Page 76 of After the Siren
Jake told him.
‘What?’ Stavs no longer sounded sleepy.
‘The club told me to send them any threats and shit on social media. So they can keep track, I guess.’
Stavs wriggled to prop himself up on the pillow, pulling the blanket up with him. Disappointing, but it was chilly. Jake could probably persuade him to give up the blanket later.
‘Should you be doing that? Can’t someone else scan through them?’
‘I’m not giving Greg access to my DMs.’
‘Who’s DMing you?’
‘Why, you jealous?’
Stavs gave him a look that saidI know what you’re doing and I’m not rising to the bait.‘It seems wrong that you have to look at it all.’
Jake shrugged. ‘I don’t really care.’ Most of it was just bullshit. Some of it was a bit fucked up.
His phone buzzed on the bed and he checked it, then grinned.
Stavs quirked an eyebrow.
‘Some of the AFLW players have a group where they share the shit they get on social media,’ he explained. ‘Gabby added me after we chatted about it in the gym.’
In fact, Gabby had been sending him commentary on the screenshots he’d sent to the group, sometimes complete with annotations. The group was very funny, as long as he didn’t think too hard about it.
‘They get fucked-up shit,’ Jake said, sliding down the bed so he could rest his head on Stavs’ thigh. He had to take advantage of this sleepy, agreeable Stavs. ‘Dex doesn’t even use social media anymore because it got so bad after they came out as non-binary and had their top surgery and stuff.’
‘That’s terrible.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Are you okay?’ Stavs asked, his fingers settling in Jake’s hair. Jake pressed his head into the touch and thought about it. ‘Yeah, I’m kinda used to it. It’s worse now, but it’s fine. People have been saying gross shit to me since the first season I played. Before then, even.’
‘People suck.’
‘There are nice messages, too. I have an album. And Greg’s been sending me supportive stuff people send to the club. Plus some players from other AFLW teams have messaged me.’
‘Can I see?’
‘The good ones or the bad ones?’
‘I’ll take the good ones, thanks.’
Jake opened the album and handed him the phone. Stavs took it, but kept one hand in Jake’s hair.
‘I feel kinda bad,’ Jake admitted. ‘I didn’t do shit, and people are acting like I was really brave or something.’
Stavs’ fingers stilled in his hair. ‘It was brave. Nobody’s said anything like that before. You could have been disciplined by the club.’
‘What were they going to do? Be like,Oh yeah, actually, we don’t support the AFLW team?’
Stavs was quiet for a little while, flicking through the album. Some of the messages were really kind. Jake wasn’t sure what to do with the way they made him feel; whether he wanted to lean into the feeling or flinch away from it.
‘Can I see the bad ones?’ Stavs asked, finally.
‘If you wanna.’
