Page 44 of After the Siren
Theo decided not to think about why a tension he hadn’t even been aware of eased when Jake wrapped an arm around his waist.
Chapter Ten
Theo’s phone buzzed insistently on his bedside table. He ignored it.
He knew he should get up and face the day, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to look at this phone. He didn’t want to see the posts he’d been mentioned in, the messages everyone was sending. It had been a bad game. There wasn’t any more to be said. One bad game.
Anotherfucking bad game.
The first pre-season game, too, so people had been paying attention to his debut performance as a Falcon. He’d been so determined not to fuck it up. He’d thrown up beforehand and run out still tasting vomit and choking down the nausea of anxiety, focused ondo better, be better.
It just hadn’t clicked. Part of his brain – the rational, analytical part – knew it hadn’t all been his fault. They’d been playing the reigning premiers, they’d been trying out some new things, the structures hadn’t come together. But that didn’t make itfeelany better.
He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. There was light spilling in from the gap in the curtains, painting golden strips across the cream walls. Maybe he’d go back to sleep if he lay still and did some deep breathing. Maybe he’d forget that he’dmanaged to be in the wrong place over and over again. Maybe he could excise from his mind the one-on-one contest he’d lost that had led directly to a goal.
The phone started buzzing again. Theo picked it up to check whether it was someone he couldn’t ignore.
It was Jake. Jake must have filched his phone at some point, because he came up as ‘Jake Cunningham.’
Another buzz, this time a text.
Jake
pick up
r u alive?
Theo winced. That hit a bit different, these days.
Jake
??
i’ll ring the bell
ur sis is eva right???
Thatmade Theo roll over and peer out the window. Sure enough, Jake’s ute was parked outside the house. It was pretty distinctive. Theo picked up the phone when it buzzed again.
‘Jake,’ he started.
He couldn’t think of anyone he wanted to see less, but he also couldn’t think of anyone he wanted to see more. He wanted to see Jake’s smile and hear Jake’s laugh. He wanted to watch theway Jake bit his lip and tipped his head when he was thinking. Maybe he wanted Jake to hold him until he felt better, which was not a thing he was going to get, even if he went along with whatever Jake was about to suggest.
Jake cut him off. ‘You’ve got ten minutes. Wear bathers and shoes you can walk in.’
‘What?’
‘We’re going to the beach.’
‘I don’t like the beach.’ Theo did like the beach, but this seemed like an easy objection. ‘Also, the beaches here suck.’
‘Now you have to come so I can prove you wrong.’
‘I said I don’t like the beach.’
Jake sighed, long-suffering. ‘I don’t care.’
‘It’s not beach weather.’ Melbourne was doing that thing where it decided to put some weather from one season into the middle of another one. It had been unseasonably chilly for several days, which meant it would probably be baking hot tomorrow.
