Elliot ditched his jock reputation after high school. He happily traded his cleats and shoulder pads for college cafeteria food and seminars notes. Now, without the distraction of football, he has managed to find success at the University of Minneso...
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No family gathering was ever complete without scrubbing mismatched glasses and a little awkward conversation. Washing dishes was a rite of passage for any guest at the Thompson house - except for Taylor. She couldn't ruin her new manicure, apparently.
Elliot was on drying duty, standing to the left of Mo as she sloshed her hands in a sink full of suds. Pierce was walking in and out of the kitchen, continuously bringing more and more dirty plates from the table. Robin was rummaging through a cabinet overflowing with Tupperware.
To diverge from Robin's noisy fumbling, Mo said, "Erin told me that you and Pierce were roommates?"
He nodded. "For a couple years, yeah."
"You're a brave man." She added more soap to the murky sink water.
The side of Elliot's mouth turned upward. "Aren't you a Marine?"
"That doesn't mean I'd be brave enough to live with Pierce," Mo joked. "I've seen mold grow in his underwear drawer."
Elliot's chest jolted with a silent laugh. "How long have you known him?"
They both heard Robin slam the cabinet shut, avoiding an avalanche of plastic. She placed a large container on the counter and started filling it with leftover pizza.
Mo glanced over her shoulder, eyeing Robin before she said, "Long enough to know he puked in that Tupperware container when he was ten."
"We sanitized it," Robin assured him, not even bothering to look up.
Mo smiled, wringing out a rag.
"Did you live around here?" Elliot asked.
Mo nodded. "A few miles away," she explained. She gestured toward the refrigerator door. There were barely enough magnets to hold up the abundance of old photos. "Erin and I went to school together. We had the same bus route."
Elliot didn't think that was the full story. "You come here every Christmas?"
"Usually, yeah," Mo said. "But I've had to miss the last two years. I've been stationed overseas." A flash of sadness flickered over her face, but it was gone in an instant, as if she had trained herself not to feel.
Pierce came waltzing in from the dining area. "Mom, where're the board games? They're not in the closet."
"I put them in the basement. The closet was too cluttered."
"Pick something other than Monopoly this time," Mo requested.
Pierce hung onto the doorframe, grinning mischievously. Elliot had never seen Pierce like this - so childish and playful. He was acting like a teenage boy who wanted to impress his crush. It was endearing to see him in such an informal setting.
"We can't break tradition, Mo."
Mo rolled her eyes. "Tradition?" She scoffed, turning toward Elliot. "Don't let him trick you, Elliot. He just wants to win. No one ever beats him at Monopoly."
"We have two new players tonight. Someone might get lucky. Maybe I'll lose."
Mo wasn't fooled. "And maybe I got your dad Lorde tickets for Christmas."
"What if we - ?"
A sharp screech interrupted his words - annoyingly ear-splitting. It was unmistakably Taylor, who was still sitting with Chase in the other room.
"There must be a spider somewhere," Mo mumbled.
Robin and Pierce shuffled out of the kitchen, and Elliot and Mo followed curiously.
There, in the middle of the dining room, was Chase and Taylor - embracing each other tightly. He was spinning her around, so overtly happy that no one wanted to interrupt them.
Under the dim light of their little house, a giant diamond was sparkling on Taylor's fourth finger. It looked bright enough to power their entire Christmas tree.
Erin couldn't move her feet, looking between her newly-engaged brother and her dismal best friend Mo.
Across the room, Mo was staring, with her water-wrinkled fingers curling into fists by her sides. Although Elliot hadn't known the Thompson family for more than a few hours, he couldn't understand why Chase had chosen to put a ring on a pretty hand rather than the hand that was helping his mother with dishes. Not that Elliot didn't love a good set of acrylics, but something didn't feel right.
"I think Monopoly is cancelled for tonight," Robin remarked, trying to smile politely. "Who wants cake? It's store-bought, not Taylor's."
There was only silence. Elliot was waiting for Perry's wall of taxidermied deer to say something, but to no avail.
If Awkward had ever walked the earth, it had visited the Thompson house.
