Page 26 of After the Siren
‘And things escalated?’
Theo managed to get out a version of the truth – one that omitted several of the important points – painfully aware that half the story sounded even worse than the full story. Yelks looked like he suspected Theo was holding something back, but he didn’t say anything about it.
‘And what did you say to him today?’ Yelks asked, gentle but implacable.
Theo would have given most of his salary to sink into the ground.He managed to explain what he’d said about Cunningham’s mum, though he made it sound as though that had been all – like he’d doubled down on that.
‘Right,’ Yelks said, brow furrowed.
‘I know it wasn’t okay,’ Theo said, forcing himself to meet Yelks’ eyes. ‘I wouldn’t ... it’s not the sort of thing I’d usually say. He ...’He rattles me. He gets under my skin.
Yelks nodded. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’ He spent a few moments studying one of the elliptical machines and then seemed to come to a decision. ‘Look, Theo, I’m not telling you anything that isn’t already pretty well known, but I am going to tell you this because it might help mend fences.’
Theo froze. He couldn’t mean —
‘Jake didn’t have the easiest time with his parents. His biological father was ...’ Yelks’ mouth twisted. ‘Not a good guy. He left when Jake was very young. Jake’s mum raised him, and when he was in prep, she, uh, came out as a lesbian, and started a relationship with a woman. I don’t think he had an easy time. To be clear, I’m not telling you anything confidential, he’s talked about this openly.’
‘Shit,’ Theo said. If he’d wanted to sink into the floor before, now he wanted to sink into the middle of the earth. Did Cunningham think he’d known all that?
Yelks sighed. ‘He’s very close to his mum. I know he hears plenty about her on the field, and it doesn’t usually bother him. But for whatever reason, it got to him today.’
‘He probably didn’t ... expect that from a teammate.’ Theo felt shame crawling all over his body. When had he forgotten how to be a team player? He’d played with guys like Cunningham before. Guys who wereworsethan Cunningham. But he’d never goaded one of them into taking a swing.
‘Probably not.’ Yelks paused again. He spoke certain words with a very faint accent; Eastern European, Theo thought. Something like that. ‘Listen, Theo, I know settling in here can’t be easy. I understand that you had reason to dislike Cunningham, and I’m going to speak to him about his behaviour. But he’s not a bad guy. He loves this team, and heloves his teammates. I don’t need you to be best friends, but you need to be able to work together. I should have intervened earlier, and that’s on me, but I thought you boys might sort it out, especially with Xen and Paddy in the mix.’
Theo nodded. Yelks put a hand on his shoulder. It was the sort of paternal gesture Theo’s own father never went in for. He wondered if Yelks ever got tired of being the dad to fifteen men in their twenties with large salaries and underdeveloped frontal lobes. Probably.
‘I’ll apologise,’ Theo said, and meant it. ‘I ...’ This felt like a vulnerable admission to make, but it wasn’t as if anything he said was going to make Yelks think worse of him after what had happened that morning. ‘I’ve been struggling a bit with my game, and the way Cunningham plays ... it makes it harder, sometimes.’
Yelks smiled. ‘He is that type of player. Nobody is comparing you to Cunningham, though. There’s a real place for you in this team. You’ve got something we need, and you’ve got time to develop it. You just focus on running your own race, and I’ll tell Cunningham to cool it in training. There’ve been days where I thought you might be the one to punch him, and I think he might have deserved it.’ He gave Theo a conspiratorial smile. ‘Don’t tell anyone I said that.’
Theo smiled back. ‘Deal.’ This was a weird team. He liked it. ‘I’m still going to have to do the extras, aren’t I?’
Yelks slapped him on the back. ‘They’ll give you a good appetite for Christmas lunch.’
The problem with your captain living close by was that if, say, you were ignoring his calls, he could rock up on your doorstep with two boxes of takeaway pierogi and a sixpack of craft beer. Jake opened the door and let Yelks in. He’d never shut thedoor on Yelks’ pierogi. Nobody knew where he got them, but they weregood. So good that Xen and Paddy had once spent several weeks visiting every Polish restaurant they could find, trying to track down the source. They hadn’t, though Paddy had discovered he really liked borscht.
Jake shouldn’t have been ignoring Yelks’ calls, but he’d just ... needed a minute. Several minutes. Aiming a punch at Bestavros had been a stupid overreaction, but his mum was waiting on results from the follow-up scans and he’d just ... cracked.
When he got home from training, he’d started sorting out the stuff in his room that belonged to Kyle. He’d already been having a terrible day, so why not double down? He didn’t know what he was going to do with it. Post it back to him? Throw it away? Set it on fire? Except somehow he’d found himself sitting on the bed, his face buried in a cashmere sweater Kyle had left, trying not to lose his shit.
Jake, Paddy and Xen had worked out a system when they’d moved into their house. Anyone could go anywhere, unless a door was locked or (because Jake’s bedroom didn’t lock) he put out theDo Not Disturbsign that Paddy had filched from a fancy hotel. Ideally, he would mainly have used it when he was having great sex. Life was full of disappointments.
Xen had knocked twice (their signal for ‘I’m leaving something here and fucking off’) and left Jake a pot of some sort of herbal tea that would probably balance his aura (Xen’s girlfriend was into alternative medicine) and a mini Picnic bar. Xen must have been really worried; he never tempted anyone off the diet plan.
Paddy had texted him a sequence of memes.
They both knew what was really the matter – he’d told them that the first scans had needed follow-up – but neither of them would push it. He didn’t know if he wanted them to push it. He hadn’t wanted to talk about Kyle, but hecouldn’ttalk about hismum maybe being sick again. If he talked about it, that would make it real.
Yelks looked at him in the entryway. ‘Deck?’ he asked. They’d had a few team parties here, so Yelks knew the layout.
The back deck was Jake’s favourite thing about the house. You could sit there and watch birds fight it out in the couple of fruit trees that Xen hadn’t netted. On summer evenings you could see the sunset and hear laughter and music from the other backyards. The neighbours over the fence had kids who liked to play footy and occasionally Jake kicked a stray ball back to them.
Xen was the only one of them who was really interested in the fruit trees – every now and then he bullied Jake and Paddy into helping pick the fruit, and then Jake into driving buckets of blood oranges, lemons and mandarins to his yiayia’s place. After a week or so, Jake would go and pick up the same boxes, now filled with jam and relish and other things they were only allowed in small quantities. There was now an allocated spot at the club for Xen to put the jars and bottles they were giving away. If football didn’t work out, Xen and his yiayia could probably start some sort of preserves business.
Jake swiped some cutlery for him and Yelks on the way through the kitchen and they settled into the two best chairs on the deck. Xen and Paddy were nowhere to be found. Jake suspected Yelks had texted them and asked them to stay clear.
Traitors. At least he wouldn’t have to share the food.
