Page 68 of After the Siren
‘Peoplecan do that, but in this case there is no evidence that you are people.’
The problem with Priya was that she’d known him for too long. She knew about every person he’d ever had sex with (three people, before Jake). And she also knew that each time he had been in a relationship with those people. Sex always made the most sense to him in that context.
Or at least ithad, until he’d been playingMario Kartwith Jake Cunningham.
‘What are you going to do?’ Priya asked. She was using the tone he sometimes heard her adopt with agitated solicitors who called her out of hours.
‘Not do it again,’ Theo said firmly. Very firmly. With implacable firmness.
‘Are you going to be able to survive without showing him you’re good at giving head?’
‘Yes.’
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Now, I’m getting us another round, and we’re going to talk about how you can be less weird tomorrow.’
APRIL / MAY
ROUNDS 4–12
Chapter Sixteen
Was Jake hallucinating? Hethoughthe saw Stavs beckoning him over to a booth in the player lounge. But he also hadn’t started on his coffee, so it was possible that he was having a caffeine-deficiency delusion. He’d brought a flat white for Stavs as well, because he’d planned to find him, corner him, and then bully him into being normal again.
He hadn’t run this plan past anyone else. But something had to be done, before he gave Stavs a fright and copped the blame for him dropping a barbell on his chest or falling down some stairs. Thank God his on-field performance hadn’t suffered.
Jake had thought a lot about what Xen had said. Sex had never really been a big deal to Jake, except during the couple of years when he’d been pretty focused on finding people to have it with. As a kid, his mum had given him a very comprehensive sex education at the kitchen table. It had been more useful than the sex education he’d gotten at school. Sex education from school did mean that he could label the fallopian tubes on a diagram, though. If that ever became relevant.
Sure, he’d had a couple of sexual experiences that he didn’tdwellon, but they were kind of funny. In retrospect. Sex was fun. Having it with people you genuinely liked was more fun. He’d never found hooking up with friends difficult to navigate, andthe good thing about sex with people you weren’t dating was that they didn’t expect you to do things like announce your sexuality to the whole world.
He wasn’t naive enough to think that everyone thought that way about sex. Xen obviously didn’t – though they’d never really talked about that. And it did seem like Stavs’ family were kind of religious. Maybe Jake should have talked to Stavs about it before he’d had a chance to get in his head about it. Jake hadn’t done that, though, so they were going to talk about it now, even if Jake had to lock them in the equipment room and tie Stavs up with a skipping rope.
‘Hey,’ Jake said, handing over the coffee. ‘One soy flat white. There was a love heart in the foam but the lid has probably fucked it. That was a message from the barista, to be clear. I think she likes you. She remembers your name.’ He stopped himself from talking.
‘Thanks.’ Stavs took a sip and seemed to brace himself, staring at the fried mushrooms on his plate. ‘Can we talk?’
‘Good idea.’ Jake slid into the booth. ‘You wanna start, or should I?’
‘I’ll start,’ Stavs said. Jake waited. ‘Sorry I’ve been so awkward.’ Stavs didn’t quite manage to meet Jake’s eyes. ‘I guess I just freaked out a bit.’
‘Yeah, I got that. Because I’m a dude?’
‘What? No!’ Stavs did meet his eyes then.
He looked so shocked that Jake felt like someone had grabbed a weight he’d been struggling to get back onto the rack and lifted it for him.
Stavs managed to keep looking at Jake’s face. ‘I guess I’ve been ... I haven’t really ... hooked up with a friend before.’ He swallowed and glanced away again. ‘And I’ve been finding it hard to, uh, not think about it. When I see you.’
‘Think about it?’ That sounded worrying.
‘In, uh, in a good way.’ Stavs was back to carefully looking everywhere except Jake’s face.
Smirking would be inappropriate. Jake knew that.
‘Are you ... are yousmiling?’ Stavs was obviously trying to sound annoyed, but one corner of his mouth twitched.
‘No,’ Jake lied.
‘You’re the fucking worst.’ Stavs was laughing a bit, though, and Jake wanted him to keep laughing, wanted it to turn into a proper laugh.
