Page 53 of After the Siren
Stavs actually laughed then. ‘You’re not wrong.’
Jake shrugged. ‘Not usually. Paddy says I’m the whitest person imaginable.’
‘Not gonna argue,’ Stavs said, reaching out to hook the corner of the seashell necklace Jake was wearing. His finger brushed Jake’s throat as he did it and Jake felt like the temperature in the room had shot up several degrees. He looked across and found Stavs looking back, still holding the necklace, his knuckles resting on Jake’s bare skin. Stavs’ eyes flicked down to Jake’s mouth for a second.
For a single, glorious moment Jake thought Stavs might reach for him. Then Stavs swallowed and let go of the necklace, pulling back.
‘Is the pep talk over already?’ His voice was a little rougher than usual.
Jake stretched his legs out. ‘I reckon whatever I say, you’re gonna find a reason to disagree. So I’m not going to waste my breath.’
‘That’s a novel approach to a pep talk.’
‘I know what I know, though,’ Jake told him. ‘You’re not gonna talk me out of it: you’re fucking good at this. You’ve got what it takes. And you’re going to show them.’
Stavs met his eyes. He was smiling.Don’t look at his mouth.
‘Jake,’ he started.
There was a knock on the door and Stavs jumped. Jake couldn’t decide if he was pissed off or relieved that the moment had been interrupted.
‘Yeah?’ he called.
The door opened, and Jake wasn’t surprised to see Xen and Paddy.
‘Ah,’ Paddy said to Stavs. ‘You found Xen’s quiet spot.’
‘What?’
‘Xen comes here when he needs a break from Jaze,’ Paddy told him.
‘So, every day?’ Stavs asked, standing and stretching. His t-shirt rode up to expose a strip of stomach and Jake was absolutely not looking.
Based on the look Paddy shot him, he’d been caught not looking.
Jake made a wounded sound. ‘You know, because this is such a special day for you, I’m going to let that comment go.’
‘Come on, Stavs,’ Paddy said. ‘Celebratory lunch, and Tommy says he’s buying. Hustle.’
Chapter Twelve
They won the game. In the rooms, Theo got shoved into the centre of the circle of players and showered in Gatorade. He shouted along to the team song with a savage satisfaction that didn’t make any sense: it was one game, it was so early in the season, there were still a million ways it could go wrong. He’d put in a respectable performance: twenty disposals, eleven kicks, 350 metres gained. It wasn’t anything special.
It felt likeeverything. He was sticky, and he was pretty sure there was Gatorade in his eyes, but Jake had an arm wrapped around him and for the first time in forever he felt wiped clean of the clinging grit of dread.
‘Drinks at ours,’ Paddy yelled. It was early enough in the season that they weren’t on a drinking ban, and it was only recovery tomorrow. Theo half expected Yelks to intervene, but he just shook his head and gave Paddy a tolerant smile.
Jake drove them back to Coburg with the windows down, cranking a playlist he’d namedAll we do is win, win, win. Xen spat out Eminem’s verse on ‘Drop the World’ with an unexpected proficiency while Paddy laughed at the look on Theo’s face. A good few of their teammates followed in a loose convoy.
Theo felt a little drunk when he got out of the car, high on adrenaline and the joy of relief. Then he felt actually drunk, because Xen unearthed a bottle of something that tasted like rocket fuel and they did shots from appalling novelty shot glasses Paddy produced from a kitchen drawer. Theo turned down the third – he hadn’t been drinking at all, and two already had him loose and buzzed, sprawled on the couch, eating pizza and shouting encouragement as Paddy and Tommy duked it out on the Nintendo.
There were enough people that the living room felt pleasantly full – all the younger guys who didn’t have families to get back to after the game. Dex, Drips and Gabby rocked up with a couple of tubs of ice-cream, andMario Karttook a turn for the vicious. Theo took another shot when Xen poured him one. The alcohol was warm in his veins and just for tonight he was going to let himself feel good.
Also, Jake was flirting with him.
Not obviously. Not in a way that stepped outside the realm of plausible deniability. But he was definitely flirting: leaning into Theo when they ended up next to each other on the couch, nudging their thighs together, finding excuses to touch him.
After that third shot, Theo let himself flirt back: putting a hand on Jake’s thigh when he leaned across the couch to snag a slice of pizza, letting his eyes drift to Jake’s mouth while Jake trash-talked him in between races, twisting his fingers to brush Jake’s when Jake handed him a fourth shot. He was looking, and Jake was looking back, and there was no way this was anything other than a bad idea, but Theo couldn’t find a single fuck to give.
