a degree in psychology, even though I never really cared about psychology. It just had classes that fit the best around practice and weight training. Next winter, I was going to head to the pro football combine and enter the draft.

I explain to Meech that I’m fine with having a low C average for the semester. The A I’m looking at in my arguments class is holding everything together. He arranges for me to take an incomplete for a few classes until I can handle the final assignments sometime this summer. I can stay in the apartment—for now.

I don’t have to leave the apartment except for physical therapy. For now.

It feels like a starting place.

I fall asleep Saturday night, wondering what Thora would think of my progress, which means I wake up Sunday confused about why I care what my class research partner thinks. It’s not like she’s reached out since we slept together. She’s leaving the country. We were both just celebrating a job well done.

But I still have her dress.

Gunnar says he’ll take me to the dry cleaner on the way to family dinner today, which feels like a fair trade. I hadn’t planned on going, but my brother reminded me that Aunt Alice does amazing things with sweet potatoes and chicken. She’s used to cooking for elite athletes, and it’s not every day we get to indulge in a delicious feast that meets all of our restrictions.

Not that I have restrictions anymore.

Gunny squeezes his black BMW X5 onto Uncle Tim’s street, lined with other black SUVs, signaling that we’re the last to arrive. I aim my knee roller toward the front door, but Gunny shakes his head. “Aunt Alice said to come in around back this time.”

I shrug and wait for my brother to open the fence, where I can see that the backyard is sliced in half by a new wooden ramp leading up onto the deck. I groan, realizing they must all be talking about me and my condition. I don’t even want to know how this ramp got here, but I guess it’s pretty cool that I can get into a place easily for once.

I roll into the kitchen through the sliding door and see Dad, Uncle Tim, Uncle Thatcher, and Uncle Hawk deep in conversation over a map of the neighborhood. They look like they’ve just gotten back from a run, all sweaty in matching Pittsburgh Forge shirts courtesy of Uncle Hawk.

Not going to lie; it’s pretty cool that they are all still out there being active, even if they bitch and moan about their creaking joints. Dad has them all doing “yoga for mid-life,” and there’s talk of them hiring a private instructor for all the Stag men and their wives.

Gunnar scoops Aunt Alice up from behind and kisses her cheek as she swats at him. “Gunnar Stag, I’ve told you to stop lifting me in the air.”

He steals a cube of chicken from the pan she’s stirring on the stove. “But you’re pocket-sized, Aunt Alice. I can’t help it.”

She swats him with her spoon. “And tell your brothers to stop picking at the potatoes. I set out nuts and pickles for appetizers.”

My twin brothers, Alder and Tucker, holler from another room that they have finished the nuts. Then, some more of my cousins start cracking jokes about nuts and pickles until my mother whistles and tells them all to stop being buttheads.

I do love my family. This whole crew is loud, crass, and ridiculous, but everyone is on the same side, and that’s the Stag side. I think back to when my cousin Wes’s girlfriend ran into trouble with some creep from Soccer USA. The family all jumped in to make sure she and Wes had what they needed to sue that fucker and keep him away from athletes forever. It was the same when my cousin Wyatt had issues with his creepy bio dad.

Speaking of Wyatt, who is currently in London with his new pro soccer team, I’m a little surprised to see his girlfriend, Fern, here at Stag family dinner. I grab a cup of water and roll towards her, where she’s deep in concentration with Aunt Lucy. “Hey,” I say, scratching my chin. “Wasn’t expecting you today.”

Aunt Lucy shakes a finger at me. “Excuse me, sir, that is no way to talk to Fern. Of course, she’s at family dinner. She’sfamily now.” Lucy squeezes Fern in a side hug, which Fern seems to find delightful.

Fern smiles up at me. “Hey, thank you again for the tickets to the book event the other day. It was awesome.” And then she makes a face that tells me she knows exactly what happened afterward between Thora and me.

I clear my throat. “I’m glad you guys had fun.”

Aunt Lucy furrows her brow. “Book event?” She locates my Aunt Emma across the room and hollers, “Emma Stag, have you been having literary festivities without us again?” The crowd goes silent while everyone tries to decide if they should be pissed off that my aunt would dare do any publicity without including twenty-plus members of the family.

Aunt Alice cuts the tension by announcing that dinner is served, and everyone forgets any potential slight in the rush for first dibs at the meal. I roll to my place between my brothers and shove my knee scooter out of the way once I’m seated.

Since Wyatt’s abroad, Fern takes his usual chair across from me, and I ask her if she’s ready for graduation next weekend.

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