Page 39 of After the Siren
Stavs flipped Jake off instead of answering, which was as good as a confession.
‘What’s yours?’ Stavs countered.
‘Do I seem like a resolutions person?’
Stavs rubbed an imaginary beard. Jake bet he could actually grow a proper beard if he wanted. It would be hot. ‘Hmm. I bet you do have one. I bet it’s “win the Brownlow” or “kick a hundred goals” or something like that.’
‘Those are specific, measurable ...’ Jake tried to remember what the other letters stood for.
‘There’s an “achievable” in there for a reason.’
‘Fuck you.’
Jake did have one resolution – it wasbefriend Stavs– but he wasn’t going to tell Stavs about that. That would take all the fun out of it.
Sitting with Jake was comfortable. Theo wouldn’t have expected that. They could have joined everyone inside for the countdown, but Theo didn’t really want to move. The night was just warm enough to be pleasant, and there was something lovely about being on the outside of all the activity: hearing the murmur of voices and the thrum of the music without being caught up in it, smelling citrus and night jasmine alongside the barbecue happening next door.
Jake didn’t seem to want to move either. He was looking into the middle distance, his expression pensive. The fairy lights gilded his fair hair. Someone had switched across to a radio station before the countdown, and Theo could hear the thud of shoes on the deck as people danced to the last song before midnight.
The radio announced one minute to midnight, and they still didn’t move. Theo gave the seat a nudge this time, swinging it back. It made an alarming creaking noise.
‘Ten,’ Jake said, when the radio countdown started, and Theo joined him on ‘three’. There was an explosion of noise as everyone cheered in the new year, and then a sequence of cracks and bursts of colour as someone nearby set off some backyard fireworks.
‘Happy New Year,’ Jake said, shifting on the seat to face Theo. ‘Wanna make out?’ He was grinning, almost laughing, but a little bit of the earlier sadness lingered on his face.
Yes, unfortunately.For a moment, as their eyes met, Theo wondered whether Jake was at least half serious. If Theo leaned across, would Jake close the distance between them? He thoughtabout Jake’s lips, soft and warm and tasting of the watermelon lip balm he was always using. Wondered how Jake liked to be kissed, whether he’d want it slow and sweet, or if he’d wrap a hand in Theo’s hair and bite at Theo’s lip, eager and demanding. Wondered whether Jake had kissed many people at midnight, and if a kiss would chase away that bit of sadness.
The moment stretched, and Theo almost did it – almost thought that Jake started to sway towards him. But then there was the thud of footsteps, heading towards them, and Paddy appeared around the corner.
‘There you are,’ he said, and dumped himself onto the seat between them, practically onto Jake’s lap, and handed Jake another beer.
‘Happy New Year,’ Jake said as Paddy pressed a drunken kiss to his cheek. Theo got one as well, and it was probably an accident that Paddy nearly got him on the mouth. Probably.
Theo held up his bottle.
Jake clinked his beer against it.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH
ROUNDS 1–3
Chapter Nine
Jake liked doing social-media shit. Usually. It was funny. Or at least, the process was funny. The quality of the actual content varied. Jake had no idea why the Falcons didn’t find someone under the age of forty to do team media, but maybe Greg had worked in marketing for so long that the Falcons couldn’t fire him. Jake had to explain TikTok to him at least once a fortnight.
Jake didn’t have a good feeling about Valentine’s Day–themed social media, though. At least not Valentine’s Day social media curated by Greg. He also probably shouldn’t have engineered for Stavs to get dragged in as well, but ... he wanted to at least have some fun with it, and Stavs was definitely going to hate it more than he did.
Jake had followed through with his New Year’s resolution: he and Stavs were definitely friends now. Stavs looked happier in training these days, although he did go a bit quiet whenever anyone mentioned the pre-season games coming up at the end of February. Putting him on the wing had been an inspired move: his closing speed was insane and he didn’t get beaten one-on-one very often. He was looking good. Looking like he had in those old videos.
Now he just had to do it in a game.
Jake had been collecting details about Stavs. He hadn’t meant to, but they stuck. His coffee order (soy flat white). His preferred snack (banana, sometimes with peanut butter). The fact he always had a battered old book in his gym bag. His real smile, which started out as a quirk on one side of his mouth and then spread over the rest of his face from there. The way he laughed in training when he forgot he was worried and got caught up in fooling around. The way his hands had felt on Jake’s back when Jake had jumped into his arms after a goal in a match sim. The way he’d been able to take Jake’s weight with no effort at all.
Jake knew that Stavs hadn’twantedto like him, which just made every smile Jake got out of him – and every laugh, every time he said yes when Jake suggested coffee or a drink – that much more satisfying.
Stavs being hot, though, was becoming a problem. Or more of a problem. Jake had, historically, mixed results when fucking around with teammates. On the one hand, it was very convenient, and normally both participants were committed to secrecy. There was little risk of a relationship-ending fight about, say, coming out. On the other hand, the probability of things getting weird was high. He’d had a bit of a thing with one of his Falcons teammates in his first year, but Taylor had been traded to Brisbane and that had been that. And, like he’d told Stavs, he didn’t shit where he ate anymore.
But try telling that to his dick.
